Daily Post Photo Challenge : Solitude

Shehy Mountains on a cloudy day

The mountains are a good place to be alone, in solitude, unless of course like me you are part of a 50 strong group on a cold wintry day, all huddled together for company from the biting wind!  There always a chance to stride out on your own though, and enjoy the scenery of the distant hills, and a few isolated cottages in the distance.

Snow on the distant hills.

And if you don’t want to go hiking, there’s always the call of the sea on a calm day.

Lone sail boat

 

Wordless Wednesday : A Glass of Beer with a View!

Vista Coffee Bar, overlooking Kinsale Yacht Club

Daily Post : Dramatic

Finish line in sight, home made rafts

The two crews are neck and neck coming up to the finish line in the Raft Race during Kinsale Regatta yesterday…which one will win the dramatic finish (and not get too wet in the process)!

Looks like the guys from Sam’s Bar are winning from the guys in green

Linked to Daily Post Prompt : Dramatic

Travel Theme : Stillness

A calm harbour

It’s a great feeling at the end of a day on the sea, to come into harbour and tie up, sit on the deck, and enjoy the stillness

Boats in harbour

And even though there may be many boats, they are all tied up, and will stay where they are, bobbing gently as the waves lap around, until next morning when it’s all go again, anchors up, motors started and off for another day!

Blue and blue

Check out more posts on this theme

Daily Prompt : Sky

Summer’s here, and that means (most of the time) blue skies and long evenings.   I think that’s not the case in a lot of Europe at the moment though, where it seems to be rain, rain and more rain.

Here are a few blue skies from our recent travels in Greece

The Blue of Greece

Nothing moving, so it must be siesta time.

Sometimes a cloud or two appears in the sky, maybe it’s time to secure the crockery!!

Linked to Daily Post : Sky

Evening Shadows in the Bay!

Evening time in the Greek Islands

I have just been uploading my photos from a fabulous ten days in the Ionian Sea, sailing ( mainly motoring because of calm waters) around the islands of Lefkas and Meganisi.    It was all a wonderful experience, and I am very proud of the fact that I only felt seasick once, and that was during a rainy, windy and thundery night!

I will do some more posts over the next while, these are just a few shots for now, before I am off to catch up on some sleep after a long day travelling home yesterday, when everything that could go wrong did go wrong!    More on that journey later.

Tasting Retsina, a not very pleasant wine exposed to pine resin!

The Blue of Greece

 

We Stand and Watch the World Sail By.

My friend and I went for a Sunday stroll not too far from home, and on the way we passed an old ruin of a church, it’s called Templebreedy Church, or the Church of Bridget.   This church was built about 1779, and was used for about 150 years, and there had been a church on this site previously, for maybe another 100 years!

This was the view looking out one of the windows, sadly now without glass or window frame, and slowly returning to the earth.    In the foreground of the view is an old Celtic cross gravestone, probably at least 100 years old, and across the mouth of the harbour you can see Roches Point Lighthouse.   This lighthouse stands at the entrance to Cork Harbour, and a lighthouse was first established in this spot almost 200 years ago.

Just imagine, the people looking out this window would have seen many ships sailing to and from the Port of Cork and from Queenstown, later called Cobh.   Cobh was the last stop on the maiden voyage of the Titanic in 1912, before she set sail for New York, and was also the place where the survivors of the Lusitania were brought to in May 1915, when the ship was sunk by a German torpedo not far from here during the First World War.

Let’s hope there were happier times too for the watchers at the window, like the little boats below that were out for a sailing lesson in the shelter of the harbour this morning!

Learning to sail in the calm waters

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge : Minimalist

All alone on the ocean

Wouldn’t  it be nice to sail away on a fairly calm sea, with just enough wind in our sails to move along, or we could just sit and watch the waves roll in and break on the beach.

Watching the sun set.

Check out more ‘Minimalist’ photos here

Wordless Wednesday : Sailing Away

Lonely boatman in Cork Harbour

A Lazy Sunday at Ballycotton

Sailing away

Today was a nice day for a stroll, and what a great place to be, in Ballycotton in East Cork, looking out at the lighthouse and a very calm sea.

Time to explore.