After the storms , Poem By : Boris Pasternak
Storm clouds over County Kilkenny
Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
After The Storm
By : Boris Pasternak
The air is full of after-thunder freshness,
And everything rejoices and revives.
With the whole outburst of its purple clusters
The lilac drinks the air of paradise.
The gutters overflow; the change of weather
Makes all you see appear alive and new.
Meanwhile the shades of sky are growing lighter,
Beyond the blackest cloud the height is blue.
An artist’s hand, with mastery still greater
Wipes dirt and dust off objects in his path.
Reality and life, the past and present,
Emerge transformed out of his colour-bath.
.
The memory of over half a lifetime
Like swiftly passing thunder dies away.
The century is no more under wardship:
High time to let the future have its say.
It is not revolutions and upheavals
That clear the road to new and better days,
But revelations, lavishness and torments
Of someone’s soul, inspired and ablaze.
My Secret Spot on the Beach, a Poem and images.
Images of an Irish beach
Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
My Secret Spot on the Beach
To a few I showed my secret Spot,
To many I reveal it is on The Beach,
In Waterford, still without my help,
none may find, because is called mine,
My hidden Beach Spot
Its open, its free, yet guarded and protected
All can find, all can see, but beyond the vision,
belongs to me, My Secret Spot,
On the Beach, in Waterford…
A friend I call to Show my Paradise,
and share the secret rooted
inside my heart, with all my soul,
My loved Beach spot,
Loved , and so very special to me!
The Unnamed Lake, Poem by : Frederick George Scott (1861-1944)
The Unnamed Lake,Comeragh Mountains,Co.Waterford
Irish Landscape Photography
The Unnamed Lake
By : Frederick George Scott (1861-1944)
IT sleeps among the thousand hills
Where no man ever trod,
And only nature’s music fills
The silences of God.
Great mountains tower above its shore,
Green rushes fringe its brim,
And o’er its breast for evermore
The wanton breezes skim.
Dark clouds that intercept the sun
Go there in Spring to weep,
And there, when Autumn days are done,
White mists lie down to sleep.
Sunrise and sunset crown with gold
The peaks of ageless stone,
Where winds have thundered from of old
And storms have set their throne.
.
No echoes of the world afar
Disturb it night or day,
The sun and shadow, moon and star
Pass and repass for aye.
‘Twas in the grey of early dawn,
When first the lake we spied,
And fragments of a cloud were drawn
Half down the mountain side.
Along the shore a heron flew,
And from a speck on high,
That hovered in the deepening blue,
We heard the fish-hawk’s cry.
Among the cloud-capt solitudes,
No sound the silence broke,
Save when, in whispers down the woods,
The guardian mountains spoke.
.
Through tangled brush and dewy brake,
Returning whence we came,
We passed in silence, and the lake
We left without a name.
Rivers flow, Image Gallery
A Rivers flow
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Just standing and watching the flow of a river when I am out walking I find an amazing thing to do , I love the challenge of capturing it even more. Placing a camera on a tripod and using a slow shutter speed about one second or so, it is not a technically difficult thing to do but getting a good composition is a little harder. I love the processing of searching out the best location in the river to place the camera and its usually well worth the time and effort.
I really enjoyed getting the images in this post and its a pleasure to share them.
Gallery
Irish photography – Irish rivers
River Nore, Thomastown, County Kilkenny
Digital Infra-red image
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
County KIlkenny’s rivers
The River Nore, one of the three sisters.
The River Nore, is a 140-kilometre (87 mi) long river located in south-east of Ireland. Along with the River Suir and River Barrow, it is one of the constituent rivers of the group known as the Three Sisters.
The river drains approximately 977 square kilometres (377 sq mi) of Leinster. The river rises in the Devil’s Bit Mountain, North Tipperary. Flowing generally southeast, and then south, before emptying into the Celtic Sea at Waterford Harbour, Waterford.
