Midwinters day and the pagan goddess of the winter
The stone circle at Castlerigg
Landscape photography: Nigel Borrington
Today is Mid winters day or the Winter Solstice.
History and cultural significance
The solstice itself may have been a special moment of the annual cycle of the year even during neolithic times. Astronomical events, which during ancient times controlled the mating of animals, sowing of crops and metering of winter reserves between harvests, show how various cultural mythologies and traditions have arisen. This is attested by physical remains in the layouts of late Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeological sites, such as Stonehenge in Britain and Newgrange in Ireland. The primary axes of both of these monuments seem to have been carefully aligned on a sight-line pointing to the winter solstice sunrise (Newgrange) and the winter solstice sunset (Stonehenge). Significant in respect of Stonehenge is the fact that the Great Trilithon was erected outwards from the centre of the monument, i.e., its smooth flat face was turned towards the midwinter Sun.
The Solstice Sun set.
The winter solstice may have been immensely important because communities were not certain of living through the winter, and had to be prepared during the previous nine months. Starvation was common during the first months of the winter, January to April (northern hemisphere) or July to October (southern hemisphere), also known as “the famine months”. In temperate climates, the midwinter festival was the last feast celebration, before deep winter began. Most cattle were slaughtered so they would not have to be fed during the winter, so it was almost the only time of year when a supply of fresh meat was available. The majority of wine and beer made during the year was finally fermented and ready for drinking at this time. The concentration of the observances were not always on the day commencing at midnight or at dawn, but the beginning of the pre-Romanized day, which falls on the previous eve.
Since the event is seen as the reversal of the Sun’s ebbing presence in the sky, concepts of the birth or rebirth of sun gods have been common and, in cultures using winter solstice based cyclic calendars, the year as reborn has been celebrated with regard to life-death-rebirth deities or new beginnings such as Hogmanay’s redding, a New Year cleaning tradition. Also reversal is yet another usual theme as in Saturnalia’s slave and master reversals.
CAILLEACH BHEUR : The Celtic Goddess of winter
CAILLEACH BHEUR : Scottish, Irish, Manx, Great Goddess in her Destroyer aspect; called “Veiled One”. Another name is Scota, from which Scotland comes. In parts of Britain she is the Goddess of Winter. She was an ancient Goddess of the pre-Celtic peoples of Ireland. She controlled the seasons and the weather; and was the goddess of earth and sky, moon and sun.
A Lighthouse By : Ashley Rose
A Lighthouse
By : Ashley Rose
The stone facade bound into the coarse rock,
Signaling, sending, and saving,
Streaks of light alluring threat to vessels.
Like flare of alert, warning of an ominous havoc.
Sending waves of whispering light into the mute air,
Advising all to depart back to the watchful sea.
The light reflects on the storm driven oceans,
tracing the surface with an inkling of caution,
a lighthouse, beacon of hope.
The tides swoosh against the jagged cliff,
where tattered remains of a ship remain.
The waves roar as a dull overcast envelopes the sky.
The lighthouse’s beams echo off a ship,
leading the wandering adrift to safer waters,
as a guide to shelter.
An old farm with a mountain view.
The old farm with a mountain view, Ninemile house, Tipperary
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
The Irish Landscape is full of old Farms and home places, filled with many memories of generations past…..
This farm is located very close to the mountain of Slievenamon, country Tipperary.
Gallery
Carey’s Castle
Carey’s Castle, Clonmel in Co. Tipperary
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Carey’s Castle rests in a woodland setting near Clonmel in Co. Tipperary, the Glenary River running past the castle and adding to a very peaceful atmosphere here. A walk of around 500m down a wonderful woodland trail is well worth the effort when the trees part and Carey’s Castle appears before your eyes.
The Castle was built sometime during the 1800s by the Carey family who live locally, they were schoolmasters in the area. A mixture of architectural styles exist through out the grounds, including Romanesque and Gothic windows, Gothic arches, a Celtic round tower and a Norman Keep, which all adds up to make a beautiful building in a wonderful location.
The Castle and it grounds were occupied by monks at one stage and the remains of and older walled garden exist at the back of the Castle in the woods.
Carey’s Castle, Gallery
Memories of a winters farm
Fujifilm X100
Memories of a Winters Farm
Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Memories of a winters farm
This weekend two years ago I was staying at a farm located near Eryrys, Denbighshire, North Wales.
