Last post of 2009

This is it - the last post of the year 2009. In it I just want to include a couple of pictures that I took yesterday in Belfast. I went up there on a day trip from Dublin. I suppose I was looking for a change of scenery - something different.

The two cities are really not that far apart - Belfast is only 100 miles away and it doesn't take too long to drive on the motorway.



All that remains to say is I hope 2009 was good for you and that 2010 will be even better.

Cold, cold, cold

I left Cork on the 23 December to come to Dublin for Christmas. The weather in Cork was already turning nasty. It was getting colder and colder and ice was appearing everywhere - on my car roof as you can see and on the footpath outside my house which was scary. I had to walk on the road and that's dangerous at the best of times.

On the drive back to Dublin I stopped and took a photo of this field that I thought looked amazing. The light sprinkling of frost makes it look great I think.

Weird food

I don't know - maybe this is normal but I was surprised when I recently found ice on my egg!!

Icy egg!


The other day I cracked the shell on a hard boiled egg that was left in the fridge to keep it fresh. Yes ice just under the shell. It was in a dish under the freezer compartment in the fridge and that's probably where it came from. Another surprise I found was a clove of garlic that started to sprout fresh growth.

Garlic - growing a new one!

Musée Bourdelle, Paris

While in Paris in the summer of 2008, I visited the Musée Bourdelle. There, you can see the work of of the French sculptor Antoine Bourdelle. As far as I know the museum is located where he lived and had his workshop.

The museum houses lots of models of his sculptures and the actual sculptures themselves and is near the massive Gare Montparnasse. The museum building is nearly as nice as the work collected there. It's a very simple, minimalist building so it doesn't overshadow the work on display. Go and see for yourself at 18, rue Antoine Bourdelle, 75015 Paris.

It's cold out there

I know it's snowing heavily in many places all over Europe, but it's not here yet. It is cold though. As you can see from these photos I took the other morning the fog makes things look different.

Cork is getting ready for Christmas

As you can see there are lots of signs around the city that santy is on his way.

Cork - back to normal?

I drove back to Cork from Dublin on Sunday 29 November '09. I heard that the water had been turned back on after it had been turned off following the floods. Yes it was back on, and a little colourful!!! when I turned it on at first. It soon turned crystal clear though, thankfully.

On the radio the other day I heard that flood warnings are in place this weekend 5 / 6th December. Some people in the city still have sand bags outside their houses and shops just in case.

The weather is still mostly rotten here, ie ; lots of rain and very cold too. Having said that, there is a good Christmas spirit around the city. There are lots of festive decorations and trees around the place and on Grand Parade the council have set up a christmas market. Today, when I went there there was a band playing music to get people in the mood. Let's just hope that we can get rid of the sand bags.