Posts related to Water
26 October 2008 - A boat in Cape Clear
A solitary boat in the North Harbour, Cape Clear Island.
PS. Check out Jolt++, a new photoblog created by fellow Automatticer Michael Pick. Great photos, and I really like the Tumble theme. I wonder how I’d squeeze my adverts into such a theme?
PPS. My brother Donal was featured on the envelope of the first issue of new Irish stamps commemorating Irish pipers. If the day job ever fails, you can always try your hand at modelling!
PPPS. Server was down for several hours, sorry. VPS was upgraded to “Xen” and failed to reboot. I didn’t realise I could reboot it until a few minutes ago..
Kinsale Co. Cork, last July.
19 October 2008 - Directions to Blarney Castle
Blarney Castle is that way. Go out the gate, turn right, turn left and park. Right in front of you.
I got back to Ireland yesterday afternoon. A mostly uneventful flight home, except for some problems with check in and I had to check in twice more. On the last attempt I got bumped to Economy Plus with more legroom and to an aisle seat thanks to the very nice lady at the gate.
The check in computer should be smart enough to offer an aisle seat in Economy Plus to me, even after I’ve declined that upgrade first. An aisle seat is worth the extra $109 because I was late checking in.
I hope Lenny and Eoin got home without much hassle. We had hoped to meet up in Heathrow but my text to Lenny only delivered moments before I boarded the Aer Lingus flight to Cork. Guess United is faster than BA? I saw a flight around the same time to Dublin was cancelled so they may have had a wait.
I love that I can run up the stairs now without getting winded. Wet? Damp? Oh yes! I don’t know how many bottles of water a day I consumed in Breckenridge because the air was so dry. Lovely people there, shame about the altitude!
I have at least 100 photos to post to Flickr from this blog. I should write a plugin that emails the image there with description and tags from the WordPress interface.
14 October 2008 - Boat Wreck at Dunboy Castle
The remains of a boat lie in the water by Dunboy Castle in Co Cork, Ireland. We were there last March, only days before 3 young men were killed when their car went into the water.
As you may know, I’m in Colorado along with most of Automattic. You can check out photos taken by me and my colleagues. It’s a beautiful area, but the thin air at such a high altitude is playing havoc with my body: breathlessness, a racing heart while lying down, sinuses out of whack, the after effects of 3 drinks feels like a heavy night of boozing.
Budget Day today in Ireland. If I don’t catch the RTE coverage of it live I’ll watch Twitter and check the headlines after.
08 October 2008 - Queen Elizabeth 2 in Cobh
The QE2 docked in Cobh last Thursday. This was shot at the bottom of steps down to the water where seaweed made footing precarious. I saw a few people venture down the steps but none went further than half way down. The tide was well out so I was maybe 3m below the quayside, standing in wet and slippery seaweed. The risks I take to get a photo!
Oh yeah, there’s already something gone bust in my new Canon 40D. The pop up flash refuses to pop up unless I prise it open with a fingernail. It tries a few times, gives up and issues an Error 99 and needs to be switched off and on. The same happened to my Canon 20D, but I’m surprised the 40D didn’t last a bit longer ..
04 October 2008 - Cast Off in Bantry
A small ferry casts off and heads out of Bantry Harbour with lots of hunting dogs and their owners. This was last February and I watched with interest wondering where they were going.
More QE2 photos to come, when I have time to work on them!
02 October 2008 - QE2 Leaving Cork
The Queen Elizabeth 2, or QE2, flagship of the Cunard Line, docked for the last time in Cobh yesterday and left this evening just after 6pm. Here she is after turning in Cork Harbour and seconds before she increased speed and left the harbour for good.
In 2009, she will become a floating hotel in Dubai. A fitting ending for a luxury ship that has plied the waters of the world for the last 39 years.
I took over 300 shots of the Queen Elizabeth 2 today and filled almost 4GB of space with RAW images. In hindsight, many of the images would have been fine as Jpeg files but I had the space, so I used it. I hope to upload a gallery of my favourite images tomorrow.
01 October 2008 - Tir na nOg ar Oilean Chleire
Tir na nOg is the house on the right of this photo. It’s a house that Colaiste Ciaran, an Irish summer school on the island, rents during the summer and where I spent a number of weeks years and years ago. The long, low building attached to the left is a canteen.
An Oige have a large hostel further down, near the stony beach. I remember looking with curiosity and longing at the kayaks in a nearby shed. Us students never got anything quite as exciting as those!
26 September 2008 - Tractor at Allihies
A tractor in the carpark at Allihies Beach in Co Cork.
23 September 2008 - The cars of Cape Clear
Cape Clear Island, or Oilean Chleire, is only 3 miles long and 1 mile wide, but it’s only 40 minutes by ferry to the mainland so it’s fairly easy to bring out vehicles. In fact, I saw many more cars on the island than I did on my last trip.
As you may have guessed by the photo above, once the cars get here, they really don’t go anywhere else, and many of them are in a bad state of repair. On a previous trip, my father and I were driven up a very steep hill above the harbour in a multicoloured VW Beetle that was literally falling apart with rust. I’ll post a photo of the hill in a few days.
There also isn’t a police force on the island. I don’t think cars here are insured or taxed and you can forget the NCT ..
Apart from the two taxi vans sitting on the quay when we arrived, the newest car was a 1999 model. The oldest was a 1986 Renault. The taxis were had 2004 reg plates and in good condition.
I’d love to how or why the van in the far background got to the Island. It looks abandoned now.