On arrival the weather was cold with some snow in the air but by the next morning it had started snowing heavily and did not stop for the full two weeks of the visit.
Farming in this kind of weather is very difficult and feeding the animals very much so, the following images are just some taken during the stay and I feel they captured the north Wales landscape during one of its hardest winters for some forty years.
Gallery
Found things in the Irish woodlands : Image Gallery .
Nikon D700, 24-70mm f2.8 lens
Found objects in the Irish woodlands
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
From a personal Stand point one of the things I love doing most photographically is to just explorer my Local surroundings, I walk our dog Molly a 10 1/2 year old Golden retriever everyday and carry a camera with me for most of these trips out. the Local Kilkenny woodlands in December are still surprisingly full of life and things to capture.
The following Gallery is from a trip to Castle Morris woodland, last week.
Found things in the Kilkenny woodlands
Images from the road , A west cork Sunrise
Nikon D7000, 35mm, f2.8 Nikon lens
The Sunrises over Reentrusk bay and the Atlantic ocean , West Cork, Ireland
Irish Landscape Photography
Nigel Borrington
One very early Morning on the first of November, I was out walking our dog Molly along the coast road that links Reentrusk and Allihies, west cork. The Sun was just starting to rise in the distance so I took this images along the Atlantic coastline looking to the North.
These early morning coastline walks in the Autumn are wonderful after a cold a fresh night.
The old Mountains , Friday Phoetry.
Fujufilm X100
Images from Slievenamon, Tipperary
Irish Landscape Photograhy : Nigel Borrington
The Old Mountains
by: Edwin Curran
The old mountains are tall, silent men
Standing with folded arms, looking over the world,
Lonesome and lofty in their manner.
.
They have seen empires come and go,
Civilizations rise and fall,
Stars break on their breasts.
.
They are full of history like great books,
And are merely the stone monuments that the kindly God
Built for the human race, to mark its grave tomorrow.
————————-
Thank you to Elen Grey !, for suggesting I use the word “Phoetry” in my Poetry and Photography posts 🙂 🙂
Two cleats on the river bank.
A cleat on the River Barrow, County Kilkenny
Nikon D700, 35mm f2.8 lens
Irish Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
A cleat on the River Barrow, County Kilkenny
Nikon D700, 35mm f2.8 lens
Irish Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
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.
As the Sky Touches the Earth, by Robert Stephen Herrick
Nikon D7000, 24mm f2.8 lens
Lough Conn, County Mayo
Irish landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
As the Sky Touches the Earth,
by Robert Stephen Herrick
Wild whisps of torn clouds swirl
rising in energy from wicked winds
and create a surge in the speed
of spinning in succession
slowly at first, yet the terror
turns into an ominous element
yearning and beginning
to take its path.
Forces of nature may often seem
to be manageable to the untrained eye,
though the might and horrifying height
sets its sight and it towers
from the heavens down to the low earth,
terror fills the most hardened heart
as the deadly dread devours
living souls with its suprelative speed.
Unconditional surrender to this fear
is a forced humbling indeed
as homes are flattened like sheet metal
from the turbulent courses
descending in an enormous twisting,
spiraling and ripping of the world
within pieces apart and yet
waiting for no reply.
Croaghaul, Achill Island, Ireland
Irish landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
As the sky touches the earth,
danger is eminent and to be found
in gigantic proportions
tearing apart homes and localities,
shreading living beings and lives
then showering down dirt and debris
across a wide landscape
like a wicked child at play.
Tumultuous and catastrophic with its
destruction, this titanic giant of air
collectively rushed together
breathed in its peril by inhaling
that which once covered
the surface of the earth then
exhaled all it had, but miles away,
staying solid on its path
with determinded disruption,
on its way with its
whirling winds.
A Slow Morning at the lake : three 30 second exposures
Nikon D700, 18-200mm lens
30 second exposures of Derryhick lake, County Mayo
Irish landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
A Slow Afternoon at the lake
Last year I stayed at Derryhick lake, county Mayo for a weeks holiday.
One very slow morning while taking some pictures of the lake, the time was moving by very slowly and by the afternoon I decided that I wanted to attempt to capture the feeling of these moments. I placed the camera onto a tripod and put an ND filter on the lens and took some 30 second exposures of which these are just three.
