When the fishing boats go out , Poem and Images, By L. M. Montgomery
When the fishing boats go out.
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
WHEN THE FISHING BOATS GO OUT
By L. M. Montgomery
WHEN the lucent skies of morning flush with dawning rose once more,
And waves of golden glory break adown the sunrise shore,
And o’er the arch of heaven pied films of vapor float.
There’s joyance and there’s freedom when the fishing boats go out.
The wind is blowing freshly up from far, uncharted caves,
And sending sparkling kisses o’er the brows of virgin waves,
While routed dawn-mists shiver–oh, far and fast they flee,
Pierced by the shafts of sunrise athwart the merry sea!
Behind us, fair, light-smitten hills in dappled splendor lie,
Before us the wide ocean runs to meet the limpid sky–
Our hearts are full of poignant life, and care has fled afar
As sweeps the white-winged fishing fleet across the harbor bar.
The sea is calling to us in a blithesome voice and free,
There’s keenest rapture on its breast and boundless liberty!
Each man is master of his craft, its gleaming sails out-blown,
And far behind him on the shore a home he calls his own.
Salt is the breath of ocean slopes and fresher blows the breeze,
And swifter still each bounding keel cuts through the combing seas,
Athwart our masts the shadows of the dipping sea-gulls float,
And all the water-world’s alive when the fishing boats go out.
Its a Wonderful, Wonderful Life in the Killarney National Park
Grounds Keepers House
Killarney National Park
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Life as a grounds keeper at the National Park of Killarney, must have been a hard one at times, however what a life this must have been working and living with these surroundings.
What a Wonderful, Wonderful life !
They say you get use too these views ?
Killarney National Park a Gallery
Its the weekend , Time to get out and walk and relax if you can …………
Slieve League Coastline
County Donegal
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Its the weekend so I just wanted to share one of my favorite places in Ireland, the coastal mountains of Slieve-League , County Donegal.
This location is one of the most Beautiful spots in Ireland, looking out directly towards county Sligo and its bay and in land along the coast towards Donegal city itself.
Landscape Locations such as this one are just amazing to visit and all so easy to take for granted, when ever I have to leave a spot like this I make an assumption that I will return one day soon, I know just like us all though , maybe not 🙂 .
So it’s the weekend, if you can get outside , visit your most loved places and don’t rush away back home !!!!!!
Independent Heart, A poem by : Jodie Moore
Independent Heart
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Independent Heart
Soft words you spoken
From the heart that is broken
I know deep inside
You have a level of independence
With a mystery of suspense
You are recovering
Waiting for someone
To catch on to the discovering
Of the real you
With a heart so true
Giving of your best
Expecting nothing less
While hurt is making amends
Leaning on loving friends
Accounted for in time you spend
With words you write
Not giving into a broken hearts flight
Staying strong
Carrying others like me along
by Jodie Moore
Irish Landscape Photography , the Killarney National Park – an image Gallery
Killarney National Park
Irish Landscape Photography
Nigel Borrington
The National park Killarney , county Kerry, is one of Ireland treasures as far as landscape photography is concerned.
The basic details of the park are as follows :
“Killarney National Park (Irish: Páirc Náisiúnta Chill Airne) is located beside the town of Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland. It was the first national park established in Ireland, created when Muckross Estate was donated to the Irish state in 1932. The park has since been substantially expanded and encompasses over 102.89 km2 (25,425 acres) of diverse ecology, including the Lakes of Killarney, oak and yew woodlands of international importance and mountain peaks. It has Ireland’s only native herd of red deer and the most extensive covering of native forest remaining in Ireland. The park is of high ecological value because of the quality, diversity, and extensiveness of many of its habitats and the wide variety of species that they accommodate, some of which are rare. The park was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1981.
The park forms part of a Special Area of Conservation.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service is responsible for the management and administration of the park.Nature conservation is the main objective of the park, and ecosystems in their natural state are highly valued. The park is also known for its beautiful scenery. Recreation and tourism amenities are also provided for.”
