Geographical – Page 13 – Journeys of Heart and Mind

Image of the day – 41

Everyone enjoys a visit to the seaside, though perhaps the people living nearby prefer it when it’s a bit quieter.

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

Greystones is a delightful little town on the Irish coast south of Bray and Dublin. We visited it for a stroll along the seafront, discovering several small beaches as well as two longer ones north and south of the town. There’s a harbour/marina and interesting rock pools to see as well. With a good rail link from Dublin, this must be a busy place on warm, sunny days in the summertime.

In the photo, the headland with fields and trees beyond the rocks is just south of Bray, and the more distant headland is near Dun Laoghaire, with the furthest visible land at Howth jutting out from Dublin.

Everyone enjoys a visit to the seaside, though perhaps the people living nearby prefer it when it’s a bit quieter – though visitors bring trade to the local businesses and holiday homes, of course. I think Greystones would be a good choice for a winter break too, travel to Dublin is easy on the train, so days in the city and evenings on the coast might be a very fine combination.

Images from our Irish holiday 2024

For convenience, here’s a list of all the Irish holiday images:

28th Jul – Welsh Botanic Garden, Robin, Fishguard
29th Jul – Wicklow Mts, Glendalough, Powerscourt, Rose, Greystones
30th Jul – Liffey, Temple Bar, St Patrick’s Cathedral
31st Jul – Newgrange, Battle of the Boyne
1st Aug – Monasterboice, Mourne, Thrift, Window
2nd Aug – Spelga Dam, Hydrangea, Pipework, Lough Neagh
3rd Aug – Coagh, Springhill, Portrush
4th Aug – Beach at Portrush
5th Aug – Giant’s Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede, Portrush

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Image of the day – 39

Most of these old houses and their gardens are now enjoyed by much larger numbers of visitors than the original owners could possibly have imagined.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

National Geographic rated this as the third best garden in the World. It’s Powerscourt Gardens in Wicklow, Ireland. National Geographic is right, this is a very fine garden indeed. It’s spacious, well designed, full of interesting plants and landscape features, and very well maintained. We did spot a few small weeds here and there, but not very many; keeping a garden this large will require a lot of dedicated gardeners, either volunteers or paid staff (probably both). Most of the work has to be done manually, it will not be a cheap operation!

Of course, ordinary everyday people can’t manage a huge garden like this, nor afford to build a house as large as Powerscourt. A very tiny minority of the population could build and live in this kind of luxury either then or now. And even among the very wealthy, not everyone wants to.

But time moves on, and most of these old houses and their gardens are now enjoyed by much larger numbers of visitors than the original owners could possibly have imagined. Perhaps they’d have been horrified! But I, for one, am grateful for their beautiful legacies that I can visit and enjoy.

I have a final question for you, dear reader, and for myself too. What will you leave as a legacy for future generations? And what will I leave? Why not leave your thoughts below in a comment? There are no right or wrong answers.

Images from our Irish holiday 2024

For convenience, here’s a list of all the Irish holiday images:

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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Useful? Interesting?

‘Gradually, then suddenly’

Nobody can predict when the crash will come. But I believe General Hodges is right when he suggests that current events in Kursk are unlikely to be the only surprise.

What is going to happen next in Russia’s war against Ukraine? We don’t know, we’ll have to wait and see. But it’s possible to make some broad predictions even without knowing the facts.

General Ben Hodges, speaking about Vladimir Putin and the Russian Army’s current floundering against Ukraine, quoted Ernest Hemingway :

How did you go bankrupt?

Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.
Ernest Hemingway – ‘The Sun also Rises’

This is certainly true of Russia, they are wasting their soldiers, wasting their equipment, the economy is sliding out of control, and the population is now beginning to hear the very bad and disturbing news from Kursk Oblast (click the map for a larger version).

And it’s just as true for Putin personally. His moral bankruptcy in Russia and in the world at large is going to catch up with him. Abraham Lincoln’s famous words are relevant here: ‘You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.’