Kilkenny landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
The Sea Of Time, Poem by Robert Crawford
Images of the Waterford coast.
Infra-red photography
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
The Sea Of Time.
by Robert Crawford
On that strange sea
Where Man’s bark moves as toward eternity,
What sails put forth that are not seen again!
So joyous it may be, or in pain,
The mariner doth drive still on and on
Beneath no mortal star,
And to no mortal port — as one
Who may but anchor somewhere so afar,
.
Not himself wrecks if he shall reach no more
In that tremendous sea another shore:
He is so like a wave himself at last,
He would toss through the future as the past —
But tethered as a whale is to a wave,
So he might still the one life have
Through all the changes that may be
On that tremendous sea!
The Cattle of Tullaghought hill
Nikon D700
The Cattle on Tullaghought hill
Irish Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
One Sunday during the summer I walked to the top of the hill at Tullaghought, County Kilkenny, in order to get some photographs of the stone circle that sits on it.
Well on arriving at the circle some cattle who had followed me through the fields then decided to graze around the circle for some two hours before the headed off down the hill-side. In the end I did get some images that I was very happy with, including the last image in this set.
It was great fun sitting and waiting and looking at the great landscape of Kilkenny.
Its the weekend so… (20 images)
Images for the Weekend
Irish Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
It’s the weekend so why not put on some walking shoes and get outside into the country, walk for as long as you like and lose yourself in the Landscape.
Images for the weekend a Gallery
Sunday evening Poem
Fuji film x100
Kilkenny landscape view
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Today is the tomorrow
By Neol Cronin
Always on the horizon but never here,
Travelling towards, but never near,
Never sure of what’s in store
No matter what, we will always want more.
Tomorrow’s a day, full of great hope,
Because maybe today, we just cannot cope.
Tomorrow is the day, to us no-one can give.
Tomorrow is the day, we will never live.
.
Our being is the present, the here and now.
Our hope – is tomorrow, somewhere, somehow
Tomorrow’s the pipedream, we have today
Today is the tomorrow, we sought yesterday.
Rosslare Habour, county wexford, a week on the beach
All images taken with a Nikon D300
A week on Rosslare beach, county wexford
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Rosslare Holiday Resort is located in the South east of Wexford and has some of the best hours of sunshine in Ireland, Along with having one of Ireland’s small but best used ferry ports it is also visited by many people for holidays or day trips to the wonderful beach.
We stayed here back in 2008 for a wonderful week and walked ourselves and Molly our Golden retriever along the beach each day. She made many new friends with people and dogs during her time here, managing to get them to entertain her in the sea for hours.
I really enjoyed watching so many people enjoy themselves here, walking along the beach, swimming, and exercising themselves and there dogs.
Rosslare beach people and dogs, Gallery
Wild Mushrooms in the Irish woodlands.
All images using a Fujifilm X100
Autumn Mushrooms at Woodstock, County Kilkenny
Irish Nature and landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
On Saturday while walking through the woodlands above the River Barrow, Woodstock, Inistioge in county Kilkenny. At the back of a farm yard I came across these Mushrooms growing in the ground of the woodland.
At this time of year just as the Autumn is taking a hold the local woodlands come to life with all kinds of Mushrooms, I managed to get the below pictures and intend to go hunting for more during the week and next weekend.
The Image above is of Shaggy ink cap (Coprinus comatus) Mushrooms and below are Sulphur Tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare) mushrooms .
Irish wild mushrooms, Gallery
Who Has Seen the Wind ?
Who Has Seen the Wind
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Who Has Seen the Wind?
By Christina Rossetti
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
Source: The Golden Book of Poetry (1947)
Autumn on the lakes of Killarney
Images taken using a Nikon D700
Autumn on the lakes of Killarney
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Out on the lakes of Killarney, Autumn time and colours
Autumn time in Ireland is a wonderful time to be a photographer or an artist, the landscape comes alive with colour.
