October photo scavenger hunt

Thanks to Kathy at  postcards from the pp for this lovely opportunity to scavenge some photos.  As always it was fun to look through the months photos to see what I got and find suitable ones.  Boy wa it difficult this month.  I did not take quite so many photos this month as previous ones as I am finally back at work full-time and I have been too much of a wimp to brave the drizzle but I managed to find the last one; the black cat when I was unearthing some Halloween stuff today.  I thought that the opportunity to photograph a black cat would never appear.


black cat

Candlelit: Nothing is cosier than a lovely warm fire and the candlelight.  This was the first fire of the autumn, and the last of the Christmas candles from last Christmas.  Smell played a huge part in my recovery as it is one of our most basic senses.  Apparently it links into the most primitive part of the brain.  It can trigger lovely memories and I use aromatherapy oils quite alot now to enhance my moods. 

Crunchy leaves:  These are my favourite trees as I spent quite a lot of time looking out the window.  The leaves have all fallen off the bitch trees but there are some beautiful crunchy ones waiting to fall off the horse chestnut and the cherry blossom.  I love walking down the track crunching through the leaves but this year it is dug up being widened into a cycleway.  I have the joys of next Autumn to look forward to and a lovely cycle track straight across the road.

Pumpkin: I took my younger daughter and her friends to a holloween event in the local museam.  It was fun for them and I got to wander around looking at my favourite maps.  

Heritage: This is my favourite old map.  Part of my job when I was younger was to go to the British museam and look up old maps to find the geotechnical history of a place.  I would be looking for streams that changed their course, and any other relevant feature, eg  filled in ground or reclaimed land.  This map is by Charles Smith and his accompanying book is a wonderful history of the area. 

Witch's hat: made by my favourite 6 year old at the halloween event at the museum.

Sunset & Fog: It was only when I went to look through my photos that I realised I had a shot of Tramore from the Saleens  at sunset and in the fog.  It really is a now you see it now you don't moment.  I think these two were taken around three weeks apart and probably in almost the exact same spot.  This is a wonderful location for birdwatching if you are so inclined and a place I love to stop at and just unwind.  

Graffiti: I happened across this one day while I was particularly grumpy on my daily walk.  You gotta smile at this. 

 River: Well more of a stream but one of the few river pictures I took this month.  I got particularly lost on my way back from Sleady while dropping my daughter to her friend and realised I was going north instead of south when I drove part this grotto.  Loads of these grottos were built in 1954, the marian year, dedicated to our lady.  this is a particularly spooky one as it is in a very damp and shaded area.

Eerie: Although I do find the grotto a little eerie, I have always found the particular style of 17th century castles very eerie.  Sleady castle is one of those.  It was apparently built by a chieften for his wife in an attempt to win her back but in the end it was taken from them in the wars of the 1640s.  Not being a great historian I dont know how much of that is true.  Suffices to say my 11 year old told me the story. Btw I should have turned left instead of right at the castle.

Golden: Last but not least I caught this amazingly golden glow one morning on the way to work.  I had never seen such a weird glow over the harbour before so I stopped to take some photos of it. It was quite surreal.