A sunny winter's day in Waterford

The other day we had one of those rare occasions that need to be remembered - a beautiful sunny winter's day in Ireland. These have been so few and far between this winter that I thought it deserved a post of its own, seeing as I devoted a few posts to the bad weather!



Two views of the centre of Lismore showing the Main Street, with the Courthouse, Red House Inn and Monument

















I love the reflection of the bare tree in the water of the canal in this shot.

After the absolutely dreadful weather we have had in the past few weeks, with rain causing flooding and icy roads causing mayhem, I delighted in going for a few long walks with Ben the dog and my last-legs old camera in tow. (More on the camera anon!)


"The Spout" - a natural spring that supplied Lismore with water before plumbing arrived!

We are not used to driving on snow and ice like some of you are, nor are our cars designed for such conditions with no snow tyres or whatever you have in normally snowy countries. So as I wrote in an earlier post, the country goes into metaphorical meltdown when this happens, and skids to a halt, with school closures, work stay-at-homes, and latest updates on every millimetre of rain or snow.







The N72 road from Lismore to Cappoquin showing the old canal and the new controversial railings to stop people falling in to the shallow depths!

Lismore Millenium Park showing an obelisk and the quirky statue of St. Carthage, carved into a lightning-struck beech tree by a Welsh sculptor who worked for a week with a chain saw, much to everyone's bemusement. It beats cutting down the tree!

Mind you, there has been such boom-time over-development in floodplain areas in parts of Ireland that there is an economic reason for the impact such weather has on our towns. Whole books have been written, and millions spent on tribunals, on the ruinous planning Ireland has suffered in recent decades. This made millionaires out of many builders and landowners, and left many communities badly planned, with urban sprawl and no infrastructure like decent access roads, shops, schools and community centres. Now we are paying the price in urban decay with no-go areas and crime ridden sink estates in some of our cities and towns.






The moon rising over the River Blackwater








Thankfully Lismore has escaped the ravages of much of the bad planning decisions, perhaps as a heritage town there are more stringent planning restrictions and many listed (preserved) buildings.


Geese and ducks on the old disused canal that brought barges from the River Blackwater where it wasn't tidal and navigable





So I hope you like these photos I took that lovely sunny day, they show how good Lismore looks when the sun shines and are in stark contrast to the photos on the earlier post here, where you can see Lismore and environs in our snowy and wet weather.

I said more of the camera anon. Well, yesterday I got an early birthday pressie of a brand new camera and these will probably be the last of the photos from my ancient old trusty 2 megapixel Olympus which has finally given up the ghost. It has served me and the blog well thus far!

Another view of our garden looking towards our house