In Photos dot org

Important decisions in life. What job will I do in the future and should I wear a beard? I’ve got the job bit covered, but would I look better with a beard? I think there’d be trouble if I tried growing one!

The wearbeard sticker really caught my eye. It’s just weird to create a site about that but it takes all sorts I guess.

Margi is an artist and business woman living in Oracle, Arizona in the US. She makes beautiful handmade jewelry and glass beads from this small building near an iron smith in the town. I bought a few items for my wife and she loves them.

If you’re near Oracle, call in and say hi. She’s busy but is lovely to chat with and will gladly sell you beautiful jewelry!

We attended a beautiful christening in Fermoy today and afterwards it was off to Mitchelstown where we joined the other guests in a light lunch of finger food and sandwiches. Loved that apple tart afterwards. Yum!

This is our shih tzu, Oscar, who we took along for the drive. After the main course was over half the crowd piled out onto the adjoining terrace and so I got Oscar from the car. He had a great time, and was a big hit with all the kids but we did warn them he was a little odd and liable to snap so they were careful. Later I checked the temperature in the car dashboard and it said 25C which I hope is as hot as it’s going to get in Ireland this year. I had to seek the shade, it was so hot!

Two seagulls wander into the water on the slip that serves the Bere Ferry in Schull Harbour.

Jacinta was the first to notice that actually, the Bere Ferry does not go from Schull. It lands at Castletownbere! Oops!

I look outside now and see the hazy cloud and rain that has descended on Cork and wonder if I was really at Allihies beach and saw the fluffy cumulus cloud stretching off into the distance. It seems like a another lifetime.

Today my wife, Jacinta, and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. It’s a joyful day because we are a happy family with our mad little son but it’s also the first anniversary of Jacinta’s sister’s untimely passing from this world. We went for dinner this afternoon with her family and it was a cheerful gathering, but of course in quiet moments, one’s thoughts stray to Gerry who wasn’t there.

We had lunch in T.J. Newman’s in the town of Schull last month. Lovely thick bread in the sandwiches I got. Kept us going for ages and tasty too! Adam loved looking at all the paintings upstairs!

A farmer ploughing his field caught my attention while out driving with Adam (trying to get him to sleep, it worked!)
The farmer saw me and asked the usual “why are you photographing me?” question but was friendly enough. Plenty of work to be done anyway as he was only halfway through the field!

When I saw the scene I pictured the contrasting bright and dark halves of the ground, but the day was so bright it was difficult to shoot the shadow close by me. I had to clone out a really annoying power line going right across the top half of the image too!

Shot just outside Ballincollig in Co. Cork.

A decorative bench and wheel on the ranch in Arizona. I took so many shots of the place I’m still struggling to catch up and mark the ones I want to work on but I will eventually get to them. I suspect some may not see the light of day until next year though!

This is a picturesque stream that runs through Glengarriff Nature Reserve in Co. Cork. We went for a short walk close by but by the time we got here it was getting late in the afternoon and Adam was getting hungry!

A hungry, scrawny cat came up to us while walking around Schull in Co. Cork last weekend. The poor thing was crying for food and affection. This was the first time Adam saw a real cat and he was delighted but we had to leave the poor thing to fend for itself.

I discovered that the Irish name of the town called Schull is “Scoil Mhuire”, a much nicer name IMO. In English that would be “Mary’s School”, or more likely, “St. Mary’s School”. West Cork is so beautiful but the basterdisation of Irish names is shocking. I even saw a sign for a town called “Snámh” which had been translated as “Snave”. “Snámh” is the verb, “to swim” in English. Perhaps the town was created by an English landlord and named “Snave” first and then named “Snámh” by the Irish?

PS. Congrats to fellow Mallow Camera Club member, David Lavery, who left his comfortable 9-5 day job to become a wedding photographer in Mallow, Co. Cork a year ago today! Not many would take the jump, so I hope he’ll get that blog rolling and write about his experiences. I know I’d like to hear about them!