Daily Blog

There was a lot of low cloud cover again today and even some rain. The weather for the last 6 months really has been amazing ! We had a “proper” winter, cold clear nights , lots of frost and lots of snow. Spring was lovely , and the summer so far has been great, lots of bright sunny days. So today was almost unexpected. There has been so little rain that there is talk of water shortages, in fact Clare Island has suffered water shortage and water is being transported to the island!

St Brendan

Today’s pictures are related to water. St Brendan’s well is situated right at the water’s edge in Clew Bay. It actually gets swamped at high tide. Today I was looking at the well and wondered why it was placed so close to the sea


St Brendans well and alter with Croagh patrick in the distance.


It seems however that there is a perfectly logical reason for the well being so badly positioned. Apparently St Brendan had dug the well a distance from the sea, but the devil came to steal the well , but the well was so heavy that the Devil was unable to carry it, stumbled and fell dropping the well at the high water mark!! Makes perfect sence to me !


The well at high tide



I don’t know how long the well and alter have been there but I did notice this stone among the many that make up the alter.

I was out this evening in the Burrishule area when I met this little donkey.



He came over to me for a few minutes and then did an impersonation of Babe.


He suddenly started to herd the sheep!









Once he had scattered all the sheepI have to say he looked very pleased with himself.

I had planned to get out for a few pictures this evening but after a lovely day the weather closed in and we had rain. Its strange but the summer has been so good for so long that the rain took me by surprise!!
So I am posting two pictures taken yesterday evening at Westport Quay.

A couple of days ago I posted a picture of what I thought was a horse and foal. "Omnishots" who I know is an expert on these matters corrected me saying it was not a foal. well i know nothing about horses and foals so I will take Omnishots word for it.!
Todays picture is of a young horse - a foal-.



I dont know at what stage they stop being foals but anyway I just loved the colouring on the face, I thought it was like the mask from phantom of the opera !



Directly across the road from where I photographed the foal I photographed this thatched cottage with the old bike and old car in front of it. The house looks like something from the 50s or maybe the sixties.

I went out with Patricia this evening to get todays picture. We left about 8.30pm and to be honest I was not very hopeful, there was a huge cloud low in the sky as we left and I thought the evening was going to be very dark. I was wrong (not the first time !)




The sun set behind cloud certainly, but it still made for some very dramatic light over the mud flats in clew bay.



After the sun set we were on bertra beach , the sky was lovely.



I took this picture of the boat resting , at 10.50pm 40 minutes after the sun went down.

I stopped to photograph these horses I assune they are a mother and foal.



The mother ignored me once she realized I was not doing any harm and not comming into the field.


The foal who I nicknamed Black Beauty was very curious however and struck up many poses as it nervously checked me and the camera out.

I was teaching a night class tonight in Ballyhaunis, on my return to westport the community bonfire was well under way. The bonfire is lit in honour of St John and in the older tradition of midsummer. each community would light a fire the tradition is that people would jump the fire and there would be much merriment until morning.




I cant disclose what time the fire in Knockranny village continued to, but I am posting this at 1am after which I may go back out to rejoin the celebrations.

Today I am posting a few pictures taken yesterday. They tell the story of two tractors.

Both are old tractors.



I call the first picture “Standing guard” the tractor is parked in the corner of the field, it looks like it is standing guard and is ready for action!



The second is in a sorry state, it is parked on the side of the road, it has been parked there for as long as I remember, I have called the picture “last days” you may observe a yellow notice on the windscreen.

The last picture is called “Final notice”



It seems sad really.

Today is the longest day of the year, I was unable to make the sunrise, and I had an evening class this evening. But as most photographers are also sun worshippers I knew everybody on the class would be happy to go chasing the sunset.
The tide was out ,so we crossed onto one of the islands on clew bay. Due to some low cloud sunset happened about twenty minutes early but despite , or even because of, the low cloud the sky developed some lovely colours. The weather was lovely and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves and all got some good pictures.

Today was fathers day, the first one since my Dad passed away in March, and I miss him terribly. My own children gave me some golf balls and Barry and I went to the Clew bay golf course for a round, I lost two of the balls on the first two holes!
Anyway as you can see from the picture it was a lovely day, I would have preferred some clouds in the sky, but this is the view from the fifth tee. Needless to say Barry won the golf.

I only had a few minutes with the camera today even though it was a lovely day, I just didnt get time to go out. I was passing Islandeady Lough this morning and decided it could be my only chance to get a picture so I stopped at the Lough. I always find Islandeady lough to be a bit of a challenge, it is so open it can be difficult to arrange a good composition to "create" a picture as opposed to just a record of the place. I was further challenged this morning because though it was a lovely bright morning it was very windy and the Lough was choppy. I wondered how would I show the wind in the photograph?

So using a tripod I settled for a composition that included the reeds that were dancing in the wind I used a neutral density filter to slow the shutter speed down .


