Kevin's Watch

I didn't know my presence might inspire squashy Freudian slips.

Here's what I'll do: I'll dump the jpg's into one huge zip, upload it onto my webspace, and mail you the link. You'll get the entire lot as well and can perhaps begin spamming the thread with dolmen-selfies while I procrastinate (the real reason being that I need to restrict my computer time at the moment due to back issues). You can make a Flickr account for instance. (Photobucket et al are from last century. Unrecommended.)

Good stuff, sounds like the job!

u.

[Double post 'cos I got pictures ]





https://www.flickr.com/photos/126958822 ... 370305916/

I'm new to this Flickr business and it doesn't reslly seem to like me, so after a fair bit of phaffing about this as much as I managed. Click on the link above and it'll bring you to an album with some of the photos in it. I'll add more later on.

I'll add a few comments, if you any questions just ask.

The first couple of pictures are of St. Canices Cathedral. There's a round tower behind the Celtic Cross that we got to climb which gave great views around the city. The next group are from Rothe House (a 17th Century merchant's house). The final three are of Kilkenny Castle and grounds. There was a nice rainbow being cast by the fountain which we captured especially for lurch

u.

Awesome!

I've seen pictures of the castle on various websites. Nice to see it lives up to its reputation.

That butterfly Squishy-Squashy deliberately crammed on the top row is a digital mirage. It was actually a raven sitting upon a skull in the dungeons of the Kilkenny castle, in a very Gothic and monochromatic sepulchral gloom.

(Is it just an impression of mine, or does the potatovatar smirk evilly? )

Who?

Me?

Evil?

Never!
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Sneaky?
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Definitely!

u.

More pics, nothing sneaky this time, heh, heh!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/126958822 ... 015739169/

Some more of Canice's cathedral. Then some of the round tower and one showing the narrow stairs you have to climb to get to the top. There's one picture of a Long Cantwell-esque knight. The rest are from the Tullherrin monument. There's another round tower there, two neolithic ogham stones, and some interesting ruins of an old church. We found a Cantwell buried in this graveyard, so that'll be somewhere to visit, ali!

u.

Great photos U. You went graveyarding? We did that at Fore (in Westmeath I think) and found a grave with 4 generations of C's family on it! Lucky devil.

Very cool! I'll add that graveyard to the list.

The effigies atop the vaults remind me of the ones in the cathedral in Granada for Ferdinand and Isabella and some of their family members. I'm guessing it was a fairly common style, if you had the money for it.

There's a way to use the ogham for divination. Not the ancient stones, of course -- but you put the symbols on sticks, and then toss them and read the ones that land face-up. It's a bit similar to using rune stones for the same purpose. We tried it in my Pagan book club, but I wasn't exactly adept. My sense is the ogham works better as an alphabet than as a divination tool....

Nice pics!

I'd like to visit there someday.

I confess to fearing that ominous "heh heh" a wee bit. He is plotting something dire...

The round tower by the Kilkenny Cathedral was the first I ever had been able to climb into. I thought it was fun, but definitely not an exercise for vertigo-sufferers, as it required a firm handgrip on the railing.



This was the only selfie (leg selfie = leglie, a term coined by Squishy) that survived back home. I wanted to show how steep the stairs within were.
Suffice to say that I hate selfies with passion. Especially the ones featuring duckfaces and botox.



I met this practitioner of druidism selling handmade jewelry by the Poulnabrone dolmen. I guess his custom was to carve the Ogham name of the wearer on the pieces he sold (he went on about the symbolics of mine and how the letter S was associated with willow trees and fertility...I read this as creativity; in the literal case I'd be the mother of a small army at this age and not a semi-hopeless single...). I asked him to use the head of the Finnish pantheon instead, Ukko the thundergod. I have the pendant somewhere in my half-unladen luggage.

Yup, fertility can mean creativity as well.

Another example of non-vertiginousness on the Aran Isles (during the solo portion of my trip)....



Note the position of the ledge where I'm...sitting I think. Common sense, where art thou?




(Will post moar when my shoulders feel less like having a Skest or two sitting upon them.)

Awesome pics!

More photos.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/126958822@N08/15051861827/

These are reverse order of when we visited them. There are a few more from Tullaherrin, one with Frosty doing her patented 'I'm staring poetically into the distance shtick' There are two from Kifane Church which is where I thought we'd find Long Cantwell. (He's about two minutes away a the ancient ruins, but there was no sign and I hadn't done my research!) Then there are a good few from the drive along the Nore River down through Inistioge to New Ross, where we saw the Dunbrody, a replica famine ship. In Waterford there are some nice atmospheric shots of a ghostly Viking triangle (Frosty felt quite at home there) and one of a replica longboat (I'm sure I saw wry expression with a hint of nostalgia for the good old pillaging days ). The last ones are of the coastline near Tramore which we visited the next morning.

u.

Really nice. No fear of heights here, but a bit of claustrophobia - I'd be admiring that tower from the outside.

Awesome shots, you guys. Although it's hard to believe that Frosty got out of the car to get so many pictures.

Batty said she saw a lot of sheep when she was in Ireland. She even brought me back a pair of socks with sheep on 'em.

aliantha wrote:
Batty said she saw a lot of sheep when she was in Ireland. She even brought me back a pair of socks with sheep on 'em.

Were they wool socks?

Just plain cotton, I think. For the tourist trade, y'know.

Lovely pics U. Such a green and pleasant land.