Paris - day 1

One of C's "must-do" things on any visit to Paris is walk down the Champs Elysées from the Arc de Triomphe right down to the Louvre. Apparently walking up (and it is uphill) doesn't count!
So, after arriving at our apartment and leaving our bags, it was great to discover that one of the two Metro lines served by our local station was Line 14 which has the Etoile as one terminus.
So we walked - through the throngs - down the Champs Elysées. Too hot a day to go into the Citroen building, we saved that for another day! We stopped for icecream in the Tuileries, and then crossed the river and walked up the rue de Seine to the Jardins de Luxembourg. There we stopped again and enjoyed the sun  (me) and tennis (C) - it was even time to get some lotion out. In the evening we went into the centre for dinner, so the last photo is an evening photo of the Tour St. Jacques, which was still swathed in scaffolding for cleaning the last time we were there.

Arc de Triomphe

Looking down the Champs Elysées

Citroen building

Fountain on the Place de la Concorde, detail

Looking up the Champs Elysées from the Tuileries

Tuileries

Tuileries

La Pyramide du Louvre

Rue de Seine

L'Institut de France, cupola

Rue de Seine

Gérard Mulot, rue de Seine

Jardins de Luxembourg

Tour St. Jacques

Easter Trip

Here we are, it's the 26th of April and this is the first post I've managed to make this month.
When I would have had time over Easter - we were away, and here's a quick taster of our trip to Paris.
I really will try to edit and share some more photos in a reasonably timely fashion. With a holiday weekend here next weekend, I'm hoping to have a little more free time. But the downside (if you can call it that!) to the longer brighter days is that there's a larger portion of the day when there's too much light on my computer monitor to allow for any editing!

Arc de Triomphe,  Eiffel Tower, Louvre and the Seine, Louvre and the Pyramid, Notre Dame by night - and while we did sample quite  bit of patisserie here and there, this was a cake for a party and too big for just the two of us. But isn't it beautiful!!

March Cards

March may have been a busy stressful month, but I seem to have ended up with quite a lot of cards I really like, thanks to the March VSN challenge on Splitcoast, and a wonderful rain-themed Inspiration challenge.

I really enjoyed making the shadow box - Happy Birthday, Lorraine.


And just for fun!! It's such a shame I only have one young nephew - the others are teens now, and much harder to make cards for.

Spring Birds

It's been mostly grey here, and we've had a lot of rain so the back windows need cleaning again.
But such as they are, we've been having some extra visitors now that spring is here.

A long-tailed tit perched in the hedge.
Chaffinch...
Redpoll
Siskin

We've also had a sparrowhawk. Lovely to see,  but a bit distressing  when he snacked on one of the robins.
We still have two who seem to be a pair, I'm happy to say.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Love Is In The Air

"Love is in the air everywhere I look around
Love is in the air every sight and every sound...." 

Well - you'd think there should be sound, with those open beaks. But I haven't been able to hear it over the gulls, and the rush hour traffic. I think you can hear the grey wagtails, though.

February Favourites

Too busy!!

Here are my favourite cards from February.
The anniversary one was for my parents-in-laws' 60th wedding annviversary, and the wedding one was for one of C's work colleagues, made when he didn't like the only two I had on hand to offer him. But I think Linus is my favourite one - I'm sad that Stampabilities will no longer be producing Peanuts stamps any more.

I didn't bother updating my blog header in February, there weren't many photos from last February to choose from. If it comes to it, there weren't that many from last March either. Some siskins and long-tailed tits, but taken through the window so a bit grainy. I've chosen a hen blackbird, instead.

Spring Dress

I was watching the cormorants down at Heuston station yesterday morning - back in breeding plumage ready for the Spring. This morning was beautiful, but by the time I'd done a big supermarket shop and unpacked it, the day was already changing to the usual dull gray.

Farmleigh

As promised, a few photos from Farmleigh last week:

It was a beautiful morning, but bitterly cold. The witch-hazel smelled just beautiful, as did the wintersweet growing against the outside of the walled garden. And the birds were in full song...

This last photo is obviously not Farmleigh at all - it's a reflection (and reflection of the reflection) of a sculpture outside the civic offices in Blanchardstown. On another lovely sunny morning...