Year: 2015

Ghosts and mysteries

Many years ago I and my young daughter were looking for a place to rent. I was in the middle of my postgraduate studies and she was about to start her second year in the Mittelschule. After a long, fruitless search, we found that woman who gave us the keys of her late ex-husband’s apartment and asked for a very modest rent. The man died in September, and we got the keys the following July. The apartment was stripped almost empty, but if we really needed anything, we could ship some stuff from our own home, so I agreed and we moved in.

The worst piece of furniture was an old bed. I timidly inquired whether the old man died in there, but was told that it happened in the next room and his bed was dumped. Needless to say, we made that room a non-living zone.

The said bed didn’t look like the one in the picture, but it was still very old, so I though I would use this image to create some suspense, since the story is actually scary and difficult to believe.

That first night nothing happened – or so I think. I arranged for a children’s bed to be delivered, and until then my daughter and I shared the old wreck. It was our second night in the place. My daughter was already asleep when I switched off the light and joined her. Trying to be quiet, I covered myself with a woolen spread and the same second I heard distinct heavy footsteps coming from the kitchen. I stopped breathing. The footsteps walked into the room and my hair stood on end. I was waiting, breathless – I would fight hard to protect my daughter. The footsteps never stopped and went straight to the next room. I didn’t move. After a minute or so the footsteps made it back and disappeared in the kitchen exactly the same way they came. Here is the path.

I was listening for the door to unlock, but there was no sound. Being completely shattered I fell asleep.

The following day was a torture. I already realized that my visitor didn’t belong to this world, but this realization didn’t give me a clue how to stop him from coming. Besides, I was not sure he wouldn’t venture to our bed to say hello one night. I discussed the situation with my friend, and she suggested lighting a candle in church. The candle didn’t help.

For the rest of the summer, every single night he was there shortly before midnight. I was so grateful that my daughter was always sound asleep by that time. I have never looked at him – I was not sure if he liked attention.

But I did talk to him – after a month or so. “For God’s sake, I would tell him in a hushed voice, why are you walking here instead of resting in peace? You are a grown up man, shame on you! Don’t you know I have a 8 year old child here, and you can scare her! What are you looking for here? Just let me know and I will take to your grave whatever stuff you need.”

He kept coming until his one year anniversary, and I kept giving out to him for that. Then he just stopped coming, and that was it.

Some mysteries can be explained though, like the ones in the books of Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle

These pictures were taken in the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London, England. It opened in 1990 and is situated in Baker Street, bearing the number 221 B, as per books, although it lies between numbers 237 and 241. The Georgian town house was formerly used as a boarding house from 1860 to 1936, which covers the period of 1881 to 1904 when Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson were reported to have resided there as tenants of Mrs Hudson. The museum is run by the Sherlock Holmes Society of England, a non-profit organisation. I guess they actually have some profit since the tickets are overpriced, but it is not that I am complaining – the museum was a #1 item on my London list.

This is the monster from The Hound of the Baskervilles.

The Red-Headed League

A criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty

I read all the Sherlock Holmes books when I was a young teenager. People read a lot at that time. Not that I am a hardcore Sherlock fan, but I enjoyed reading the novels way before I saw my first movie: for that, I consider myself lucky. And I did want to visit the museum because I love the idea of the monuments and museums dedicated to the fictional characters.

It is why the reviews in the Trip Adviser upset me. Especially one like this:

“I think it’s interesting if you’re a big fan and know all the stories. If you’re not (like me) you’ll learn nothing.”

For Goodness sake! Sorry you learned nothing, man.

But there was one review that I loved. A very long one, and I want to quote a part of it here, because I couldn’t say it better myself:

“…I’m sorry that you probably live in a world where people insist that Sherlock Holmes is not real. I invite you to live in my world instead, my friend. Because in my world, people can fall from waterfalls and 15 story buildings and live to solve crime another day. In my world empty hearses are not creepy precursors to post apocalyptic zombie films. In my world one landlord can be both Mrs. Hudson, AND Mrs. Turner, because the hell with continuity! The difference between fiction and real life is that fiction has to make sense, and when did Sherlock Holmes ever make sense? Never! If that’s not confirmation, I don’t know what is.

Anyway, they’ll try to tell you this is a “museum”, but whatever. You know that the great detective and his dear friend Doctor Watson have just stepped out on a consultation at Scotland Yard. And don’t you ever forget it.”

Bless you, young lady.

I want to share some soundtracks to the different Sherlock Holmes movies. Which of the soundtracks is your favorite?

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984–1985), Granada Television, starred Jeremy Brett and David Burke/Edward Hardwicke. Composer Patrick Gowers.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1979-1986), Lenfilm, starred Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin. Composer Vladimir Dashkevich.

