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The Daily Commute 15 May 2012 – Inspired by ADAY.ORG

I’m lucky, I can walk to work. Sometimes I take a lift but mostly I walk.

The distance from home to office is a little more than 5km and that allows me to start my day with 50 minutes of very pleasant physical activity.

The route I take is not what would be traditionally considered beautiful or stunning, but if you’re willing to look you’ll often notice something worthwhile.

Just a few days ago I came across the ADAY.ORG project which asked participants to take photographs on May 15 so that…

On this one single day we ask you to pick up your camera and help us photograph daily life. What is close to you? What matters to you? We will connect your images to images from all around the world, creating a unique online experience where photographs will be shared, compared and explored. Your view on life will be preserved to inspire generations to come.

So on Tuesday 15 May I brought my Canon IXUS 970 IS (small, compact, light, ideal) with me and I looked for images represented my walking commute on that particular day.

These are the result.

I was lucky that it was a dry sunny morning in Dubln which allowed for good colour contrasts between subjects and the clear blue sky.

Initially I thought there was no theme other than what I thought was interesting but later I realised that I’d taken quite a few images that give a sense of time and place.

I showed the results to a work colleague and he rightly pointed out that if I tried the exercise again that evening (walking the opposite way I guess) or the next morning (different light and sky) I’d probably take completely different photographs.

I think he was spot on.

I’m not sure if I have a favourite. Certainly I’m drawn to the last photo of the art-hoarding work by Anna Nielsen that makes a pleasant change to normal construction site fencing. I was also delighted the project inspired me to take a closer look at the Grange Abbey chapel ruin. The torn advertisement for new houses and the posters encouraging a vote for the Fiscal Stability Treaty on 31 May are signs of the times these days.

I submitted them and added comments which you can read here.

Sometimes when I walk to work I’m grappling with a problem of some sort.  Perhaps something that has to be taken care of at home or more likely something that awaits me in the office and cannot (and shouldn’t) be avoided.

It was nice to have a different sort of project last Tuesday that allowed me to focus (ouch!) on other things.

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air’s salubrity.

The title of this post is a quote from Merlin’s Song by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882).

After spending a little time on Howth Head and later at Red Rock, Sutton on Saturday I thought the quote summed up my feelings perfectly.

It had been a lazy day. I hadn’t done anything energetic really. I certainly hadn’t walked around Howth Head.

I just found a nice spot, sat and tried to take in my surroundings.

Looking at the sea can be soothing and Saturday was no exception.

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I took the first photo of the Baily Lighthouse through the yellow gorse from Howth Summit and then later I took the second photo at sea level near the Martello Tower at Red Rock, Sutton.

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Of course the weather changed and now we’re in for a few days of cold squally showers – I can’t do much about that.

But I can try to ensure I remember sitting at Red Rock listening to the birds calling, the sea lapping and the feeling of the sun warming my skin.

As I was sitting there a funny thing happened.

A man was walking by on one of the paths around Howth Head, we spotted each other and I waved and thought nothing of it.

I turned back to look out to sea and then I heard footsteps. “Beautiful here” he said, “very spiritual”.

But before I could answer his mobile phone rang and he excused himself! He was right though, it was very spiritual.

Walking home a little later I saw him again, this time sitting down on the grass looking out to sea, still talking on his mobile.

No message, no moral, that’s just how it was.

Nice day!

Searching for a Carpet of Bluebells

This year I’ve see a few clumps of bluebells along the seafront opposite St. Anne’s Park in Dublin. They usually appear in April but I think they sprang up a little earlier this year.

Just in case you don’t know your bluebells or hyacinthoides non-scripta to go all scientific, it’s a plant with drooping, tubular, purplish-blue flowers, often found in wooded areas. They are beautiful individually, but if you are ever lucky enough to find a “field” of bluebells you would think the world is covered in a blue carpet.

Dave McManus, a photographer friend of mine, gave me directions to a cleared wooded area on Howth Head where I’d find plenty of bluebells. I took a trip up and sure enough there were quite a few small patches in the shade of the remaining trees.

Since the area was shaded, and although I didn’t want full on sunlight, I had to wait and be patient in the hope that a few rays would peep through and land on the flowers.

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I knew I wasn’t going to get the bluebell carpet effect, they didn’t occur in enough numbers for that, but I’m glad I waited long enough to take the photo above.

Photography teaches you patience.

The closest I’ve ever come to seeing a carpet of bluebells was in 2005 near Fradswell, Staffordshire in England. If you drew a triangle with Liverpool, Birmingham and Nottingham as it’s corners, then Fradswell is right in the middle, not too far from Stoke and Uttoxeter – I guess we’re taking about the West Midlands.

Anyway out walking in the woods there was a little clearing full of bluebells. I took this photo with my first digital camera, a Canon IXUS 430, on a mainly cloudy day. I like the photograph. It won’t win prizes but it is a nice memento of a good weekend.

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If you have time you should take a look at Dave McManus Landscape and Nature Photography or drop by to The Red Stables market in St Anne’s Park and see his work in a less virtual way. Dave is there most Saturday mornings.

I still haven’t found the perfect “field” of bluebells so if you are out on your travels and find a candidate please let met know where it’s hiding.