STAVROVOUNI, CYPRUS

This is my second post about my visit to Cyprus a few months ago, where I of course took hundreds of photos – as one does.  In this post I am focusing on the Stavrovouni  region.

The Stavrovouni Monastery is spectacularly built on the top of a volcano shaped mountain, of the same name – Stavrovouni Mountain, in the Larnaca district.  It can be seen from miles away on all sides. The monastery was originally founded by St. Helena in the fourth century AD, and has gone through many changes throughout the centuries. It is one of the oldest monasteries in the world.

The monastery is open to visitors – male visitors, that is. Women aren’t allowed inside – we might be a distraction for the monks! But no matter – the monastery is not the only interesting feature, as the surrounding landscape is truly breathtaking and worth the trip just to experience that alone. I have so many photos it’s difficult to choose which to show – I may do another post to show some more of them.

If you click on the images individually, you should get a clearer, sharper image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please visit my website, with photos from Cyprus and other countries, and also my paintings

http://helene-brennan.com

 

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WEST KERRY SUNSETS (1)

Here are a few of my several local sunset pictures. As there are so many I have decided to publish just a few at a time.

 

 

 

 

 

TIME CHANGES EVERYTHING – AT COURTOWN

 

It’s not often that I get across to the east coast of this country nowadays, but I recently made a short visit to Courtown, in County Wexford. The weather wasn’t great, the sunshine was scarce and the light was dull, but I grabbed a few opportunities to capture some images

It must be said that Courtown once had the most perfect beach in the world – with a marvellous expanse of dry, soft, clean, golden sand. The water depth was perfect and safe for swimming. Admittedly, it didn’t have the fabulous scenery of the Kerry beaches, with which I am now very familiar, but the quality of the beach itself was second to none. Sunshine was always more plentiful in that part of the country too. I have no photos of what it was like before – but OMG – look what is is now!

What happened to all the lovely sand?

It’s an understatement to say that erosion has taken its toll. Tons of boulders have been deposited to ‘protect’ the coastline. Time has shown once again that nothing stays the same.

Bathing still continues between the piles of boulders

It’s good to see that there are still some gaps in the mountains of boulders, where families can enjoy the sun, sand and sea.

Weather shows its visual charms

 

A glimpse of normality

Off shore activities are definitely more popular now

Less beach – more sea. You win some, you lose some!

Swimmers still enjoy the beach

 

The wood by the beach

The opening of woodland trails do compensate in part for the loss of so much beach

The beach, viewed from the wood

The woodland trail is really lovely

View of the woodland from the beach

Storm torn trees. Winter storms have wreaked havoc on them also

But alas, the woodland was not safe either from the ferocious storms of last winter.

Graffiti on a storm felled tree

Graffiti on this storm felled tree on the beach echoes my thoughts about transience and change, although I could not read the full sentence that once was there.

Great for the stove – if I could carry  it home!

I quite liked these natural sculptures that have landed on the beach

More of nature’s offerings

Many pieces already chopped – presumably for the home fires

The last rays of sun creep up along the RNLI boathouse

Evening walk as the sun goes down

Something for all ages in Courtown

Even the dodgems look different

Please check out my other photos of County Wexford on my website:

http://helene-brennan.com/c97-photos-of–county-wexford-

TIME CHANGES EVERYTHING – The Schoolhouse from the Ryan’s Daughter Movie.

Sometimes I enjoy taking photos that show how things change over time. The schoolhouse from the Ryan’s Daughter movie is one such subject that has caught my attention.

On this wonderful awe inspiring peninsula in 1968 a film crew from MGM descended to make a movie, directed by David Lean, which, though not immediately popular with the critics, became a huge box office success. Many local people were extras in the movie, or worked in some capacity for the film company and still have many memories and stories of the events of that time. Imagine how exciting it was to the people in an area which, at that time, in spite of its exceptional natural beauty was economically struggling. The exposure of this marvellous place to a wider world contributed greatly to the increase in visitors the Dingle Peninsula has enjoyed over the years since then.

Most of the set built for the story was destroyed when filming was finished, but the schoolhouse still remains, in an increasingly ruinous state, perched on the coast of Dunquin and with marvellous views of the Blasket Islands. Most visitors don’t even know it’s there. The name Kirrary National School still to be seen there means nothing to most people. (Kirrary was a fictitious place.) There has been talk of restoring the building. That could be interesting.

Since I started to prepare this blog I discovered that there is another wordpress blogger who has written on this topic. For more in depth information and images of the schoolhouse from the time of filming, see  SMcP Blogfeast’s very interesting blog:

https://blogfeast.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/saving-ryans-daughter/

You can check out this on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan%27s_Daughter

Also to see more images from the Dunquin area of the Dingle Peninsula please visit my website:

http://helene-brennan.com/tag/dunquin

Here are some photos taken in October this year (2015) as well as some taken in September 2013. As you can see the timbers have now been ripped from the roof with the storms that have raged since.

VIEW FROM MOUNT EAGLE

On the path coming down Mount Eagle, the views are stunning. Here you can see Dunquin and the Island of Inis Tuaisceart, (The Sleeping Giant) one of the islands of the Blasket group, off the coast of the Dingle Peninsula, South West Ireland.

Please check out my other Dunquin photos on http://helene-brennan.com/tag/dunquin

DUNQUIN FROM MOUNT EAGLE

There are stunning views of Dunquin to be seen from the path up Mount Eagle. Please do check out my other images of Dunquin on this tag http://helene-brennan.com/tag/dunquin

OCTOBER EVENING ON MURIOCH BEACH.

To see more Dingle Peninsula photos please visit my website: http://helene-brennan.com/c25-dingle-peninsula-photos

Please see my website for more Murioch photos: http://www.helene-brennan.com/tag/murioch