Annesley Gardens

Belfast City Photo is going on a short holiday. I'll leave you with these flowers in the Annesley Gardens, Castlewellan.

Ballywalter beach

Not exactly sunny this afternoon, but warm, so we took the short drive down to Ballywalter beach. This is a wonderful beach - never too crowded, with soft sand and great rockpools. A perfect place to spend Sunday afternoon.

Dulse

Dulse is a type of seaweed that has been eaten in Northern Ireland for hundreds of years. Strong, salty (of course) stuff, some people love it. I remember my granny used to eat it like sweeties - I've never been able to acquire a taste for it. (I saw this dulse for sale at the farmers' market - not a bad little business - selling something gathered for free at the shore for £1 a bag.)

Cherub

A rather sombre looking cherub in the Annesley Gardens, Castlewellan.

chopper

I saw this new Chopper at a local park and it took me right back to the early 70s - when Choppers were the coolest bike to have. (Sadly, my mum didn't think Choppers were safe so I wasn't allowed to get one - I had to make do with a Raleigh 20. I wasn't allowed clackers either...)

fire

I was driving along a road just outside Hilltown yesterday and saw that a local farmer had set a fire. I'm not sure what was burning but I thought the smoke looked dramatic against the late afternoon light.

princesses

In town today shopping for back-to-school stuff and after the boring stuff was over we paid the obligatory visit to the Disney Store. Some very strange merchandise, including these scary-eyed Disney Princess lollies. Cinderella (top left) is, I think, looking especially rough.

toy stall

Toy stall at St George's market.

SD Bells

SD Bell's tea and coffee stand at St George's Market. SD Bell is a long established Belfast tea importer and coffee roaster. Perhaps not quite as glamorous as Mariage Freres , but Bells have been around for nearly as long and are an institution in Belfast.

UDA

UDA/UFF mural, lower Newtownards Road.
Although the war is over and we have a powersharing government and we are supposed to be a 'normal' society now, Northern Ireland is still plagued by the existence of illegal paramilitary organisations. Yesterday the government announced that if the UDA failed to commence decommissioning within 60 days, funding to the Conflict Transformation Initiative would be withdrawn.

mmmm....(or eew...)

Walking past Sawyers Delicatessen this morning I noticed that they are now selling rattlesnake for the barbeque. I thought it must be a joke until I googled this. Has anyone eaten rattlesnake? (I really have no plans to try it!)

Docks

View out over Belfast's docks, taken from the Odyssey building.

Turf

Dr A was wondering about turf cutting. Well, for all you city folk out there, here's a photo (possibly the dullest photo ever taken) of a turf bed. Peat/turf was the major source of fuel in Ireland for hundreds of years, with the result that about three quarters of our peat bogs are now gone. Some people still like to burn turf fires - they do smell wonderful - though anytime I've spent an evening in front of an open turf fire I found that when I got up the next day, my hair looked something like this.