HX Report
Irishman in the Middle East
Limerick
Posted on May 29, 2016
The city of Limerick lies on the Shannon & Abbey Rivers in Ireland’s south-west, 12 miles from HX, give or take. It dates from Viking days, circa 800 AD, although there were older settlements in the locality. The architecture is primarily Georgian, with many buildings built from red brick and containing impressive Georgian-style doorways. The population is approximately 100,000, making it the Nr 3 city in Ireland. Sport is huge; with hurling, soccer and rugby (in particular) to the fore. Read More
Weekly Photo Challenge – Spare
Posted on May 28, 2016
Lots of HX locals are heading to the Lough Gur lakefront at present trying to capture photos of the (allegedly) 5 new cygnets born to the pair of resident swans last week. MB was in the locality yesterday with canon-in-hand, not exactly at the lakefront area – but nearby, when he spotted a swan swimming slowly by with – not 5 – but 8 cygnets in tow. MB is not sure if this swan is a totally different one from those at the lakefront area (swans are territorial and tend to stay in their own locality), or it is one of the lakefront swans who has managed to pick up a few spares in recent days!
Swan & Cygnets @ Lough Gur. 27 May 2016
Weekly Photo Challenge – Jubilant
Posted on May 22, 2016
The HX soccer club won the local Cup Final on Friday night, completing a season League & Cup double. Needless to say, they were jubilant!
The strange tale of the Irish Cherokee Indian & the lady with rebel blood
Posted on May 12, 2016
Strange incidents and coincidences ofttimes happen to MB. There he was doing almost nothing some few months back, eating organic chocolate or some such, when he received an interesting message on one of his blog posts. Read More
Weekly Photo Challenge – Earth
Posted on May 6, 2016
Earth.
MB took this shot of the base of a tree in a spice plantation in Goa, India in early 2015. He has no memory of what the tree was called or the spice it produced. Neither does he remember who owns the foot & sandal that also appears in the shot. Sometimes life doesn’t provide all the answers.
A Suitable Girl
Posted on May 6, 2016
MB is very often a first port of call when life’s winds are howling. And so it came to pass again in recent days, when MB received the following email from a young Saudi friend:
Bealtaine
Posted on May 1, 2016
01 May is associated with Irish (Celtic) festival of Bealtaine (pronounced approximately – b-yowl-tin-a). It’s a celebration of the coming Summer season and a hoping for a good harvest from the fields some months hence. It’s also a time when you must be careful of the dastardly activities of the fairies, who are up to no good at this time. You must take measures to protect your home, your children and your herd of cows, lest they come to some harm.
From a W.B. Yeats poem:
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand.
For the world’s more full of weeping
than you can understand.
So be careful of the pishogues tonight, throw a few primrose flowers inside your front & back doors to keep the bad fairies out, drive your herd of cows between two fires to keep the milk pure and prevent the cows milk drying up completely. But only on this night.
Read more of the Bealtaine festival on the Irish Archaeology blog site: http://irisharchaeology.ie/2011/05/mayday-and-bealtaine/
Be careful out there!
Some Spring flowers from MB’s trip home last week:
HX Report 