Ballygawley

I had to go to Omagh this morning and needed to be there for 5am. I noticed that this small lake near Ballygawley looked nice in the early morning sun and as I had the camera in the car I made a point of stopping to take this picture on my way back to the bakery I figured if John Prescott (who earns considerably more than me) can play croquet in his firm's time then I can take a photo in my firm's time


  

Shoulda gone to Specsavers

I thought there were a couple of dust spots on my camera sensor when I first looked at this picture of Cavehill. In fact at full size it can be seen that they are actually birds. At full size it is also possible to see that the dark blobs on top of the hill are people. I had changed the camera setting to 'normal' instead of 'fine'to see what difference it made. I'm still pleased with the quality of the pictures, though I think this one would have benfitted from the use of a polarising filter on the lens

 

Belfast Castle

We had heard there were some nice walks in Cavehill country park so Martyn and I took a trip up to Belfast Castle as it was such a nice day. He had to be back for work so we would not have had time to do the longest of the waymarked trails, up over Cavehill itself to McArt's Fort and back down again. We will save that one for another day. Instead we did the medium walk round Belfast Castle estate, which takes about an hour and has some nice views. This one shows the view towards Bangor and you can just about make out the Copeland Islands in the background

 

For Dean

Here is one Dean took as Michael Rutter whizzed past. He was there at this year's Northwest 200 motorcycle race with my pal Gary. They had been given VIP tickets for the Corona enclosure

  

Away from it all

 

Who wouldn't like to wake up to this early morning view of the River Quoile in Downpatrick? 

British Summer Time

This was taken yesterday on a walk along the beach from Groomsport out towards Donaghadee. It was cold, grey, wet and windy and I got well soaked - still better than sitting in watching Sunday afternooon TV though. The guys in the yachts looked to be having a lot of fun

  

BALLS

Well, not actually balls as such, just the seed head of a dandelion

  

Strangford Divers

These guys were just about to start their dive when I walked by. This was taken from the single track coast road which runs past the Strangford ferry dock and comes out just below Kircubbin on the Ards peninsula

  

North coast

 

This picture is of the white cliffs near Portrush. The area was busy this weekend with the Northwest 200 motorcycle race taking place. Gary and Dean had my camera with them and took a lot of photos so I'll post some when I get them sorted 

What's the time?

Dean telling the time with a dandelion 'clock'

  

Flutterby

 
Waiting for him to land (and stay landed) was a problem, as was getting close enough to take this. Seconds after I got this picture he was off again 

Staying close to home

Martyn normally comes for a walk with me on a Sunday but he had an essay to do for uni so Dean vlounteered to come instead. He didn't want to go too far so he suggested Helen's Bay. We walked from Grey Point to Marino and back. We were poking about in a rock pool looking for crabs when this little fishing boat went past.You can see Carrickfergus Castle in the background

  

North Coast

We took a run up to Glenariff on May Day and had a walk through the forest. On the way back stopped at the white cliffs beach and grabbed a few photos of the sunset  

Whitehead Lighthouse (look Martyn, you can see our house from here)

It was a lovely day so Martyn and I took a walk along the cliff path at Whitehead. I didn't mind the first part of the walk (along the coastal path), or even the ascent up the steps, but I was not fond of looking down from the top of the cliffs!

 

The world's shortest canal?

These locks at Lisburn Civic Centre allow boats to pass by the weir on the River Lagan and go a short distance upstream or downstream but not much further. Martyn and I were able to travel a far greater distance by walking along the old Lagan Canal towpath. We started from Ballyskeagh and walked to Lisburn then back. Just to the right of where this photo was taken is the statue of Dr Frank Pantridge (inventor of the portable defibrillator). The statue itself is unremarkable, however the glasses are really old fashioned - obviously they couldn't go to specsavers in those days

The Weather Watching Camera

On UTV they post photos of obscure towns and villages with even more weird and wonderful 'clues' by Frank Mitchell and you have to guess the place name. Even the best known town and village names become totally unrecognisable when introduced by these clues! Anyway, here is my own WWC post - this is the River Bann at Portglenone, another dawn shot. My job means that a lot of my photos are taken early in the morning when I'm out and about 

Size does matter

This is a crop of a moorhen on her nest. I couldn't get any closer with the 28-80mm lens on the camera. My 70-3oomm zoom would have got me a much closer view , proof indeed that size does matter 

Continuation

This week I took up where I left off last week. Starting from Ballyskeagh I walked towards Belfast and went as far as Sir Thomas and lady Dixon park where I spotted these daffodils, a nice change from yellow I thought 

Time for a well earned rest

I could have done with one of these this week as it has been extremely busy in work. 

Towpath in the rain