Category: Life

Image of the day – 85

This is the ‘Land’s End’ of the north – not a narrowing peninsula as in Cornwall, but here a long, straightish coast running east to west. A glorious, glorious place to stand and look and imagine.

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

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

Click to enlarge

On the day after arriving at Portrush, we relaxed in the house, chatted, explored the town and its little harbour, and walked east along one of the beautiful beaches of golden sand. It was a chilly day, and cloudy, but I don’t think anyone wanted to go far after all the travelling of the previous day.

The land and seascapes here are glorious. A wide, long sandy beach is backed by dunes stabilised by vegetation as you can see from the image. This beach slopes down to the north until it meets the sea with the waves rolling in and breaking. A little way out in deeper water there’s a series of small barrier islands, some of them merely bare rocks. And beyond those, the open sea – the edge of the mighty North Atlantic.

On a clear day parts of Scotland are visible towards the east, while beyond the northern horizon there’s nothing but ocean until the cold Arctic waters east of Iceland. This is the ‘Land’s End’ of the north – not a narrowing peninsula as in Cornwall, but here a long, straightish coast running east to west. A glorious, glorious place to stand and look and imagine.

I have no hesitation in recommending Portrush as a holiday destination. It really does have something special for everyone – children, teens, adults young and old, nature lovers, for swimming, boating, walking – it’s all here within easy reach.

See also:

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 – 84

It was good to have a whole week ahead of us. There would be places to see, plenty to do, great conversations, good food, and – as always on our family holidays – marvellous company!

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

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

Click to enlarge

After exploring Springhill, we drove to Portrush on the north coast where we’d booked a large holiday house for a week. We were the last to arrive, and after the usual hellos and hugs we fell into chatting and laughing and organising our first meal together. It was great to gather round the table together, three generations of smiles and looking forward to our week relaxing together.

The photo shows all but two of us about to tuck into dinner, I’m behind the camera of course, and son-in-law Paz was behind me in the kitchen area, so you see a wife, two daughters, a son-in-law, and four grandchildren. The house was large enough for all of us, we need around six or seven bedrooms, a large dining table, plenty of cutlery, plates and mugs, and room for ten people to spread out. And we had that in spades!

Our first impression of Portrush was good, last time I was here was in the 1960s – almost a lifetime ago! It has changed a good deal, of course, and it’s grown much larger, but the harbour seems its old self, and the lovely sandy beach is just as I remember.

It was good to have a whole week ahead of us. There would be places to see, plenty to do, great conversations, good food, and – as always on our family holidays – marvellous company!

See also:

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 – 83

Although it’s clearly the home of relatively wealthy, upper-class people; the house also has a friendly and lived-in feel to it, not just a grand house, but a family home as well.

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

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

Click to enlarge

Springhill is an old house and garden, not far from Cookstown. The house was built in Jacobean times, and latter extended and modified in Georgian style. The central part of the house is the remodelled Jacobean part, with large Georgian wings on both sides.

Donna and I drove to Coagh where we met Debbie, Steve, Aidan and Sara, took a quick look at my grandparent’s house, and visited Tamlaght Church where Mum and Dad were married. From there we separated again and Donna and I drove to Springhill to visit both the house and the grounds. I remember Mum talking about springhill, but I hadn’t visited it before. The photo of the dining room gives some idea of what it’s like inside. Although it’s clearly the home of relatively wealthy, upper-class people; the house also has a friendly and lived-in feel to it, not just a grand house, but a family home as well.

The house was built by the Conyngham family who came from Scotland having been granted land by King James I. The village of Coagh was reconstructed by a Conyngham, and when the family fell on hard times and the direct line died out, Springhill was presented to the National Trust which extensively restored it and has managed it ever since.

See also:

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

< Previous | Index | Next >

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 – 82

The pump had to be primed, so you couldn’t fill your pail unless you took out a mug of water to pour in to get it started.

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

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

Click to enlarge

This is a view of Coagh, my Mum’s home village in County Tyrone in Ireland. The photo is taken from across the Balinderry River which forms the border with County Londonderry (or Derry). The centre of the village is Hanover Square just across the bridge, and then three streets head out from the far side of the square. The road up the hill in the photo is Main Street, where my grandparent’s house was on the left hand side. The other two roads are not visible, heading left and right from the square.

My earliest memories of Coagh involve the old village pump on the pavement near the house (a little further up the hill), the village shop where my parents first met during the Second World War, 200 chickens in the yard at the back of the house, the loo outside in the yard, the kitchen range burning peat supplied from a stash in the cupboard under the stairs, and a large collection of black, wooden flutes in the attic along with a cuckoo clock. I could list more things, but I think that’s enough for now!