The truth has a way of coming out, and it often chooses very bad moments to do so!

Nobody can predict when the crash will come. But I believe General Hodges is right when he suggests that current events in Kursk are unlikely to be the only surprise Ukraine will spring on all of us, perhaps in the near future or maybe a little while later.

We’re still in the ‘gradually’ stage. But for Russia and for Putin the ‘suddenly’ phase will surely follow.

Watch the interview with Ben Hodges

Kyiv Post interview with General Ben Hodges

The Kyiv Post interviewed Ben Hodges on 21st August 2024, answering a series of questions about Ukraine’s recent activity in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, as well as some more general questions.

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Image of the day – 29

Tree roots probe small cracks and as they grow, heave even heavy structures aside.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

Today’s image shows a piece of ground lightly covered with silver birch; but the history of this area is interesting. During the war it was an RAF airfield (RAF Riccall) with runways, brick and concrete buildings, bomb stores and more. The airfield was in used from 1944 to 1958, and today the brick structures are collapsing, the runways have cracked and are mostly covered by layers of moss, grass and other low vegetation, and the other areas have become scrubland and lightly wooded areas as shown in the photo.

This clearly illustrates how much time and maintenance effort is required to hold back the natural world from recolonising our built infrastructure. What begins with the typical grass and weeds of cultivated ground soon becomes an impenetrable mass of brambles and young trees. As they grow larger, the trees shade out the brambles, and fallen leaves cover the concrete and tarmac and accumulate as fresh soil. Tree roots probe small cracks and, as they grow, heave even heavy structures aside. It’s a fascinating process. Skipwith Common, with the old airfield on its north-western edge, is representative of Yorkshire’s lowland heath ecology.

We think our built environment is solid and secure – not so! It’s easily overwhelmed once we stop maintaining it. Look at the land around the site of Chornobyl in Ukraine for another example of the speed of wildlife return to an area substantially left alone by humans.

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Image of the day – 28

Similar tank traps have been used along the front lines by both sides in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

We have some history today. The river is the Churn and it runs in several different channels through the Cotswold town of Cirencester. On the bank you will notice three, large, concrete blocks; there’s also a fourth, partly hidden by the block on the left. The blocks were placed here during the Second World War to slow down German armour in the event that Britain was invaded. German failure to win the Battle of Britain in the air war prevented the invasion, but at the time the blocks were cast and put in place invasion remained a real threat.

The trees in the photo and the wall in the background are more recent than the blocks. The river bank led to an open field with the grounds and gardens of Abbey House beyond at that time, with the centre of the town on the other side of the gardens. The town would have been very vulnerable to attack from this direction.

Similar tank traps have been used along the front lines by both sides in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The main difference is that modern, concrete traps are pyramidal (‘Dragon’s Teeth‘, not cubic. The sloping sides use less concrete and are more effective against tanks, but concrete cubes were also commonly used in the 1940s.

It pays to anticipate problems. But wars are rarely anticipated years in advance; political differences can boil over into actual conflict quite suddenly. And once they have started it can be very difficult to bring them to an end.

NOTE: These blocks can be seen from Grove Lane in Cirencester, quite close to the Norman Arch. From inside the Abbey Grounds, walk through the arch and turn right along the footpath for just a few yards. Look across the river, and there they are! A piece of Cirencester history that you can see for free.

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Cirencester

For convenience, here’s a list of all the Cirencester area images:

A417 roadworks, Advent Market, Bishops Walk, Baunton, Canal 1, 2, Castle Street, Christmas lights 1, 2, Church 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Churn flood, Countryside, Fallen tree, Fleece, Gasworks, Gloucester Street, Hare 1, 2, Hospital, Market Place 1, Phoenix Fest, Riverside Walk, Stone plaque, Stratton Meadow, Tank traps, View, Wonky 1, 2, Yellow Iris

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa