Rosscarberry Co Cork

One of the better days this year, taken at the height of that lovely Indian summer we had around Samhain. Our trip to Clonakilty was great, very chilled and the opportunity to take some photos - something I really have not had since - was much appreciated.

Peaceful

I just liked the blue tinge on this, and the sheer calm. It really was a lovely peaceful moment, standing by the inlet and watching the waterfowl drift in the cold but brilliant sunshine.

Reflections

Swans at Rosscarberry

We spent the Samhain weekend at the Quality Weekend Co Cork; the weather was excellent apart from a vicious downpour on the way down, that literally made everyone on our stretch of motorway pull over. On the Sunday we drove over to Rosscarberry Co Cork, and took some photographs around the inlet, and the pier etc including some using the tripod and telephoto lens. We also visited with the lovely swans and wildfowl near the Celtic Ross Hotel.

Happy Hallow'een

Well this is Samhain;
Hallow'een for the general public, the eve of All Hallows or the christian feastday of the dead.

Samhain for some of us, the ancient festival marking the beginning of Winter and the need to prepare for the dark half of the year. At Tara and the Hill of Ward fires would have been lit and from these the chains of bonfires across the great central plains and out to the furthest reaches of the country, or so the poets tell us. The gathering at Tara at Samhain brought together clans for horse trading, games, arts, marriages; the ancestors were honoured and the gods, and the chieftains and the fosterings and alliances. Divinations were made, omens examined.

Over the centuries the christian associations (Feast of the saints, all souls) has beome conflated with the original ideals of Ancestor, and the sense of a liminal time. But underneath the games and the ghost stories, you have the ancient and enduring.

I love the ghostly and ghoulish and the mischief; I also love the older philosophies and tonight, I'll be reaching out to my ancestors, as they once did to theirs...

samhain dance

the barriers between the worlds is thin, fire flickers on the Hill of Tara: we peer at the world through a veil.