HX Report
Irishman in the Middle East
Weekly Photo Challenge – Frame
Posted on August 26, 2016
The ruins of ‘Crokers’ estate house, framed through a whitethorn bush, directly across the road from the farmhouse where MB and siblings grew up in Grange, just north of HX, Limerick, SW Ireland.
The ruins of Crokers Estate House at Grange, Limerick, SW Ireland
Weekly Photo Challenge – Rare
Posted on August 19, 2016
It’s not often you will see an elderly Muslim gentleman standing beside a Western lady with a low neck-line. The lady has some Arabic influence however, as she is sporting an intricate henna tattoo on her face & neck, almost like a veil, which must please the Muslim gentleman no end!
Weekly Photo Challenge – Fun
Posted on August 12, 2016
Fun.
The local drama society back in HX puts on 3 or 4 plays per year which are always well attended. The comedies are particularly popular and one normally needs to book tickets in advance to see them.
Can’t remember the name of this one, but like many others in the past, it was great fun!
At the Honey Fitz Theater, Lough Gur, Limerick, Ireland
Weekly Photo Challenge – Morning
Posted on August 6, 2016
HX. Early morning, 21 June 2015. Solstice morning.
Sunrise & jet trails over the Grange Stone Circle; and a short while later, cyclists from a Limerick city club pass by on their way to the annual lakefront solstice breakfast.
Morning Sunrise
Cyclists
Weekly Photo Challenge – Narrow
Posted on August 1, 2016
MB travelled to Italy with family in recent days and was lucky enough to visit the ruins of Pompeii. His shot selection for ‘Narrow’ is a shot through the ruins towards the dastardly Mount Vesuvius, which exploded in 79 AD, burying Pompei and nearby towns in some 6 to 10m of hot ash and rock. Within a few generations, the locations of the towns were forgotten and it wasn’t until approx 1750 AD that the buried town (ruins) were discovered (by a local farmer trying to drill a well on his land).
Pompeii will feature again shortly in HX Report posts.
Until then:
Pompeii ruins and Mount Vesuvius in the distance
Weekly Photo Challenge – Cherry On Top
Posted on July 22, 2016
Many hundreds of people, or even thousands, visit the Grange Stone Circle each year, 1km or so distance from HX. Most feel a sense of energy or awe in the very scenic surroundings.
From the loughgur.com website:
It is the largest standing stone circle in Ireland, 150 feet in diameter and enclosed by 113 standing stones. The largest stone is Rannach Chruim Duibh (Crom Dubh’s Division) and is over 13 feet high and weighs 40 tons. The entrance stones are matched by a pair of equally impressive slabs on the southwest side, whose tops slope down towards each other to form a v-shape.
The placing of hands and forehead on the 40-tonne headstone, to feel the power and energy of the circle, is considered the ‘cherry of top’ of the visit by many.
Grange Stone Circle
Weekly Photo Challenge – Details
Posted on July 15, 2016
2013 Shot of one of the buildings under construction at a Zaha Hadid-designed project in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Look Up
Posted on July 8, 2016
Weekly Photo Challenge – Opposites
Posted on July 1, 2016
Solstice morning. 21 June 2014. The calmest morning MB ever witnessed at Lough Gur lake. The water surface was like a mirror. Every reflection was a perfect opposite. MB took many shots. This is one of his favourites:
Weekly Photo Challenge – Partners
Posted on June 24, 2016
Fishermen unload their catch at Ajman Fish Market, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Late Friday afternoons provide a great spectacle at the Ajman docks as thousands of fish are landed and laid out on the concrete paving by species and size. Traders from the adjacent market then bid for their requirements by an open auction process. Retailers, hoteliers, restauranteurs, or members of the general public like MB, are then able to buy the fish in the air-conditioned market as they wish, and a team of workers is on hand to gut and clean the fish if you require. There is also a small shop at the end of the market, run by a Syrian gentleman named Mr Hussam, who will cook the fish for buyers by smothering in his secret (& delicious) sauce/spice/herb mix and wrapping in tin foil, before popping into the flame oven.
If you ever get to visit Dubai or Abu Dhabi and have a few hours to kill, MB highly recommends a visit. And if photography is a hobby, then so much the better. FYI – Ajman is one of the seven Emirates of the UAE.
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
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
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!
HX Report 