I have visited many times here over the last few years and hope to return for many more landscape images in the coming months.
On my last visit I did a full image study of Muckross Abbey – of which there is one image in the Gallery below. I will upload a full post next week on this fantastic place 🙂
Killarney National Park – Landscape image Gallery
The Unnamed Lake, Poem by : Frederick George Scott (1861-1944)
Irish Landscape Photography
Nigel Borrington
A Monday Morning Poem
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.
Irish Landscape Photography and a Poem “Secrets of the Forest” by : Wisteria Rose
Irish Landscape Photography,
Secrets of the forest
Nigel Borrington
Secrets of the Forest
There’s a dead tree connecting the earth to my heart,
And yet it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
One silver root, and four dark leaves.
A branch is at my neck,
And there is a leaf telling me secrets,
Gently in my left ear.
There are vines strung elegantly from trunk to my teeth
And I’ll play them for you.
The rain is the beat,
It’s the same as your pulse.
My blood runs cherry with every note.
Curraghchase Forest Park, Limerick
Curraghchase Forest Park, Limerick
County Cork, Ireland
Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Curraghchase Forest Park
One of my favorite places to visit in the winter months is Curraghchase Forest Park.
Curraghchase Forest Park is the woodland estate and lakes around the shell of the 18th century Curraghchase House, in County Limerick, home of poet Aubrey de Vere. It is now open as a state forest and park.
Originally, the name of the estate was Curragh (meaning bog) before it was changed to Curragh Chase by Sir Aubrey de Vere. Aubrey Thomas de Vere a poet and author, was born at Curragh Chase in 1814. Curragh Chase was acquired in 1957 by the Forestry Division and in the 1970s was established as a forest park.
There are several special areas of conservation in the park and Coillte is currently involved in restoring native woodlands to important sites in the park. There are 313 hectares of mixed woodland, 8km of multi-purpose way-marked trails. There are a number of looped way marked trails in the park to suit all visitors. They vary from the multi-access trails suitable for wheelchair users and family walkers to the longer Curragh and Glenisca trails suitable for those looking for more demanding walking and cycling.
Visitors to the park can also enjoy some other well-known Limerick attractions, such as the turrets and towers of the 19th century castle built by the Earl of Limerick. The little Kiltulla church nearby is said to date from the 9th or 10th centuries. Northwest of Curraghchase House is the ancient Killeen church.
There are also two children’s playgrounds, picnic and barbeque facilities.
Curraghchase Forest Park: Gallery
Kilkenny Landscape Photography
Kilkenny Landscape Photography
On the Forest Road
Nigel Borrington
Way back in the year, February 2014 our forests here in county KIlkenny lost a lot of their trees due to very bad storms with high winds, it has taken almost ten months to clear most of this damage but the task is almost complete.
While out walking yesterday I noticed that the last of the many forest areas had been cleared of it fallen trees, I guess this is a great point to reach as the job of planting many new trees can now begin.
Kilkenny Landscape Photography, on the forest road : Gallery
“Snow on snow”, a Winters Poem By : James Hart
Snow on Snow
St Mary’s church
County Carlow
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Snow on snow
By : James Hart
Snow on snow
Flakes gently falling
Like leaves from a tree
Asking permission
Before they land
On the snowflakes underneath
Each one different
Like leaves on a tree
A white carpet
Pure white till soiled
By children’s shoes
They love its touch
Ooo snowball fights
Snow doesn’t hurt
Snow is soft and forgiving
People hurt
They are selfish and cruel
So let it snow
Snow on snow on
Snow on snow
Winter in County Kilkenny, 4 landscape images from a Decembers day.
A Winters Day in December 2014
County Kilkenny
Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
These last few winter days in county Kilkenny have been very changeable, some mornings frosty and others wet and misty, I just love capturing these days.
