The Bag's Blog: 2019

Another year over ...

Another year over, a new one just begun and once again here I am at the annual crossroads looking backwards and forwards at the same time to see can my experience over the past year help me to get a better grip on the challenges of the one to come.

With the world burning before our eyes as I write, it's hard to hold out too much hope for our collective future but if we live in active hope and practice what we preach with all of our shoulders to the wheel of fortune, then we might see some improvements. More, at least, than if we all sit idly by.

It was a great joy in 2019 to see so many more people doing things to help others. Actively helping those in need rather than leaving it to a.n.others and anonymous do gooders to do so. Hopefully, this new selflessness may gradually become a new kind of normal.

So much so that I propose that the word supererogation i.e. acting above and beyond the call of duty - be retired from the modern lexicon or at least replaced by a more appropriate term. I would suggest superHerogation as I doff my fedora to those of my friends who really pulled out the stops to help other people this year.

I listen to a lot of Christmas music in the house round this time and one CD I like in particular is the Christmas edition of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour, recorded originally in the mid-noughties.

Usually it's the songs that are the focus of my interest but as I listened this year it was a 'magic formula' voiced by the host as a cure for one's personal woes that resonated most with me:

"What you gotta do is go out and help someone more unfortunate than you. Go to an orphanage, play football with the kids, go to retirement homes, go to soup kitchens, go into prisons, go see some people. There are people everywhere who aren't as well off as you. No matter how bad you have it, somebody got it worse. Instead of adding to the sadness in the world, why not lend a hand, help somebody out. And not just on Christmas, why don't you give it a try year round."

Yeah, so I suppose then that if we all show more kindness over the coming year and beyond, then we can reasonably expect to receive it back in equal measure.

That'd be what I'd call a fair trade.

Happy New Year, Friends.

More soon ...

Athbhliain faoi mhaise duit!

The Doity Dozen!

Just finished putting together my calendar for 2020 and here are the final images. It was a bit of a challenge to arrive at this particular batch of shots as I'd a pretty good range to choose from this year.

But I wanted the images to be as close to the quotes I selected too so that each tells a wee story and would cause anyone flipping the page at the beginning of each month to pause and spare a thought for these magnificent but fragile creatures whose lives become harder and harder as the human obsession with 'progress' ploughs through everything in its path, not least their natural habitats.

If you're interested in one - drop me a note and I'll have one printed for you at cost, €15 as I'd imagine the run would be short. This project isn't intended as a 'business venture' (maybe next year, Rodders).

Indeed, I really only made them to showcase the fact that these creatures have given me the pleasure of their presence in the last year and I'm thankful to them for the opportunity they allowed me to catch them in all their finery on my ole Brownie!

You'd simply have to share that kind of joy!

More soon ...

Blast from ChrisPast!

Well, to get this year's Crimbo off to a cyber start I have to go back in time - to when the old Ukulele Christmas bash was the pick of the party pack in the run up to the big day, the one cheddar to truly out tang all other cheeses, the hands down knees-up of knees-ups!

Ah, where did it all go?

I suppose no matter how good, all cheddar goes mouldy in the end but, Lordy, these ole singalong uke-athons once were the making of the nights before the main event.

So I doff the ole trilby to them and in a way truly wish for ...

More soon ... yeah!

A Ukeristic jamboree!

Robin Du Jour!

This cheeky chappie came over to me as I'd just sat down on a park bench half way through my daily stroll earlier today and so comfortable was he in my company that I thought for a moment that he might even strike up a conversation.

One thing these guys most certainly are not is afraid. The opposite in fact. So he hung on for photos, took a selfie or two and signed a few autographs before ambling off about his business.

Note to self, bring food next time.

More soon ...

Cock of the walk!

Birdwatch Video

I took a fair few pics this summer in a fair cross section of locations around Dublin and environs. When you put your mind to looking it's always rewarding.

Most uplifting was the sight of little birds making their way in the world so I put together a selection of the pics I got of the new arrivals.

I sent the file into Birdwatch Ireland and what do ye know. There'll be a feature on the topic next summer.

Yay!

More soon ...

A Little Chat!

I've spent the whole summer watching out for the return of a particular species of chat that made a brief appearance at the end of September last year in these parts before disappearing without a trace.

So imagine my delight when said species, the wheatear, showed up on the shoreline yesterday and spent the whole day trying to dodge my advances!

But I'm happy to say that she eventually took pity on me and posed for a couple of pics. As with last year it was only the female of the species that made the appearance and it's the same again this year leading me to wonder whether or not wheatears in general remain an item beyond the breeding season or go their separate ways.

All very curious. And all very fantastic to have bagged the shots!

By the way, the term wheatear literally derives from the bird's Elizabethan name - 'white arse' - in keeping with the very noticeable white plumage on the birds rump.

More soon ...

Elegance personified

Let's look at that again!

Side profile!

And staring into the middle distance - smoky mood!

Feeling Called the Blues

A blue tit was busying itself in the trees across the road from the house today and wasn't too touchy about me taking a pic or two. Thank you blue tit!

More soon ...

Slim Peckings!

As the summer heads towards its end, a great many of the birds that were a common sight over the past three months have become pretty thin on the ground, and in the skies, and, I suspect, that as their broods have been reared and have now left the nest, they, too, have decided to fly off to explore pastures new or to do more interesting things.

Wherever they are by now, as they're not in my local park anymore, I do hope that they are following their history and instinct and that their disappearance is part of a pattern of that history and instinct that explains their absence. If not, I'd worry about all the bloody smoke and shit and steam and stagnance in the air here - though I worry about that anyway!

A couple of the larger species, waders mainly, do remain along the Dodder River though which is nice.

But, otherwise and as a local photographer, you have to be content with the butterflies, hover flies and the bees these days if you want to get a nice pic or two.

More soon ...