Even the sun is cold....

At least the days are starting to get longer and soon the snow will melt and the warmth return..... please.

Icicles on the coast

It is rare to see water remaining frozen so close the the north channel. It is especially rare to have icicles remaining in situ on the chalk face for such a considerable time.

Might have to change to bright yellow balls!

Our little bit of heaven on the north coast (RPGC) is out of action due to the snow. It is rare for a links course so close to the sea to be out of action or suffering from perma-frozen turf for so long.
The third hole has been using a temporary green for some time as the green staff refurbish the surface. Recently it has been looking lush green and coming along nicely for the new season. At the moment it is like all the rest... frozen.

Sport abandonded because of snow...

The pitches at the Joey Dunlop Centre - Riada Stadium are looking very deserted with the perma-frozen subsoil and a blanket of snow preventing the games going ahead.

The Big Freeze

Old Year - New Year

Another year draws to a close and as always it seems to have been much shorter and passed much more quickly than the preceding ones. My intention to make more of a blogging effort and show the world the delights of Ballymoney and its environs failed miserably this year! The luxury of having time to do all those things I would really like to do will have to wait a while longer as the daily working grind to pay the bills continues. Of course, if I had spent less time ‘on course’ playing golf I might have got a lot more done!

After a very enjoyable Christmas it has been a shock to return to work and do my stint at providing cover; in a very quiet office. It has been necessary to do a bit of ‘surfing’ to alleviate the tedium! As always there is some discovery to be made and at this time of year when we consider our achievements of the past and ambitions for the future it is nice to find words of comfort and inspiration.

The blessing shown below was written by John O’Donohue ( http://www.johnodonohue.com/ ) a poet and philosopher, who lived in Co Clare and sadly passed away in January 2008. His words and deeds live on however and as they seem to have spoken strongly to me, I have taken the liberty of reproducing some of them below.

Here’s to a happy and prosperous 2010…

Beannacht

("Blessing")

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

~ John O'Donohue ~

(Echoes of Memory)

Snowbound.

Ballymoney is covered in lovely powdery snow at the moment. Not the horrible slushy stuff we normally get!

Summer Summary 2009

Well that was the summer that was.

Sun Relaxation and then Malaga Airport

Another relaxing week in Spain. Visit to the bird sanctuary in Benalmadena, dining in some lovely restaurants, great golf and a visit to a seniors tournament proved to be a very pleasant way to have a last week away before autumn and winters sets in.

Then we depart for the airport and home. Malaga airport has much work going on at the moment to improve the facility. This will ultimately prove beneficial for the traveller, as long as the management and staff realise that they are there to move passengers and not mess them about.

Most of the recent times we have used Malaga it has been with Easyjet. I am a big fan of the airline and accept that economy flying will be a no frills experience. However the one thing that destroys the Easyjet experience is their attitude to checking in. Enormous queues for all destinations to a limited number of desks. Then as people get agitated and start to panic they call you forward at the last minute to close each flight. recently they have been abetted by striking customs officials and on this occasion by the staff who's job it is to get the passengers and luggage from the terminal to the plane.

There is nothing like an a long tedious queue, chaos at the customs and hours wait in blinding sun for the transfer bus to destroy a weeks relaxation.....

The Forgotten Caves and Coves of the Causeway Coast

Having failed miserably to post any blogs showing the brighter side of Ballymoney and the north coast (work and golf just keep getting in the way) I was more than happy to discover the web site of a Scottish photographer (Andy McInroy) now living in NI who specialises in images the North West of the island of Ireland. His work is absolutely stunning and demonstrates just how beautiful this part of the world can be.

Have a look at his work at http://www.andymcinroy.com/main.htm (Beware: you may spend an inordinate amount of time working your way through a multitude of wonderful images!)

There is an exhibition of his work at the Riverside theatre, University of Ulster at Coleraine entitled ‘The Forgotten Caves and Coves of the Causeway Coast’ http://www.andymcinroy.com/exhib3.htm running from the 31st of August to the 3rd of October 2009.

There is also an interesting article about the photographer and subject in issue 28 (June 2009) of agendaNi magazine http://www.agendani.com/index.php reproduced on the photographer’s website at http://www.andymcinroy.com/pub15a.htm