Mid Summers Eve/Summer Solstice
Posted on June 20, 2016
Good luck to all who will travel to the Grange Stone Circle tomorrow morning – before sunrise – back in MB’s Irish HX homeland. And well done to those who attended this morning – the actual true Solstice morning of 2016, today 20 June being the longest (daylight) day of the 2016 year. Read More
Weekly Photo Challenge – Curve
Posted on June 17, 2016
MB will go anywhere to get the shot. He will wrestle with alligators, tussle with whales, handcuff lightning, throw thunder in jail, murder a rock, injure a stone, hospitalise a brick, or make medicine sick – just to get the shot.
This week he is in a cave in the middle of a glacier high up the French Alps.
Take the small vintage train from the ski-resort village of Chamonix up through the forested mountains to the glacier at Montenvers, approx 2,000m above sea level. The cunning French have carved some caves into the glacier to encourage tourists to hand over many euros to use the train, drink the vino and eat the bread & cheese, while all the time giving the impression that they only want you to ‘experience’ the glacier.
Anyway, here is one of MB’s shots from inside the (curved) cave:
Inside the glacier at Montenvers, Chamonix, France
Ireland Trip Photos
Posted on June 10, 2016
MB was back amongst his own two weeks back and was shooting anything that moved. He gives you some random shots from his HX locality:
Football
Posted on June 9, 2016
May the force be with you. The FIFA force that is. Or the UEFA force for the coming weeks. Read More
Geneva
Posted on June 4, 2016
MB had to stop in Geneva for two days on his way back to the Middle East last week, and took the opportunity to take a few shots of the famous Geneva fountain, which was opposite MB’s hotel.
Geneva (Switzerland) is in the French-speaking area of Switzerland, right on the French border, and is located where the Rhone River enters lake Geneva. The city has a population of approximately 200,000 and is famous as a financial centre & for its watch-making industry, in addition to being the location for a number of UN organisations & the Red Cross. It also hosts the world famous Hadron Nuclear Particle Collider which is located nearby at a depth of 175M, extending under the French/Swiss border.
Everything in Geneva is expensive, and property prices are in the stratosphere. The airport includes a shop where one can purchase Rolex watches and another where one can buy Leica cameras; which both, in themselves, tell a story of the city and its visitor profile.
Some pics of the fountain & surrounding area:
Weekly Photo Challenge – Numbers
Posted on June 3, 2016
MB must mention that this golf ball, lying in the Dubai Emirates GC rough, is not MBs. You would generally find MB’s ball slap bang in the middle of the fairway, minimum 250 yards from the T-box!
Not MB’s golf ball
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 