December here is just wonderful for Landscape Photography with moody skies and misty forest walks.
Four images from a winters day in December: Gallery
A morning walk in December.
December in Ballykeefe, County Kilkenny
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
So far the early mornings this week, the first week of December 2014 have been perfect , bright clear blue sky’s, an overnight frost that has melted away by 9am leaving the fields and woodland paths very wet and damp.
One walk with molly I love doing on mornings like this is in Ballykeefe woods county Kilkenny, this is a circular walk around the nature reserve that slowly claiming to a viewing point at the top of the hill, the view here is just wonderful. There is a bench to sit on after the walk and the landscape views below are of all the farms between the these woods and the mountain of Slievenamon just across the county border from county Kilkenny and into county Tipperary.
The images below are from this walk and the last image shows the landscape views from the wooden bench at the top of the hill
Views from the Old Bridge , Landscape Gallery
Views from the old Bridge
GlenPatrick, County Waterford.
Irish Landscapes : Nigel Borrington
One of the walks I always love doing with Molly our Golden retriever is through the woods at Glenpatrick, County Waterford and up into the mountains above. There are some great old mountain paths here that wind their way through the Comeragh Mountains and the landscape views are just wonderful.
One place I love to stop and rest and let Molly swim for a while is at an old bridge, the images posted here are takes from this bridge, its a great spot on a sunny morning but wild on a stormy winters day.
Images from the Bridge : Gallery
Image processing using Andriod Tablet Software
Duncannon Beach
Landscape processed with Spadspeed
Nigel Borrington
For almost all of my digital image processing I use a combination of Photoshop or Paintshop-pro and aftershots-pro software, these applications are perfect to getting the best possible quality from you images. However what about times when you want to be a little more creative with your images, processing them in a more artistic fashion and then sending them to your facebook or blog moments after you have taken them.
Last Saturday I visited the coastal town of Duncannon in county Wexford and took some beach images using both a Fujifilm x100 and a Nuxus 7 Andriod Tablet with and used an app that I downloaded sometime back called Snapspeed to process them . This app is well known and used but I had not used it while at a location before, so decided to give it a go !!!
The images here are all processed using some of the filters and packages available in Spanspeed and I was impressed with how they looked after processing.
I think if your a landscape painter who paints raw outside this little app could give you some great ideas as to how you may end up paint the scene in-front of you. I also love the final images, this application is both great fun and also I feel could well be used to produce some great design images.
Snapspeed Gallery
Poetry By Mary Oliver : The Journey
Lifes Journey, Callan, County Kilkenny
Photography : Nigel Borrington
The Journey
Poetry
By
Mary Oliver
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save.
A Faithful Old Barn, a Poem By : Laura Lynch
The Barn, Bordeaux, France
Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
A Faithful Old Barn
By : Laura Lynch
Apr 28, 2012
Erect and secure, yet weathered and worn
Faithfully it stood surviving the storms.
Cracking and peeling … its colors are muted
Stubbornly standing yet obviously wounded.
Absorbing abuse for those in her shelter
Unobtrusively stands against all ghostly specter.
Sunrise behind the Knockmeal downs standing stone.
Sunrise behind the standing stone.
Knockmealdown Mountains.
County Waterford.
Irish landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Standing at the top of a hill in the knockmealdown mountains, county Waterford is this amazing standing stone, it rises about 2 meters from the ground. It must have been here for some four thousand years.
I took this images one morning just after sunrise while walking through these mountains that look down over the Waterford coastline.
I placed the rising Sun behind the stone as I wanted to capture the idea of the function of these stones, the tracking of the sun as it moved position on the horizon during the year.
Irish Landscape Photography : Moments on a woodland path in the heavy Autumn Rain.
Following the path, under the trees in the rain
Irish Landscape Photography
Nigel Borrington
This week is going to be very wet here in county Kilkenny, the forecast is for rain everyday, this is not the time however to put the camera away. These Autumn days in the Landscape can be just amazing for capturing wet and misty moments.
