Killarney, County Kerry.

Killarney is  in the south west of Ireland. It is a land of lakes and mountains. Last December we took Metin, our Turkish friend there. He was visiting Ireland for the first time. He told us Killarney is how he imagined heaven.

This is Metin, taken after he had just climbed Torc Mountain. I chose to stay at home and wait for the photos! 

The following photos were taken last May. As usual, our Irish weather wasn't great. But it didn't spoil our weekend. My brother lives in the area. He swore he'd never go walking again with women with cameras. There were too many stops along the way.

Muckross House. This is where my brother works.
 He bakes all the cakes for the restaurant

View from the terrace at Muckross

A walk through the garden, the rhododendrons are in bloom, and the rain is not too far away.

Old Boathouse at Muckross, on the way to Dinas Cottage

Torc Waterfall

A walk through the woods at Ross Castle

The smell walking through the woods is heavenly. Bluebells and wild garlic.

Lough Leane

Favourite pastime on the lakes

Ireland's fields are dotted with ruins

Another of Killarney's famous lakes

Lakes of Killarney

This is Ladies View. Queen Victoria's ladies-in -waiting visited here in 1861 during the royal visit.
 They loved the view so much it was named after them

The natives are friendly. This is our native red deer. Killarney National Park is the only place left in Ireland where the  native wild Red Deer can be found. They were in danger of extinction but thanks to conservation their numbers increased to over 600 in the 1990's

Evening in the gap of Dunloe.

On the road through the ap.

Where would a post on Ireland be without a couple of "typical" Irish Colleens!

Seasons of Life.

Four years ago our school took part in a "Comenius Project" This is a  European funded inter-school project. We were four schools in the Czech Republic, Greece, France and Ireland. The theme of the project was "Roots, Shoots and Branches"

 Roots represented our past, our history. Shoots represented our lives today and Branches was our reaching out to each other. Each school chose a tree to represent it's country. The Czech Republic chose the Linden tree, Greece the Olive tree, France the Chestnut tree and Ireland chose the Oak tree.

During the course of the two years the pupils in our four schools worked  on our chosen themes, across all areas of the curriculum. We explored our similarities and learned to appreciate our differences.

Maria, the project coordinator for the Greek school sent me this email near the beginning of the project. It was to inspire an artwork that would be a lasting reminder  for our school of this wonderful project. More of this in another post.

R is for Ruins

ABC Wednesday

The ancient city of Ephesus

Below is an extract from the poem "The Ruin"  It is an 8th-century Old English Poem from the Exeter Book by an unknown author. The pages of the book have become damaged and so the poem itself is a ruin. The  subject of the poem is ancient Roman ruins, built of stone and having hot water, assumed to be the ruins of Aquae Sulis in Bath Somerset. Turkey is a country littered with the ancient ruins of many civilizations. This is a snapshot of a few of them.

The Ruin

This masonry is wondrous; fates broke it
courtyard pavements were smashed; the work of giants is decaying.
Roofs are fallen, ruinous towers,
the frosty gate with frost on cement is ravaged,
chipped roofs are torn, fallen,
undermined by old age. The grasp of the earth possesses
the mighty builders, perished and fallen,
the hard grasp of earth, until a hundred generations
of people have departed. Often this wall,
lichen-grey and stained with red, experienced one reign after another,
remained standing under storms; the high wide gate has collapsed.
Still the masonry endures in winds cut down...........................................

This was one of the main thoroughfares in Ephesus, lined with shops

The Library of Celsius Ephesus

Part of the communal latrine in Ephesus

Part of the reconstruction of terraced houses Ephesus  

One of the mosaics they uncovered, Ephesus

This was the road to the harbour at Ephesus. The city is now 6 km inland.
 The harbour silted up and the city fell into decline

Temple of Zeus at Euromos near Milas

Pool of Cleopatra at Pamukkale. You swim among the ancient columns in the 

Amphitheatre at Hierapolis, Pamukkale

Temple of Apollo Didim

Two remaining columns at the Temple of Apollo

Lycian tombs Kaunos  near Dalyan

Tumulus on Mt Nemrut, thought to be the tomb of King Antiochus.
Around it are scattered the heads of the Gods

At Mount Nemrut

 Monumental Gate Aphrodisias

Bouleuterion Aphrodisias

A land without ruins is a land without memories -- a land without memories is a land without history.    Ryan, Abram Joseph

Turkey in Bloom

People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.  ~Iris Murdoch, A Fairly Honourable Defeat

Tulips Istanbul

Tulip Festival Istanbul

Mesembryanthemum

Poppies - on the road to Kavaklidere

Periwinkle

Tree Mallow is everywhere

The humble daisy

Color Carnival 90#

Maria's Space: Welcome to the New Home of Color Carnival - Celebrating 90 Weeks

This photo was taken in Chiang Mai, Thailand after a traditional dance show

Just Desserts

 I've spent the last couple of evenings in the kitchen. My friend's daughter was making her First Holy Communion today. They were having a party for family and friends afterwards and I offered to make the desserts. I love to cook but when I'm working I usually cook the basics, something quick and handy. But I love to bake.
So this was my chance.  First up was a citrus cheesecake. This is one of my favourites because instead of using the normal digestive biscuits I use Rich Tea biscuits, with butter, golden syrup and chocolate to make the base. It compliments the citrus in the cheese mixture.

Citrus Cheesecake

Next were the pavlovas. The area where we live is the  centre of strawberry growing in Ireland and they are just coming into season. In case someone didn't like strawberries I made individual meringue nests also. They could be filled with whatever people wanted.
My piéce-de-resistence is a strawberry gateau, which is interesting because rectangular sponges covered in a strawberry and cream filling are cut into strips and wound in an ever increasing circles on a lemon biscuit base and covered in cream.

strawberry gateau

Next came two chocolate peach gateaus.

Chocolate Peach Gateau

 Mindful of the fact that I'm watching my calories, I made a big bowl of fresh fruit salad so I could pay lip service to the notion of healthy eating.

Fresh Fruit Salad

People are the same all over, they enjoyed the salads and savories. But as soon as the desserts were produces there was a major oohing and aahing. Men appeared from the other rooms as if someone had blown a dog whistle. One friend proclaimed the cheese cake better than sex. I should have saved her husbands blushes when I said it depended on the sex!

Sorry didn't have time to take good photos, people were waiting to eat the desserts :-)))

As people left the party, everyone had a plate bearing the leftovers. One lady asked me to marry her. I told her she should check that deal out with my husband first. Marriage does not guarantee these goodies. They are only produced for major events, and these do not occur very frequently. All to often he sees the goodies being produced and he's warned to keep his paws off. They go out the door to someone else's house.

A good afternoon, the hours spent in the kitchen were worth the ego stroking I received today.