Me using the pump in 1952

The pump had to be primed, so you couldn’t fill your pail unless you took out a mug of water to pour in to get it started. It was fun to pull the handle and see the water spurt out clean and cold.

The shop was an Aladdin’s cave full of sweets, soda drinks of various flavours (my favourite was cream soda), superhero comics, stacks of newspapers in the evening, biscuits, Tayto crisps, and much more.

The chickens were loud and somewhat smelly. The eggs were collected daily and had to be cleaned with sandpaper, washing them was not permitted by the regulations.

The loo was a wooden seat with a hole in a small shed, and pieces of newspaper on a string for wiping your bum afterwards. It seemed very strange, no chain to pull to flush the loo like the one at home in England!

I think the flutes belonged to the Orange Lodge but had been replaced, presumably with more modern metal ones. There seemed to be dozens of them!


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

< Previous | Index | Next >

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 – 81

These are known as ‘pin trees’ and historically pins and nails were used, but when I was a child it was always the big, bronze penny coins.

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

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

Click to enlarge

We visited the village of Coagh in County Tyrone where my Mum grew up. We came here for holidays when I was a child and I remember a lot about those times, the people (now mostly gone) and the places (changed a good deal but still recognisable).

And among many of the places I remember, one has always been the Lough shore with its little harbour at the end of Battery Road just north of Ardboe. There are changes here too, of course, but the place still has very much it’s old character. The photo looks out across Lough Neagh at more or less its narrowest point, and you can see distant mountains along the horizon. Here’s a zoomable map if you want to see the location and layout.

I remember an old beech tree at Ardboe, where people had pushed pennies into the bark; I don’t know how the tradition began, but it must go back a very long time indeed. Apparently these are known as ‘pin trees’ and historically pins and nails were used, but when I was a child it was always the big, bronze penny coins. Read more about the Ardboe pin tree.

The pennies were very large, 31 mm in diameter. There were two kinds, the United Kingdom penny with the heads of various kings and queens, and the Eire pingin of the same size, weight and value with a harp on one side and a hen on the other. I loved those old coins!


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

< Previous | Index | Next >

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 – 80

Hot water rose in the system and the returning pipes contained cooler, denser water that flowed down, re-entered the boiler and warmed up again.

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

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

Click to enlarge

The Montalto Estate in County Down had an extensive fruit and vegetable garden to supply the house year round with freshly harvested crops. Greenhouses were an important feature, providing out-of-season crops and exotic fruits like pineapples and citrus. These greenhouses needed heating in the winter months and this was supplied by wide-bore cast iron pipes below the plant benches.

The remains of some of these pipes are visible in the photo. They usually ran in pairs; there were no circulating pumps, instead the boiler would be below ground in a stokehole and the hot water would rise and flow by gravity acting on the changes in density. Hot water rose in the system and the returning pipes contained cooler, denser water that flowed down, re-entered the boiler and warmed up again.

I remember greenhouse heating systems just like this from my childhood, my father had a role in the family business at that time, a nursery with greenhouses full of cuttings and seedlings and houseplants that needed heating during the winter. There was a wonderful smell of greenery, the pipes were always warm, yet never too hot to touch, delicate maidenhair ferns grew wild around the pipework below the benches and these were allowed to remain because the fronds were always useful in making bouquets and buttonholes for sale in the shop in town, or for weddings and other occasions. Even on cold, frosty days you’d want to take off your coat, hat and gloves if you went into a greenhouse!

Modern glasshouses are very different, they have oil or gas fired systems controlled automatically on demand by thermostats, and the heat may be distributed by water pipes or by fan-blown air circulation.


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

< Previous | Index | Next >

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 – 79

Thrive like an Irish Hydrangea, get rooted in surroundings and situations that bring out your very best.

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

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

Click to enlarge

Irish gardens often have the most magnificent Hydrangeas, in striking colours, not just white, blue and pinks, but purples and very vivid blues as well as many kinds like the lacecaps where there are small inner flowers and large outer ones as in the photo.

It seems there’s something in the Irish soils or climate that cause Hydrangeas to thrive particularly well! We visited the Montalto Estate just south of Ballynahinch where I took this shot, but it’s typical of all the gardens we visited in our two weeks in Ireland.

