ICELAND IMAGES

A few oil pastel works from Iceland:

Volcanic Landscape, Lake Hakid

VIDEO OF SOME OF MY PAINTINGS

Website: http://www.helene-brennan.com

GANNET IN DISTRESS – read below

On a recent beach walk on Béal Bán Beach, Ballyferriter, near Dingle, I came upon this beautiful gannet. It’s not often I have an opportunity to get this close to a gannet. This bird was struggling to pull a piece of rope which appeared to have something heavy on the end of it. I watched it struggle up from the water, pulling its object up the beach. I stupidly thought she was doing this by choice, and that she may have some purpose in mind, for her piece of treasure. I took several photos, not wishing to get too close and scare her away.

Another passer-by, who was more enlightened than myself saw the bird’s distress and stopped to free her from the rope, which was apparently stuck to her beak. She must have become entangled with it when she was diving for food.

Having been set free, one might expect that she would fly away, but that didn’t happen. I can only guess that she must have been exhausted. She seemed unconcerned about me getting closer, taking more photos, and made no attempt to get away. I left her there, just standing on the middle of the beach. It was a sad sight. There was nothing more that anyone could do. I don’t know what happened to her; I hope she managed to fly away as the tide came in some hours later.

So, my reason for writing this post – just to make people think more carefully about what they throw into the sea, or leave on the beach for the tide to claim. Thousands of birds and other creatures suffer and die unnecessarily because of human carelessness.

Please visit my website for more animal and bird photos.

http://www.helene-brennan.com/c101-animals-and-birds-photos

STAVROVOUNI 2

 

Here is Part 2 of this post with some more photos taken around the area of the Stavrovouni Monastery and the mountain of the same name, in Cyprus.  Many people visit the  area because the monastery is an interesting and important religious site, but here are also amazing walks around the area and the views are just gorgeous. it’s well worth the trip for the amazing landscape here.

 

There are many more photos of Cyprus on my website. Do please pay it a visit:

http://helene-brennan.com/c857-cyprus

 

 

 

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

 

.

WILD FLOWERS AND RAINBOWS (2)

One very showery evening with sunny spells – perfect for rainbows – at Cuas, Ballydavid, on the Dingle Peninsula. The warm evening light escaping from the dark clouds enhances the brilliance of the montbretias at the roadside.

More rainbow photos on my website http://helene-brennan.com/tag/rainbow 

Irish Wildflowers – Roadside Wildflowers of the Dingle Peninsula

“Flaming flowers brightly blaze….” (Don McLean on Vincent Van Gogh).

Indeed the wildflowers of the Dingle Peninsula are brightly blazing at this time of the year, and have not been created by any artist other than nature, admittedly with a little help from the humans who have introduced many non-indiginous species such as the highly invasive montbretia. Nonetheless, I just love the fantastic swathes of colour they create along the roadsides in the rural areas.

July and August are the best months for these wonderful exhibitions of nature’s art, offering a joyous and thrilling experience for any tourist or local person driving, cycling or walking along the roads. For the driver, the challenge is finding a parking space to leave the car on these narrow roads, in order to get out and walk or take photos of these spectacular and colourful exhibits.

Sadly, there are many people who have either little regard or little awareness of this precious heritage, and often one can see evidence of weedkiller spray along vast areas of roadside at times when the flowers haven’t even had time to bloom and seed. So much must have been lost.

These photos were taken on the roads from Ventry to Ballyferriter, and from Ballyferriter to Murioch. The latter is on the famous Slea Head Drive, but on a section that is often missed by tourists who fail to take the left turn at the Dingle Peninsula Hotel, and instead take the shorter cut back to Dingle.

MORE OF THESE PHOTOS CAN CAN SEEN ON MY WEBSITE:

http://www.helene-brennan.com/c802-irish-wildflowers-photos