Of Flowers and Bees Pt. 3 - Farmleigh (again)

Some more pictures taken on a different date in Farmleigh, Pheonix Park (circa 2 weeks ago)... Click on thumbnails to magnify!

(I don't know which species these are, but they certainly look like anemonae, in a deep blue sea, and not something you would usually expect in a garden!)


(There is a rose garden in Farmleigh, and I love their texture and the spiral formed by the petals, like an ephemeral, colourful mandala)



(Once again, my favourites: bergamots and cute bees. I have included magnifications of the bees on each photograph. You can clearly see their shiny coats and beady eyes)


(This is a different, skniier type of bee, working on a yellow flower whose name I ignore. Not as cute as the bergamot ones...)


(Mark certainly took this picture, for I would be unable to focus here. If you magnify it, you will clearly see the spider webs shining at the sunlight. I think it is very pretty...)

Of Flowers and Bees Pt. 2 - Farmleigh

I love spending an afternoon in Farmleigh, Phoenix Park. We usually go there in the weekends, looking for lovely flowers, herbs and trees to photograph. I enjoy that a lot.

What I love the most are the bees. They are always flying all over the bergamot flowers, which they seem to especially enjoy. One may even call them nasty bugs, since they sting and so on. But I could not care less, for they are always busy buzzing carelessly away, oblivious to my presence and the camera, with their light little fluffy bodies and delicate wings. At least in those moments they seem absolutely harmless, flying around in their yellow and black stripy furry pyjamas, so focused in their feeding activities that photographing them may even seem like an easy task - as if they were striking a pose just for you! Yes, they are cute. And yes, bergamot flowers smell really, really sweet...

As before, click on thumbnails for a magnified view...

The yellow flower is a begonia...


Sunflowers...



Lots of pink dahlias...




The one on the left looks like artichoke. Could that be it?

And finally, the bergamots with some of my beloved busy bees!

Back after 3 long months...

I am back again, after a long hiatus of 3 months or so, namely, since I moved to the new house. Why is that, one might wonder... Moving to a new place really messed me up: new surroundings, stairs to climb all the time, getting used to it... It takes some time, really, to settle in, and the whole process is quite tiresome for me. I am not very fond of changes.

But now, I am OK. Mostly OK. I am settled, yes, but starting to feel a bit depressed: it's one year since I went to Rio last, and I miss it a lot. We will go there for Christmas, true. But whenever I stay more than 10-11 months away, I start to feel depressed and anxious. So, that's why.

The house is now looking great (I think!), but of course there are still some bits and ends left (hanging pictures, for example).

I still haven't restarted the jewelry though, but at least all my stones and beads are well-organised and in the right places right now.

What have I been up to, during these 3 months then? Well, not much, really, except for the usual: watching DVDs, reading manga and books, organising my little things (Kitty collection, stationery, perfumes, magazines etc) and playing with Super Poke Pets on Facebook. I must say I turned out to be quite an addict, for the pets and objects you buy and collect are so lovely, that it's really very hard to resist!

The manga I've been reading lately are: Nodame Cantabile (Sapphire's recommendation, really great), Inuyasha (yes, yes, still!), Chibi Vampire (which just ended in a rather abrupt/hurried way), XXXHolic (which quickly became one of my favourites), and some others. As for the books, mostly Japanese authors: Natsume Soseki, Natsuo Kirino, Yoko Ogawa. Special mention of course goes to Natsume Soseki, a wonderful Japanese classic. I started by reading his "Kokoro", which is very moving and very hard to put down. I was wanting to read him for some time already, since I read Murakami's (indirect) praises of his work in "Kafka on the Shore" some years ago. At the time I thought: well, if it's something Murakami (his characters, in this case) waxes lyrical about it, of course I am bound to love it. And I was right. It's not a light reading, but one that really makes you think and consider a series of things. And if you enjoy Japanese culture, even better, however the chore of this specific work was rather universal , global, ie, things that anyone (in spite of cultural differences, backgrounds, religion, gender etc) can feel, live and why not, die for. But that was his first book I read, and quickly bought some others: "The Three-Cornered World", "The Gate" and "I Am a Cat" - but am only starting the former tonight.

Talking of books then... Our Play Room (aka library, aka computer room, aka...) is finally ready. Mark finished the book shelves that we bought in Ikea (my favourite place for house stuff, for sure!) and I am very happy to report that our book organising issues are all sorted (for now, ha ha! Nah, just kidding...)...

If you want to have a better look, please click the thumbnails for a magnified view...




And some details here...