Z ~ Zucchini
Now I wonder what I can do with these today?
Stuffed them, bake them, or try to make a cake with them?
Time for a cup of coffee with my thinking cap on!
Photographing the Alphabet ~ Z
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Tag Archives: Alphabet
Photographing the Alphabet ~ Y
Y ~ Yellow
Daffodils in Springtime
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze……
~ Daffodils by William Wordsworth
Dandelions & daisies
What I need is the dandelion in the spring.
The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction.
The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses.
That it can be good again.
~ Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.
Photographing the Alphabet ~ X
X can have many meanings, but tonight I am in playful mood….
Helicopter rotor forming an X
This one landed in the hall tonight.
Lego Helicopter
Ready to go to the hanger.
Lego Helicopter on transporter
Say nothing about the blurry photograph. I have been told off already tonight….. for getting down on my knees to take the photo! Getting down was the easy part. Getting up again is a horse of a different colour, when you have a swollen ankle twice the normal size.
X might be a bad mark for my behavior 🙁 Maybe Nurse Hitler will have forgotten by the morning! 😉
X is also the sign for a kiss, and with it I wish you pleasant dreams.
Photographing the Alphabet ~ T
T ~ Texture
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- Chunky warm & cosy feel of a knitted garment
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- Peeling paint, gives inspiration for a textural needle art wall hanging.
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- Tweed Sample from a swatch colour blanket
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- Rough texture of an aging tree
Chunky knitting, peeling paint, tweed & tree bark… four textures with great surface interest.
Add to that the smooth velvet like surface of the moss in the header picture above.
Photographing the Alphabet ~ S
S ~ Shelves
Shelves overflowing with Bric-à-brac
I wonder how many items above you owned or used? The ceiling light shades bring back memories from my childhood and we had one of those old glass washboards, it came from my paternal grandmother’s home in County Clare.
Glass Cabinet, sometimes called a China Cabinet
I remember visiting homes where bric-à-brac had a place of honour on mantelpieces, cluttered tables, and shelves, or was displayed in cabinets with glass doors to display the items within while protecting them from dust.
Shelves filled with oddments of willow pattern crockery
Willow pattern tea sets with large breakfast cups were in everyday use in my other granny’s kitchen.
“Bric-à-brac” nowadays refers to a selection of items of modest value, often sold in street markets or shops like the one above.
Photographing the Alphabet ~ Q
Q ~ Quackers.
Quackers on Ice
Quentin, Quincey & Queenie Quackers never quite managed a quickstep in time.
Free Food
Time for a free feed where the Sixmile water River joins Lough Neagh.
Evening calm
Evening calm as the sun sinks below the horizon at Lough Neagh.
Photographing the Alphabet ~ P
P ~ Playground
When I was young, we were fortunate to have a field at our disposal for playing in, right at the end of our long gardens. It certainly did not look anything like this:
Is that a playground I see before me
Play areas in public parks these days are so inviting, that I want to be a child all over again.
I want to be four again!
Amazing equipment such as swings, slides, climbing frames & walls seem to shout at us to stretch our limbs and live out an adventure.
Come climb on me.
They sit a top bouncy tarmac soft pour safety surfaces with embedded graphics in a myriad of colours that include red, yellow, green, orange & purple & blue. A real rainbow.
The ground beneath my feet can provide inspiration for play
Itsy Bitsy Spider even has a look in!
Itsy Bitsy joins in the fun
Who knows, this wall might lead to a healthy hobby in rock and mountain climbing in future years. Everest perhaps?
Learning to reach great heights
Photographing the Alphabet ~ O
O ~ Organ
This Pipe organ is in St John’s Church, Donegore, nestled against the side of Donegore Hill.
St John’s church on a sunny afternoon
The parish was fortunate to receive the gift of this pipe organ from St Brigid’s Church of Ireland, Parish of Mallusk, Co. Antrim. It had started life in a Roman Catholic Church in the South of Ireland and spent some time in a Presbyterian church before the move to Mallusk.
Many hands were needed to assist in the task of moving the seven hundred and eighty pieces from St Brigid’s Church to the horse lorry, and again from there into Donegore Church.
Pedals polished by regular footwork.
A view from the pulpit.
The church still uses candle power for lighting the building, and the Christmas Carol Service is always packed to the doors.
In the south-west corner of the churchyard is the watch-house, or corpse house, built in 1832 to foil the attempts of the “resurrectionists” at body-snatching.You can see it at the beginning of this little video clip. It was my very first attempt at making a soundless video and not very high quality, but you get the idea!
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Donegore Church is a Grade A Listed Building by the Historic Monuments and Buildings Branch of the Depratment of the Enviroment (N.I.) and the corpse house is also a listed building. As such, restoration and repair must be carried out to the highest standards and in sympathy with the architecture and history of the building.
Photographing the Alphabet ~ M
M ~ Motte
Now we are talking about a Motte and not a Mot!
Mot (n): Dublin slang for a girlfriend as in “me [my] mot”.
A motte on the other hand was an earth mound, forming a defensible raised platform on which a tower – a keep – could be built. The earth for the motte would be taken from around its own base, forming a deep ditch, aiding the builders’ ability to defend. It would be strengthened with wooden supports or clay.
Motte at Antrim Castle with a winding pathway to the top.
Motte’s varied in size from 50 to 120 feet in height and 50 to 300 feet in diameter.
View from the remains of the old castle
Motte and Bailey Castles were built on the highest ground in the area, they often adjoined Rivers and overlooked Towns or harbours.
View of the remains of the castle from the top of the motte.
The Old Courthouse and view of the town from the top of Antrim motte.
Motte and bailey castles were a form of castle structure that enabled the Norman conquerors of England and Wales to secure areas of land quickly and cheaply in the 12th and 13th centuries.
The Normans needed a castle design they could erect quickly to subdue the wild folk 😉 of these isles. The name ‘motte and bailey’ describes the two parts of the structure. The baileys built by the Normans tended initially to be wood, as speed was of the essence. They were enclosures which sometimes surrounded the base of the motte, providing another layer of defence, or sometimes positioned simply at its base to one side, to be used as an enclosure.
Wooden motte and bailey castles, providing they served their purpose and were located properly, were often rebuilt as stone structures when the Norman lords felt more secure.
This motte is located in the War Memorial Park at Ballyclare, the photo is rather hazy but I think it adds a magical mood to the image.
View from the other side on a different day.
This time a set of steps leads to the top.
There are mottes all over Northern Ireland, I had hoped to photograph a few more, but driving was off limits for the past couple of weeks. Maybe another time.
Photographing the Alphabet ~ N
N ~ Nibbling
Nibbling on their greens!
The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.