Nire Valley February 3, 2017

A taste of Ireland for hikers.

Making memories

In my second Comeragh post, I shared photographs of the road that crosses the mountains from Clonmel to Ballymacarbry. It is how we are going to drive ( or walk) to the Nire Valley.

I have never hiked in this area, but I know that there are several trails and loops, and beautiful lakes. An annual Nire Valley Walking Festival page might help you make your choice, and there is an information board at the car park from where I took most of pictures for this blog. Some of the trails start from the car park, but if you want to start with a hike to Coumfea and Coumalocha, and see a beautiful stream falling from the Coumfea Plateau,  you have to walk back to this gate and start from here.

In the picture below, car park is on your left, and several trails start here.  If you hike up the hill…

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Milliners to the Resistance February 2, 2017

Yarnerinas

That’s what my non-knitting long-time dearest friend called me when she asked me to make four more pussyhats!  (I made one for her and one for her sister to wear in DC.) I love that –  we all are milliners to the resistance. Here’s the latest New Yorker:

Better late than never, here are photos from the Minnesota March.

When I boarded a city bus there were plenty of other hats.  A favorite, but blurry photo, was a knitter finishing her hat.  “I wish I had finished this last night.”  Lament of knitters everywhere.

So many hats, all handmade.  I thought about the images and visual statement of the Suffragists.  Color served as a means of instant recognition then, and now.

The Saturday Night Live on the night of the march used this, when Olga Povlatsky (Kate McKinnon) appears behind Putin.  Everyone in the audience immediately recognized it and applauded.

The kids…

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A chase

A Bushsnob out of Africa

It was driving from the Kalahari Tented Camp on the Auob River bed that we found a cheetah and her four cubs resting under the shade of a tree a long way off, at the edge of the dunes. An impossible find except for a detail: my wife was with me this time and she spotted them! As we had not had a good sighting of cheetah for quite a while, we stayed with them waiting for some action.

We watched them as they moved from the dunes to the actual dry riverbed, the mother always watchful while the cubs were engaged in a never-ending game of chasing and grabbing each other, already graceful and enjoyable to watch.

After a while, they got under a large tree and they decided to have a rest. Well the mother rested while the youngsters continued with their shenanigans. It was getting rather hot.

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Street Cars/Trolley Cars February 1, 2017

One of my favorite programs on PBS is American Experience.  Last night it was about the building of the Boston Subway.  Fascinating.  This was my mode of transport in and out of Boston.  I travelled from Belmont to Harvard Square via street car and then descended to the subway.  The street cars have long since been replaced by buses.

Watching the program resulted in a discussion with my husband comparing his travel by trolley bus into the center of Belfast Northern Ireland.  Were we talking about the same thing?  Possibly but his trolley car had 2 levels v my street cars were single story.

In fact his system was unique.  It was the only trolley bus system ever to be built in Ireland.  It opened in 1938 and it gradually replaced the Belfast tramway network.

The Belfast system was the 2nd largest of all the now defunct trolleybus systems in the U.K.  It closed in 1968.

For once I think my husband and i were talking about the same thing.  Oh the memories of our youth.

  Trolley bus in Northern Ireland