Peace and Tranquility

 
 
 
The oratory by the lake was the centre of prayer for St Finbar, the founder of Cork, and his monks in the 6th century.

Picnic in a shower of rain

 
 
... of course it was not an entirely dry day ....

Wedding Cars

 
 
There was a wedding in the oratory and we came across two cars waiting in the hills. The first is a Rover P3 from 1948. The second is a Jaguar Mark 2 from about 1962. Inspector Morse used one of these.

An Laoi - The Lee

 
 
 
Starts as a trickle as it tumbles down the hills from where it rises.

River Valley

 
 
 
the River Lee, the river which flows through County Cork and into the city, rises in the hills at Gougane. Its all dappled glades and mountain vistas. I'm sur someone wrote a poem about this kind of thing!

Gougane Barra

 
 
 
Today, Saturday, was a beautiful warm, dry sunny day. The first nice Saturday since last November - I swear! We drove out to Gougane Barra in West Cork. It was lovely.

Gougane Barra

 
 
 
Today, Saturday, was actually a dry, bright sunny day! The first nice Saturday since last November - I swear! We went to West Cork - Gougane Barra to be precise. Its a most beautiful, tranquil place.

CSO in Liverpool

 
I've uploaded my photos of the CSO trip to my public photo page. Have a look at this link to se them.

Tuesday Golf winner AGAIN X 3

heck out this link. I know its mad, but I won the weekly competition AGAIN. This is the third week in a row. People are getting VERY fed up with me. I'm getting great pleasure out of it ... especially since the team selectors did not choose me for any team events this year. Needless to say, the teams have lost their matches!

The Jeanie Johnston ...

 
sailed up Monkstown Bay recently as I was tkaing a walk.
The "Jeanie Johnston" (1847-58) was the most famous of the Irish emigrant vessels. Despite the cramped conditions by todays standards, the Jeanie Johnston was a well run ship and, unlike the infamous and disease-ridden "coffin ships" of the period, Jeanie never lost a passenger to disease or the sea.
Have a look at more information here.

Organiser extraordinaire ...

 
Lucette has a lot on her hands!

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, Its off to Liverpool we go ..

 
The violas get the bubble-wrap treatment
 
The cellos are rarin to go
 
What's this? Golf clubs? Never ......

CSO packing the van for Liverpool

 
Altonen Removals provided an excellent service ... wonder if they go as far as Perth?
  The Timpani need lots of space
 

Paraic oversees the packing of the music stands in their red cases

The Tuesday Competition ..

Once the
club-house of Monkstown Golf-club, this castle was built by Anastasia Archdeacon, nee Gould, about 1636. She built it while her husband was away at sea, and having deducted the cost of the mason's board and lodgings from the total cost, she found she had only paid 4d for the whole castle.

It consists of a square central block flanked at the corners by four massive square towers, and it has gables at the top . It was used as a barracks in the 18th century.
It is presently undergoing renovation.
But anyway .. check out this week's results .....Tuesday 13th ..

Irish Pubs continued ...

 
Of course we found an Irish pub in Liverpool too ...

Wedding Cake Extraordinaire

 
 
 
 
There was a wedding in our hotel the Radisson SAS. Check out the detail of the wedding cake ...

The Culture Monitors

 
 
 
were searching the city for appropriate activity. Liverpool is the European Capital of Culture for this year. Cork was the ECC in 2005.