Favourite Things Thursday

I had no trouble deciding on the subject for my Favourite Things post this week.

DUNGLOE is a friendly small town - rapidly growing bigger. It is the town that has given a home and friendship to me and my family.

It's Festival week here!

I'm starting with a photo I've posted before, but I like it enough to show it again.

Dungloe Lake, or part of it, where various gentle water-based competitions take place.

Main Street, before the Festival started. The ladders and scaffolding have now been removed from the building on the right.

This pump stands at the top of the street. There used to be a lot of these, but now every home has piped water. In spite of that, I believe this pump can still be worked!

This is the newly-named Cope Street. The Cope started life as an agricultural co-operative, and it grew!
On the right is the new food hall, on the left is the clothing section. Walking along Cope Street towards the distant car park, we pass the sports department on the right and the furniture shop on the left.

We also pass this decorated window.

And the now unveiled statue of
Paddy the Cope
or Patrick Gallagher, the man who gathered some friends to start the
Templecrone Co-operative Society.

Favourite Things Thursday is hosted by Blue.
See her for more to enjoy.

ABC Wednesday - B

ABC Wednesday again, and

B

is for

BELEMNITE

Another fossil, this time the back end of a squid-like creature.
If you want to know more, read about it here.

This shows the groove in the back end.

And here is where this part broke away from the rest before becoming a fossil. If you look very closely you may be able to see radial markings in the outer casing (which would have been the inner skeleton of the creature.)

I find fossils fascinating. Firstly for their age - the numbers are almost too big for me to take in - and secondly for what they tell us about early life on this beautiful planet of ours.

Maybe I should have continued with the Dungloe theme today, but I'd planned this post weeks ago and I wanted to use it. I hope you'll forgive me.

For more B posts this week you have two choices.
Visit the new ABC Wednesday site, or check out Mrs Nesbitt's Place.
Or why not do both?

Two Fer Tuesday

Two Fer Tuesday is Jonna's great idea.
Pay her a visit to see her fascinating entry, and for links to other participants.

If you feel like joining in, the rules are simple:

Two fer Tuesday is easy. You just have to post about a pair of photos that have a theme, like Autumn, cars, a trip. The theme can be of your choosing. The theme may be direct or implied. You must explain how they are related, if implied. You must post at least 2. If you must post more than 2, they must be in pairs.

This week I'm trying to fit my posts into our local Festival.

Visitors of all kinds come from all over, and the streets are packed.

This visitor came on slightly different transport - a Lambretta scooter with a sidecar attached!
He's left his jacket draped artistically over the convenient coat hanger provided by the handlebars.

This second photo shows how small the scooter is compared with the car behind which it's parked.

I would not like to meet one of the big lorries while riding this!
The poor thing has seen better days, but it's still running.
It's a travelling museum-piece!

Odd Shots On Monday

This feller's just standing around all wrapped up!

He's getting ready for the Festival.

Odd Shots on Monday is hosted by
Katney.
Visit her for more Odd photos!

Camera Critters

Camera Critters was Misty's great idea.

This Large Tortoiseshell butterfly kept fluttering ahead as I walked with my dog. I finally managed to take this photo using my camera-phone at arm's length while being pulled hard in the opposite direction - I'm not allowed to pay attention to any other critter while dog-walking!

Visit the Camera Critters page for a load of links to lovely critters.
Enjoy your Sunday.

Saturday PhotoHunt - Hanging.

This week's theme for Saturday PhotoHunt is

HANGING

Today sees the start of our week-long Mary from Dungloe festival, and so Main Street is full of hanging bunting.

There are also plenty of hanging baskets, full of flowers.

Everything looks at its best, to cheer locals and to greet the many visitors who pour in from all over the world.

Enjoy your holidays, those of you in the Northern Hemisphere,
and Happy Hunting.

Visit TNChick for more participants.

Sky Watch Friday

My Sky Watch photo this week was taken on Wednesday just after 9.30pm.
Sunset is already slightly earlier than it was!

For more sky pictures, visit the new home of
Sky Watch Friday.
Join in, or just enjoy the views!

Favourite Things Thursday

This week I want to show you two very important
Favourite Things.
Without these my blog would look very plain.

First, my camera-phone.

My Sony Ericsson K800i
It has a Sony Cybershot 3.2 megapixel camera.
It goes with me everywhere, in pocket or handbag, whereas it's not always possible to take my larger camera.
It won't do detailed photography, but it does very well, and it means that I'm never without a camera.
It took these next photos.

This is my Fujifilm FinePix S5000.
It's an old camera now, as these things go. Stephen bought it about four and a half years ago. When he upgraded to an absolutely delicious (drool!) new model, he very kindly gave me this.
All my photos are now taken with these two cameras.
I'd be lost without them.

For more Thursday favourites, visit
Blue
who hosts this event.

Gordon Brown and the Despatch Box

Just visited Blaney's Blarney and read about Gordon Brown's habit of thumping the Despatch Box when he speaks. I'm not about to take issue with the thumping, but it seems he holds a pen in his hand while doing so. This leaves black ink marks over everything.

I've met two people like that. One poked at a lacy tablecloth with a ball-point pen, the other poked at my books. Neither made it onto my list of close friends.

I live in Ireland, so Gordon Brown isn't really my problem. But I have to ask why the kind of person that can't be trusted with your books should be trusted with your country.