Perhaps the same is true for people. Do we thrive best in particular places? Perhaps the cultural ‘soil and climate’ suit us best in the country we call home, or amongst people we know well. Some people are energised by good company and parties, others (like me) are energised by solo activities. I can walk for miles on my own and come home afterwards feeling calm, balanced, and ready for anything. Others I know are just the opposite, a long, solo ramble would be hard to endure.

Whatever the individual differences it’s good for all of us to spend time in the ways that are most comfortable to us. Thrive like an Irish Hydrangea, get rooted in surroundings and situations that bring out your very best. You deserve it! And the people around you deserve it too.


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

< Previous | Index | Next >

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 – 78

The photos were not taken from quite the same place, the landscape is more established and natural than it was 64 years ago, there has been a modification to the overspill structure.

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

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

Click to enlarge

This is the Spelga Dam in the mountains of Mourne. The reason I’m including it here is that I took a photo of it when I was quite young and that earlier shot is below for comparison and additional interest.

I took the old photo when I’d just turned twelve, and the recent one when I’d just turned seventy-six, so they’re almost precisely sixty-four years apart. So what has changed in that time? Not much, really! I have changed far more in that time than the dam and its surroundings have done. The photos were not taken from quite the same place, the landscape is more established and natural than it was 64 years ago, there has been a modification to the overspill structure, and the concrete of the dam is more discoloured – but that’s about it. The dam might well be there in another 64 years, I will not!


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

< Previous | Index | Next >

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 – 77

This looks like a window that would invite you in if you were a friend, but sternly resist if you were trying to break in or up to no good!

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

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

(I plan to return to some more images from our Irish holiday for a while, before getting back to more Cirencester images in the near future.)

Click to enlarge

I felt I really had to share this delightful little farmhouse window with you. Donna had booked an AirBNB near Castlewellan and it was right next to the farmhouse across a little, cobbled yard.

I love the heavy, stone construction and the little wooden frame – so rustic, so pretty, and a young conifer is trying to get in on the act in the lower left corner. This looks like a window that would invite you in if you were a friend, but sternly resist if you were trying to break in or up to no good! I’ve never before thought of windows as having personalities – but this one certainly does!


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

< Previous | Index | Next >

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!

Cicero, feared or liked?

Cicero pointed all this out most eloquently. As a philosopher he thought things through carefully and deeply and then expressed his ideas clearly, giving plenty of reasons and examples.

The great Roman orator, lawyer, politician, philosopher and author, Cicero has left us a great legacy. He wrote on many topics that are as relevant today as they were when he dictated them to his trusted slave, Tiro.

Tiro was a gifted and hard working person in his own right – he invented a form of shorthand and left a good deal of written material that has survived. He was given his freedom by Cicero but chose to continue working for him. One piece of work dictated by Cicero concerns the good and bad motives people may have. He considered how becoming feared and becoming liked can both bring benefits, but the first is dangerous while the second is not.

When a person is feared, they may find a wide circle of supporters to do their bidding. Think in terms of Vladimir Putin, generally the people around him do his bidding because they do not wish to fall from a high window or drink poisonous tea. There are plenty of people who have died or nearly died because they have crossed Putin in some way – from Sergei Skripal to Yevgeny Prigozhin. Many political opponents have died while imprisoned. Examples like these cause others in Putin’s circle to be carefully obedient. Yet Putin himself is always in danger and must live under a permanent cloud, fearful that at any moment he will be toppled from power and most likely be murdered in the process.

On the other hand, live a life in which you are surrounded by friends who love you because of your kindness and thoughtfulness, and you will also have a wide circle to work with you and for you, but you will have far fewer anxieties, fears, and sleepless nights.

Cicero pointed all this out most eloquently. As a philosopher he thought things through carefully and deeply and then expressed his ideas clearly, giving plenty of reasons and examples. What Cicero must have realised (but did not express) is that most of us, most of the time, are feared by some yet liked by others. Cicero himself was no exception. He had political enemies and was murdered by the roadside as he attempted to flee from Italy.

There are three ways to learn more about Cicero, and it’s well worth doing so. Many of his arguments are as interesting and useful today as they were two thousand years ago (we would write 2000, Tiro would have written MM).

One way is to read Cicero’s writings for yourself. Much has been lost no doubt, but much has been preserved too – often thanks, in part, to Tiro. A second way is to read what historians and commentators have written about him. The third way, and perhaps the one that is most fun, is to read Robert Harris’s famous and fascinating Cicero trilogy. Yes, it’s fiction; but it’s skillfully woven around what we know of the characters portrayed.

See also: