The Calm After The Storm

Bay At 'Ballyyahoo.'

This week saw an end to the storms that hit Ireland after Christmas. The damage around the bay is being cleaned up and anything that washed up in the storms is being moved up the pier.

THE OYSTER BED

My walks to this little bay have become even more interesting because each day when I arrive down I am greeted by something new and unusual.

The first and biggest thing to arrive was this oyster bed. It had broken up during the storm and a local farmer dragged it up the pier with a tractor and left it on this grassy area. I think its years being churned around the Atlantic and has bestowed it with a quiet beauty and I think it holds its own against the landscape.

Oyster Bed at Ballyyahoo

THE COLOUR OF ROPE

This is the view from underneath. It is a huge structure and I have no idea what it is made of but to me the pipes look like huge bones. The ropes dangling down are all different colours and wonderfully  strange.

What Lies Beneath The Oyster bed.

THE SCENT OF THE SEA

This is a side view. You can get more of a sense of its size in this photograph. I wish you could smell it as it is surprisingly fresh.

Side view

ROLL IN THE BARRELS

This little lot arrived a few days after the oyster bed. The blue barrels in the crate seemed to appear with the black square of pipe so maybe they were connected in their former life.

Roll Out The Barrels

NATURE ROCKS

This large block with a chain attached was next. It is very large and heavy and it must have been some kind of anchor. I have no idea how something this size got broken and washed up but then again I am pretty sure nature can trounce anything we can make!

Chained up


That's all for now. Happy January
Grace

Water Water Everywhere

I have always lived quite close to the sea. Even growing up in Liverpool we weren’t too far away – a bus ride and a fifteen-minute walk to the River Mersey.

Being landlocked would be a nightmare for me. I honestly don’t think I could stand it. When I visit places in the midlands here in Ireland I always like to find the nearest river or lake and go for a walk. I seem to need proximity to water in order to relax.

When I used to live in County Wicklow I was a mile away from the sea and when we moved to Galway we decided to look for a place as close to the sea as we could get without being in danger of being flooded.

COUNTY WICKLOW

Greystones, County Wicklow

KINVARA

We succeeded in finding a place exactly a mile from the sea near Kinvara and we are now within walking distance of this beautiful little bay and pier below.

GALWAY

This little beach is also very near and we enjoyed some great swimming there last summer.

COUNTY CLARE

The beach below is just in County Clare and is part of the Burren. It is a favourite for walkers in the area and forms a loop around a small peninsula.

GALWAY

This bay in Maree runs out to the Atlantic. This is another favourite walk of mine and I was very lucky to be around on one of the rare occasions when the wind was quiet and the water was still enough to cast these reflections.

BALLYYAHOO 

The Kinvara area and the surrounding areas of the Burren and Maree provide much of the inspiration for my Ballyyahoo stories and sites.

Ballyyahoo In Pictures

STILL WATERS

Welcome to ‘Ballyyahoo in Pictures.' This is where I post the images I collect on my daily walks as well as the ones that inspired my stories from Ballyyahoo.

WHERE IS BALLYYAHOO?

If you’re wondering where on earth is Ballyyahoo is, I'm afraid I can't tell you exactly. If I did tell you I'd have to kill you so all I say is that it’s in the Galway bay area of Ireland but you won’t find it on a map.

A CLEAR HEAD

I will tell you that I am not a photographer, I am a writer, but a daily walk clears my head for my writing and the photographs I take inspire me and so... you get the picture!

GET OUT

The images I am going to post here are ones that inspire me and inform my work, particularly when I am writing my Ballyyahoo series of stories for children and I hope the stories inspire them to get out and about.

WHY?

Well you see I was brought up in the inner city of Liverpool. It was grimy, grey and could be a dangerous place for a child. Still I was lucky!

My Liverpool home

Every summer I was taken to visit my granny in Ireland and every day for six whole weeks I was given my freedom. I could go wherever I could walk or cycle to and there were no limits, just as long as I was back in time for tea

FREEDOM

To me nature and freedom are the same thing and because I know how important that yearly taste of freedom was to my childhood I feel passionate about encouraging children to love nature too.

I do this by writing stories set in the natural surroundings of Ballyyahoo and I invite children to come and celebrate nature, freedom and fun on Ballyyahoo's own little site.

I hope the pictures you see here will inspire you and don’t forget you are warmly invited to visit me at Ballyyahoo as well.

Bye for now.

Grace