Wordless Wednesday : Making the Neighbourhood Pretty

Manhole covers getting a facelift

Optimistic : Weekly Photo Challenge

While on a stroll along the old railway line by Blackrock Castle in Cork, we came across this mural on the wall of the old abandoned ticket office.   Someone was being very optimistic that the trains would be along again ‘any minute now’ and the artist did a great job of making everything very life like.

Linked to WPC and Color Your World : Cerulean

Containers : The Port of Cork

This week, the Weekly Photo Challenge has Containers as its subject, and here are a few shots of my home port, the Port of Cork.

The Port of Cork is the main seaport for container ships and cruise ships in southern Ireland, and is a natural harbour and river estuary where the River Lee flows into the sea.   Vessels up to 90 000 tonnes can navigate the deep water of the harbour, whilst closer to the city where the channels get narrower, only vessels up to 60 000 tonnes can enter, this is still a very sizeable vessel carrying a lot of goods.

Many of these big container ships are very dependant on tides, and have very little ‘turn around’ time in port, the Port of Cork provides pilot boats and towing facilities for the big ships, and it is strange to see little tugs manouvering these big ships fully laden with containers.  The very experienced crane operators do a good job of getting the containers off and stacked – like a giant Tetris game – in the shortest possible time!  Maybe it’s a nice job in summer time, but not one I would care to take on when it’s a stormy day!   You can see more about the Port of Cork here

 

Getting ready to unload the containers

A view up the River Lee to Cork city

The route up to the container port is very picturesque, coming up through the channel with Cobh with its magnificent cathedral and the port for cruise ships on one side, and Crosshaven and the Royal Cork Yacht Club on the other side, and Blackrock Castle, almost across the river from the container docks.

Blackrock Castle

Check this link to see more container traffic.

Reflections on a Sunny Saturday

After a very cold and frosty start to Saturday morning, even though I was tempted to stay inside and wait for summer, my friend and I went for a lovely walk – one of our favourites – by Blackrock Castle and the railway line.    The sun shone, the sea was calm, there were hardy canoeists training in the picturesque surroundings, and we finished it off with coffee and cake…what more could we ask for!