Spent a very pleasant afternoon on the southern side of the Mourne Mountains.  The planned pictures didn't materialise as they needed overcast conditions.  Just as I arrived the sky cleared and the afternoon was delightfully sunny.  Change of plan - I spent a while exploring around a small abandoned granite quarry and then round an outcrop of rocks. 

Rocks and Crocknafeola Wood

(Pronounced Crocknafoyle)

Lesson learned - check all 4 corners of the frame.  The picture above has a cowpat in the bottom right corner.  While it's not too noticeable in this size of picture, my eye cannot miss it when viewed full-screen.  My excuse is that I was trying to get a composition that hid an untidy small farm and its outbuildings (together with discarded tractors and other assorted farm machinery) behind the foreground rocks. 

If I had spotted it I would have tried a new composition - I wasn't going to move it!  Oh the joys of landscape photography.

A dry but very windy day in the Mourne Mountains on 13 May.  Around this time last year there were serious fires in the mountains. The picture below was taken on 1 May 2011.

This was the first time we ventured into the worst of the area shown in the picture above and it is encouraging to note that although the heather is well burnt off the grasses, ferns and gorse are beginning to re-establish themselves. Careful scrutiny also showed new heather growth - up to about half a centimetre in height but growth nonetheless.  The damage appears to have to the surface vegetation only and not to the roots or underlying peat.  A couple of years without any more fires should see the natural vegetation well established again.  However, many of the trees in Annalong Wood are beyond recovery.

Annalong Wood

Stand of burnt trees

New growth

Burning the vegetation also revealed a relic from WW2.  Apparently the American Navy used this area of the Mournes for target practice and we came across the remains of an artillery shell - fortunately it had already detonated.

How these pictures  are sharp is beyond me - the wind was so strong it was difficult standing in the more severe gusts!

Last post seems a long time ago -  6 March.  I have been doing bits and pieces but nothing sustained.   A strained back meant little done for a couple of weeks but I took a few pictures on a couple of days in Donegal at Easter and then a week in Provence, France.  Thought I might have missed the bluebells at home but managed to get in just at the end of the display.

Finally uploaded pictures from the Iceland trip in February having let then settle a while in my mind before making choices.  Hmmm.... they didn't get any better!! In effect took the easy option and included more than I had intended.  In due course I will go through both Iceland gelleries and delete the weaker pictures.  To see the Iceland pictures visit www.lesashephotography.com

A small selection of the recent pictures of the various locations:

Muckros Head, Donegal - wavecut platform and Slieve League

Bluebells

Cloisters, Abbeye du Thoronet, France

 Sunny afternoon, Vaison La-Romaine, France

 Ochre quarry, Roussillon, France