ABC Wednesday - A

Today is the start of Round 3 of ABC Wednesday.

Starting back again with letter A

ABC Wednesday now has a new home, with everyone's entries on the one page.
Click any link to visit.

My post is over there, but I've left a "teaser" here for my valued readers.

This is my entry, but taken from an unusual angle.
Any guesses?
Pop on over to find out.
If you're short of time, my entry is here,
but there are many others worth seeing.
Try to view some of them.

Two Fer Tuesday

I am so late today!

I couldn't miss though, so better late than never as they say.

Some of you may have seen this first photo before, as I think both my husband and my son have posted it, but I'm making no excuses for posting it now. I took it after all.
And this is actually my 200th post!

For the full story we have to go back in time to the end of April 2005, when we'd left the island and were renting a house from people who became friends.
Twice a day I walked our two dogs past our friends' stables and down the track onto the bogs. There they could run and play in safety.
I used to take crusts or sleepy apples to the ponies, who demanded a toll to let me pass their gate. Misty, the white pony, went away to find a husband, but failed to conceive. Rosie, the lovely 20 year old chestnut, was lonely, so a friend came to keep her company. This friend was a very small stallion. He obviously liked older ladies, and didn't let her height bother him. I used to watch him herding Rosie to an area where the path was about 18 inches above the rest of the field. Clever lad!

Anyway, as Rosie's time came closer, I checked her several times a day, but found nothing. Then one morning I went out with the dogs as usual, and I knew instantly that something was different.
Rosie came rapidly to the gate for her morning treat, but she was agitated. She'd come to the gate then run back towards a tree. There were clear signs that she'd given birth, but where was the foal?
With the dogs behaving beautifully, I went looking.
She'd had the foal in the open, below a hawthorn tree. When the foal tried to stand, it had slipped down a bank into the next field and ended in the heart of a huge bramble thicket.
This was something I couldn't manage alone, particularly with two dogs on leads. I rushed back to the house, shut the poor dogs in, grabbed cutters and gloves together with male help, and rushed back.
Now let me tell you that some of those briars were thicker than my thumbs! It took quite a time to cut enough away to free the foal,a beautiful filly, which was unable to stand at that time.
The first photo shows Stephen carrying the filly along the field and back to the gate.

And the second photo shows the reunited mother and daughter.

I'm sorry the light isn't better - the sun was still low enough to cast a lot of shadow. Rosie was so pleased to have her daughter back.

For more Two Fer Tuesday posts, visit
Jonna
who hosts this great idea.

Odd Shots On Monday

I present to you the first flower on one of the plants in the tiny water garden that used to be home to the seal head (had to move it, as the bowl became too full of plants!)

The shot is rather odd because the bowl is almost lost in the distance. This is a tall flower stem!

This little picture gives some idea of the length of the stem.

For more Odd Shots, please visit our hostess
Katney
and enjoy the fun.

More Critters -

though these are mostly not on camera just yet!

I've just found a very interesting blog. Richard Havers and his wife set up an owl nest box. Now they're having a busy time babysitting the nestlings.
Their adventures make fascinating reading.
Do pay him a visit if you get a chance.

Camera Critters

I'm running a bit late this week, but here I am now.

Two photos from the bird-table again.
Daddy greenfinch teaching his family how to find food!

Come on kids - down here!

That's right, now you've got it.

Camera Critters was started by Misty.
Loads of lovely pictures to see.

Saturday PhotoHunt - What IS that?

This week our entries must illustrate the question
"What is that?"

We were watching a film on DVD, and paused it to make a drink

We came back to see one of the cats watching the screen saver as it moved around the screen.
She looks as if that's just what she's thinking.

"What is that?"

For more questions, and maybe some answers, visit our host
tnchick.

Happy Hunting!

Sky Watch Friday

Taken on my camera-phone a couple of weeks ago, while on a morning walk with my dog.

For more sky views visit the new Sky Watch blog.
Have a good Friday.

Not Very Happy

This isn't my usual kind of post. I like my posts to be nice to look at - I like to add photos even if I'm not posting in a photo meme. Can't think of anything suitable at the moment.

Today is the day eldest daughter should be arriving to spend a few days. She's eager to cuddle her new niece and personally hug the proud parents.

Reaching this part of Ireland tends to require a great deal of planning. This time daughter opted for a flight to an airport just over the border, from which a family member could collect her by car. Simple, you would think.

No. The airport is closed for two days due to industrial action.

Now don't get me wrong. In disputes, when all else fails, the withdrawal of services can be the only option. I hope the unions concerned get whatever they can. But this time it really hurts. Daughter can no longer visit. Next flight in is not until Tuesday, by which time she would be nearly ready to leave. Various commitments mean her visit must be delayed for several weeks. I'm not happy.

Even the weather isn't happy!

I might have a photo after all.

This more or less expresses the way I feel!

Favourite Things Thursday

Thursday is for Favourite Things hosted by
Blue

I really like bells.
I showed you all one of my bells on Wednesday of last week.


So I thought I'd show you my other brass bells.

This is an Irish bell, bought locally several years ago. I was learning spinning at the time, so the depiction of the Irish lady with the large old-fashioned wheel was irresistible.

This windmill belonged to my sister. She gave it to me to join the collection.

Second daughter gave me this one, a Welsh lady knitting as she walks.

I have a couple of others, but my favourites at the moment are these brass bells.
I hope you like them.