Long time no see

I've been on holidays, busy with work etc. etc. so I suppose it's time I posted a picture

Albufeira, Algarve

Not enough time

Martyn with his brace of Pheasant

I've been very busy with work lately and Martyn has been studying for his end of year exams at Queen's so we haven't had any walks, resulting in a distinct lack of pictures. He has now finished for the summer so come hell or high water we hope to get out and about again soon. This is a photo I took a few weeks ago when we were given these pheasant - made a lovely Sunday dinner

Prehistoric

This is Goward Dolmen, located near Castlewellan in The Mourne mountains. It's miles from anywhere, up a dusty farm track, and it's not the sort of place you'd find unless you were actually looking for it. Unfortunately Martyn and I didn't get a chance to pick the day we travelled and the light was crap. There was really strong sunshine backlighting the Dolmen making for a very contrasty picture. It looked bad in colour, but converting it to black & white helped slightly

Having a 'Senior' moment

Just looking back I noticed my very first blog post was 6th March 2006. Oops, I forgot my 1st blogging birthday. I'll put it down to a 'Senior' moment (If I had any hair I could maybe have got away with the 'Blonde' excuse)

More North Coast

I was off work this week and so decided to have another photo trip. This is a photo of Ballintoy Harbour, one of those places you would pass often enough, but never think of stopping for a look. So I did stop for a look, and a walk, and I got some nice photos

The Dark Hedges

This picturesque country lane is near the village of Armoy in the Glens of Antrim (on Bregagh Road leading to Gracehill Golf club). It is known locally as The Dark Hedges

New website

I finally got around to updating my website, which now serves to point people in the direction of this blog and my Cranley Photos gallery at Photobox. Hopefully this will make things a lot simpler to maintain so that I can spend more time actually taking photographs and less time trying to keep my websites up to date. The new website is here

Who ya gonna vote for?

Almost without exception, none of the muppets we have currently 'working' for us in Stormont are any use at, or for, anything at all [nor indeed are any of our local councillors in North Down come to think of it]. But 'you voted them in' I hear you say. Unfortunately that is true but as usual we can only vote for the same old faces. My vote will go to whoever takes the time to call at my door and explain their point of view to me. So far none of them have bothered, though I have enough of their leaflets to fill my blue recycling bin. I'd like to vote for one of the 'new' faces that are appearing but they too seem content just to shove a leaflet in my letter box, though one or two of them seem to at least have some fresh ideas. Anyway, I have an idea! Maybe we should get the chance to vote for who we don't want in, rather than who we do - that'd shake a few of them up

Glenoe Revisited

I was travelling back from Larne and I happened to have my camera in the car, so I stopped at Glenoe to get this picture of the waterfall in full winter flood

No Snow

I was heading to Newcastle early the other morning and the nice weather people had said we may get snow. Unfortunately we didn't however the Mourne Mountains looked nice with a little dusting of frost

New website

I've decided maintaining a website, keeping a blog updated and trying to look after my hundreds of photos is all too much like hard work, and I would rather spend the time out walking with my camera, so I have decided to create a new 'static' website which won't need updated often. It will have links to this blog and to my most recent photos. Watch this space!

Christmas present

Minime had fun on Christmas Day playing with the boxes and wrapping paper

Minime

This is the latest addition to our family. We call him Minime because he is a mini version of our other cat Mars. Minime is a hyperactive nut case as you can see by this photo. All my other photos are blurry because he will not sit still long enough for me to take his picture

  

Marie Curie Ladies Driving Challenge 2006

This took place as usual at the Kirkistown race track (Lower Ards peninsula, Co. Down) on Saturday 21st October. The event was due to start at 10am and when we were getting the vehicles checked at about 8.15 in the sky got really dark and it started emptying out of the heavens. Fortunately it dried up in time for the competitors arriving and it turned out to be sunny and warm for the rest of the day. Marie Curie is a very worthy cause and on the day the total amount raised was in the region of £35, 000 - the best year so far. More photos from this year are here and last year's are here. As usual the event was marshalled by the Northern Ireland Advanced Motorists

  

Clandeboye Wood

This is a place Martyn and I will probably be in quite a lot over the next while because Autumn and Winter are the best seasons for getting photos there. In addition I want to get up early some morning to capture some pictures of the swans on the misty lake. It must be the weather, but today's walk proved to be something of a shroomfest. My eyes are not old and dim yet...I spied these little guys growing on a tree near the lake. Cranley Photos has pictures of some of the other ones we spotted.


  

60,000 (Follow -up)

I passed 62,000 miles today, 4 weeks after hitting the 60,000 so I guess at around 500 miles a week the car has been round the clock a couple of times. Maybe the boss will get me a new one?

Portmuck

This is the village of Portmuck,Islandmagee,on the Antrim coast near Larne. Martyn and I went for a walk from Brown's Bay along the Skernaghan Point path (National Trust). When we returned we followed the coastal route in the car, arriving at Portmuck. We had another quick walk along the clifftop grabbing some photos as we went, and had just returned to the car when heavy cloud descended and the rain came on putting a stop to any further photography

Portmuck Harbour with the Isle of Muck in the background

 

Cranley Photos

I take a lot of photographs and although I'm not a pro some of them are of good enough quality to sell. I've had enlargments done at Photobox and I'm well pleased with the way they came out. In order to try to offset some of my own printing costs I set up a 'pro' gallery in the hope of maybe selling a few at Cranley Photos. I've put a link here on my blog (opposite) as well. You never know, I might strike lucky

Smallest church in Ireland

This is St Gobban's Church in Port Braddan on Antrim's North coast, reputed to be the smallest church in Ireland. From here you can head towards Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge and the village of Ballintoy, in one direction, or towards Whitepark Bay and the Giant's Causeway in the other direction

  

A splash of colour

Today I went for a walk at Whitehead, Co. Antrim. Last time Martyn and I were there we headed towards the lighthouse, so this time I decided to go the other direction towards Carrickfergus. The walk turned out to be a lot shorter because the path sort of comes to a dead end just around the headland. I took a dander up through the old quarry on my way back to the car. This picture was taken just after that as I arrived back at the promenade