HX Report
Irishman in the Middle East
Suicide Bombing – Istanbul – Istiklal St
Posted on March 22, 2016
On a day that has witnessed primitive evil savagery in Brussels at the hands of misguided brainwashed low-intellect individuals, MB wants to mention last week’s attack in Istanbul. Read More
Trip Home – The End!
Posted on March 21, 2016
MB is well & truly done with the trip home photos after this one. Read More
Trip Home – Cattlescape
Posted on March 19, 2016
On seeing the cattle in front of the cottage, MB stopped his car in the middle of a quiet country road not far from his own house, hit the handbrake and left the engine running as abandoned his vehicle for a few moments – camera in hand. Read More
Weekly Photo Challenge – Dance
Posted on March 18, 2016
One of the great things about Ireland is the cultural and social life that people enjoy. There are so many sports and other community groups with a huge number of volunteer member & participants that there is always something going on, no matter where you happen to be or the time of year.
During MBs trip home last week, he attended a ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ fundraising night for the local Ballyneety Golf Club, who are attempting to purchase the club on behalf of the members from the current owners. A number of MBs friends were involved in organising the event. If you don’t know the TV show ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ look it up on Youtube.
The night in question did not involve professional dancers, but ordinary members of the local & golf club community, who were willing to practice for some 3 or 4 months before the event with a professional dance choreographer, so they would look half decent on the night. People bought tickets to attend and paid to vote for their favourites, and business groups placed adverts in the Event Programme that was on sale on the night. In all, some 1,000 people attended the event in a Limerick Hotel (the South Court) and the night was a great piece of entertainment and fun. According to MBs sources, some Euro 50,000 was raised.
MB captured ‘loadz’ of pics on the night but he has chosen a sequence of three, to meet Ben’s requirement that the post should “capture the rhythm in the movement”.
Herewith:
SONY DSC
SONY DSC
SONY DSC
Trip Home – Lough Gur
Posted on March 18, 2016
Almost all of MB’s ‘Trip Home’ shots of recent posts were taken around the Lough Gur lake area. But what of the lake itself?
Trip Home – Grange Stone Circle
Posted on March 17, 2016
Happy St Patricks Day!
MB headed out early one morning in the final days of his trip home. He was at the lake not long after sunrise and was at the Grange Stone Circle approx 8am.
The Grange Stone Circle dates from the bronze age, making it approximately some 4,000 to 5,000 years old. Other local monuments date from an earlier age.
Some might consider that it dates from an older age, but exploratory excavations carried out in recent years down to levels below that of the circle, have discovered evidence that would appear to confirm the above approximate age of the structure. There is further exploratory evidence that there has been continuous human habitation in the HX/Grange/Lough Gur area since that time. That’s a lot of time!
The 113 stones were transported, probably on circular shaped logs rolling along the ground, from a nearby rocky hill called Knockderk. In years past, not too many, this hill was used as a quarry to produce stone for civil engineering purposes.
When you point a camera into the sun, the camera will automatically darken the photo. So the below photo seems as if it was shot a little earlier – just for those interested in the mechanics of cameras & photography. One friend commented that he thought the below shot was taken much earlier in the morning.
From the loughgur.com website. For the record – MB does not agree with some of the content:
Composed of 113 standing stones, the Grange Stone Circle is the largest and finest in Ireland. It was built c. 2,200 B.C. after the arrival of the Bronze Age People in Lough Gur. It is a ritual site akin to our churches of the present day and also served as an astronomical calendar. We can only speculate on the rituals which took place here but know that they were of great importance also to people from surrounding settlements. The circle is aligned on the sunrise of the summer solstice. Included in the archaeological finds were thousands of sherds of Beaker pottery. The breaking of Beaker pots against the standing stones seems to have been part of a ceremony. The largest stone is called Rannach Crom Dubh and is over 40 tonnes in weight and was transported over a distance of 3 miles.
Grange Stone Circle, County Limerick, Ireland
Trip Home – Knockadoon
Posted on March 16, 2016
MB has mentioned the hill of Knockadoon in recent posts. In the below photo, the 16th century Bouchiers Castle is visible left of pic. The ruins of a 13th-century castle, called Black Castle, also lie within the treescape of the hill, but it’s not visible on MB’s shot.
Knockadoon contains one of Ireland’s four secret entrances to the land of everlasting youth, or Tír Na Nóg in the Irish Gaelic language (pronounced – teer-na-noog). Each of the four provinces of Ireland contains one entrance, which are known only to a select few Knights of Nóg. HX blog followers can guess whether or not MB is such a Knight, but MB’s not saying. However, MB’s extremely youthful looks for his age may give followers a pointer.
Other than the above, MB is not at liberty to say much more about the sacred historical hill which contains many secrets.
