Shorts, T-Shirt, And A Raincoat, A Battle Between Summer And Winter On The Nagle Mountains
It’s September 14th now, so, it’s around that time when you start to to accept, Winter will arrive, our time is limited, better enjoy the last days of sunshine. But it’s a quite ambiguous time of year, on previous years, the week after this day could be, bitter cold, like…
The Strange Tale Of How The Courtmacsherry Estuary Became A Haven For Birds
One of my passions is getting clear photos of curlews in flight. I see that splendid plumage and the elegant, elephant like beak, and the camera is at the ready. Sometimes it’s nice and clear like the one you see here, and sometimes it’s a blurry mess. And hearing them…
The Wonderful Birdlife Of The Coolim Cliffs
Last year, during my yearly visit to the Coolim Cliffs, I wrote this: And perhaps some of you are thinking, wouldn’t it be great if I wrote another post about the birds of the Coolim Cliffs? Well, your wish will very soon be granted, and by very soon I mean…
A Raven, A Kestrel, And Bees!!!!!
Before I go on a long cycle, I always check the weather forecast beforehand. I like the security of knowing that there’ll be no rain, it won’t be too hot or too cold, and that the wind won’t be strong enough to make for a difficult cycle. But, before my…
I Saw Four Planets In The Sky At The Same Time
Something unusual is going on in our night skies at the moment, and it’s wonderful. And it’s a great way to start what will hopefully be a great year for astronomy, and my tenth year of doing astronomy. For the next few weeks, all of the planets except Mercury will…
The Courtmacsherry Estuary, The Winter Birds are Here!
I have visited the Courtmacsherry Estuary in August, you can read about that here if you like: But as someone who was quite new to birdwatching, this is my first time visiting the Courtmacsherry Estuary during the Winter, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint! Note, for the…
Ten Years Of The Nagle Mountains
July 14th, 2014. That is when I first set off on my bike for the Nagle mountains. And April of that year was also when I started cycling. Ten years of cycling, and ten years of the Nagle mountains. Where does the time go! I remember before that trip, just…
Bees, Moths, A Dragonfly, And A Guitar
So sometimes if I’m trying to write about something and I get writer’s block, my approach is, think of a really interesting title, and work from there. So what the devil is this title about then? Well, for the last few years, I’ve gone to Woodpoint to play my saz,…
The Courtmacsherry Estuary And Its Spectacular Birds
During my recent stay near Courtmacsherry, most days were spend dedicating at least some time to visiting the estuary. The estuary extends from Courtmacsherry to Timoleague, and on days when my energy wasn’t too high I’d just walk part of the way, but on more energetic days I’d walk all…
Magnificent Insects On the Coolim Cliffs
I’ve written about the Coolim Cliffs before, one of the best places on Earth in my opinion: But in this post I’d like to mainly talk about my visit this year, after becoming a wildlife enthusiast. It feels like I’m seeing my old favourite places anew now, because now I’m…
A Wonderland For Honeybees in Fitzgerald’s Park
Update: I’ve just realized this is my 100th post. YAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!! Most of my wildlife adventures take place in either the Glen River Park, which is great for seeing birds and insects, and The Lough, which is great for all manner of waterbirds. But what I didn’t realize at first was…
Seeing the Nagle Mountains Through New Eyes, And Hearing It Through New Ears
I only just came back, just under two hours ago, from a cycle to the Nagle Mountains. So, today I’m going to try something interesting. Usually my cycling blogposts about a specific trip don’t get written until, at the soonest, a day later, and at the latest several years later…
A Most Excellent Cycle To Kilcrea Castle And Ballincollig Regional Park
The weather is getting better and it’s time to get out a lot more. This time of year can actually be a bit bittersweet for me, because I have quite bad travel anxiety. During the Winter I don’t mind not traveling anywhere, because, it’s Winter. I think, like many people,…
Iceland, My Favourite Place That I’ll Probably Never Visit Again
Mt Esja seen over the water from Reyjkavik In July 2009, I spent a wonderful week in Iceland, staying in the capital city of Reyjkavik but also getting out to see the amazing countryside. It wasn’t long before I was planning in my head to go on another trip there…
Distance
Something that has always given me a strong sense of calm, and often a strong sense of wonder, is seeing something that is very far away. Being on top of a hill, or a mountain, and seeing a far off village, or town, or other mountain, that might take as…
