Graphic Design company launches new website

It's been exciting times for the guys at Doodle Moose Designs, they've been preparing their material for the new website which went live just today! They're a Kildare based graphic design company, offering a bespoke design service for your business as well as a selection of greetings cards for birthdays, Mother's day (get in there soon!), anniversaries and blank for your own message.

They also have a great range of colourful and fun wedding stationery, and can do everything from wedding invitations to save the date cards and wedding location maps - in their own designs or customised wedding stationery that reflects what you want from your wedding day. (Some of Doodle Moose did these invitations previously...)

So why not pop over and have a look at their brand spanking new website!

Abandoned church, Great Connell, Newbridge

I came across this abandoned building in Newbridge. It's in the middle of a graveyard, a small church at a crossroads. Still open to the elements, and ruined inside though if you look carefully you might be able to see it had beauty once.

A lath and plaster ceiling once...


Colour view.



Black and White.

Sunsets over Kildare

Well it's early spring, and the days have been beautifully crisp and dry over the last few days - leading to some wonderful sunsets. I've tried to capture them, and here's one for you to enjoy.



Prints available here...

And here's another one, with some birds.



Prints available here

I've been playing with my new Tripod, and enjoying comedy! Not in that order...

Tonight, for a change, I took some photographs. But only after I saw some funny.

Thanks to the guys at Schnitzel, sorry, Schnitzel comedy club, there was a very enjoyable Diet of Worms show at the riverbank this evening. Preceded by Gearoid Farrelly, Alan Bennett (MC) and Mikey, who isn't 26, these guys made me laugh a lot. Again. Having seen them before (call of the puffincat) I was expectant of ribtickling, but this was a hilarious play (and well-acted, too) rather than a hilarious live sketch show.

Set in Strollinstown, the main character is a developer who's been hiding the Recession from his wife. Liberally sprinkled with hilarity, there's also a sense of satire in that maybe we've all been hiding from the recession a little bit.... all good comedy is intelligent too. And this was, and is, good comedy. Go and see it if you get the chance.

And now that I have a tripod, I've been able to take some of the photos I was aching to take for ages - St Conleth's church in Newbridge is very nicely lit up at night, as is the extended bridge in Liffey. Width-wise, that extension was, not lengthwise - the Liffey hasn't expanded. Much.

So, here they are, linked in all their photographical glory to my pix.ie account - enjoy, if you can! Comment if you like!


It really is well lit up. I'm sure that more can be done with this photographically, but I chose to stick with a 50mm prime and see how it worked. Lovely lights, you'll agree!


Interestingly, and I'd hoped I'd timed it properly, the red and green lights are simultaneously on in this image! Some nice light trails there, but they were a bit overpowering. More traffic would be needed for this, so maybe earlier than 2230 for the next shoot! Also it was cold. :(



Does this make sense? I like it!

Pollardstown Fen, Kildare; Or somewhere I've been meaning to go for aaaaaaaages

This morning, with the weather being so nice and all, I decided to scout out a local conservation area that's been at the back of my mind for some years now (it even came up as a suggestion for a Young Scientists Competition entry, but that's another story that I've forgotten....).



Pollardstown Fen, Co. Kildare, with car parking located just at the M in Morristownbiller in the map below:


View Larger Map

It's a large area, and boggy (Well, I suppose fenny, but it's hard to write that without laughing...) and the National Parks and Wildlife Service have installed a boardwalk about 2km or so in length so that you can easily see what the fen is all about. In brief, it's an area on the outskirts of the Curragh plains, where the limestone brings a lot of underground water to the surface in numerous springs (Father Moore's well, nearby, probably being another one of these). This water in turn creates a fen, or marshland, which is first and foremost an important habitat (you remember those snails that held up the Kildare bypass?) and secondly a source of water for the Grand Canal!



It was quiet today - I was alone (there were flowers to be chosen!) and only as I left did another car or 2 come into the car park. There were also very few birds, though had I spent longer there, or in another part of the year, I may have had more to look at - though I was too slow with my camera when I spotted a kestrel hovering!

It's overwhelmingly reedy, and the area of the fen is substantially larger than covered by the walkway, but I don't know how safe or wise or environmentally friendly it would be to try to explore off the boardwalk.



In other news this weekend there was a familial meeting which went well, and a fine view of the ISS (which seemed to interest all those in the familial meeting!) and the almost-docked Discovery space shuttle. I have my 10x50 Pentax binos to thank for being able to discern the 2 points of light, and although it's "just a moving star" there's added significance when you know what you're looking at. I've added a useful tracker to the right hand side you might have noticed.

