Month: November 2016

Seasons and horses

This post was written in May 2015, but something new came up, and the post was left in draft until I found it this week, and rewrote it, and added some new pictures to fit the season. The opening photograph was taken in Kilmokea Country Manor House, the best place for event photography around here.

The real horses belong to Kildalton Agricultural college. The college offers 18 courses, including Farm Management, Horsemanship, and my favorite Plant Identification & Use. I took the pictures in spring – the time of rejuvenation of life.

This Wisteria grows in beautiful College park.

I am not sure if the rapeseed field is a college property, but it lays right across the road.

Short Irish summer is not worth to mention 🙂

You wouldn’t notice a difference between July and October anyway 🙂

This horse is posing in front of a cottage in Connemara in the end of October.

These two snack on hay in the paddock at the foot of Slievenamon mountain in December.

The last leaves are still hanging on.

Sometimes an occasional sun beam breaks through the fog…

… but ‘Winter turns all the Summer’s love to grey… Winter takes what the Summer had to say’…

Seasons come and go.

I took pictures of a semi-wild horse in winter. These are less fortunate – hairy horses with narrow eyes live outdoors most of the year.

This post is supposed to be about horses, as the title says, but you know how it is with the internet – many titles are misleading, and many contents cannot be trusted.

The truth is that there are other farm animals grazing on the mountain slopes. Like cows. Some of them spend nights under the roof in a warm shed, but some stay outdoors for almost a year. The ‘wild’ cows grow a coat to stay warm.

These cows live at the foot of the Comeragh mountains in Clonmel, and walk up and down the steep slope every day.

There are also sheep in the mountains, white dots. They look so very lonely in this picture, taken in the middle of February.

I used to hike for hours, but I have never seen different kinds of animals fight with each other. I mean, I have never seen a horse kick a sheep, or a cow attack a deer, or a sheep give chase to a rabbit. If it is not food, they let it be.

I wish all of us were wise enough to control our tendencies towards hate and aggression; towards being irritable, demanding and petulant. I wish we didn’t waste our time on being a smaller individual than we have the potential to be.

I also wish that all political leaders demonstrate the best in judgment as they govern their countries, and never encourage their people to raise a hand against another human being, regardless of their race, political views, or anything else.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! xx

Blaa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

A blaa /blæ/ is a doughy, white bread bun (roll) speciality; particularly associated with Waterford, Ireland... 12,000 blaas are sold each day.

There are four bakeries making blaas, two of them in Waterford city – Hickey’s Bakery, and M & D Bakery. The Waterford blaa has been around three hundred years, since the Huguenot settlers introduced this simple bread to the locals. Never cut a blaa with a knife! It has to be torn apart by hand and eaten with butter or any filling of your choice, like rashers or chicken filet.

A student who preferred to stay anonymous, kindly gave me permission to take a picture of his blaa and rashers.

Blaa has a very special place in the heart of Waterford people.

The graffiti in my opening photograph is not a blaa advertisement though. The other side of the river Suir in Waterford – Ferrybank – mostly belongs to County Kilkenny, and traditionally, some Kilkenny people risking their lives leave teasing graffiti on The Flour Mills or on the high vertical cliff behind the railway station to annoy Waterford folks.

The Flour Mills, as they look in my photograph from 2015, don’t exist anymore. This summer the grain silos were taken down first, and the derelict buildings followed.

There are a few more photographs of the Mills taken in November 2015.

Tall Ship Festival 2005. Russian four-masted barque Kruzenshtern with the Flour Mills in background. Happy days.

The Mills were always there, ruining pictures 🙂

The nine storey building constructed in 1905 and listed in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage as ‘an imposing building of national importance’, has been preserved.

The rest of the mill will have to go.

There is another ghost on the other side of the river in Waterford City – the Ferrybank Shopping Centre on Kilkenny/Waterford border, that was completed in 2008 and has never opened. Its cost is € 100M.

ferrybank

And one more ghost is hidden behind the Joe Caslin’s mental health artwork – abandoned Ard Rí hotel.

Ta-da! This picture was taken in 2005 with Ard Rí already abandoned five years prior.

But the ghosts are not easy to rid off. Especially in the internet. There still is a booking page for Ard Rí! 🙂

Hope this beautiful Sumac that grows in Ferrybank brightens the story of this less fortunate suburb of Waterford city.

And here is my latest picture of Ferrybank on the other side of the river Suir – with the Supermoon shining through the clouds 🙂 I didn’t have enough enthusiasm to camp by the river and wait for the clouds to clear away.

Thank you for walking around Ferrybank with me! I link this post to Milford Street , Equinoxio and Geezer 94 – the blogs that are often showcasing history and old buildings. Please visit and follow.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Waterford Walls 2016

It is too late to write about this festival, but I wasn’t in the country in August and took my pictures only last week. An artist from Toronto created a mural for this festival, and I am happy to mention one of my favorite blogs Graffiti Lux and Murals that belongs to amazing Resa from Canada. If you want to see breathtaking street art, please visit and follow her blog.

