Kayaks, Treeffiti and the Obligatory Birds

An early morning walk along the River Lagan took us past this guy...

He looks like he's about to kayak into nothingness.

...and then past a few obligatory (since it's national bird-feeding month) birds...

A Moorhen.  These birds are nearly impossible to get a good picture of.  Not only because they hate people, but more so because at any given second, their heads are bobbing in a new direction.

A Bullfinch.  Both male and female in the first picture.  None of these shots are exceptional.  My remedy...multiple shots.

The last place our morning stroll took us to was this...

...A fallen tree that had many a political and social message carved into it.  I (may have) coined the term Treeffiti a while back..I feel this is an appropriate place to use it.  The carving on this side reads "Even the business men don't do business anymore"

This part of the trunk mentioned something about a guillotine.

and this part: "Too long not enough blood n' bones".

Food, Mist, Faces, Ratios, Bells, Bikes, and Complimentary Colors

One of the most delicious things I have ever eaten is easily obtainable in Northern Ireland.  Not only is it easily obtainable, it is cheap.  When I first had this delicious thing (in Canada) I got home and got online, knowing that I would not be able to find it in any regular or even specialty shops.  On amazon.com I found a decent amount of it for about $8-10 after shipping.  Not bad for the most delicious thing ever, but still alot for a crazy frugal person like myself.  Halloumi Cheese.  It is really really good.  It is a cheese that has a very high melting point...meaning where regular cheeses would be a gooey, albeit, delicious glob, halloumi cheese would be standing firm.  You can grill it, you can pan fry it, bake it..I just saw what I thought was a great idea...cutting it into cubes and threading it onto skewers for shishkabobs.  I will definitely be doing that.  The best part is that here, both in the regular grocery stores and in the specialty stores/markets it can be had for cheap.  I got three times the amount that amazon.com was selling for a little less than the same price.

So I've been figuring out the best ways to use this fantastic thing...roughly two pounds of this fantastic thing.  The other night I decided to pan fry it in a little butter and compliment its saltiness with some malt vinegar marinated mushrooms and onions.  My wife made bread sticks.  It was a glorious meal.

Sunday was National Trails Day.  That means that most parks and hiking areas were free (if they normally have a fee) and that many of them had events going on.  Being in Northern Ireland on our own, my wife and I don't interact with people as much as we did back in the States.  She, being here for a grad program, is definitely interacting more than I, but still, not as much as we once did.  So we searched out a guided hike.  We figured this would make it more likely that we would actually be around people...people that enjoy the stuff that we enjoy...the woods.  We had a great time learning about both the natural and historical aspects of the area we were in.  Also, it was green and misty...something I was yet to get from Northern Ireland but had been waiting for...

This is part of a sculpture outside of my wife's school's library.  I'm sure I will get a shot of the whole sculpture at some point in time, but on Monday night lights were illuminating it from below, giving the face an eerie appearance...

I spent some time in the Botanic Gardens on Tuesday.  I have a hard time not being fascinated by anything that is displaying Phi, also known as the Golden Ratio, so when I came upon this rose, I had to get a shot.  My wife hates most floral pictures, but even she was able to see past the cliche macro flower shot and into the beauty of such a commonplace but still fascinating element of the natural world.  

Then, as it got darker, on my way out, I noticed the silhouette of this bell hanging from a pole.  It was, at one point in time, rang before the closing of the park...this was true of most parks around here.

I was walking down the street yesterday with my camera in hand, not expecting to use it, but then I saw a beautiful bike.  I knew it wouldn't be too long before I would get a shot of a bike, but sadly this one wasn't as good as I would have hoped.  I didn't have much time to take the picture, someone looked at me suspiciously, so I took a photo and left.  The bike was awesome, a red frame and yellow wheels...I wish I had more time...I could have gotten a much better picture. 

I also walked past a building that had a wonderful light shade of purple on the outside (aided by the dark purple sky at that point in the evening, no doubt) and a wonderfully complimentary green spilling out of one of the windows.

Sunrise

I knew that I would have a busy day today, what with moving the entire contents of my apartment to another location, so I brought my camera to work, thinking I might find something there...and thus get my photo before the mayhem began. 
I frequently pass a little stream on my way to work.  This stream is always overflowing, which has made the surrounding area seem almost wetland like.  Often, on my way to work a light fog can be seen rolling through this area.  My hope was to get a shot of this.  I did.  The mist was nice, but I metered for the sky instead, in that the sunrise was beautiful and created a nice back drop to the silhouette of the treeline.

Wetland Sunrise

I doubt it actually can be classified as a wetland.  But it is a nice area.  The sunrise made it even nicer than it normally is.

Silhouettes of Four

I was amazed by my brother's girlfriend the other day.  We were driving around, and she kept going on and on about how beautiful the countryside is.  I live in a beautiful area, so that reaction on its own doesn't warrant my amazement.  What does warrant it is the fact that she is from an area that I find ridiculously beautiful.  I wouldn't have thought she could be so taken by the countryside...but she was...so I decided to look around today and realize just how much I'm taking for granted. 

Country Roads...

It's not like I disregard the beauty of where I live...not at all...I'm always out photographing it (I must find something about it tolerable).  She just helped me see that even if you are from a gorgeous area, that doesn't stop other places from being awe-inspiring, nor should you let it.