Rule #1

You ask - "What is rule #1"? I'm glad you asked... it is my number one rule... never leave home without a camera! I know... what a shock! I took the picture below this week when I was out with work. A friend and I walked down a little lane and saw a farmer struggling with a very stubborn donkey. The farmer pulled, yelled, and even slapped the donkey on the rear end, but the donkey was not very impressed. It seemed that the harder and madder the farmer got the less the donkey wanted to cooperate. Eventually, the battle was over... a truce had been struck... the farmer was able to drag the donkey out of the field and get him to walk down the road. It was then that I witnessed a split second moment of reconciliation that made me smile. See the photo below:







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Today's Random Pic...

Taken last night... We stood and watched the rain blow across the bog and mountains... It was one of those moments when I could not believe that I actually live here!







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Just for fun...

Have you ever seen any of my old yearbook pictures?


My dreadlocks back in 2000




I went through a Zac Morris phase in 1996




Who could forget my mullet back in '88?




or the "fro" in '82?





It does not take a genius to tell that these are not real... I should say: thankfully - they are not real! If you are ever in need of a good laugh check out the website: www.yearbookyourself.com . Trust me... you will spend hours laughing!



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Today's Random Pic...

Today was a really wet day, but I was able to get this while giving a tour around the cliffs...







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Street art

There have been some interesting things taking place on the city streets during the arts festival. Last week there were several street performances that took place at night. There were not really parades, but rather were stories being told by actors in a creative way. For instance: One night last week we were in the city around 10pm and witnessed a flying race. Five "inventors" had created "flying machines" and were racing through the city's pedestrian center. The only problem was that they kept breaking down. Once one stopped they all stopped and started trying to sabotage each others machine. Oh... did I forget to mention that some of the flying machines were equipped with weapons? And that they would occasionally kidnap bystanders and take them for a ride? It was crazy and funny! We walked down the streets and watched the madness! here are a few pics!

Off to a fast start the vehicle in front soon lost the lead. Notice the child that has already been placed on the front of the flying machine!





Racing in luxury...





No doubt that this was the fastest of the group... it also had the most 'flair'.



(see next post!)



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A few more pics...

(See the post above)



Showing off for the crowd... I'm sure that the kids was scared to death!..... I was!





The winners celebrate...










After the race - trying to extinguish his flying machine!




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Feeling Festive

I love this time of year. The long summer days seem to linger for ever, and all of Ireland seems to be celebrating the nice weather. There are several cool little festivals going on over the next month. Currently there is an arts festival taking place in the city. There are concerts, art exhibitions, comedy shows, and street performances. Tourists are everywhere, and buskers (aka - non official street performers) are having impromptu concerts, magic shows, face painting, etc on every spare portion of the main shopping streets. The whole city seems to be alive lave into the night and the craic (aka fun) really is mighty! Dee and I have gone to a few things (spoiler alert) and I'll be posting a few things over the next few days.



These are a couple of pictures of the main tent that Dee and I took last night around midnight.












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Today's Random Pic

Inside St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.








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"To the moon, Alice!"

I saw something the other night that I don't think I will ever forget. Approximately nineteen minutes after liftoff in Florida the spaceship Endeavour passed over Ireland!

It was a partly cloudy evening around eleven o'clock.... I was working in the office when I suddenly remembered that the space shuttle was going to pass overhead. I jumped up grabbed the camera and went outside to stand in the grass and look west. Sure enough - just as the radio had promised - I noticed a bright star appear over the blue horizon. I say that it was a star, but in reality it was probably three times brighter than any star I had ever seen. I ran to the house and scared Dee half to death by banging on the windows and yelling "I see it! I see it!". I then turned to see it become brighter and brighter as it climbed higher and higher in the night's sky. Suddenly a bright orange star become visible underneath it and slowly began to move away on a lower trajectory. I instantly knew that the orange blaze had to be the massive fuel tank being dropped from the shuttle. I scrambled to take a couple of pictures, but didn't want to loose the moment of seeing something truly amazing. Dee and I stood there in awe and watched the two objects blaze their way across the heavens. They eventually disappeared in the east.... what a sight!

Later that night I downloaded the pictures... they in no way captured what we saw... so... sorry... no pictures... you will just have to use your imagination.

Irish Rain

The weather here is (at best) unpredictable. The weather forecasters try (bless their hearts)... but the forecast rarely seems to be right. Don't get me wrong... they can usually see what is coming a day in advance, but rarely can they say for certainty what is coming the rest of the week. No matter the forecast, you still have to look on the horizon to see what is headed your way and plan for all seasons in one day. Take this weeks (for example).... the forecast has been for rain all week and no chance of sunshine. Yesterday, however, turned out to be a beautiful afternoon and evening. Today also has been a beautiful and sunny day. Who knows if it will last.... but we have learned to get out and enjoy the day whenever we can....


I took these pictures the other day right after a rainstorm...

















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Today's Random Pic....

My favorite camera accessory: The fisheye lens







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Making hay while the...

Living in Ireland - I quite often see flashes of a former world. It might be something as simple as an old man walking down the street with his cows... or a traditional fishing boat on the ocean... or even the look on someones face.... but the instant you see it you know that this truly is living history.... something that has not changed for generations. These brief windows always happen in a split second and when you are not expecting it...... They can never be planned and are never put on display for the tourists. Seeing them is just part of living here... something that you stumble upon... and when you do see them you instantly know that you have witnessed a treasure.