A Most Pleasant And Relaxing Cycle To Bridgetown Priory, Except For That Hill Where I Thought I Might Conk Out
April 2017 was a great month for my cycling. I was working in a place where I only worked Monday to Wednesday, so what I would often do was, get up early on the Thursday, go on an adventure, and have a three day weekend to recover from my excursion.…
My Only Non Repeating Cycle, To the Wonderful Carrigadrohid Castle
11th May 2017, Carrigadrohid Castle. I think this is probably the best non-astronomy drawing I ever did. Full discloser, I can’t actually spell Carrigadrohid. Many instances of me writing the word in this blogpost will be me copying and pasting the word. It’s possible by the end of the blogpost…
Bode’s Galaxy and the Cigar Galaxy, Two For The Price Of One
9th July 2018 These two galaxies had a level of courtesy rarely seen these days in that they are very close together, so you can see both of them at the same time through a telescope. I remember in 2015, the year I bought my first telescope, seeing my first…
My Favourite Hellscape
Not Safe For Humans Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a furious deathworld of extremely deathy death! So, I’ve explained that this sketch is associated with extreme hellishness, so what do you think it is? It’s the planet Venus. I realized Venus was out…
I Can’t Let Anything Go, Repeating My Failed Cycle In the Hope of Succeeding This Time
So if you’ve read my previous cycling blogpost: You’ll know that I could not let the fact that there was one cycle I didn’t complete go. It was like my white whale, except, you know considerably safer than chasing a white whale. I was going to repeat the cycle, taking…
Saturn, the Second Best Planet In the Solar System
I remember, and I don’t believe I’ll ever forget it, my first time seeing Saturn through a telescope. There was a small light in the sky, and I wasn’t sure what it was but I thought I’d point my telescope at it, maybe it was Saturn. I looked at the…
The Easiest Cycle I Ever Did
So I cycled fifty metres down the road to test if the breaks were properly set up. And that was the easiest cycle I ever did. I hope you enjoyed this blogpost, have a nice day. Oh okay, I suppose to not make reading this post a complete waste of…
The Twentieth Cycle to the Nagle Mountains
I’ve been cycling to the Nagle Mountains since the year 2014. And I found this mountain range by sheer chance. One day I was just looking around places to the north of Cork city on Google Maps, and to my surprise there was a mountain range there, that I had…
Jupiter, The Planet Where Loads Of Stuff Happens
Okay, technically, more stuff doesn’t happen on Jupiter than on Saturn, Uranus, or, what’s the other greenish one, the one with the lions, oh yeah, Earth, but because Jupiter is so big, and relatively (I really stress reletively!), near, you can see a lot of interesting stuff there. So join…
The Most Moderately Difficult Cycle I Ever Did
I’ve talked about the most difficult cycle I ever did: At the risk of being anti-climatic after that, I talked about the second most difficult cycle I ever did: Now, at the risk of being even more anti-climatic again, I am going to talk about, the most moderately difficult cycle…
One Of My Favourite Walks
Come along to my happy place and enjoy the journey. Smell the flowers, meet the animals, see everything there is to see and just experience the quietness and beauty of the area. Come along on the Fuschia Walk.
The Coolim Cliffs, One Of My Favourite Places Ever
So the weather was scorching today, and I thought the Coolim cliffs would be a good refuge, after all, they’re called the Coolim Cliffs, not the Hotim Cliffs. I never feel guilty about this kind of nonsense, ever. Now that that unpleasantness that is admittedly my fault is behind us,…
The Year Mars Got Really, Really Big
2020 was a great year for me, one of the best years of my life in fact. Now, if you’re reading this in the far future, you’re probably thinking, what year was that, was that Brexit, which Marvel film came out that year, or was that the year the United…
Messier 92, An Old Classic Of Astronomy, Emphasis On Old
So it was a clear night last night, though there was a very bright moon. Though one lesson astronomy has taught me repeatedly, even when I won’t listen, is take what you can get! You’ll like a clear night with a bright moon much better than you’ll like a moonless…
The Great Cluster of Hercules
Isn’t This The Cutest Globular Cluster You Ever Did See? So it was a clear night last night, and knowing I might not get another clear night for a while, I went into the shed and dragged out my ten inch telescope. Then I got my pencils and sketch pad,…
Ponderings Of An Autist 