I was very please with the effect of the slow shutter speed on the surface of the lake as it captured exactly the feeling of this very windy but wonderful day.
November comes And November goes, a Poem by Elizabeth Coatsworth.
Autumn colours in county Kilkenny,
Irish Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
November comes
– Elizabeth Coatsworth
November comes And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.
With night coming early,
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.
The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring.
Its the weekend so …..
The Landscape of County Kerry
Reen, Ballinskelligs, Ring of Kerry
Irish Landscape photography ; Nigel Borrington
It’s the weekend so why not take yourself out for the day, find some wonderful landscape to look at.
Sit down for as long as you need to clear your mind and relax ….
Culzean Castle, Maybole, Carrick, Ayrshire,Scotland.
Nikon D7000, 18-200mm VR2 lens
Culzean Castle, Maybole, Carrick, Ayrshire,Scotland.
Scottish Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Culzean Castle
Culzean is one of Scotland’s best loved Castles, offering something for everyone to enjoy. Situated on the South Ayrshire coast, just off the A719, Culzean Castle is located 12 miles south of Ayr and 4 miles west of Maybole.
Culzean Castle was constructed as an L-plan castle by order of the 10th Earl of Cassilis. He instructed the architect Robert Adam to rebuild a previous, but more basic, structure into a fine country house to be the seat of his earldom. The castle was built in stages between 1777 and 1792. It incorporates a large drum tower with a circular saloon inside (which overlooks the sea), a grand oval staircase and a suite of well-appointed apartments.
In 1945, the Kennedy family gave the castle and its grounds to the National Trust for Scotland (thus avoiding inheritance tax). In doing so, they stipulated that the apartment at the top of the castle be given to General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower in recognition of his role as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during the Second World War. The General first visited Culzean Castle in 1946 and stayed there four times, including once while President of the United States. An Eisenhower exhibition occupies one of the rooms, with mementoes of his lifetime.
For opening hours, admission prices and directions to reach the Castle please see ‘General Information’
Culzean has a long tradition of welcoming local people, members of The National Trust for Scotland and holiday makers from all around the world.
During the Summer Season, the Castle, gardens, Visitor Centre, shops and restaurants will be open daily from Thursday 28 March to Sunday 28 October 2013 (inclusive). Please see ‘General Information’ for more details and opening hours.
During the Winter season our Visitor Centre Shops and Restaurant are open each Saturday and Sunday (with the exception of the Christmas and New Year period) from 11.00am until 4.00pm. However, please see ‘Events at Culzean’ for further details.
The 600 acre Estate offers many spectacular features. We look forward to welcoming you soon.
Rainbow on the surface, Loch Lomand – Scotland
Nikon D7000, 18-200mm Vr lens
Rainbow falling on Loch Lomand
Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Just for a moment the clouds opened up a gap for the Sun to shine on the surface of Loch Lomand and this Rainbow was formed, hitting the water just in front of a small boat.
Morning rain on Loch Lomand
Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8 lens
Rain falling on Lock Lomand, Scotland
Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Last week I stayed in Luss on the banks of loch lomond, Scotland.
I got up early and walked down the the water front, it was a very wet morning so I took a large brolly with me and my Nikon. The rain was so heavy that it gave the entire surface of the loch take on a matt look. I took lots of images as you can see below.
The water level in the Loch is very high at the moment as you can see from the pier, used for local boat trips, as it was flooded and about two inches below the surface.
Rain on Loch Lomand : Gallery
Vital Spark and Artic Penguin, Inveraray.
Nikon D7000, 18-200mm vr2 lens
Vital Spark and Artic Penguin, Inveraray.
Landscape photography by : Nigel Borrington
Vital Spark and Artic Penguin, Inveraray.
There is some 20 years gap between the two photographs in this post both taken at Inveraray , Argyll and Bute, Scotland.
The image below was taken in 1993 and features the Artic Penguin sitting by herself, the above image was taken on Thursday as I was passing. As you can see two boats are now harboured along the pier.
The second boat in the image is the Vital Spark, the detail of which are below :
The Vital Spark
Vital Spark is a fictional Clyde puffer, created by Scottish writer Neil Munro. As its captain, the redoubtable Para Handy, often says: “the smertest boat in the coastin’ tred”.
