Holiday snaps

Hello all! (All being the 3 of you who still read this blog. You're still there, aren't you?)

Well we're about half way through our holiday and having a ball but man, being on holiday can be tiring. I've done more socialising in the last week than I have in the last 6 months.
And I caught a cold. But that's OK, I'm surviving and it's great to be home.

The weather is great - as expected, warmer here in mid-Winter than Dublin is at the moment where it is mid-Summer. Our neighbours, who are travelling with us, can't quite get over it.

We spent the first 3 days in Cape Town and an old friend of ours was kind enough to play tour guide and show us around the place. He even stopped regularly so I could take photographs, although the temptation to disrupt my photography almost got the better of him outside the Brass Bell in Kalk Bay...

We hired a car and drove from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, breaking the trip into 2 days so as not to overwhelm our Irish friends too much with the vastness of our beautiful country.

I was glad we decided on this. Normally Hubby would be in such a rush to get the 800km drive over with that there's no way he would have stopped for me to take arbitrary pictures such as this one...

But he did, so I could, and you lucky things are the beneficiaries.

Well since getting to Port Elizabeth we have been on the go non-stop. There are so many things going on I am not even going to scratch the surface of them now. To be honest I am sort of on auto-pilot right now, hence the fluffy photo post. It's about all I can manage but I sort of needed to do something to take myself away from reality for a few minutes. I'd forgotten how draining it can be to come home, sometimes.

We're going to see some lions tomorrow (hopefully) and this weekend we're heading off to a game farm where the lads will do some hunting and we gals will probably do a lot of book reading and nail painting. Aaah, some rest, at last...

:-)

A touch of frost

Let's talk about the weather for a change.

That's a joke - anyone who has spent any amount of time in Ireland will know this; talking about the weather is something of a national pastime here. Well, perhaps not so much talking as moaning about it. It's either too cold, too wet, or occasionally (once every 7 years or so) too hot.
Although it should be noted that I, personally, have never complained about this place being too hot.

But it's winter now, and last Saturday Hubby and I went out around midday to do some shopping. 30 Metres down the road I made him turn back so I could get my camera. You just don't see frost and fog like this in South Africa.

So these are for you folks who are complaining about the heat back home...

The first clue: Frozen flowers outside my front door

The not-so-green grass of home

Some of you may recognize Malahide Castle

Ducks getting themselves in a row... I'm guessing they've figured out the time has come to head South!

A cold and lonely crow

I didn't get any photos of the fog around our place; there wouldn't have been much to see in a photo except white noise, after all. But here is the midday sun:


So, which hemisphere would you rather be in right now...?

enlightenment and alien flowers

Because I haven't posted a photograph in a while, here's one I took this morning...

Does anyone else think these look like alien flowers?

I have been reading a book that can best be described as "enlightening"... it has brought into focus all the different things that life and others have been trying to teach me. I get it now. I guess I just needed it put to me in a certain way for the penny to drop. Some people are lucky; they get it without all the emotional fuss and tortuous questioning. They simply get it from what their lives have taught them. Some of us need a little help.
Here's hoping that now I have it, I don't lose it again...

For it's easy to be positive when things are running smoothly. The trick is in not allowing the speed bumps of life to throw us off course. Most of the time, life happens gradually - it's like that whole cooking a frog story ^[1]. You think everything is fine until one day you realise you're not happy, and that you have been slowly becoming unhappier over time. It doesn't just happen in an instant. Clawing your way back from this can take just as long as it took to get there in the first place.

So what is it that I'm yabbering on about today? Let's just say I hit a speed bump last night, although exactly what it was, I am unable to tell you (not because I don't want to but because I honestly have no idea why I reacted the way I did!)
I am pleased to report, though, that after a few hours of Terri-time today and a little bit of sunshine outside for a change, I am well on my way to regaining that Balance I've been cultivating of late ^[2].

~

^[1] I forget the details but it's something along the lines of you can't boil a frog by tossing it into hot water because it'll just jump out... instead you put him in cold water and slowly turn up the heat. Horrible metaphor, I know!

^[2] I have learned that if you say it enough then it becomes true. Cool trick.

Is that a ship I see on the horizon..?

One of my photographs has been published. I knew fame and fortune had to happen sooner or later...
Switch the view from map to photos and take a look at the "Merrion Square" photos under "Attractions and Landmarks". I think mine is about the 4th one
:-)

The Towers

The village in which I live out here in the Styx, Ireland, is a small one. There is a village shop, a fresh fruit 'n veg place, a hairdresser, a betting office and a pharmacy. The biggest addition in recent times is a large-ish SuperValu - an actual supermarket, where we can buy almost everything we need to keep the household running. Oh, and of course there are 2 pubs. Perhaps the amount of pubs is the best indication of the size of the village.

It's really nothing special, this village of ours. It's too far from the actual sea to be a seaside town and the surrounding area is mostly farmland. There is one landmark, however, that serves as its claim to fame: an old church with a Round Tower, that dominates the main street and the landscape for miles around.