There are many locations to be captured but one place I always think of at this time of year is the lakes at Killarney. It is possible to do boat trips around the lakes here almost all year around and hiring a small boat is great fun.
These images were taken last October time, most are taken from the boat you can see in the first image with some taken on parts of the banks of the lake that would just not reachable with out use of this boats.
It’s great fun to do something like this packing an lunch, loading a camera and tripod in to the boat and just heading off for the day.
The lakes of Killarney, an Autumn gallery
Kilkenny photography
Fuji film x100
Mullins Mill, Kells, country kilkenny
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Mullins Mill, Kells, country kilkenny
One feature of the landscape around county kilkenny is it’s old mills, the main river flowing through the county is the river Nore , the county however also has many smaller rivers, including the Kings river that flows from the Slieveardagh Hills in South Tipperary to the river Nore at stoneyford.
Along many of the rivers in county kilkenny you will find the remains of a once thriving milling industry that has long since stop any production, Most of these building however still stand today and some have been very well perserved.
Mullins Mill (Pictured here) in the town of Kells, has to be one of the best such example
Frosty Morning at Mullins Mill, Kells, Co.Kilkenny : Nigel Borrington
Autumnal Equinox – Sunday
Autumnal Equinox sunset.
Irish landscape photography by Nigel Borrington
Sunday and today marks the autumnal equinox, the time when the day light and dark of the night are exactly equal.
Why is it called an Equinox?
On the equinox, night and day are nearly exactly the same length – 12 hours – all over the world. This is the reason it’s called an “equinox”, derived from Latin, meaning “equal night”/
The September equinox occurs the moment the sun crosses the celestial equator – the imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s equator – from north to south.
This happens either on September 22, 23, or 24 every year. On any other day of the year, the Earth’s axis tilts a little away from or towards the Sun. But on the two equinoxes, the Earth’s axis tilts neither away from nor towards the Sun.
So a happy Equinox to everyone !
Boat-men of the river Suir.
Fisher men and punts on the river Suir, County Tipperary
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Fishing on the River suir
The walk along the river Suir, County Tipperary is one of the best river walks in the south east of Ireland.
The river is used by many local people during the year but the fisher man are most probably it’s most common visitors, the River is renowned for its game angling, holding both salmon (Salmo salar) and brown trout (Salmo trutta).
I have taken many photographs of the fishermen here over the years alone with the boats they use for their fishing, these boats ( all made locally ) are used more like punts as the have a completely flat bottom and are moved along the river with a pole.
Fishing in Ireland : CLOCULLY TO CARRICK-ON-SUIR
The River Suir from Clocully to Carrick-on-Suir is a combination of deep pools, fast glides and varying widths and depths.
From Clocully to Ballydonagh, a consortium of private landowners control the angling, these are all private fisheries. This stretch also includes parts of the River Tar and River Nire, which contain good stocks of trout of up to 30 cm.
Fishing on the river Suir : Gallery
Monday morning – Sail boats on lake Windermere
Sail boats on Lake Windermere
Landscape photography by : Nigel Borrington
Monday Morning on Windermere
One September sometime ago, along with some friends we all hired a boat on Lake Windermere in The lake District.
I remember very well waking up on the first Monday morning, we had arrived late Saturday afternoon after a long drive up from north London. It had started to rain the moment we got out of the car and continued all of the day Sunday.
In a small boat you can hear every drop of rain but I remember waking on the Monday morning only to the sound of gulls and other birds.
I opened the door of the boat and this is the view I got, early morning mist still sitting on the surface of the lake but the sun was burning it’s way slowly through. The rest of the week was one of the best September weeks, weather wise – that you could have wished for.
Sailing On lake Windermere, well it’s is just one of the best holidays you can have.
Its the weekend so……
All images, using a nikon Dslr.
Allihies, west cork
Irish landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Its the weekend so why not find a coastal village to stay in, take time to look at the views, watch the sun go down and relax ……..
