Joyce Centenary Memorial at Sandycove

The fascinating thing about the memorial stone is that the inscription underneath the quotation from Ulysses, giving details of the stone's unfurling, is in upper case letters and takes more space than the words from Joyce.

Santa train

On the DART from Pearse, we passed a steam locomotive pulling a train for a Christmas special.

I read recently of the state of Irish railways in the last days of steam - even Lansdowne Road station was down to two two trains stopping there each day. Places that are busy now, like Sydney Parade, were closed completely in 1960.

Nostalgia is a great thing - as long as it remains in the past.

Tom Kettle

I paid my respects to Tom Kettle as I passed him in Saint Stephen's Green yesterday.

The poppy wreath laid on 30th September is still there.

Perhaps at some date in the future there will be a fuller acknowledgement on the memorial of the complexity of Tom Kettle and his times.

If you live on a very expensive middle class road and drink fruit juice in preference to fizzy stuff, why would you stuff your litter into a niche in a wall?

Is 'SOS' a necessary consequence of trying get public transport information?

Head of the Sea instead of Speckled Town

Kerry, 30th October 2006

Phone box at Sneem
















Kerry, 30th October 2006

Derrynane Strand

(It's raining and there's a wind in our faces, but it's Bank Holiday Monday and we must enjoy it)








Kerry, 30th October 2006

Charlie Chaplin at Waterville
















Kerry, 30th October 2006

Looking east from Waterville











Kerry, 30th October 2006

Guinness sign at Waterville
















Kerry, 31st October 2006

Weighbridge at Knightstown, Valentia











Kerry, 31st October 2006

Clock at Knightstown, Valentia











Kerry, 31st October 2006

Railway sign at Knightstown, Valentia.

(I know - the railway never got to Valentia, but the sign is good)








Kerry, 31st October 2006

Mainland from Valentia











Kerry, 31st October 2006

Grotto at Valentia Slate Quarry











Kerry, 1st November 2006

Looking south from Ladies View











Kerry, 1st November 2006

Looking north from Ladies View.











Kerry, 1st November 2006

Hills at Ladies View











Kerry, 1st November 2006

View from the house across the Kenmare River towards the mountains on the way to Killarney.










Kerry, 2nd November 2006

If you don't do one, can you do the other?











Kerry, 2nd November 2006

Looking seawards from Kenmare Pier











Kerry, 2nd November 2006

Bridge over the Kenmare River











Kerry, 2nd November 2006

On Kenmare Pier











Kerry, 2nd November 2006

Kenmare blue lamp











Kerry, 2nd November 2006

Kenmare Post Office
















Kerry, 2nd November 2006

Fish crates on a jetty on the Beara peninsula - they come in patriotic colour combinations!

The laughter was so loud, I stopped and looked over the wall. Four white haired men were wedged into a bench telling stories. Maybe they did this every day.

They would pause occasionally and watch the sea.

Retirement seemed to be an anticipation of heaven.

Wandering along near dark, I met a strange bloke

Colours and shades and textures make the mundane special

I thought Fionn mac Cumhaill might be able to play backgammon with dice the size of those on a railway station poster.

The bridge at Sydney Parade station always has a vaguely sinister feel!

Prison courtyard? No, it's the front garden through the laundry window.

The laundry used to be the kitchen - there must have been some valuable stuff in the larder!

If we're depending on the angels in our struggle against darkness and evil, I kind of hope that they are more robust than the wimpish figures who appear in the stained glass windows!

It's Monday, 2nd October - this is the last rose of summer.

In this digital age when even wires are becoming a thing of the past, it is good to find a working example of the art and craft of the electrician of the 1990s- note the wires pushed in at the left, the holes drilled in the wrong place on the right, and the chunk of plaster missing just below the holes. It's hard to find such work now!

Half a mile to Pearse

Railway signs and railway architecture have always fascinated me.

Storm debris.

Winds of 100-120 kph were reported last night

Woodwork

Fuchsias.

Irish autumns don't have much to commend them, the prevailing south westerly winds bring band upon band of grey and wet weather. I remember living in the country and realizing why November was regarded as the month of the dead.

The abundance of fuchsias in September is like a keepsake left by the departing summer that it intends to return again after the dark days to come.

Wicklow Way marker.

The signpost seemed almost to glow in the brilliant sunlight that followed a torrential downpour.

Kitchen fireplace

It's hard to imagine that anyone now would bother to create something so ornate for somewhere as humble as the kitchen.

September blue and green

Victorian skylight

Evening sun over the Dublin mountains.

The late Dr Brian Mayne used to say that one of the attractions of living in Ballybrack in the early Nineteenth Century was that it faced south and west - getting the best of the sunshine.

Watson's Nurseries, which were on the land now occupied by the Watson Estate, would have benefited from that sunshine.

On a cold, wet and grey autumn September evening, I found a couple more pictures taken from the east pier in Dun Laoghaire at the end of July

Dalkey Hill stands darkly against the skyline.














The historic Carlisle mailboat pier stands derelict - awaiting some new scheme - while the modern HSS port is to the right.

Iron gates in Balure Lane

Out doing parish visiting this afternoon, I walked up Balure Lane. Older locals call it something that sounds like "Chucky Boiler's Lane". I would love to know the Irish spelling and its meaning.

The presence of a corrugated iron barn (not what you would expect in one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in the country!) reminded me of the barns at home on the farm in my childhood days.