Garden Sunshine

Monday was, in fact, the least sunny day of our holiday weekend...but it was still lovely enough that we took a trip to the Botanic Gardens, our first of the year.

Some photos now, more to follow tomorrow.

A Bird of Another Feather

One afternoon last week I had a phone-call from C. He recently moved offices and his lunch-time walks have taken on a different tenor! No more the leafy green streets around Dublin 2, he's now in the docklands area. And he wanted to know how to use the zoom on his camera phone, because the USCGS Eagle was in town. When he said "coastguard ship", I didn't realise he meant something like our old Asgard! He came home with the first of these photos - and the one of the guillemots.

And this Monday at lunchtime, he made the longer walk all the across the river to visit the ship and came home with more photos for me  - so all the photos in this post are actually his, not mine at all. But I didn't have time to go and see it. It reminded me so much of when we visited the Maritime Museum in Barcelona - as well as the main museum they have a sailing ship moored across the road, which we visited.

Birds of a feather...

Our squirrel-proof feeders don't lend themselves to bird photography - but with the warm sunny weather we've had all week, I've been able to catch a few shots of birds in the garden - we have quite a few wood pigeons who keep the grass around the feeders short as they trample round looking for any fallen seed.

I also managed to capture the semi-juvenile robin that I saw the other day. And another one that I am sad about - one of his legs is trailing loosely behind him and I feel sure that he won't survive - although I'd love to be wrong.

Somehow I feel as if I've been seeing a lot of cards with wild roses on them recently. Here's one growing over our end wall.

Sunny Southeast

I was down in Waterford on Tuesday - a few quick snaps. There is a strong Viking heritage, hence the boat sculpture which was in the centre of a small roundabout.

May Favourites...

Not very many favourite cards for May - I made some chalked Christmas cards which I really liked but it's too unseasonal to upload them here!

Not very many photos to choose a header from either, in my June 2015 folder. This is a bluetit feeding a young one. Today I saw a relatively juvenile robin scavenging on the back lawn, but was unable to take any photos.

Tyvek #3

I made up my third piece of Tyvek today for a mixed media challenge. I seemed to get better results with the iron today - maybe because I actually used the ironing board! Perhaps it retains and reflects more heat than whatever I tried using upstairs in my attic for the previous two pieces.

Quick snaps

I was coming down the quays last night and spotted this great decorated utility box. Unfortunately I was in an express bus so it wasn't in the bus lane - and a taxi drew up just as I was taking the photo - but now I know where it is, I'll make a point of walking past some time soon.

And a treat this morning - I was afraid to get closer to the window in case I scared it away, and it was a dull grey, damp morning so the light wasn't great, but it's been several years since I last saw a bullfinch in the garden. This one was breakfasting on dandelion seeds.

Play Time

I had a day off today - and while it's sunnier now, it was a pretty dismal, dark, wet morning. So I decided to have some play time and finally experiment with the Tyvek I bought at the Knitting and Stitching show last November.
When I first researched it, a lot of people mentioned Lumiere paints - which I don't have, so I was totally experimenting. I started by cutting a sheet in quarters (for Americans, the European A4 is similar to letter size).

Two pieces, I gessoed. One of them, I misted with Brusho Acrylic mists and a stencil, but it was the least successful of the three pieces I used today, so no photo.
The second gessoed one, I added Twinkling H2Os. And when that had dried, which took a while, I stamped a flourish stamp in gold and added embossing powder, reckoning that the heating process would melt the powder. Which it did...

For the other two pieces, I used a pearlescent acrylic medium mixed with Perfect Pearls.
I used one piece today - I'll get round to the other one another day. Hopefully I can find my old iron first...our new one is too fancy, and kept pausing because it realised that it wasn't in contact with anything, or else I'd held it horizontal for too long or else I don't know what...

And the two good pieces, I turned into cards. I'm sure I won't waste the failure either, but it might be a while before it gets used up.

I didn't get the beautifully bubbled effects that I'd seen looking at some examples online  - but I still have four sheets left to play with on another rainy day.

On the Way to Work

On Monday we both made the journey into work from my aunt's. It was actually a lovely walk down to the train station - the weather was still mild. And I walked out to work from town along the Liffey, which is not my normal route...

Loved the colours in this!

Half a loaf dog is better than none...

Spring Flowers

We were minding my aunt's dog over the weekend and for a couple of work days. Saturday was damp and drizzly to start but turned into a beautiful afternoon and we really enjoyed sitting out in her garden. I'm not sure what the white flower is - I'll have to ask her next time I'm out. The bluebells were just beautiful, too. She has several bird feeders - but this little hen chaffinch ( I think) came right up to the conservatory door several times.

Coming home from work today, I noticed some dead ivy wrapped around a tree - the council workers or a local person must have cut the ivy stem. It intrigued me - it almost looked like dried silk, so I got the camera out of the bag - and then snapped the tulips growing wild. It's an area along boundary walls with quite a few trees, and about 3 or 4 years ago a whole pile of mulched bark chippings were spread thickly over the area. This year it has really greened up beautifully.