James Hoban – Spirit of place
Nikon D7000 and Sigma SD15
Spirit of place, James Hoban Memorial, Callan county Kilkenny
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
James Hoban was from the Desart estate, near Callan county Kilkenny and is the architect of the White House (late-1793 or early-1794).
In 2008, 24 architecture students from the a University in Washington DC completed the memorial “Spirit of place” in his honour. I took the photographs posted here in 2011, one very clear night and then the last image on a evening last spring.
From : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hoban
“James Hoban was raised on an estate belonging to the Earl of Desart in Cuffesgrange, near Callan in County Kilkenny. He worked there as a wheelwright and carpenter until his early twenties, when he was given an ‘advanced student’ place in the Dublin Society’s Drawing School on Lower Grafton Street.
He excelled in his studies and received the prestigious Duke of Leinster’s medal for drawings of “Brackets, Stairs, and Roofs.” from the Dublin Society in 1780. Later Hoban found a position as an apprentice to the headmaster of the Dublin Society School the Cork-born architect Thomas Ivory from 1779? to 1785 .
Following the American Revolutionary War, Hoban immigrated to the United States, and established himself as an architect in Philadelphia in 1785.[1]
Charleston County Courthouse, Charleston, SC (1790-92), James Hoban, architect.
Hoban’s amended elevation of the White House (late-1793 or early-1794).
Hoban was in South Carolina by April 1787, where he designed numerous buildings including the Charleston County Courthouse (1790–92), built on the ruins of the former South Carolina Statehouse (1753, burned 1788). President Washington admired Hoban’s work on his Southern Tour, may have met with him in Charleston in May 1791, and summoned the architect to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (the temporary national capital) in June 1792.
In July 1792, Hoban was named winner of the design competition for the White House.[4] His initial design seems to have had a 3-story facade, 9 bays across (like the Charleston courthouse). Under Washington’s influence, Hoban amended this to a 2-story facade, 11 bays across, and, at Washington’s insistence, the whole presidential mansion was faced with stone. It is unclear whether any of Hoban’s surviving drawings are actually from the competition.
Hoban was also one of the supervising architects who served on the Capitol, carrying out the design of Dr. William Thornton.
Hoban lived the rest of his life in Washington, D.C., where he worked on other public buildings and government projects, including roads and bridges. He also designed Rossenarra House near the village of Kilmoganny in Kilkenny, Ireland in 1824.
Hoban’s wife Susanna Sewall was the daughter of the prominent Georgetown “City Tavern” proprietor.
Hoban was also involved in the development of Catholic institutions in the city, including Georgetown University (where his son was a member of the Jesuit community), St. Patrick’s Parish, and the Visitation Convent founded by another Kilkenny native, Teresa Lalor of Ballyragget.
Hoban died in Washington, D.C. on December 8, 1831. He is buried at historic Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C.”
A Spirit of place
Where the Rivers Flow
Sigma SD15, 15-30mm lens, ISO 50
River Barrow, County Kilkenny
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Where the Rivers Flow
By : Monique Sapla
Have you ever wondered,
Where do the rivers flow
Do they flow forever,
Where does the water go.
Do rivers somewhere finish,
Where does a river start
Do all lead to the ocean,
Or do they break apart.
Someday I’d like to follow,
A river to its end
I’d run to the horizon,
Through fields and around bends.
Have you ever wondered,
Where do the rivers flow
Do they go on forever
Someday I’d like to know
Castlerigg stone circle, Keswick in Cumbria, September Equinox
Castlerigg stone circle, Keswick in Cumbria
Landscape photography, Nigel Borrington
September Equinox, 22nd of September
There are two equinoxes every year – in September and March – when the sun shines directly on the equator and the length of day and night is nearly equal. Seasons are opposite on either side of the equator, so the equinox in September is also known as the “autumnal (fall) equinox” in the northern hemisphere. However, in the southern hemisphere, it’s known as the “spring (vernal) equinox”.