Yesterday While out walking our Dog Molly, the rain was falling in bucket loads (Very Heavily !!!), I stopped for a while under some trees that covered the path. These trees however stopped in just a few steps so I just waited to see if the rain slowed down a little before moving on. This was a great moment to capture so I took lots of images, trying to record just how wet it was with rain drops falling into puddles that had formed almost in no time at all.
It is so easy to say inside on days like this but walking in this weather is just amazing!
The images below are just some from these very wet moments.
On the path in the rain : Gallery
Irish landscape photography – in Black and White, a gallery
Waterford Coastline,
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
The Irish Landscape offers some of the most wonderful views in this part of Europe, with rolling mountains and rocky, spectacular coastlines, there are many forests and powerful flowing rivers.
One of the area’s of photography I love the most is black and white and I feel that the Irish landscape is made for black and white images, often the days are wet and stormy and dark. I feel that shooting images in black and white captures these atmospheric days very well. On good weather days in the summer months getting out early or late to capture the sun low in the sky also works very well in a black and white photograph.
Below are some of the black and white images I am most happy with, so far during 2014.
Irish landscape photography – Black and White Gallery
Images of Skellig Michael and ( Life The Way It Should Be, A Poem by : Taylor Jordao )
Skellig Michael and the Skellig islands
Irish Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Life The Way It Should Be
by : Taylor Jordao
Tell me what do you see
Purple, green, and gold,
Mountain peaks that touch the sky
Little black birds flying by
Sun setting in the west
Flowers in the east,
Calm, relaxing breeze
And forests filled with trees
Tell me what do you see
The sky starts to fade as night approaches
Animals will soon come out
The spring is ending without a doubt
Fall is coming near
Cold weather’s on its way,
Flowers start to die
Birds go south, bye bye.
Tell me what do you see
Happiness, love, and beauty,
Everyone is free
Life the way it should be.
The Autumnal equinox 2014 (Mabon)
autumnal equinox 2014 over Slievenamon, County Tipperary
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
What is the autumnal equinox
Our year is divided into four season’s(Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn), the starting date of these seasons is determined by the movement of the sun as our planet orbits around it with a little help by the tilt of the earth’s axis.
On the autumnal equinox, day and night are equally 12 hours long . As the Sun crosses the celestial equator going southward; it rises exactly due east and sets exactly due west.
From tomorrow we start the slow movement towards the winter season, marked my the shortest day , the 21st of December.
Autumnal equinox in the Pagan world.
The holiday of the autumnal equinox, Harvest Home, Mabon, the Feast of the Ingathering, Meán Fómhair or Alban Elfed (in Neo-Druid traditions), is a Pagan ritual of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth and a recognition of the need to share them to secure the blessings of the Goddess and the God during the coming winter months.
The name Mabon was coined by Aidan Kelly around 1970 as a reference to Mabon ap Modron, a character from Welsh mythology. Among the sabbats, it is the second of the three Pagan harvest festivals, preceded by Lammas / Lughnasadh and followed by Samhain.
Ref : Wheel of the Year
The secret Cove , Image and poem
Secret Cove Padstow bay,
Cornwall,
Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Secret Cove
I took my breath from a sea breeze
on its way to somewhere else.
I could sense where it had been
where summer is almost over
Beyond the cliff above the sea
A secret cove where spirits swim
a place no one ever sees
Timeless souls, their presence is felt
their breath upon the breeze.
About Meditation and Landscape
Waterfall at Glengarriff Nature Reserve
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
About Landscape and meditation
The concept of Meditation is of a big interest to many people, some maybe religious some not.
To myself the process of clearing my mind while being out side in a wonderful Landscape location goes hand in hand.
This is a great article on Meditation : Is meditation about making your mind go blank
Last week on a visit to the Glengarriff Nature Reserve , county cork and on the waterfall walk , I came across a man just sat on a rock looking at the waterfall and rock pool.
