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Photos of Beara, the smallholding, the sea, organic subjects etc.
This is Page 1 - other pictures on Page 2  and at  Sunsets and Stormy waters (the dramatic storm of October, as it affected this part of the Beara Peninsula).
All pictures are copyright of Planorganic.com and Planorganic.ie. And I'm watching you! 

New pictures added 25th December 2004

This page eventually will have an emphasis on organic gardening and farming. But most of my older photographic records are on 35mm slides. These need a special adaptor before they can be scanned. In the fullness of time...
In the meantime, with the aid of my new toy, an Olympus C 5000 digital camera, I am snapping away like a mad dog.

If you don't already know, I live in West Cork on the Beara Peninsula, one of the most scenically beautiful parts of Ireland. It is almost ridiculously easy to take interesting land/sea-scape pictures because the opportunities are there almost every day. For something completely different though, see what the coastline here looks like during the storm of 27th October - Stormy waters  There's a few pictures from the same evening on this page too.

Click on these small, thumbnail pictures for larger images. They should only take a few seconds to load at the average connection speed. The originals are 1 megabyte+ files. 

   
The 750-1 longshot of snow on Hungry Hill on Christmas Day. The first photo is of the leading edge of one of the bitter northwester squalls coming down across the Haven - all the way form Greenland, the Met.Office said.

     Dawn on Bantry Bay - from Sandmount (where I live), near Castletown Berehaven. The middle one is the Solstice sun rising over the Sheep's Head Penisnsula.

          
There were some gorgeous sunsets in late November, early December. Everyone was talking about them. Friday evening, 3rd December, was astonishing. I took thirty or so pictures in 40 minutes and can't decide which is the best. One day, I'll take the ultimate sunset/sunrise photo ( Dream on, O'Connor; the Sky Architect has always got more up his sleeve).

It was Halloweeen. A neighbour had just told me about a UFO he'd seen. There'd been an interview with a white witch on radio that morning. I'd just been told of the untimely death of a great character, "Buck" Ryan, from my home town. TG 4 (Irish language TV station) were showing Feile Na Samhna - Celtic Feast of the Dying Sun). I'd lit my own Samhain torches and then pointed my camera at the emerging almost-full moon.........

    
Earlier that evening there was this wonderful 'Lord of the Rings' sunset. The fog is about to engulf Bere Island.

Then it became Turneresque. 

The Zodiac, my 25 year-old inflatable, returns after a successful pollack and mackeral fishing trip. 

The traditional, vertical style of dry-stonewalling is one of the delights of this peninsula. There are many fine examples of well looked-after walls and fences on the southern slopes of Hungry Hill. This particular one, I built for a neighbour is not as good as the older craftsmen would have done it, but it's a lot better than the road-side, 'Lego' stone and concrete structures that are replacing the old fences.

A good example of a modern stock-proof fence.

Not a good example of a fence - neither aesthetic or stockproof. Locally nicknamed 'The Gulag'. 

It was otherwise a gloomy morning, but then I saw that there was light at the end of the tunnel (entrance to my bóithrín).

Cabbage, mainstay of my favourite meal of bacon, cabbage and spuds - with a téscán of mustard and honey and, if one had the skill, a  white parsley sauce.

Autumn colours in the back garden.

A meeting of friends, at Sandmount, late October; Georgo, Nevan, Donie, Avril, Anne, Gavin and Connie - Oh, and the dogs.

Fennel seed-heads outside my south-facing window.

"42", a neighbour's characterful dog. If he's not fed on time he turns to the nearest meat-like object.

My sunscreen, for those few days in winter I can't see my laptop screen with the strong, angled sunlight.

The "Pink Glow" is my inadequate term for the lovely event that takes place many evenings when the clouds and angle of the sun are just right.  

          
Hungry Hill, directly north of me. Its old name is Cnoc Daod, Angry Hill, possibly because of the katabatic winds that sometimes sweep around its eminence. Look closely at the centre of the fifth photo and you'll see the shadows of 'lazy beds'. 'Lazy beds', a misnomer if there ever was one, was the clever, hand-dug ridging method for potatoes that was widely practsed in pre-Famine Ireland. There are still a few people on Beara that use this age-old practice. I use a lazy, low-skilled adaptation myself for the few early spuds.
For a detailed description of lazy beds, see my thesis Famine Justice?

Other pictures on Page 2  and at  Sunsets and Stormy waters (the dramatic storm of October, as it affected this part of the Beara Peninsula).