This was the view from my hotel room at The Dream Inn, Santa Cruz last week. Seems like a million miles away now, but in fact it’s only about, oh, maybe six thousand miles. Anyway, I was there with almost all of Automattic for our annual meetup. It’s a fabulous location, the early morning light…

This underground passage is the armoury at Camden Fort Meagher. The first time I visited the fort a few years ago this passage wasn’t open but Rescue Camden have done a great job restoring and cleaning out 21 years of overgrowth. Next weekend there’s a reenactment and other festivities to mark the last weekend open…

Roche’s Point Lighthouse, at the mouth of Cork Harbour. I shot this from Camden Fort Meagher last weekend. It was a glorious day and as you can see the fort has a commanding view of the harbour! More about the lighthouse can of course be read on Wikipedia.

The steeple of St. Anne’s Church towers over the surrounding streets as seen from Coburg Street, Cork last night. I laboured over this photo. I could not get the shade and colour of the houses in the middle-background right for quite a while. Sometimes it was too bright, or too blue, or too dark, or…

St Patrick’s Bridge in Cork spans the River Lee at the top of St Patrick’s Street and leads on to Bridge Street on the northern bank of the river. Here it is on a particularly cloudy day a few days ago! More information on the bridge can be found here.

On our way back to Baltimore after a nice visit to Cape Clear Island the ferry passed by the Baltimnore Beacon. I heard that the Beacon had been built by the father of a man who perished on the cliffs where it’s built but it’s origin is rather more mundane. The British Government ordered it…

The remains of a World War One Lee Enfield rifle found somewhere in France or Belgium. It’s heavily corroded and the wood used in it’s construction is almost completely gone. I dread to think what action it saw or what happened to it’s owner. This was on display at the military show in Cork City…

Martin O’Brien who runs The Old Grainstore at St. Mullin’s, Co Carlow posed for a photo after we chatted with him outside his café. It was a glorious day and the place was busy with people eating lunch, swimming and walking about. It’s a beautiful location I want to return to again.

St Patrick’s Street, Cork during the Street Performance World Championships yesterday. Does anyone know who this performer is? I can’t really comment on any of the performers unfortunately as I was only there for an hour with a bored six year old who had a fixation on buying an Angry Birds hat and balloon animals….

Yesterday evening in Crosshaven, Co Cork. It was a beautiful end of the day. Not quite as hot as other days which I was thankful for but many people out and a good atmosphere in the town. Edit: here’s the original photo!

From left to right: Barbarito Torres, Omara Portuondo and Papi Oviedo. On Monday night I went to see Buena Vista Social Club in Cork Opera House with my wife Jacinta. We had a blast there and the crowd loved them, even if they did drag out the musician solos a bit too much. There’s only…

Today was Family Fun Day in Blarney oraganised by Gaelscoil Mhuscrai. It threatened to rain several times but besides a few drops it stayed dry and everyone had fun! [gallery link="file" ids="8068,8069,8070,8071,8072,8073,8074,8075,8076,8077,8078,8079,8080,8081,8082,8083,8084,8085,8086,8087,8088,8089"]