Oh, and for further information on the fen, why not have a look at the sites below:
National Parks and Wildlife service factsheet 
Bord na Mona info
Inland Waterways info

Enjoy!

January's just been closed out

I've just been filling in the gaps I'd left in January's daily photographs. The album so far is located here.... Some highlights, should you not want to see 'em all, are below - these are 4 of my faves (and highliest rated!)

From the 7th, parked on the side of the road wondering was there anywhere I could go to take a picture before I arrived in home I took this photo of a rear view mirror...

Following a walk in Lough Boora, Offaly, this one was loaded for the 9th. I loved the texture and highlights on this sculpture.

Then on the 21st I saw these saucers, lined up in ranks, ready for a coffee rush. Loved the pattern of the saucers, offset by the random sugar sachets and biscuits.

Later that week I took my cheap flexible tripod down to the canal harbour, and spent a cold few minutes taking some images - this is the best one I got that night...

So in brief - I've taken an image every day (I still vouch for the first, as the time on the camera was set wrong) which is a good start. I've enjoyed it, and I've learned a lot about what I'm not doing by a) doing more photographing and b) interacting with the excellent talent on pix.ie

I hope this continues for the rest of the year, and I hope it's worth viewing!

The tree that is no more

You remember I posted some pics of a tree that fell over on Monday? Of course you do, it was only 48 hours ago! I was passing by this afternoon, and took some pictures of the remnants. Well, I say remnants, there's not that much left.

And I say photo, but the light was difficult (honest, it was), and they're not great. But they give some impression of the size of the trunk!

It was this old!

The bridges of Monasterevin, or, how you cross the canal without getting your feet wet

There are many bridges in Monasterevin, definitely scope for a project one day - It's got Engineering all over! Rail and road viaducts, a canal aqueduct, I've heard it said there are 12, and that you can see them all from one place - must be somewhere high, but maybe I'll find it someday. Gotta count em first!

Anyway, the lifting bridge on the Portarlington Road was recently replaced with a modern one (in the same style) and whilst waiting on a badminton game, I took this one evening.

Ent seriously injured during battle with wind

I was passing through Naas this afternoon en-route to a meeting and I had to stop and take a picture of this tree. It had obviously been quite rotten and couldn't stand up to last night's barrage by the wind. Luckily, as far as I know, nobody was hurt except the Ent himself.

It's easy to look at an old tree and think how beautiful it is, and respect what must have happened in the time it's been alive (or treeing, or whatever it is you say a tree does), but at the back of it all, when this happens it's serious. This was a huge tree, which must have carried substantial weight...

*Ent: A fantastical inhabitant of middle-earth, best described as someone whose (thanks pete, it's late) bark was well, their skin. A tree-man, basically.

Some sunrise/early morning shots

I saw some interesting light the other morning, I was in Naas and the sun was rising (it wasn't that early!), and I managed to catch a few pics as the mist was lit up. See what you think!

More photos, as ever, on pix.ie/brianp.

Mullaghreelan woods, Athy, Co. Kildare

Today we went for a walk in the woods, just a short one in the Mullaghreelan woods in Kilkea - between Athy and Castledermot in Kildare. It was a lovely day for it with nice bright low sunshine.

The woods themselves are small enough in area, mostly deciduous but with some coniferous stands centred around an old Rath believed to have belonged to the O'Tooles in times past. There's a short walk around (though you can extend this by taking the leg towards the castle, sadly no longer a hotel), illustrated with some informative signs.

And of course, there is no woods complete without it's own abandoned cottage.

In other news, this weekend I finished Iain M Banks' "Surface Detail," his latest Culture sci-fi novel. Based around the idea of a war between pro- and anti-Hell (Hell being a constructed reality in this novel) forces. Brilliantly written with the usual mix of technology, and the wry personality of the Ship Minds. Highly recommended. It's quite long though, so you get a bittersweet feeling at the end, slightly relieved you've got the story finished, but wanting for more. Enjoyed occasionally with an Erdinger Cristal. Lovely beer. MMMMmmmm.

And thanks to Coillte for allowing us all onto their lands.

Kildare Water update 5 January

From the KCC website, not really news but an update. The supplies are recovering, hopefully it won't be too much longer. Link.

Water restrictions (reduced pressure) will be in place across the county tonight, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m.

While supplies are recovering, there is still a need to save as much water as possible – thanks to all the people who have helped in this way.

Photo of the day continues...

Today's picture:

I was able to go for a little spin today, it being a Bank Holiday, and I found a bridge under the M7 where I saw this graffiti!

Water supply in Kildare, 1 Jan 2011

Latest update from Kildare Co. Co. regarding water is copied below for your info.