BBC Sherlock (TV series) 2010. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. Composers David Arnold and Michael Price. This is actually a cover, but I think it is brilliant – Sherlock Medley on Violin – Taryn Harbridge

And this one is from the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes movie, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Composer Hans Zimmer

The living room and all the familiar items are on display – you can sit in the chairs, put on the hats and even play the violin if you wish.

The maid is real.

If you don’t mind wax figures, Madame Tussauds museum is some 10 minutes walk from here.

And you know what? There are people who still write to the famous Detective. Blessed readers – I am sure that most of them are readers.

So, that’s the story. Some mysteries still remain unsolved…

The Rocky Road to Dublin by The Dubliners – this song was used in the Sherlock movie.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Saltee Islands – treasure bigger than money -part 2

(Click on the photographs to enlarge them)

First three hours were gone in a blink. It is the magic of Puffins. I was on my way to the Cat Cliff on the Southern end of the island – the land of the Northern Gannets.

Great Saltee island ascends from 3-5m high shore on the mainland side to 20-30m high cliffs on its south-eastern side. The Southern Summit rises to an altitude of 58m.

I was walking along a stone wall, and after it ended the path took steep up through the waist-high ferns.

On the summit I made a stop to take a picture. It was still foggy.

A Great black backed gull was standing on a rock. I came closer. It is a large bird, a predator attacking and killing even the far larger animals and birds, and I didn’t want to take a risk. Yet, I didn’t notice the chicks until they ran and hid themselves, and only then I knew I was in trouble. The last thing I needed was to be struck by a gull! I turned back and walked away as fast as I could without running in panic, while the gull’s partner repeatedly flew over my head diving low enough to touch my hair. With its wingspan of 150-170cm the attacking gull was as good as a small aircraft.

I caught up with the other photographers and we headed to the Cat Cliff barely visible in the mist.

There was another gull – a male with no chicks around ( we will see them later).

To get to the Cat Cliff takes an effort, but it was a fun climb because of the many species of the sea birds and their young we met on our way. Look at these Razorbills with their soft fluffy bellies.

A young Common shag looks from under the rock…

…and makes a careful step with his clumsy webbed foot.

An adult bird is different, all shiny and beautiful.

This is the place. A small colony of Gannets are settled on the left from the Cat Cliff. We don’t go there – it is a steep cliff and very little room for a tripod.

This is the Cat Cliff itself.

I sat there enjoying the sight, and took this panorama. Unfortunately there is no sky because of the thick fog.

We came very close to the nesting birds, but they didn’t mind. They have lived a long life, and have seen it all…

In my previous posts, there are more facts and more different photographs. If you are interested, you can go back and read these post – I have reblogged them.

Here you can listen to the gannet call. Multiply it by couple of thousand 🙂

The sky is crawling with Gannets.

After landing the birds perform a “dance”.

Sometimes they bring some weeds.

Under every rock there is a chick. I have no idea what bird they belong to.

This one looks different.

And finally I see them – the chicks of the Great black backed gull I photographed in the flight. Their mother is standing next to them and looking at me with the menacing red eye. They are so tiny and innocent, but the fact is that three more killers will join the party soon. Sorry for the Puffins…

Look at this tiny wing 🙂

Who can find the chicks in this photograph in 10 seconds? 🙂

On the way back the sky cleared for a few minutes and I took another picture of the island.

We also got to see the seals.

The boat was coming in an hour. I started getting nervous. This photograph of a tiny rock that stuck between the big rocks forever shows exactly how I felt.

We went down to the Boulder Beach and sat there looking in the mist. Our motorboats finally came, the inflatable boats took us six at a time on board, and off we went again. Lucky me. The wind was not that strong, and I had never left the deck this time, all soaked in seawater but perfectly well and happy.

Thank you for reading about my adventures!

Have a great weekend!

Saltee Islands – treasure bigger than money -part 1

“All people young and old, are welcome to come, see and enjoy the islands, and leave them as they found them for the unborn generations to come see and enjoy.” – Michael the First

Even after I shared two posts on my Saltee experiences I still have a lot to say. I love this place.

When we arrived to Kilmore Quay to catch our motor boat, the sea looked rough. In the days of sail, the area around the Islands was known as “the graveyard of a thousand ships”. I cannot tell that I have a brilliant memory, but this sort of information somehow always gets stuck in my head.

