Roberts Cove

When the tide goes out besides a ton of seaweed, lots of other things are worthy of a camera shot, as unlikely as it seems I really like the pattern this bouy and its robe made. Seaweed had attached itself to the rope, myself and the boys said it looked very like a seahorse but that's just us.
I call this 'Out to Pasture' mainly as it looks as if no one wanted to use the boat anymore. There seemed to be less sea worthy boats out there but this one was just left to seed. Or so it seemed at the time. I'm sure it still gets used but putting a story to an object in a photo is half the fun, isn't it?

The palettes of the sky

We live near a beach, actually a few beaches and I do love trying to get various evening shots of the setting sun or a full moon. The colours always amaze me and though I probably only have a very small handful of nice moon shots out of many many taken, this will always be my favourite.

Fota Gardens, East Cork

Most summers we take the children to Fota, its a beautiful old historic house which has a wildlife center on one part of the grounds and a beautiful garden on another part while there is a golf course on another part. Absolutely huge. As much as we enjoy taking the boys to see the animals, they love the gardens even more. I think its the many winding paths and mazes, that they can get lost in.
The blue sky is rare enough and these were actually taken late last summer, haven't been able to take any but animal shots this year. The gardens are beautiful and immense.

Christmas Morning on Loughaderra

I'm trying something new this time, just want to see how the layout will look with the photos large instead. These were taken on my way to my mothers on Christmas morning. I was driving towards the lake and saw a man out with his camera and thought. 'Oh, I wish I brought mine' when it clicked on me that I had. So I stopped the car and began snapping. I love the colours in these.
The sun looked as if it had been trying desperately to break through for a while, the ground was thick with frost so the mist that began to rise off the lake in contrast with the gold from the sun was breathtaking.

If anything this has to be my favourite of the four, the colour from background to foreground is just beautiful with the birds in the air as well as on the water. People have nicknamed Loughaderra in East Cork, Swan Lake for years. With good reason. It's also widely known for its fishing. Needless to say I took a bit longer than I thought getting to Mom's on Christmas morning.

Many a Cold Frosty Morning in Ireland...

Midleton in East Cork is more famous I suppose for its Jameson Experience but it does also have lovely galleries and restaurants, some nice walks and great shops. On Friday morning we have the Country Market and on Saturday morning we have the Farmers market. For the size of the town it is very multicultural and extremely diverse, dare I say even cosmospolitan. This is the river that runs through it and on this particular frosty morning as I drove past after dropping the children to school, I had to turn the car around and come back to take a picture. It was beautiful with the mist rising, almost eerie.

This is another of our extremely frosty mornings. The Church of the Most Holy Rosary can be seen in the background, while the foreground is just a blanket of frost. The colours of the trees I find breathtaking as well against the cold sharp winter sky, some are red while others are green. Midleton is a beautiful place, in September we have the food festival while throughout the year tourists from all over the world enjoy the golf clubs, the equestrian centre, our restaurants. Great place indeed.

All creatures great and small

Every year there is a huge horse gymkhana just outside of Midleton, East Cork but as the grounds were sold for the building of a huge factory, they moved it really close to Midleton, so close infact I could park up the car whip out my camera and sneak in to get some shots. It was great.
When the rare bit of sunshine shows here, I personally love to see the butterflies out and about. I couldn't help taking this one when down in Ballycotton, East Cork.

Animal World

My mother and sister have an allotment. Just before you get to it are some stables, the horses were only too glad to pose for some photos. Magnificent animals.

This was taken at Loughaderra, East Cork. I love this, you can see the water dripping from the mallard and the vibrancy of the deep green. Such a beautiful bird or was it just my camera work? :)