Puffers seem to have been regarded fondly even before Munro began publishing his short stories in the Glasgow Evening News in 1905. This may not be surprising, for these small steamboats were then providing a vital supply link around the west coast and Hebrides islands of Scotland. The charming rascality of the stories went well beyond the reality of a commercial shipping business, but they brought widespread fame. They appeared in the newspaper over 20 years, were collected in book form by 1931, inspired the 1953 film The Maggie, and came out as three popular television series, dating from 1959 to 1995.
The original BBC Series Para Handy – Master Mariner, which ran from 1959–60, starred Duncan MacRae (Para Handy), Roddy McMillan (The Mate), and John Grieve (Dan MacPhail, the engineer). Six episodes were filmed, none of which survive.
In 1963 Macrae, McMillan and Grieve, accompanied by Alex Mackenzie and guitarist George Hill, recorded an album of songs, Highland Voyage. A short film was made to accompany the recording, filmed on board a puffer as it cruised around the Firth of Clyde. Macrae and McMillan appear as The Captain and The Mate, while Mackenzie appears as The Engineer, causing Grieve to move to play The Cook. Although very obviously based on Munro’s characters, the names of Para Handy, the Vital Spark, etc. are never mentioned, probably due to copyright issues.
In the second version, The Vital Spark, McMillan took the role of Para Handy, and Grieve reprised his role as McPhail; Walter Carr (Dougie the Mate) and Alex McAvoy (Sunny Jim) completed the crew, and the series ran for three series between 1965 and 1974. The third series, filmed several years after the first two, was in colour and consisted of remakes of selected earlier episodes.
In 1994 BBC Scotland produced The Tales of Para Handy which starred Gregor Fisher in the lead role alongside Sean Scanlan as Dougie, Andrew Fairlie as Sunny Jim and Rikki Fulton as Dan McPhail. The series also featured a young David Tennant in one of his first acting roles. Alex McAvoy, who played Sunny Jim in The Vital Spark, appears in one episode as a fellow captain of Para Handy in the coastal trade.
The deck of a “puffer”.
“In her captain’s own (islands accented) words, the Vital Spark is “aal hold, with the boiler behind, four men and a derrick, and a watter-butt and a pan loaf in the foc’sle”. The way these steam lighters with their steam-powered derricks could offload at any suitable beach or small pier is featured in many Vital Spark stories, and allows amusing escapades in the small west coast communities. The cargoes carried in the hold vary from gravel or coal to furniture to livestock, the crew’s quarters in the forecastle are taken as lodgings by holidaymakers or lost children and the steam engine struggles on under the dour care of the engineer McPhail. Tales are recounted of improbably dramatic missions in World War I. Others scoff at her as a coal gaabbert, reflecting the origins of the puffers, but an indignant Para Handy is always ready to defend his boat, proudly comparing her 6 knots (11 km/h) speed and her looks with the glamorous Clyde steamers.
Eilean Eisdeal dressed as the Vital Spark.
The stories sparked considerable interest in the puffers, and many books explore their now vanished world. When VIC 72, renamed Eilean Eisdeal, ventured from her home at the Inveraray Maritime Museum to visit the Glasgow River Festival in 2005, she proudly bore the name Vital Spark in testimony to her continuing popularity. Now in 2006 she proudly is the Vital Spark of Glasgow having been successfully re-registered.
The Argyll brewer Fyne Ales, situated close to Inveraray, where the current boat rests and Neil Munro was born, produces a beer called Vital Spark [1] in tribute to the series.
In December 2007, the Vital Spark Clyde puffer returned to the Forth and Clyde Canal – the place of her ‘birth’, as reported on STV news'[2] Reporting Scotland.
The puffer now sits on the slip way at Crinan boatyard awaiting restoration. ”
Its the weekend so..
Nikon D7000 with
Nikon 50mm f1.8 Manual focus Ais lens
Irish woodlands, county kilkenny
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Its the weekend so why not find a local woodland, put on some boots and go for a Walk.
Get out side into the Autumn mist and colours …..
Clear you mind and Relax.
The view from the tower, Inistioge, county Kilkenny
Fujifilm x100s, 35mm and 28mm focus lenghts
17th century Viewing tower, Woodstock estate,
Inistioge, county Kilkenny
Irish Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Sitting above the River Nore and located on the edge of a hill that looks over the town of Inistioge, county Kilkenny is a 17th Century viewing tower.