We boarded our boats – twelve in each – and off we went. Not wanting to get soaked in salty wate, I went inside the boat, and it was a grave mistake. The waves were rolling over the boat; a few times the wave hit the bottom of the boat so hard that I though it would break up in pieces. Half way to the island, fighting sea sickness I had to get out, and there I stood another 15 minutes all soaked but unable even to move to make myself comfortable. I barely remember the short trip on the inflatable boat; I was focused on staying conscious. It took me some six hours to completely recover – right before our trip back.

We walked up the steps, passed by the owners’ house and headed to the Puffin place. The island was wrapped in fog.

The cliffs surrounding the first bay near the cave known as the Wherry Hole are the nesting place for Atlantic Puffins.

I am very glad to tell you that there were remarkably more puffins this year than the year before. Knowing that the birds return to their old burrows, I went to check out my buddy who made such a great model for me last year, and there he was – with some more neighbours, possibly his own grown up chicks from the previous years.

Puffins start breeding when they are five years old. They use their pre-breeding years to learn about feeding places, choosing a mate and nest sites.

I went around for some more shots. The fun will start in the afternoon when the puffins go fishing and return with the bunches of the Sand eels in their beaks.

During winter, the beaks and feet of puffins fade in color, and every spring they turn bright orange again in preparation for the breeding season. The beak increases in size as the bird matures.

Here you can listen to a puffin – you will love it 🙂 Puffins usually make noises when sitting in their burrows, and the acoustics are very impressive. I will post the link separately to give a credit to ProjectPuffin : http://projectpuffin.audubon.org/sites/default/files/audio/atpu.wav

In this photograph you can see two cameras set up by the Ornithologists to watch the puffins.

We came a couple of weeks too early: most of the puffins young haven’t hatched yet, but still we got lucky to see some feeding birds that afternoon.

The puffin’s beak can hold up to 60 fish. The raspy tongue holds fish against spines on the palate allowing the puffin to open his beak to catch more fish.

We were lucky with the weather also. It was a dry day, a little bit overcast. It is difficult to take photographs of puffins in the sun because of their black and white plumage.

A few more puffins. The couples stay together all their life. Males are usually slightly larger than females, otherwise there is no difference.

This family is still working on their nest. Puffins lay one egg per year.

Puffins are very clumsy on the ground and in the flight. They are rather falling than landing, with a thud. In this photograph you can see some spots around the puffin. You might think it is some dirt on my lens, but it is the sand in the air. When a puffin is taking off he beats his wings and lifts up all the dust and sand.

A puffin can fly 48 to 55 mph (77 to 88 km/hr) though. The wings can move so fast that they become a blur.

Great Saltee Island is some 2-3 km long. I am leaving the Puffins’ place and start hiking to the Southern part of the island along the well-trodden path.

The islands were used as a base for pirates and smugglers for centuries. The gain of these folks could very well be hidden in the many caves, like the one in the image above, but there are treasures bigger than money, and they are not hidden anywhere.

More from the Saltees in the end of the week. Hope you loved the puffins.

Have a peaceful week!

Golden faces, silver eyes and blue eyelids

And this is another old post from my last year’s trip to Saltee Island. It is a beautiful place, a haven for those looking to escape the big city for a day, for the birdwatchers and photographers. Hope you enjoy this post and the trip to the Gannet kingdom.

Making memories

It started raining. Creeping from one rock to another I was finally done with photographing the puffins willing to pose.

I looked around and saw that my peeps took off and started to disappear one by one in the sea of ferns. So I hurried after them.

Our next destination was Gannet Headland, a nesting ground for the Northern gannets. You cannot see the place before you climb up to the highest point of the island through the high ferns and then walk down to the rugged cliffs. Then you just stop there, speechless.

The gannet is Europe’s largest sea bird with a wingspan up to 2 metres. The adults are white and the young birds are very dark brown. It takes 5 years for them to reach maturity and start breeding. They say there are two thousand couples nesting there on the island. The gannets make their nests from seaweeds…

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Saltee Islands, a place where birds rule

I have been to Saltee Island again. I thought I would re-blog my two old posts before I share some new photographs with you. Never too many puffins for me 🙂 Hope you enjoy the trip!

Making memories

Our Camera Club had an outing to Great Saltee island for bird photography. Before the trip I did a research as I always do, which helps me not miss anything important and regret it afterwards. There is a website with beautiful photographs where you can learn more about the owners of the Islands. I don’t know if anybody ever met them when visiting Great Saltee, but I am sure they are wonderful and hospitable people. They have a shelter behind their home: a kitchen packed with bottled water and basic utensils for those who might get stuck on the island because of the weather, and two beds upstairs. We used the shelter while waiting for the boat to pick us up: the rain shortened our visit by two hours…

If you plan this trip you might find useful the Trip Advisor comments and Captain Declan Bates’ telephone number to arrange the boat and…

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