Knockadoon, Lough Gur, County Limerick
Trip Home – New Church
Posted on March 14, 2016
New Church (Teampall Nua – in the Irish Gaelic language).
New Church lies on the HX to Lough Gur road and sits on the edge of the lake shore. There is a great view across the lake to Grange House from the church grounds which MB has featured in some photos included in recent posts.
From the loughgur.com website:
“New Church replaced an older chapel which was used by the Earls of Desmond. The present structure dates from 1679 – a simple rectangular building. It was endowed with a chalice and patten which bear the inscription:
“The guift of the Right Honourable Rachel Countess Dowager of Bath to her chapel-of-ease Logh Guir, Ireland 1679”
The famed poet harper Thomas O’Connellan who died in 1698 in Bourchiers Castle is buried here in an unmarked grave as is Owen Bresnan (1847-1912) local poet and historian who composed Teampall Nua and Sweet Lough Gur side.”
Teampall Nua, Lough Gur, County Limerick
Trip Home – Conway’s House
Posted on March 13, 2016
My favourite house in the HX locality is Conway’s house. So called on account of the family who lives there. Really MB?! Ya. Really.
MB has no idea of the history of the house but it must be some 100 to 150 years old. Maybe if one of the Conway connections reads this post they might be so good as to enlighten us in that regard.
Anyway, regards to the Conways!
Conway’s House – in early morning sunshine
Weekly Photo Challenge – One Love
Posted on March 12, 2016
This week’s WordPress challenge got MB thinking of the two swans that frequent the Lough Gur lake-front back home. During MB’s Christmas break, they seemed to be inseparable.
MB saw them again during his trip home of recent days when they seemed to be having some ‘alone time’. Maybe she just had a headache. But at the end of the day, who the hell knows what goes on with swans.
From Wikipedia:
Swans usually mate for life, though “divorce” does sometimes occur, particularly following nesting failure, and if a mate dies, the remaining swan will take up with another.
Swan having some ‘alone time’
Weekly Photo Challenge – Harmony
Posted on March 6, 2016
Definitions (non-musical)
Another deadly MB shot
Weekly Photo Challenge – Seasons
Posted on February 19, 2016
For approximately 9 months of every year in the Middle East, it’s only necessary to wear a light shirt when going out during day or night. But we are presently in those 3 months when you might need a jacket when venturing outdoors.
These two ladies were dining with their husbands last night at an outdoor table at Souq Waqif. In a few weeks from now, those jackets will not be required.
The photo is a little grainy or blurry. The ladies were sitting in a dark location about 20m from where MB was sitting, so MB was not able to get a really sharp shot, a lá MB’s normal standard. The trials & tribulations of life!
Ladies with jackets in Qatar, on a cool February evening
Weekly Photo Challenge – Life Imitates Art
Posted on February 12, 2016
“Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.” – Oscar Wilde
There are not so many good places to wander about with your camera in Qatar. But the Souq Waqif is one of them and is one of MB’s favourite spots in the locality. Lots of interesting subject matter floating around down there, and being a bit of a tourist haunt, nobody takes much notice of camera geeks doing camera stuff.
Just before Christmas, MB was wandering around the Souq and one of the Souq artists caught his eye. Or rather, 2 of his sketches caught MB’s eye. Interesting that both are of young girls and both come from different fields of ‘Art’, namely Photography & Painting. MB notes that many in the ‘Art’ world do not consider ‘Photography’ part of the world of ‘Art’. But that’s a discussion and debate for another day.
The sketch top right is a representation of one of the most famous photographs in the history of photography, called – Afghan Girl. It appeared as a cover photo of National Geographic magazine in June 1985. The photo was shot in a Pakistani refugee camp one year earlier, and the photographer never took note of the girl’s name at the time. Her green eyes and the intensity of her stare were striking, and the sketch, with respect, does not do justice to the original. The photo, by Nat Geo photographer Steve McCurry, was shot with a Nikon film camera, and is often compared to De Vinci’s painting ‘Mona Lisa’.
McCurry tracked his subject down in 2002, in a remote village in Afghanistan. The subject of the shot (Sharbat Gula, of Pashtun ethnicity) was unaware of the fame of the photo, albeit she remembered the photo being taken, as it was one of only three times in her life that anyone had taken a photo of her. The search for her became a TV documentary and also featured in Nat Geo magazine in April 2002.
The sketch to the left of ‘Afghan Girl’ is a sketch of one of the most famous paintings in the world, called – ‘Girl With a Pearl Earring’, by famous 17th-century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. It sits in a museum in the Hague since 1902.
Another deadly shot by MB!
Weekly Photo Challenge – Vibrant
Posted on January 29, 2016
HX Report 