Don't bother to click on this photo - it was taken at night, the camera hand-held, so it's really blurry, but the small picture gives you some idea of what I'm talking about:

I've intended photographing this building for some time now, and at long last I went out a few nights ago in the freezing cold to do just that, with some success - feel free to click on these for a larger view, they came out much better :-)

A CLOSER LOOK

You may be forgiven for thinking I made a type-o above, when I referred to "A Round Tower", when clearly, there is more than one. Ah but you see, 'tis not so! Only one of the towers attached to this old monastery is an official Round Tower - the one on the right, in the photo below:

The other three towers are just regular old Belfry towers... which I personally think are just as impressive. Turns out, though, that they are mere camouflage for the Historically More Important round tower.

Because apparently the Belfry towers are mere towerlings - built as recently as 1500 perhaps, although nobody really remembers that far back. The Ones In The Know, however, claim that the Round Tower was built in the 6th century. That it is still standing is, I admit, rather impressive.

And that concludes today's history lesson. I'm far too lazy to go and look up more facts for you. Feel free to Google "Irish Round Towers" for more information on these marvels of ancient engineering.
Me, I just wanted to show you the pretty pictures.

missing the picture

I really hate leaving things unfinished so here's the pic of the beach at Cannon Rocks that belongs to the challenge from my previous post...



By the way... From where I'm sitting it looks like the photo has gone all fuzzy-ish after being uploaded here. Is it my imagination or does the quality look not quite right to you guys too?

I agree...

A week is more than enough for one post to decorate this place. It's time for a new one.
Tomorrow (I think) is the Summer Solstice. The longest day of the year. Midsummer.
It's been raining and storming for about 10 days now. I have been wearing a fleece top under my bike jacket (still with the removable 'Winter' lining zipped in) to get to and from work. Summer, my ass! I don't remember the last time I saw blue skies...
Oh wait, that's not entirely true. It was two Saturdays ago when we went to visit our friends in Cork, and the four of us went for a stroll around Fota Wildlife Park. The weather was stunning that day - a perfect 23 degrees and cloudless skies.
It started raining the next day and it hasn't stopped since.

So since my mood is about the same as the heavy grey stormclouds outside, let's remember sunnier times with some photo's I took that day...

GIRAFFE AND ZEBRA IN IRELAND???!

'TIS NOT EVERY DAY YOU SEE A KANGAROO THIS FAR NORTH, EITHER!

SLEEPING FLAMINGOS

CHEETAH STARING AT TERRI STARING AT CHEETAH.
WE HAD A MOMENT :-)

egg-ception to the norm

There's a tweetie-bird driving Hubby insane. He built a nest in the eaves at our front door (the bird, not Hubby) which Hubby quickly dismantled because as you know one shouldn't have a bird's nest so close to one's house. Come to think of it, "He" may well be a "She" - I don't know enough about black birds with orange beaks to tell.
Anyway...
not only did He/She rebuild said nest in precisely the same place within the 9 hours it took for Hubby to go to work and back but He/She has also been digging for grubs 'n slugs 'n stuff in our neatly manicured garden, resulting in bits of ornamental bark bits being kicked carelessly all over the paving.

But did he (Hubby, that is) take his shotgun to the birdie? Not at all... and here's why:

I'm gonna be a grandma!!!
;-)

get the picture

I'm on a training course the whole week. Information overload is causing evening-brain-shutdown-syndrome. Only 2 days done. 3 more to go. I don't think my head can fit any more in; I'm hoping this doesn't result in a painful and extremely messy brain explosion.

In the absence of imaginative and witty thoughts, here are some random photos recently taken...

Apple Blossoms... sort of...
This tree in our garden gets fruit which smell just like apples and look vaguely similar but in miniature size. The don't taste like apples though, yech! It looked really pretty last weekend when it was in full bloom, so I'm quite happy for it to be an ornamental fruit tree.


This here is one ecstatically surprised Cinderella after Hubby decided it was actually a good idea that she has her own transport and went and hunted down a used bike to replace the stolen scooter. Happy doesn't even begin to describe how pleased she was.
In fact, she was so pleased she made me this:

Thanks to my pal Reluctant Nomad
for providing the recipe - it is indeed The Best Carrot CakeRecipe In The World

Good Monday?!!

It's Monday and I'm at home while everyone else is working. HaHa! I'm wondering if there's some way I can swing it so I can take every Monday off.
I've nothing but uninterrupted time ahead of me today, a most precious commodity.
So instead of sitting here waffling about nonsense 'cos I really don't have any witty and humourous anecdotes at my fingertips right now, I'll leave you with a photo of one of the Daffodils that are brightening up our garden at the moment. I can't show you the rest of the garden because the grass is a little on the unruly side but the ground is so wet that mowing the lawn is pretty much a no-go. At least until the pop-pop-popping of air bubbles from the mud beneath stops which will indicate it's safe to step onto said lawn without sinking ankle-deep in it.

As promised...

Photos of our high-tech Christmas tree...

LIGHTS IN THE DARK

LOOKING UP THE ANGEL'S SKIRT

PSYCHEDELIC TREE

a beach of a day

My sister was here for the weekend from London; we took her to the beach yesterday.


I suspect she'll enjoy going to the beach a bit more when she goes home to SA for Christmas in a few weeks.


It was about 6 degrees outside. But if we thought we were cold, I can only imagine the eejits who were kiteboarding in that weather!

It may be only mad dogs and Englishmen who go out in the midday sun, but who, other than Irishmen, would be out doing water sports in the middle of Winter?!