Sat 1 Jan

Water Supplies

Water supplies returning in Naas today and there will be no restriction there tonight. A tanker is at the Fairgreen this afternoon and the standpipe at the rear of the council offices is being manned also.

The overall situation remains tight: please conserve water as much as you can.

Thanks for your co-operation.

Kildare Water Tankers updated for 1 January

No tankers expected tomorrow due to the lifting of the restrictions, per Kildare Co. Co. website today.

Announcement reproduced below:

Water Tankers

It is not planned to deploy tankers within the County due to the lifting of restrictions. Tankers can be deployed however if the need arises.

Naas Town Council plan on erecting a standpipe at Aras Chill Dara from 2pm until 4pm 1st January 2011

Water Pressure Restrictions

Water pressure restrictions will not be reintroduced until 6pm Saturday 1st January 2011

The Council would continue to appeal to residents and businesses to conserve water during this time as restrictions may have to be reintroduced if reservoir levels reduce to critical levels.

Emergency Telephone Numbers

Additional emergency lines from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. :

(045) 431300, 431364, 486121, 486122

Out of hours emergency number 1890 500 333

Naas Town Council,

Telephone 045 - 980990

Athy Town Council

Telephone: 059- 8634534

Kildare Water Tankers updated 31 December

As per yesterday, just in case you read this instead of the official website of KCC, here's the link to the locations for the tankers today 31 December 2010.

Water Tanker Update Friday 31st Dec.

Kildare County Council

Water Tanker Rota/Standpipe Locations for Friday 31st December

Location Time

Athy Coneyboro 8am-10am

3pm- 5pm

Ballyroe 3pm-5pm

Celbridge At Tesco 11.30am-2pm

Derrinturn 11am- 2pm

Leixlip Captains Hill 2.30pm-5pm

Sallins Entrance to Waterways Development 9am - 11am

Naas Rathasker & Carraig Oscair Standpipe 10am - 12noon

Millenium Roundabout/Sallins Road/Oldtown. Commencing at 10am

Monread Heights from 11am- 11.30am approx. (followed by Rathasker/Carraig Oscair finishing at Arconagh.

1) Tankers may be moved from time to time to meet the needs of areas not shown above.

2) A standpipe water supply will be available at the rear of the County Council Offices, Newbridge Road, Naas. 1pm - 6pm

Emergency Telephone Numbers

Additional emergency lines from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. :

(045) 431300, 431364, 486121, 486122

Out of hours emergency number 1890 500 333

Kildare Water Tankers updated 30 December

Kildare Co. Co. has updated their water tanker location page for Athy, Celbridge, Derrinturn, Leixlip, and Naas for today, Thursday 30 December. You should be getting to the Council's own website before you get here, but just in case, this is my public service bit!

Kildare Water Tankers

Further to my earlier email regarding Kildare Co. Co's water issues in the last few days, I post information from Kildare County Council's website in relation to where they have provided tankers. It's a bit late in the day but might be of help to somebody!

Water supply in Kildare

Just a quick note to say that Kildare Co. Co. have announced, like many other counties, that water supply pressure throughout the county will be reduced overnight, from approx. 6pm Tuesday to 10am Wednesday. Further info here.

Room by Emma Donoghue, and some useful links

I read Room, by Emma Donoghue, a couple of months ago. It's one of the books that stick in my mind, like the Life of Pi, or Sunday at the Pool in Kigali - well written, well driven and to reuse an oft-mentioned word, compelling. Room tells the story of a young boy who lives with his mother in a small room - this is (for most of the book) the entire realm that these 2 characters exist in.

The story is told from Jack's 5-year old viewpoint, so everything has a character and is anthropomorphised in the way that 5-year old boys do (well, as far as I can remember anyway) so well. But you can probably guess that Jack and Ma aren't in the room naturally, so to speak, though as usual I'm loathe to give away much of the plot as if you haven't read it I'll spoil it on you.

This book raises your heartbeat and is truly edge of your seat reading. I read it in one sitting, pretty much, only putting it down half way through to catch my breath. Definitely one for the must-read pile. Shouldawundabooker.

So, while you're reading that curled up next to a fire while the weather outside continues to freeze and snow and do unspeakably wintry things to us, you might be looking for some information on roads and stuff. These links below might be of use:

Kildare Co. Co. Emergency News webpage

Bus Éireann's travel information

Met Éireann's interactive 5-day forecast (winds, precipitation and temperature)

Irish Weather Online

Dept. of Transport Scary Weather Information Page with other links and stuff

AA Roadwatch (as if you didn't know this one already)

RTÉ's weather and transport feed