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It’s a beautiful Bank Holiday Monday here and the village of Blarney is buzzing with locals and tourists. Meanwhile, I’m at home working. If you’re off today, enjoy the glorious weather!

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PS. watermarks courtesy of this script.

I had to get the car fixed today. A ball bearing was broken in one of the rear wheels and driving was like one of those modded cars with huge exhausts. Noisy and annoying. So, I took the car down to Blarney Auto Centre where they sorted it out this afternoon. I took the opportunity to get some exercise in by walking back home and took a few photos. Enjoy!
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Adam is 1 tomorrow so we went out for lunch this afternoon. I really shouldn’t have had that chocolate cheescake. Yum though. Blarney was full of tourists wandering everywhere. The infamous “invulnerability zone” all tourists feel around them makes driving very hazardous, especially in the grounds of Blarney Woollen Mills.

We had a party for Adam later and our families called over to celebrate. I finally played 4 player Mario Kart on the Wii with Donal, Cathal and Mike and it was great fun!

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Sunrise over Blarney a few days ago. There was a thin layer of cloud on the horizon that nicely blocked out much of the light of the sun allowing me to capture this early morning sun.

It’s amazing to think that the light we see takes 8 minutes to travel the immense distance between the Sun and Earth. What’s even more remarkable is the thousands of years a photon can spend zinging back and forth inside the Sun before emerging as heat and light.

Call of the evening

A bird atop the light outside my house calls into the glowing evening sky heralding the end of 2007.

After walking Oscar I had to grab my camera and shoot the beautiful evening sky. The background was this colour, there’s no trickery here except a little vignetting and sharpening.

Charity Daffodils

Here are the daffodils my wife picked up when she gave a nice crisp €50 note to the Irish Cancer Society collector in Blarney this afternoon.

A few days ago I offered to give the proceeds from the sale of a photo to charity plus €50 of my own money/. Nobody splashed out on a print unfortunately.

Well done to Robert who braved the elements to collect today!

Daffodil Day

Daffodil Day is fast approaching on Friday so I thought a photo of these gorgeous flowers was appropriate.

Daffodil Day is when cancer charities all over the world raise a large portion of their funds by selling daffodils. If you see an official seller please support a good cause and give generously.

I gave away a Daffodil Day header image last year on my blog. Actually, I’m still using it since then as my blog’s banner so I’m rather pleased with it!

Buy this image before Friday and you’ll support charity
Daffodil Day is next Friday. I’ve just started selling this image of daffodils on rebubble.com. If I make any sales before or on Friday I’ll give any profit I make to The Irish Cancer Society.

Red Bubble is a business and charge a base price on every print sold. I make a few Euro from each sale but no matter how many or how few prints I sell I’ll add 50 Euro to whatever profit is there. Even if I sell no prints (which I admit is quite likely), the Irish Cancer Society collector in Blarney will get a nice crisp 50 Euro note straight out of the ATM at lunch time on Friday.

If you think this is just a ploy to make some photo sales, then put your money where your mouth is and give generously to a Daffodil Day collector on Friday. If they’re not collecting in your area, I’m sure some worthwhile charity is!

Call me Spike

Frost covered weeds still manage to grow and thrive in the cold.

I saw this wonderful speckled white plant growing from a ditch yesterday morning and it looked very ominous. When I converted it to black and white I saw myself looking at something abstract, possibly evil, something that could be microscopic or huge.

I wouldn’t hang this photo on a wall, but I love it!

The frosty daffodil

This morning was a frosty one. My breath made clouds in the air and a light breeze carried away the warmth in the shadows.

Thankfully there was a lovely sunrise that more than made up for the cold. Down at the end of our park there’s a small green area, and this is the second year that daffodils have grown there. Luckily the frost didn’t seem to do them any harm.

"Sioc" is the Irish word for frost. I don’t know why but it’s one of my favourite. Maybe it has a lingering connection with cold frosty mornings from my childhood.
“Sioc” is pronounced almost exactly like the English word “shook”.

Horgans of Blarney

The Irish flag flies outside Horgans of Blarney, a souvenir shop in the village.

Despite the fact that it’s between the butcher’s and a pub, I’ve never been in there. I doubt most locals have been.

Still, nice to see the flags waving!