Well trodden paths... and only memories remain...

26th April 2011

I love to walk along the well trodden paths that I have walked for most of my life...

I think of all the loved ones who have walked along this path with me through the years...

My brother Paul, died on Easter Monday afternoon in an accident on his farm in Brittany, he leaves behind his wife and two small daughters, his mum, his sisters and brother in laws...  I am devastated.  He was just too young at only 43 and so full of life, energy and plans...  Paul lived his life as most of us only hope to do he was actually living out his hopes and dreams and not waiting for tomorrow...   He believed that we could do anything if we put our minds to it...  If something went wrong it was just a matter of redoing it until it came right...   I didn't get to see him often as he was living in France and I am in Northern Ireland but I did see him for a day in March...  I just wish it could have been for longer but I had to return for a hospital appointment and now there is no more time...  I just always thought there would be more time and more opportunities but life can be so very short...  I don't understand why this has happened...  My mind struggles to accept he is gone...  Sleep evades me...

Closeup Lichen...

25 April 2011

Easter Monday...

Macro Monday...  and The Power of Observation: Life in a Tiny Ecosystem...

I couldn't resist a few more closeup photos of lichen...

I just find something magical about lichens...

I really must look for a book that shows what the different varieties are...

The thorns on the hawthorne tree... I took these photographs before the leaves came out...

These photographs were taken while walking across the fields on Cavehill...

These gave a frosty look to the photo even though it was warm sunny morning...

They are like a forest within a forest...

Among the mass of silvery toned lichen was a little microcosm of yellow...

Young Love...

24 April 2011

Happy Easter Everyone...

For Straight out of the Camera this week I have chosen a photograph that I took while walking at Crawfordsburn Country Park.  

It was such a beautiful day and I saw this young couple sitting on the rocks looking out to sea.  They looked very peaceful together and I loved that they were so colour coordinated with her hair the same shade as his tee shirt...

I thought about cropping this image a little but I really liked that they were a small part of a larger vista.

Red Dog...

20 April 2011

For Watery Wednesday a series of photographs of a Red Dog that I photographed while walking at Crawfordsburn Country Park...  It was one of the first truly warm days we have had this Spring...

Red Dog's owner threw a ball into the sea...

Red Dog obviously loves swimming and is a very powerful doggy paddler...  

The ball comes into sight...

Red Dog is getting closer...

Success... Red Dog gets the ball and heads back for the beach...

Racing out of the surf towards the beach gripping his tennis ball...

Dripping wet and heading excitedly for his owner...  What a beautiful dog... 

Jelena and Diane...

Monday 18 April 2011

Macro Monday...  I thought that this week I would do a follow up on my Yellow Witch Hazel post...

Jelena

This orange blossomed Hamamelis was the first witch hazel that I bought 12 years ago.  

It is truly beautiful... but not perfumed...  

It has gorgeous orange blossoms in Winter...

and its foliage takes on an orange Autumn colour

The shrub has grown well in the acidic conditions of our garden

in a shady border beside the neighbours garage...

The blossoms glow in the early morning sunshine...

like tiny bright starbursts against the dark ivy and camelia backdrop...

Diane

Diane is the red witch hazel and has smaller spidery blossoms...

it is a beautiful and very dainty looking shrub...

but not as showy as the yellow or orange witch hazels... unfortunately, I planted this one quite close to the scented Pallida in my front garden so it gets a little overshone by the showier larger Pallida blossom.

Shepherd on the Road

Sunday 17th April 2011

For SOOC Sunday this week... another of the wonderful sculptures we have in Belfast...

Photos that I took of the life size bronze scultptures of a Shepherd and his small flock of 6 sheep...

A wonderful sculpture called Sheep on the Road ...

by Deborah Brown...

It does seem strange to have a shepherd and sheep wandering past the Waterfront Hall.

Some of the sheep have a look of being slightly different breeds than others

The texture of the sheep gives a look of woolly fleece...

In July 2010 The Shepherd was given some knitted garments to wear as part of Craft Month

I really like the sheep...

Do You Think I'm Coot?

Wednesday 13th April 2011

Watery Wednesday...

The coot is a cousin of the beautiful moorhen...

It is such an elegant bird... with its beautiful black plumage and pure white beak...

I really enjoyed photographing the coot at the upper reservoir at the Waterworks in North Belfast...

Swimming near the dead bullrushes...

I tried to get a closeup of the coot... 

although its plumage is black it looks silvery grey in the sunlight...

I love this photo of the coot with the ripples surrounding it...

After paddling around in the bulrushes for a while...

It headed off to meet a couple of is friends...

And I definitely think the coot is more than a little cute...

Blackthorn Blossom...

11 April 2011

For Macro Monday this week I have a series of photographs that I took of the delicate white blossom  swathing the elegant thorny dark barked Blackthorn...

For Christmas Neil bought me a Sigma 70-300mm lens for my new DSLR camera...

I tried it out once and found that virtually none of the photos came out without being very blurry.  I have diabetes and have a bit of handshake and this was more noticeable using this lens.  I do have a tripod but for the type of snapping I like to do it isn't really for me...

So I decided it was time after all these months to give this lens a fair chance...  

So I took it out for a walk...

I have always loved this beautiful blossom.  I like that it comes out before the leaves and the thorny twigs are covered in a mass of stunning white blossom.  

In Autumn the sloes can be picked to make sloe gin a rather enjoyable beverage on a cold winter night.

Once (when I was a child) I picked some blackthorn to bring into the house and my mother shooed me and my blackthorn out of the door before we had even crossed the threshold...  Considered to be very unlucky to bring Blackthorn blossom into the house... odd really, as the wood is often used for walking sticks...  

Blackthorn has very long elegant and sharp thorns...  which if you get scratched by them the wound will often go septic...  it was used in past times tipped with poison as a way of getting rid of enemies...

I have a couple of books about trees and the mythology surrounding them.  One of my favourite is The Wisdom of Trees by Jane Gifford.  The other I refer to often is Irish Trees - Myths, Legends & Folklore by Niall Mac Coitir.  Both of these are packed with fascinating information about the Blackthorn.  The Blackthorn like the Hawthorn is considered to be a fairy tree...  It is a tree that has connotations with the practice of black magic.  

The blossom is small and delicate ...  with gorgeous long stamens...

The beautiful blossom has often been used to describe feminine beauty...

"My love is like the flower on the dark blackthorn"