The Emerald Isle

I can evaluate my latest visit to Ireland in three letters - w e t.
Above, a triptych showing two things that make Ireland the Emerald Isle.
Emerald Isle, a pair of words that equal one special place.

Castlehaven GAA - County Finals 2011

Sadly, as I write, the Irish (and indeed, English) Rugby World Cup teams must be heading home following their defeats at quarter-final level down in New Zealand. This leaves a void in the sport support culture that sweeps a nation at these times. Happily though, for the people of this little corner of West Cork, they still have a glimmer of anticipation. Despite the Southern hemisphere disappointment, and the dreary weather currently hugging this coastal area of County Cork, there may still be something to celebrate.

Any visitor to the locality can't but fail to notice the splashes of blue and white that have appeared in many forms, and in the most unexpected places, all over the area. The blue and white are the colours of the Castlehaven GAA - the Gaelic football club, who on Sunday 16th will be playing UCC in the County finals of the sport up in Cork City. The Irish take their Gaelic sport seriously and indeed, their support for their teams is taken equally as seriously.

Back in the UK, support like this for local football (soccer) teams or other sports is almost never seen on this scale, which is really rather sad as it seems that here, supporters have so much more fun. As illustrated above, it can take the form of car window flags, bunting, painted pallets, over-painted signposts (hmm what will the local council think?!) as well as the expected normal flags. My neighbours have also joined in and fixed flags to the end of their cow house, put bunting across the end of the road and taped flags to the gates. With all this going on around me, I almost feel compelled to be swept up into this tide of support for my 'local team' although I'm not sure I'm ready to put the bunting up across my gateway just yet.

However, I do wish them Good Luck in the match on Sunday.

"Up the Haven!"




Castlehaven (Irish: Gleann Bearcháin) is a civil parish in County Cork, Ireland. It is located some 75 km south west of Cork City on the coast and is made up of two key towns: Union Hall and Castletownshend.The area is famous for Gaelic football with Castlehaven Gaelic football club claiming local and national honours in 1989,1994 and 2003

Castlehaven GAA

Cormorant

They say a workman should never blame his tools but actually, I am going to qualify that by saying I had the wrong tools this morning.

As the weather has been less than favourable for cameras since I arrived in West Cork, I have kept my 5D mkII in the bag, instead choosing to use my G12, which can easily be stowed away in a pocket when the frequent showers arrive. So, this morning, as I took mutt for her walk on the strand, I actually had my G12 in my hand rather than my pocket, as the weather was looking far more promising.

I have commented before in my blog, that whilst generally I am really pleased with my little G12, it fails big time when it comes to using the far end of the digital zoom. Here, today, it failed me. This lovely shot of a cormorant in a West Cork coastal scene presented itself to me, and oh, if only I had had my 5D mkII and my 100-400 lens I would have been rather chuffed with this picture. Sadly, I am not quite so chuffed as I have had to work on subduing the undesirable effect of sharpening that the G12 seems to apply on 'max-zoom'. That annoying halo effect that appears around all the edges, just as it would with over zealous use of the sharpen tool in Photoshop. Speaking of Photoshop, I have the old CS2 version here along with an old low-res screen that thinks nothing of flitting through the whole spectrum at will. Again, I seem to have the wrong tools, but as that is all I have here, I will have to make do, so, if you spot any inadequacies in this post, please accept my apologies.

On a positive note, it has been a beautiful calm, sunny day today so the 'the big camera' made a welcome return to the stage this evening. Better go check what I laid down on that memory card now.

Worthy West Cork Weather

Finally, after several days of sea mist, rain and gales, an evening that is worth shouting about.

Larry

Couldn't help but feel sorry for the loner - couldn't resist this fun shot either.

Goose Barnacles (Lepas anatifera)

Walking mutt along one of our favourite beaches in West Cork last evening, we determined to walk as far as a large green mass we could see ahead of us on the sand, and before retracing our steps back to the car. As expected, the large green mass was a tangle of fishing net that had been washed up on the beach during high seas.

Just about to do the retreat, we took a last look at this gear that had more than likely been cut free after becoming tangled, and had then drifted the seas until reaching this strand. Closer inspection revealed what appeared to be molluscs clinging to the net, the like I had never seen before.

Every now and then, these strange creatures would open the yellow lips of the shell as a bunch of tentacles helplessly groped around in the fresh air. Clearly more used to performing this action under water, I couldn't help feeling sorry for these stranded oddities.

The grain of sand on one of the tentacles here, gives an indication of the scale.

Moving a little further back along the beach, we then passed another example of this unusual sight - something we had missed on the way up the beach. This time, rather than just the single examples as seen on the net, several thousand of these creatures could be found clinging to both ends of a large piece of drift wood that was around seven feet long. They varied from large shells attached with what looked like over-sized versions of the sweet shop favourite, jelly snakes, to small and very small shells, still developing and attached to the centre portion of the drift wood.

They hung down from their flotsam host like beaded dreadlocks, some clearly healthier than others but most taking their turn to 'savour the air' in the hope of catching a tasty passing morsel.

They were totally captivating not only for their unusual activity but with their striking grey shell form and the complementing yellow edging.
My first task when returning home would be to look up exactly what these unusual creatures were.

Goose Barnacle Lepas anatifera

Lepas anatifera  or Goose Barnacle
 
Normally found in open water environments, they live attached to floating driftwood or any other floating mass, catching passing food with their feathery tentacles. The western reaches of the UK and Ireland is considered to be the areas where goose barnacles are found, but they can put appearances such as this, when stormy weather might bring their floating homes to the shores. Although they do look like bi-valve molluscs, they are actually related to crabs and lobsters.

My thanks to Maya Plass for making me aware that I had attributed the wrong name to my goose barnacles. (Not quite sure how I managed to do that) I stand corrected.

Walk on the Strand

Whilst most of the south-eastern half of the UK basks in unseasonably hot weather,
I have chosen to be in the seasonably soggy, foggy weather of south-west of Ireland.

Ever been in the wrong place?