367-50 Week 39

 Week 39 sees me spending the week in Donegal with family. Although the weather started off wet and grey, by the middle of the week the sun was shining and the beach was being visited nearly every day. I was lucky to be there with a great bunch of individuals, most of whom (but not all) are my children ranging from 9 to 23. The week was stress-free, enjoyable and actually quite relaxing. I got to cook for big numbers every evening and most of the meals went down well. Having acces to wifi in a little local coffee shop was always going to be a bonus.

5/08/11

As noted, the weather wasn't shaping up well when we arrived although it didn't prevent a trip to Marble Hill Strand for a spot of paddling on our first full day there. there's nothing like seeing small children enjoy getting their feet into the ocean, even if it is the generally freezing cold North Atlantic. Big kids like me tend to enjoy it too and look forward to it.

6/08/12

This was a little men project that I'd planned for a few weeks before we went. I set up nine installations totalling 15 wee men around the garden of the house we were staying in. These ranged from the odds and ends box of figures (above) to nude sunbathers and nuns. I put these out in the evening with the intention of photographing them the next morning. Heavy overnight rain had me worried, but only one of the set-ups suffered and eight were left intact. This isn't the best of them, but this is where I retreated to for a smoke in the evenings. 

7/08/12

This kinda summed up the week - in the morning it rained, then around lunchtime it suddenly brightened up and the sum came out, and stayed out for the rest of the week. Colin's house is surrounded by these lovely big daisies and I took a few shots of them with raindrops in place. This is my favourite and I think the crop works really well on this shot.

8/08/12

Climbing Muckish today - one of my favourite walks in Donegal. The miner's path is simply gorgeous and well worth the trip, even without the views from the very top of Muckish. We took a big squad, led by the redoubtable Colin McClelland and everyone had a ball.

9/08/12

Horse riding in Dunfanaghy - three of my daughters (Siobhan, Ellen and Sarah) were going out for an hour long lesson. As you can see, Sarah was more than a little excited by the thought of getting to not only ride a horse for real (she'd only ever been on lead-outs before) but to trot as well. They all enjoyed it and I even had the sense to dose the super-allergenic Ellen with anti-histamines before she went near a horse.

10/08/12

This is the little cat who appeared to be living wild around the house were we were staying. She was very wary of people and it took a full five days before she would come anywhere close to anyone. By Friday night I had her taking food from my hand and she allowed me to pet her. By Saturday she was sitting on my knee and coming when she was called. She was more than a little underweight, but got two square meals a day for the week we were there. There was considerable discussion and disagreement about whether we should bring her home with us. We didn't in the end but only after extracting a promise from Colin that he would feed her while he was there.

11/08/12

The Ulster Museum to see the Da Vinci drawings in exhibition there. I had planned this shot for months - a view down into the atrium and a bit of tilt-shift processing for that miniature effect. Except I hadn't figured on the buggers hanging two massive pterodactyls from the ceiling. I took the shot anyway and this is the tilt-shift effect built into the Nikon D800. Probably not as good as doing it the harder way in Photoshop, but the pterodactyls had knocked the stuffing out me.

Had a grand old day today getting out and about and am now roasting the arse off some peppers for dinner later. Actually came back from Donegal more relaxed than I went. Can't complain about that.