I think you can see the wind in the picture.

It was a fairly overcast day today, but this evening I got a few minutes out with the camera just as the sky cleared. As the grey clouds lifted it was replaced by an amazing display of white clouds of all kinds of shapes. I think these kinds of clouds are called "altocumulus" but I could be corrected!

Yesterday I was out on the bike and stopped to take a photograph of Croagh Patrick, I liked the light that was falling in the valley even though Croagh Patrick itself was not very well lit and the cloud cover that looked like a huge blanket coming in off the Atlantic.




Anyway I was stopped for several minutes and became a little uneasy, I was sure someone was watching me. I turned around and sure enough I had a small audience hiding behind a hedge!

I remember when I first moved to Mayo I was struck by the big skies. I think it was probably just the transition from living in an urban setting to living in a rural one. I have often heard visitors talk of big skies.

In my Landscape photographs the sky is of course very important and I pay alot of attention to making sure there is detail recorded in the sky.

Today i am posting three recent pictures were the sky plays a vital role in the final image.



The first is a dawn sky.




The second a midday sky



The Third is a Twilight sky.

Out and about on the bike this evening, cycling is a great way to view the countryside and of course bringing a camera gives me a great excuse to stop and rest regularly !

This view of Westport Golf Club is taken from the roadside in Carrowholly.

I have just returned from one of my favourite places. Patricia and I had 1 night away in Fanore Co Clare. Fanore is a seaside location in the Burren. the Burren is famous for its limestone pavements and its wonderful flora. Patricia and I have been visiting the burren for as long as we have known each other and were married in Fanore 26years ago!!

Today was a wonderful day, we had a very long lie and started to explore around 3.30 pm. I photographed flowers, wild goats, we ate in Ballyvaughan and finished just in time for the sunset, and to cap it all we stopped to photograph Dunguaire Castle in Kinvarra on the way home. I can only post a small number of photographs but will post others at a later date.




This rock is typical of the Burren lanscape.



The Bloody Cranesbill were putting up a great display on the limestone pavements.




The wild goats are well adapted for the rocky landscape





we finished our meal in Ballyvaughan just on time for the sunset.




We arrived in Kinvarra 40 minutes after sunset, but still on time for a glorious twilight.

Patricia at myself are heading to Co Clare this evening for a very short break.
I hope to get some pictures on the way, but we are travelling to Fanore, were mobile coverage is very poor so i might not be able to post pictures. so just in case i am posting this picture taken a couple of nights ago on bertra beach

On my way to the Gallery this morning I decided to walk through the woods near my home, I thought I might get some flower pictures. Its amazing how the woodland floor has changed in a month. A month ago it was covered in blue bells and wood anenomes , today it was almost bear. What has changed I think is that the trees themselves have filled with leaves making the woodland floor very dark and so nothing grows.
I did find this small cranes bill.

Today was one of those days when things just kept going wrong! I intended to go to Galway early to set my nephew John on the bus to Cork and to do a few things in town. John had helped me with some photoshop during the week and was up very late lastnight printing.( I cant say how late because his Mum might read this!!) We said we would be in Galway by 10am. Galway is a little more then an hours drive from Westport. Anyway we finally left westport at about 12noon!. we had some jobs to do on the way and poor John kept missing each bus he planned to catch. By 1.30 we were approaching Tuam and confident of reaching Galway on time for the 2.05 bus when the car broke down! So another hour was lost waiting for the breakdown truck!! We eventually got John on the 5.05 bus and we made it back to Westport for about 8.30pm. I had no pictures for the blog and so headed out to Berta to get the sunset. there wasn't one! But it was great to be out in the brisk Atlantic breeze. I photographed clare island and loved the tiny hint of colour in an otherwise grey scene. on my way back through Murrisk I stopped and photographed the famine memorial, now those people really new what a bad day was like.!

On the Golf Course again this afternoon with my son Barry and nephew John. This time I took the camera. The contrast levels were very high, I had intended to photograph a panorama from the fifth tee but the contrast levels were just too great and a panorama would not work, so I will just have to play more golf until I get a day when the light is just right !!
I am posting two pictures , one is a view of the fifth green ( Barry lost his Ball in the Atlantic!)and one is my nephew John putting on the sixth.

I was in the gallery all day today. this evening the weather was very dark and it looked unlikely that I would get any picture. My nephew John is staying with me at the moment, he helped me to do some stock taking in the Gallery and so I took him playing Golf this evening. I decided it was not worth bringing the canmera. Clew Bay Golf Club is a small nine hole course with amazing views over Clew bay and Croagh patrick. Well despite the dark clouds the sun broke through briefly as we reached the second tee and the islands were lit in the most glorious light, I had no camera and had to store the image in my own memory bank. Unfortunatly I cant post it on the site! so my learning is to always take the camera!
So tonights picture was taken last week .