This location is a very beautiful and peaceful place to be in and he was making the most of the atmosphere here. I feel it is very important to get outside into places like this and find a space for your mind to relax, these days more than ever we are having to think about so much almost all the time so it is very important to escape and find a space.
I feel that clearing your mind lets you find out what the true priorities in your life are, separating these out from all the other things that you can well do without.
Nigel Borrington 
Planning and starting 2015. a Picture board.
Picture Board for 2015
Well I have been a little quite on my blog during the holidays and into the new year, I hope you all had a great holiday period 🙂
To start 2015 here, I just wanted to say a huge thank-you to anyone who has been visiting this blog since I started it about two years ago. Thank you for your many likes and great comments I have enjoyed sharing my images and the places I visited and also enjoyed reading and visiting so many other blogs from around the world 🙂 🙂
Starting a new year is always a challenge, we are all meant to reinvent the wheel and take on life in a new way – aren’t we !!
Maybe however the best plan is to just look at what you have been doing with your life and just build on these areas, I sat down on Monday morning and put a little picture board together of the things I want to build on during the year ahead, these areas are included in the images there.
I am going to start to look at how I can include some new areas in posts here, it could be that I start some new blogs in word-press and then just place links here if the posts are not relating to photography etc ….. ?
Almost all my posts to date have been mainly about the places here in Ireland that I have visited along with some poetry and art that I wanted to share, this year I am going to share the things I am learning or doing a little bit more !
Violin and Music Plans
For the last few years I have been learning and planing the Violin and I want to share a little more about these experiences and the type of music I love playing the most.
I am not an advanced or a professional player but love to play and learn, I feel that music like many things is not about being the finished item but about journeying your way through a learning process and having some great fun along the way !!!
Computer development skills and plans
For a large part of my life I worked in the I.T. industry, starting back in the 1980’s on IBM main frame systems, mainly programming in Cobol/rpg and C++ during my time. I want to start to share a little about some plans I have to get back and then keep in touch with these skills.
This will most likely be a new Blog !!!
I also would like to start to share how I see the current computer industry, when I started training in ( I.T. ) it was not easy to get the skills you needed however it was much easier however to see how you could apply yourself to these skills. Today with the internet and you-tube etc … its must easier to put skills together but less easy to see how these skills can be used, mainly due to the all controlling Microsoft !!!
Over the last three years or so however, there is a growing change in the area of small scale computing and its nothing to do with tablets or phones , it’s in small computers such as the credit card computers or Development boards, systems like the Raspberry Pi here above – have sold well over a million units in a very short time and have been followed by many other single board PC’s like the cubie-truck.
These systems have reset the computer industry back to a time when learning about computer technology was not about Microsoft windows and it many ( problems, virus, its costs, and its latest versions ) but about being able to learn fully and openly what a computer can do and at the cost of the hardware only, these computers use Linux OS – as their operating systems and as such follow almost the entire growing world of none Microsoft based devices such as (Apples OS-x, Android phones, Bare-metal devices(using machine coded applications), Linux based desktop and laptop systems along with internet servers and cloud servers).
I want to share something about this area of modern computing, from a very basic level to a level that shows just how the two systems in the images here the (Raspberry pi and Cubie-truck – boards) can be used both independently and along side a windows based computer, many of the current engineering and science fairs show projects using just these kind of devices !
Photography Plans
I will still be posting lots of images and articles on locations here in Ireland!
One thing I want to do very much is to capture my local landscape as we move from the winter months into spring !
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January 8, 2015 | Categories: Comment, Landscape, Nigel Borrington | Tags: art, Culzean Castle, Digital compact camera, Ireland, Irish photography, Landscape, Microsoft, Music, Nigel Borrington, personal development, Photography, Plans, Raspberry pi, Violin | 16 Comments