THE REST
Otherwise known as Miscellaneous
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BLACK & WHITE
I recently purchased a cluster of picture frames to revamp some of the walls at home. A small gallery wall in the hall is planned and given the white walls and white frames I thought some monochrome shots would be in order. That led me to compare some shots I’d taken over the years in both colour and black & white. It’s interesting how the mood of the photo changes when it’s converted to B&W. Take a look at this collection and see which you prefer.
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MEANWHILE…#2
This is what I’m getting up to lately… Reading: I’m reading two books at the moment. The first a thriller I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes. The second a very interesting book called Quiet by Susan Cain. Both are on my #BigBookChallenge list. Watching: As well as the usual gogglebox fodder I’ve been watching Childhood’s End, an adaptation of an Arthur C Clarke novel written in the 1950s. Listening To: Believe it or not ABBA! I heard an interview on the radio a couple of weeks ago that said the type of music you listen to can help kickstart your day…I’ll keep you posted. Making: At the moment I’m buying picture frames and distributing them around the house. It’s part of a clean sweep to change the look of the place and brighten things up for the summer. They’re appearing on walls but…
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GALWAY: A WEEKEND TRIP (Part 2)
In Galway: A Weekend Trip (Part 1) I took you through the food and accommodation highlights of our recent weekend trip to Galway. In this instalment, I want to share some photographs of the first leg of our tour of the Wild Atlantic Way. The Lonely Planet™ describes the route as “The ‘Wild Atlantic Way’ driving route neatly packages the abundant attractions of Ireland’s west coast, from West Cork to Donegal. The well-signed, easy-to-navigate route includes 157 ‘Discovery Points’, where drivers can stop and learn more about the must-sees and lesser-known diversions of this fascinating area”. It’s 2500 km of coastline and apparently one of the longest coastal routes in the world. Our plan is to take in chunks of the way over a period of time in a weekend or one-day bites. In truth, we’ve travelled along much of the…
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GALWAY: A WEEKEND TRIP (Part 1)
A couple of weeks ago The Ban Chéile* and I went to Galway for a three-night weekend in the Ardilaun Hotel. We hadn’t been away for a weekend in ages and high on the agenda was a lot of rest, food and booze. It proved to be just the right antidote to the stressful work life we both have and went a long way toward recharging our batteries. The Ardilaun Hotel is 3km from Galway City itself and set right smack in the middle a number of well-established housing estates. Set back in its own grounds it lives up to its 4-star rating. The room was comfortable if a bit dated and the view from our room was out across a small fountain to a well-kept garden. The best feature of the Ardilaun all told was the…
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THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT DASHA & KLAUS
Paparali (www.paparali.com) wrote a couple of posts profiling her “fur babies” and so I thought why not do the same for my canine companions, Dasha & Klaus. Dasha & Klaus are littermates (two from a set of triplets) born on 11th November 2013 in Kells in Co Meath – where the famous Book of Kells comes from. They’re a cross between a chihuahua mother and a kaninchen dachshund father. Kaninchen dachshunds are the smallest variety of the breed and the word “kaninchen’ in German means “little rabbit’. They were an “accident” when one of the kaninchen dachshund dogs used for breeding took a secret shine to the breeders family pet chihuahua (or she took a shine to him!). We called the female Dasha because the woman who bred them was Russian and that was the most popular…
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VELLICHOR
The website World Wide Words gives credit to the creation of this recently coined word to John Koenig on his website The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. Koenig describes Vellichor as meaning – the strange wistfulness of used bookstores, which are somehow infused with the passage of time — filled with thousands of old books you’ll never have time to read, each of which is itself locked in its own era, bound and dated and papered over like an old room the author abandoned years ago, a hidden annex littered with thoughts left just as they were on the day they were captured. It’s a very powerful sense memory for me because I invested thousands of hours in my youth and beyond, patrolling the aisles of old bookstores, rummaging through musty tomes liberally sprinkled with dust in search…
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MEANWHILE…#1
This is what I’m getting up to lately… Reading: The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. I’m a huge Connolly fan and think the characters that populate his Charlie Parker novels are amazing. This novel is more fantasy/fable type than supernatural crime drama like his other books. Just started it, but already hooked. Watching: Madame Secretary, Elementary, Blue Bloods but I’m trying out South of Hell. The possessed woman uses her inner demon to perform exorcisms. A cast of unknowns as far as I’m concerned shows some promise but the jury’s still out. Listening To: James Taylor’s new album “Before This World”. Nine out of the thirteen tracks are worth a spin. ‘Far Afghanistan’ and a haunting version of ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’ are the stand-out songs. Taylor sounds as good as ever and the sleeve notes certainly give context…
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DUBLIN MADE ME…
Grey brick upon brick, Declamatory bronze On sombre pedestals – O’Connell, Grattan, Moore – And the brewery tugs and the swans On the balustraded stream And the bare bones of a fanlight Over a hungry door And the air soft on the cheek And porter running from the taps With a head of yellow cream And Nelson on his pillar Watching his world collapse. Dublin by Louis MacNeice I’m not really the sort of person who raves about his city or country. Largely because to a certain extent I believe where you’re born is pretty random when you think of all the decisions your parents made that led to the happenstance that dictated where your mother was when you were born. An example would be the fact that my parents planned to emigrate to the UK during…
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CHARLES FORT
How often do you get the chance to have a day out with your Grown Up Children – especially when there are no grandchildren involved? Not too often in our case and so we were delighted when last month, The Ban Chéile* and I teamed up with GUC No. 4 and No. 6 for a trip to Charles Fort near Kinsale in County Cork. It’s less than an hours drive from the country place and we just wanted a couple of hours out in the sunshine doing what tourists do. Charles Fort proved to be a great idea and since we were all armed with cameras (No. 6 is an avid photographer and blogger – paparali.com) it turned into a bit of a “shoot out” with lots of lighthearted photos of both the fantastic fort and the…
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CHIWEENIES……THE MOVIE?
Yep I think I’ve finally cracked 🙂