The first two images are the most impressive. Smug One, a Glasgow based artist, created these two photo-realistic works just a block from each other.

Very detailed artwork by AOW, Ireland.

Work by ESTR, Ireland

Blue Tit by Danleo, Ireland, is about to snatch a student 🙂

More works in the New Street Park. I am pretty sure the Fox is created by Brendan Butler, but have no clue who is the author of that Happy Girl mural. Lisa Murphy, may be? Her work was in this exact spot last year.

This is one of my favorite works by Serbian artist Vunik.

Two fantastic murals by London-based artist Louis Masai are dedicated to preservation of wild life. Hammer sharks in Barrack street…

… and Elephants in Barker street.

Around the corner, there is a dreamy work of Kathrina Rupit (KINMX) from Mexico.

Next to it is a surreal piece created by Jerry Rugg (Birdo) from Toronto, Canada (sorry for the obstructed image!).

This work of Joe Caslin is dedicated to mental health. You can see it in the previous image, far in background, because it is on the other side of the river. I shared two of Joe Caslin’s works in my blog last year. In my next blog I will tell you what is hiding under the mural 🙂

I am sorry I didn’t share all the murals scattered around the city centre. There are more, and they are all beautiful. Murals often cover unattractive walls, but some buildings just have to go. We will talk about such buildings in my next blog 🙂

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kennedy Arboretum, Co Wexford

John Kennedy Arboretum in Co Wexford dedicated to the memory of the 35th president of the United States was opened in 1968 just a couple of miles from Kennedy ancestral home I recently wrote about in my blog Irish Ancestry.

For those who plan a visit – the map you will get with your ticket looks confusing in the beginning, but as soon as you figure out where you are, you won’t have any problems. To help with that, here is my edited version 🙂 Ignore the Visitor Centre drawing because it is in the wrong place. Maple Walk takes you to the lake; the other path is for those who don’t mind walking a little longer. There are no boring walks, each of them is amazing in their own way. SHELTER on your map means a roof, and one of them has a toilet block. If you want to drive to the viewing point on Sliabh Coillte ( which I suppose has a free access) don’t take the right turn as my arrow points, but keep driving and take the first left turn, and drive until you reach the summit. I was very restricted in time and didn’t make it to the summit. I have been there before – you have beautiful countryside at your feet, and you can also see the bird’s view of the Arboretum and Kennedy Homestead.

The empty green areas are not empty at all – there are many single trees and other plants. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed being there.

Kennedy Arboretum with Sliabh Coillte in background.

You can also take a ride.

There are some 4500 species and cultivars of trees, shrubs and climbing plants in Arboretum, to compare with less than 30 native tree species. Since I wasn’t commissioned to illustrate the variety and range of this collection, I just enjoyed myself photographing everything I found amusing 🙂 Like those red Fly mushrooms in my opening photograph – Amanita muscaria. In the ancient times people would dry them and mix with milk to kill the flies. Fly mushrooms definitely attract insects, but I am not so sure about the killing part. I think that insects just drowned in milk 🙂

More fungi.

Maple Walk. We have a mild autumn this year, and the leaves haven’t turned yet except for some maple trees.

Maple walk takes you to the lake (I didn’t take any pictures of it).

Raining. I stood under a Beech tree for a minute.

Wild Fuchsia is beautiful throughout the year.

I am walking from one path to another in spite of the drizzle.

I spotted a Quince flower deep in the bush.

Quinces are decorative and have edible fruit.

Green Quince is too hard for birds to eat, but they snack on the seeds.

There is quite a variety of Quince cultivars in the Arboretum.

Hawthorn walk is one of my favorites. Some fruit are as big as a crab apple.

This old Hawthorn tree with the crooked branches could host a Wexford fairy – I have recently written about another fairy that lives in County Waterford 🙂

I don’t know what these lifeless Cypress trees used to host. Their silver-white trunks glow in the dark, and strong conifer fragrance fills the air.

Western red cedar, or Thuja, might host a dragon 🙂

Beech tree hosts a squirrel.

It is getting dark. I don’t trust the map and walk out of the forest plot to check on the Sliabh Coillte hill. It is a very helpful landmark.

One more hour until the Arboretum will close. Many families and dog walkers are still there, but I have to leave.

I link this post to the lovely blogs I follow – Derrick Knight and The garden Impressionists, both sharing beautiful photographs of gorgeous gardens.

Twenty two countries each sent gifts of trees and shrubs that represent their country to the Arboretum. It is a delightful place to visit in any season.

Memorial fountain made of a single block of Wicklow granite, has the words of President Kennedy engraved on it:

‘Ask not what your country can do for you… ask what you can do for your country.’

Have a wonderful weekend!