Monday morning from the mountain lane ( Images and a Poem by : Douglas Fraser – 1968 )
The mountain Lane,
GlenPatrick , County Waterford,
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Monday morning and what better way to start a new week than a walk through the hills above the town of Clonmel , county Tipperary.
This old walk goes over the foot hills just below the Comeragh mountains and into county Waterford and offers some of the best views in the South of Ireland, I share some of it here with one of my most loved Mountain Poems by Douglas Fraser, written in 1968.
Freedom of the Hills
By: Douglas Fraser – 1968
Mine is the freedom of the tranquil hills
When vagrant breezes bend the sinewy grass,
While sunshine on the widespread landscape spills
And light as down the fleet cloud-shadowed pass.
Mine, still, that freedom when the storm-clouds race,
Cracking their whips against defiant crags
And mists swirl boiling up from inky space
To vanish on the instant, torn to rags.
Snow and mist in the Mountains.
When winter grips the mountains in a vice,
Silently stifling with its pall of snow,
Checking the streams, draping the rocks in ice,
Still to their mantled summits I would go.
Sun-drenched, I sense the message they impart;
Storm-lashed, I hear it sing through every vein;
Among the snows it whispers to my heart
“Here is your freedom. Taste – and come again.”
Gallery
Monday Morning Images and Poetry – You And your free range chickens, by : James Jarrett
You And your free range chickens
Farming Photography : Nigel Borrington
your free range chickens
by : James Jarrett
I often thought about you
And your free range chickens
Being happy on the land
Living life free
Both pecking and scraping
Getting life from the dust
But I didn’t know
That it could never be enough
Tho’ scratch might make some happy
I found out too late
That it wouldn’t do for you
But if I could
Believe me true
I’d bring you chickens
Instead of flowers
To brighten up your room
From Sunday Sunset to Monday Sunrise, Images and Poem
A Kilkenny Sunday Sunset
Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Monday
So here we are again , the start of another week.
I have been feeling a little in need of some inspiration this Morning, so sat down and put these images and poem together!
From Sunday Sunset to Monday Sunrise
Today is yet another Monday
I wakeup and wonder about yesterday
Then about today, Monday
Sunday to Monday, Yesterday
Just passing the days
Deep orange Sunsets,a rhythm in my heart
Is It all just a painting
A dream on the edge of a disk?
Sunday, Monday, Yesterday
I am sometimes without you
No Light to guide my way
How can I be expected to see the way
While seeing only you
Even while your gone
Sunday, Monday, Yesterday
I am at a silent age
When You’re not with me
Come great Star
Run to me with your light
Guide my way
Sunday, Monday, Yesterday
Ancient Disk of light
Monday
and
I am with you.
The Blue Monday’s of May – Sitting in the Bluebells
Bluebell Monday in Knockadrina woods, County Kilkenny
Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Blue Monday’s of May
Monday again and the month of May is truly in full flight in our local woodlands, In an effort to get my week started I took Molly for a walk in the woods and found the entire woodland floor covered in Blue bells.
Each Springtime these wonderful flower, fill the woods with the colour blue and its just a fantastic moment. It easy to forget just how green the these place are for most of the year. We get the odd purple orchid and yellow of other flowers but only during May do we get the colour blue filling the forest floor in every direction.
The Month of May – a blue month…….
Monday mornings, mist in the woods
Monday morning mist in the woods
Kilkenny landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Monday Mornings
Finally breaks the morning light,
ending a long, restful night.
From this place, the sun through the trees,
appears to reveal some misty scene.
Colorless branches contorting the rays of the sun,
light breaking through trees from some place of desolation.
Slowly to the world vision returns,
it becomes apparent that nothing has changed.
So an excuse not to begin the week,
fades into the glimmer of the soft sun rays.
Our tired bodies, hardly able to stir,
begin our long journey to the weeks return.
Monday morning
Nikon D700, iso 100
Monday Morning sky over kilkenny
Nigel Borrington
Monday morning and well its a slow one in my mind anyway, empty of plans and reasons to get going and I don’t truly know why.
So maybe its time to go hunting for a poem or two and have a Monday morning coffee :
Monday Morning Coffee
Most people don’t look forward to Monday mornings…
I do.
It’s the start of something new…
It’s a clean slate
I like my Monday morning ritual
I wake up extra early.
Well,
It’s early for me.
I get ready for work.
Nikon D700, iso 100
Monday Morning sky over kilkenny
Nigel Borrington
Hopeful,
That it will be a pretty good week.
I don’t even have to ask anymore
An extra large coffee waits for me
And a
Perfect
Cloud
Melt in your mouth
Beautiful in it’s simplicity
Glazed Doughnut
Friendly faces and a delicious treat
It’s a great way for me to start my week..
My Monday morning
Look forward to it treat.
Nigel Borrington 
Monday morning, Sunrise
Nikon D7000, 35mm focus, iso 100
Monday morning sunrise
Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
A Monday sunrise
Up early this morning I returned to the same location as I walked in yesterday afternoon.
It is near a place called Ahenny, County Kilkenny. the road from the village rises up over some hills and at the top offers some great views of both county’s Kilkenny and Tipperary. The Sun has risen a little time before and is just hiding its self behind some clouds. It has been totally blue sky’s for about ten days which for Ireland is very rare, this morning however we have some light cloud cover that is moving inland.
Monday Morning’s and starting a new week, well I feel a little cloudy myself this morning for some reason and need to get moving but just for a moment I stop to look at the views. When you work for yourself is would be very easy to just give in to these views and stay here for the day just looking at any changes that the day will bring to the landscape, the movement of the sun, farmers working in the fields, wildlife moving its way across the land.
We live our lives as part of this moving landscape below, yet how often do we stop and look at it. We just keep moving in it, life flying past.
Maybe just now and then we should press the stop button and stand still for once, maybe to truly stop and look at all this movement will give use something of a gift. A gift that we can use once we see everything for what it is.
Examining the movement of life may help you understand, needed movement the things we need to do, the things we want to do and then the things we just do for no valid reason what so ever. Pointless time spent doing things just because we always do them. Never stopping to see that we don’t need to do these things they are not doing anything for us or for anyone.
I have a feeling just looking at the week starting that my future is in this story somewhere, finding the things I should be doing, the things I want to do but most of all cutting out the things I just do not have any reason or obligation to do.
Nikon D7000, 35mm focus, iso 100
Monday morning sunrise
Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
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July 15, 2013 | Categories: Comment, Landscape | Tags: Irish photography, Landscape, monday, Nigel Borrington, Nikon D7000, organisational skills, personal development | 15 Comments