The building would have been a family home when built, with its main living and sleeping area and outer rooms. It also has a cattle stable at the front of the building for wintering the family livestock.
The hill down to the river has been forested in modern times but before this would have offered full views of the town and the river Nore as it flows towards New Ross.
If you do visit Woodstock, Kilkenny, this little building is well worth a visit.
Ninemile house grave yard, Happy Halloween.
Ninemile house Grave yard,
On the Kilkenny and Tipperary county borders.
Irish Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Happy Halloween! – welcome to Ninemile house grave yard, a place of rest OR is it ?
I few weeks back I visited this old Graveyard at Nine mile house, County Tipperary.
This place just has to be one of the most atmospheric Grave yards in the local area. It is full of very old graves and the remains of an old chapel who’s insides have been used as the location of some graves dating from the 1800’s.
This is a place of rest however and a very peaceful location, But on Halloween night, well I just wonder ? ?
For anyone who has been following my blog, they will know I love poetry, well last night I had a go at my own poem for Halloween!
A poem for Halloween
There is nothing in the dark…
Don’t run to the light, Run towards the night.
For ever fearing the Dark .
Don’t turn on a lights, Shining a torch into the blackness.
There is nothing in the Dark, No monsters to fear.
Nothing hiding in the blackness.
No possessions
No ghosts
No evil demons
No open graves
No devils to consume your soul
No vampires
No zombies
No omen of death
No!
Don’t look towards the stars, Fires of the heavens.
Hoping forever to be alive.
Don’t fear the blackness of the woods at night.
There is nothing in the dark,
nothing that is not just asleep in the day
and awake at night.
It is not the dark you should fear,
Fear the light.
In the dark there is rest,
A peace of your mind.
There is nothing in the dark but rest and a lack of light !
Two Cows in county Kilkenny
Sigma SD x3 Slr, 15-30mm f3.5-4.5 ex lens
Two cows in County Kilkenny
Irish Landscape potography : Nigel Borrington
It’s not often, if at all I post a single image, just one image !
So maybe its time to just look at one, a single image of two cows in a field.
I was just standing at a gate that’s along a lane I often walk down in county Kilkenny and took this photo, so I hope you enjoy it !
Images from a walk in the setting Autumn sun and a Poem by Rebecca Dobson .
Nikon D700
Sleivenamon, country Tipperary
Under the setting Autumn sun
Irish Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
On an Autumn evening as I was out walking with our dog , I watched the sunset over the mountaim of Slievenamon, county Tipperary in the distance.
My mind was clear as I was just enjoying the view.
I have been looking for a way to describe the feeling I had and found the following Poem .
The Aftermath
Rebecca Dobson
The final fragments of my shattered
mind slip into place
alongside
Random thoughts and jagged
edges
I disintegrate from the outside inwards
slightly blurred
edges
and I flutter inside
(excited child) , I feel hollow and empty and a
warmth, and my nose is raw
and crystals gather at my nostrils
Electric, almost static
I float and fumble
and agitations tickle my spine and my scalp
Sniff and cough, they grate against my brain
and scratch discomfort into my buzz;
I float on higher plane
and feel conscious, feel able.
.
I talk with a wired mouth
and words are laborious and stick to my lips
Suspended in wakefulness I skip work
and relish in my openness of mind
and free thought
and I think I am happy
Nigel Borrington 
Thank you – this is my 500th post
Wild Roses, on the bank of the river Suir, County Tipperary
Thank you flowers
Irish wild life photography : Nigel Borrington
I just reached 500 posts on my blog.
In the time I have been Blogging and posting images along with commenting on the locations I love to visit and photograph.
I this time I have received some 41000 hits, 20000 likes and over 5000 wonderful comments.
So I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has visited my Blog and helped to make it something I am very proud of and love sharing !
THANK YOU !
Here are just some of the Local flowers I found and photographed during the year in and around county Kilkenny.
Thank you flower Gallery
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November 14, 2013 | Categories: Comment, Gallery, irish woodlands, Nature and Wildlife | Tags: flowers, irish nature photography, Irish photography, Kilkenny, Landscape, Nigel Borrington, Thank you, Tipperary, wild flowers | 41 Comments