It happened again this week. I was out for a drive (not too far from where we live), and I noticed some hay stacks in a field. I parked at a pub down the road and hiked back to find them. After standing there taking a few pictures I decided to hike up some of the boreen (little side roads) to see some other hay stacks that were off in the distance (see the picture I got below).



Seeing hay stacks like this is becoming more and more rare these days. These are the real thing. The were not made by a machine, but rather have been dried and stacked by backbreaking labor... just as they have always been made. The farmers put a small plastic bag on top of them and then weigh it down attaching rocks with string on each corner of the bag. The result is a beautiful pile that is stable and won't blow away.


After walking down the boreen and back I decided that the lighting and sky were too nice to pass up. I had to keep walking and taking pictures. Boy... am I glad that I did! I walked up a large hill in hopes of getting some panoramic shots. Once I came to the crest of the hill I discovered that I was overlooking a field where a family was making hay. Seeing the several generations (at least three) working together just as they have for generations was a beautiful sight. It does not take a hopeless romantic like me to know that I was seeing something that may someday fade way. I really do love Ireland... and I love that even though it is a changing and modern country it has not lost its history... that it is alive in the fields...













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Pics of Eire

Well.... we have been back from our anniversary trip to the continent for a long time now, and I think that I have posted most of the pictures that I want to... I really had a fun time capturing such different places, and I really appreciate all of your patience while I posted some of them here! BUT... this is "Irish Rain" Photography... so stay tuned for more pics from Ireland....

Ann Frank's House

I can't skip telling you about the best part of our trip!

Dee had the wonderful idea of reading Ann Frank's Diary while we were on our trip to Amsterdam. So, before we left Ireland, we bought two copies of the book and began reading like crazy. I have to admit that Ann Frank's Diary is something that I have always known about, but it is one of those classic books that I should read but never have. I was a little apprehensive to read the book at first.... after all.... it is a diary of a teenage girl... It only took me, however, about 10 pages to fall in love with the book. Ann wrote with a maturity and thoughtfulness far beyond her years. The book does contain her struggles with growing up and struggles with her parents, but it also really reveals what it was like to be a Jew in hiding under the Nazis. I was amazed at just what they knew of the outside and how aware they were of the war. You really could sense their hope and their desperation as the eight fugitives quietly lived out their lives in the four hidden rooms. I couldn't help but want them to survive... fear for their safety.... and want to know that it would all work out........... all the while knowing that they did not survive the war, that they (all but 1) were killed in the concentration camps.................. but somehow knowing this made the book somehow more personal and more powerful.


When Dee and I got to Amsterdam we quickly discovered that our B&B was just a few blocks over from Ann Frank's hiding place. We also discovered that there were some great benches right in front of the building. So... we spent many hours seated there in front of the house reading. This really made the book even more significant. Several times Ann wrote about sneaking looks out of the windows... watching the neighbors across the canal... and looking down at the street below as people went about their lives. It was almost eerie to read about these things as we sat there looking up at the dark windows.

We ended up going touring the hiding place on one of our last nights in Amsterdam. Having read the book made the tour 1000times more interesting. I'm so glad that we had read it before seeing the rooms.

If you have not read Ann Frank's Diary - I would highly recommend it. You will really gain an amazing perspective on the plight of the Jews and their struggle will quickly become very personal.





(Dee reading in front of the hiding place. The green building on the left is the front part of the building where the eight refugees hid for two years.)





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Today's Random Pics...

A few more that we took in Amsterdam...

















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A dog's life...

One morning (while I was out walking) I came across this beautiful dog sitting in the window. I snapped a few pictures of him and then found a bench and decided to sit and watch him for a while. It was not long until a little old lady came and joined me on the bench. She was a local on her way to the market and had decided to stop and enjoy the day. She told me that this old dog loves to sit there in the window and watch the canal boats go by. He apparently spends most of the sunny parts of the day on his pillow enjoying the waves of tourists and is always willing to have his photo taken. She also told me that he is recovering for surgery. Apparently he had just had a tumor removed and it looked like he was going to be ok. The little lady and I sat and talked for a long time about Bruges and about life... She eventually made her way to the market, and I left the dog to enjoy a bit of piece and quiet. Dee and I came back to the window to check on the dog several times, and he was there enjoying life and the sun.













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Behind the Camera...

This is another little entry in a series of posts that I write from time to time called - 'Behind the Camera'. There is a saying that a photo is worth 1,000 words. Unfortunately, however, a photo never really tells the full story. You never see what else is going on around me when I take the picture.



What you see: Cute little ducks...





What you don't see: Dee behind me reading... She gets comfortable because she knows that I am going to be a while...






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Today Random Pics...

"Art on the streets"












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More to come....

I just wanted to give all of you out there in Internet-land a quick heads up. We have (obviously) been back in Ireland for sometime now... the only problem is that we took SO many pictures while we were on the continent that I am not going to be able to post them all. So... I have given myself the deadline of this weekend to have everything posted that I am going to post. So.... be on the lookout because I am going to be updating this site like crazy over the next few days!




This picture was taken just outside the "lace museum". I really like the contrast of all the different brickwork. I thought that it was SO different to things here in Ireland.