GOODBYE THRIFT, HELLO CHAMOMILE

I set out to take some photos in the late evening sun, as I have done many times before. Not really sure where I would go to get something different from the previous hundreds – or thousands of shots I’ve taken in this area of the Dingle Peninsula where I live, I drove my van along the road until I came to Clogher Beach. It was a beautiful, sunny and calm evening and I liked the look of Clogher as I approached, so I parked up there.

I set out on the cliff walk from the beach to Cuas na nEighe. Some of you may recognise the place from my previous posts. I hoped to get some different images.

goodbye thrift refers to the sea pinks, also called thrifts. In previous posts I have shown the amazing swathes and clumps of these gorgeous pink flowers that festoon the cliffs in this area. Now they have turned brown and finished flowering for this year. Gone, but not forever. The thrill has definitely not gone, now that instead of thrift there are wonderful chamomile blossoms proliferating all along the cliff tops.

The Island of Inis Tuaisceart (The Sleeping Giant) is above.

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The Tiaracht is the Island above.

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As you can see, the thrift is still there in profusion, but not much pink there now, it’s mostly brown, but still quite attractive with the sunlight catching the tips of them.

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Now I have Sybil Head (Ceann Sibéal) in view, above.

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It was the way the low evening sunlight caught the tops of the flowers and grasses that caught my interest that evening. Even the way the dock seed heads above were illuminated, seemed really beautiful to me.

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A closer look at the Sleeping Giant, above.

A sheep posed obligingly, in front of Sybil Head.

Well I seem to have such a lot of images to show – far too many for one post. I’ve decided to leave the others which include the sunset from this walk for my next post.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog. There are many images – photos and paintings from the Clogher area on my website. It would be great if you would check it out!

EVENING AT CLOGHER HEAD

 

Evening photos on Clogher Head (in Irish – Ceann Sraithe, Sratha, Sreatha, spellings differ). I drove over there one evening to catch the warm light on this most scenic of places on the Dingle Peninsula. My collection includes several photos from this spot, but I like to keep updating, even though I may have taken better photos there on previous occasions.

The Blasket Islands can be seen from here, looking splendid in the warm glow of the setting sun.

 

 

Sybil Head (Ceann Sibéal) appears at its most majestic from this viewing point.  There is something about this headland that I find quite compelling and magnetic, that I also find very difficult to capture in photos. I will go back again – and again – to try to get that quality that eludes me. I may also tell you a little story about this headland… later.

I have already mentioned on a number of occasions that the top of this headland was a film location for a Star Wars movie a few years ago.  At that time a telescope was placed at Clogher Head so that people could look over at the activities on the film set.

Clogher Beach, The Three Sisters and Ballydavid Head, above

To the right of Ballydavid Head is Mount Brandon, zoomed a little closer, above.

 

 

 

 

An ancient standing stone, above and below. I would prefer not to have it exactly in the centre of the composition but the ground was so wet I couldn’t stand where I needed to. I was also in a bit of a hurry because I arrived on the scene a little too late and the sun was going down very fast.

A slightly better composition was possible with my mobile phone, above.

 

 

The sun was obviously setting behind these rocks below, as this couple appeared to be enjoying the spectacle.

I hope you enjoyed the evening at Clogher Head. Thanks for looking. More Dingle Peninsula photos on this link:

https://www.helene-brennan.com/c25–photos-of-dingle-peninsula

A SOFT DAY

A soft day here in Ireland usually means a calm grey drizzly day – or so I think that’s what it means. Someone else might tell you something different.

These photos are from one of those days – grey and dull. I didn’t even bother to bring my best camera, as I set out on my walk; the mobile phone was my only tool.

 

However, it wasn’t long before the clouds started to disperse, giving way to lovely soft atmospheric effects.

These cattle were in a field overlooking the beach, in Ballyferriter, Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, in the South West of Ireland.

 

 

 

 

Is it a rainbow or a fogbow? It’s kind of in-between really.

 

 

 

 

To see photos and paintings of the Atlantic coast, in different weather conditions, please check out this tag on my website:

https://www.helene-brennan.com/tag/wild+atlantic+way

Thank you so much for viewing my post. I hope you will visit again. Stay safe.

 

 

A WINTER’S EVENING

An evening walk to catch the last of the evening light on a local beach. This beach I know as Cúl Dorcha, at Ballinrannig, Ballyferriter, on the Dingle Peninsula, in the South West of Ireland.

 

The setting sun cast a lovely light on the incoming waves.

 

There were a few surfers, spending more time off the boards than on them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He’s up!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all folks. Thanks for your visit.

More Ballinrannig shots here:

https://www.helene-brennan.com/tag/ballinrannig

 

 

VENTRY BEACH

Some shots of Ventry Beach (again!) just with my mobile phone, on a couple of recent walks. The phone has developed an annoying habit of reverting to low resolution – used to stay on high res, now I have to keep checking. Anyway here are some of the results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sky being unusually clear for this climate, combined with a very calm sea, like a lake, made for some fairly minimalist images, especially this one above.

Below, on a different day, the clouds created a much more interesting sky and some lovely patches of light and shade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A socially distanced conversation about social distancing, one could guess, above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doesn’t this beach look quiet? Yet there was nowhere to park in the small car park.  One way of keeping the beaches quiet here. Currently the area is full of visitors.

 

 

 

I hope you have enjoyed walking with me. This is Ventry Beach, a few miles from Dingle Town, on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, South West Ireland on the Wild Atlantic Way. Obviously not looking so wild in these captures, but for some really wild ones, please visit my website, try this tag:

https://www.helene-brennan.com/tag/turbulent+sea

 

MY EVENING VIEWS

Here are some photos taken on a recent evening around my house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VENTRY BEACH

Recently I visited Ventry Beach a couple of times. It’s not far from my home on the Dingle Peninsula in West Kerry, on the South West of Ireland, and it’s a nice long beach for a walk.

Being a fine sunny day, the sky was kind of featureless and with no clouds and moving shadows to add drama, it was a little more challenging to find interesting compositions.  This guy who came by in an inflatable kayak added a little interest to the situation.

 

 

Now this unfortunate creature was not what I was expecting at the far end of the beach. A minke whale, that apparently beached itself. I heard that a couple of nights earlier some people had pulled him back out to sea, but he just came in again.  Despite attempts to keep him hydrated, he (or she) eventually died.

Note the little heart shape of stones that someone has made.

 

 

 

A sad sight, but so common!

 

 

 

Fishing boats, above.

 

On an earlier walk, I only had my mobile phone, someone was kite surfing.  I just made the best of the situation.

 

 

 

 

This mobile home is in a park beside the beach. I decided to photograph it because it used to be mine, some years ago, so I have a sort of emotional attachment to it. It’s had 2 owners since then. The colours and puppets etc. are the current owners’ doing, my colours were mostly inside, at the time. I loved it, but maintaining it was a bit of a responsibility.  The roof once blew off at 5.00 am one morning! Not funny!  One winter, 2013/14,  12 or more mobile homes were destroyed completely there in the storms, and the tide came in around some of the mobiles.

That’s all from Ventry Beach for the moment. Thanks for viewing my post.  More images of  Ventry Beach on my website:

https://www.helene-brennan.com/tag/ventry+beach

Also, do checkout some of my earlier posts with Ventry photos. Unfortunately I have already deleted some in order to make more storage space for my media. But these one are OK I think.

VENTRY

ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL EVENING ON VENTRY BEACH

LAST RAYS OF SUN ON VENTRY BEACH