Before the glossy, glass faced building of One Albert Quay, a warehouse and other old, industrial buildings occupied that site. This is what it looked like in 2009. I would guess they were originally part of the train station that sat at that location. The “FREE FIT EXHAUST CENTRE” would have been a familiar sign to anyone who lived in the south side of the city and passed by that area.
The Elysian can be seen in the background, but it was a brand-new building then, having only been completed early in 2008, the previous year!
Some photos are special, not because they’re wonderful photos, composed well, with striking colours or lovely contrast. The best photos are the ones that make your heart sing.
The cat on the left who is looking at me is Mommy Cat, the matriarch of all the cats we’ve adopted in this home of ours. The one annoying her is her son, Patches. There’s a whole series of photos here with Mommy Cat looking at me while her tail swishes up and way from Patches’ paws.
The photos were taken in 2009. They’re not great. They are a bit blurry because the exposure wasn’t fast enough for a long lens. Thanks to the modern AI tech in Topaz Photo AI I was able to sharpen it a little and present it here.
Mommy Cat is still with us. She’s an elderly cat now. Her fur was very matted on her back but in the past 2 years she has started sleeping in the kitchen. We managed to get her to the vet on Thursday, her first visit since being neutered, and they shaved her, and removed two bad molars. Only her head, her paws, and the end of her tail have any fur. But, SHE IS STRONG. She has a massive appetite. She’s on pain relief and antibiotics. She is a lot more agile than before, as the matted fur isn’t pulling at her. She is curled up on a couch now, where she couldn’t jump before, with one of the dog’s blankets on her.
So, I wanted to share a photo of Mommy Cat today, #Caturday. She is amazing.
Many of the buildings in this photo are now gone, replaced with imposing glass frontage, or in the case of The Sextant there’s nothing there but a car park.
“Ardfry Castle dates to approx. 1770 and was built by Joseph Blake, member of the famous Blake Family, who later gained the title of Lord Wallscourt.” (Ardfry Castle on Visit Galway)
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uBlock Origin is a free, open source, ad blocker for your browser.
Use pi-hole if you have a spare Raspberry Pi on your network.
Set the private DNS settings on your phone to dns.adguard.com to block adverts and trackers.