The Earth’s postion during the September equinox (ill. not to scale).
September Equinox in Kilkenny, Ireland is on the
Sunday, 22 September 2013, 21:44 IST
Castlerigg stone circle
The stone circle at Castlerigg (alt. Keswick Carles, Carles, Carsles or Castle-rig) is situated near Keswick in Cumbria, North West England. One of around 1,300 stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany, it was constructed as a part of a megalithic tradition that lasted from 3,300 to 900 BCE, during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages.
Various archaeologists have commented positively on the beauty and romance of the Castlerigg ring and its natural environment. In his study of the stone circles of Cumbria, archaeologist John Waterhouse commented that the site was “one of the most visually impressive prehistoric monuments in Britain.”
Every year, thousands of tourists travel to the site, making it the most visited stone circle in Cumbria. This plateau forms the raised centre of a natural amphitheatre created by the surrounding fells and from within the circle it is possible to see some of the highest peaks in Cumbria: Helvellyn, Skiddaw, Grasmoor and Blencathra.
Dunmore east, county Waterford
Dunmore east, fishing village in County Waterford, Ireland.
All images using a Fujifilm x100
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Dunmore east is one of my favourite places in Ireland to visit with a camera, its fishing harbour is the countries second busiest and on the day the fish is landed for the fish-market, it is full of life and colour with the boats all being in port.
The day I went down to capture these images I took my then new fuji-film X100 and took many images along the quays, the following gallery I hope captures a sense of this wonderful place to visit and take photographs.
Dunmore east, image Gallery
Milk hill, Nire Valley, County Waterford
Milk hill, Nire valley, county Waterford.
Irish photography, Irish Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Black and white photography remains one of by biggest photographic interests, I just love the tones that can be developed from some landscape images.
The day I took this image the weather was very mixed with showers and strong sunny intervals, this allowed for very mixed lighting on the fields below in the Nire Valley, Waterford. I processed this black and white image from the original colour photo sometime later, I just love the strong contrasts and tone produced.
On Contemplating a Sheep’s Skull ~ Poem by: John Kinsella
All images taken in the Nier valley, county waterford
Fujifilm X100
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
On Contemplating a Sheep’s Skull
Poem by John Kinsella
A sheep’s Skull aged so much in rain and heat,
broken jawbone and chipped teeth half-
gnaw soil; zippered fuse-mark tracks
back to front, runs through to base
of neck, widening faultline under
stress: final crack close at hand.
Skull I can’t bring myself to move.
White-out red soil unearthed
from hillside fox den and cat haven,
now hideaway for short-beaked echidna
toppling rocks and stones, disrupting
artfulness a spirit might impose,
frisson at seeing counterpoint.
Skull I can’t bring myself to move.
Sometimes avoid the spot to avoid
looking half-hearted into its sole
remaining eye socket; mentally to join
bones strewn downhill, come apart
or torn from mountings years before
arriving with good intentions.
Skull I can’t bring myself to move.
Not something you can ‘clean up’,
shape of skull is not a measure of all
it contained: weight of light and dark,
scales of sound, vast and varied taste
of all grass eaten from these hills;
slow and steady gnawing at soil.
Skull I can’t bring myself to move.
Neither herbivore nor carnivore,
earth and sky-eater, fire in its shout
or whisper, racing through to leave a bed
of ash on which the mind might rest,
drinking sun and light and smoke,
choked up with experience.
Skull I can’t bring myself to move.
Drawn to examine
despite aversion, consider
our head on its shoulders,
drawn expression
greeting loved ones
with arms outstretched.
John Kinsella is Founding editor of the journal Salt in Australia; he serves as international editor at the Kenyon Review. His most recent volume of poetry is Divine Comedy: Journeys through a Regional Geography (W. W. Norton) with a new volume, Disturbed Ground: Jam Tree Gully/Walden, due out with W.W. Norton in November 2011.
Nigel Borrington 
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