A Volkswagen Beetle in Blarney reminds me that not everyone has bought a shiny new car. It even has the old style number plates. Does anyone know what year and county “WFI” relates to?

I love how this image is framed by the old fence. B&W works particularly well because of the timeless nature of the subject.

If you know Blarney, this was shot from the car park of Blarney Castle and I posted a shot of the other side of this building in my Emerald House B&B post a while back.

PS. New theme, what do you think?
PPS. David Lavery has posted the Photographer of the Year results on the Mallow Camera Club website. 1 point more and I would have drawn on 3rd place in the novice section.

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!

I noticed this small hut while out walking one afternoon on the ranch in Arizon last January. Bit of a squeeze I bet!

An Fear Marbh, or “The Dead Man” in English lies off the coast of Co. Kerry. I posted another photo of the island taken on the same night as this one here, but it was such a beautiful evening I took quite a few shots!

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.

I can see the parade!

Some people go to all lengths to watch the St. Patrick’s Day Parade as these kids show.

Congrats to my friends John and Ann on the birth of their son Caelin yesterday. You’re lives are going to change *so much* but you’re going to have a great time with the little guy!

PS. Just upgraded almost all my blogs to WP 2.5, please leave a comment if you notice anything odd!

A young leprechaun in the crowd

Squashed in on St Patrick’s Day.

La le Phadraig ar Sraid Phadraig

Children look out of an upstairs window in Merchants Quay shopping centre. When I took this shot I didn’t even see them!
I was concentrating on the kids in the foreground with their flags. I think they frame the street sign rather nicely and ties in with the name of the day too.

Check out some great photos of Inchigeela from the 1960’s on textlad’s set. Thanks Katie, they’re wonderful!

This reminds me of someone at Mallow Camera Club who showed a number of slides he had bought or got off a priest who had served on a mission in South America. The images were from decades ago and the priest was dead and buried by now. Pictures were still as good as ever, but they’re languishing in a slide box now. I’d love to see them uploaded to Flickr and made public.

St. Patrick’s Day Tricolour Girl

A young girl leans on a traffic light where she has a bird’s eye view of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Cork.

A flavour of the St Patrick’s Day festivities and people who attended the Parade in Cork yesterday.

Special Olympics Team

Some of the Special Olympics Team took part in the parade and as I said yesterday, it was strange to see only them on the street with nobody else about. Everyone cheered them on however and clapped as they passed! The next group took at least 5 minutes to appear leaving me to wonder if the parade had already finished.

Kids and flags

You normally don’t see Irish people waving flags about unless it’s a special occasion. St. Patrick’s Day is one of those times when the the Irish Tricolour comes out!

Dodgy looking souvenier seller

If there’s a buck to be made ..

Crowds on St. Patrick’s Day 2008 in Cork

Crowds lined Patrick’s Street in Cork to watch the Parade. It was crazy! To get any sort of shot I had to either hold my camera in the air and shoot blind or grab quick shots with the zoom from between the bobbing heads of those in front of me. If you were in any way uncomfortable with crowds then it wasn’t the place for you.

More tomorrow and for a few days probably.