Send a Letter

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt for Shapes in the form of Letters

The Irish alphabet has 18 letters. It uses the Latin alphabet but omits eight letters used in English J K Q V W X Y and Z which are only used in loan words.

Oh no some letters are not going to make it onto the train

but these are on board and as the train speeds through the night to Scotland  the traveling post office's workers are sorting them ready for the morning delivery. The full Auden poem with the night train steaming through the countryside in 1936 can be seen here 

Break Time

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt - is seeing Animals in the Wild

A Honey Buzzard wondering where lunch is located.. It eats wasp and bee larvae, evolution has provided thick feathers and extra scaly legs to protect it from stings. 

"Hi There"

The alert tranquility of a fox

 

A "Puffin Patrol" somewhere on the Yorkshire coast

Light Dazzles

See It On A Postcard's  Thursday Postcard Hunt looking for light, or bright, colours

Venice, the Bridge of Sighs - exhibited 1840

JMW Turner working his magic with water, sky and light in a dreamlike view of Venice. A place he visited three times.

Pottery by Patrick Caulfield 1969

The paintings of  Patrick Caulfield (1936-2005) from the 1960s are characterised by flat areas of colour with objects defined by outlines. 'Pottery' is probably his most famous painting from that decade. His style would change permanently in the 1970s with highly complex paintings that play with definitions of reality and artifice.  From static colourful pots

"Fashionable Irish Sheep"

to sheep bringing a splash of colour to an island that has 40 shades of green.

Orange

See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is celebrating the colours of Autumn, this week -Orange

 

one of the colours of the Irish flag.

Welcome to the 2012 London Olympics - Cycling - London Eye

Sunsets

Valentine's Flower Series No. 16

and coreopsis, which with its postcard companion, scabious, are known for their long bloom time, continuing flowering into autumn.

Island Butterflies

 

1993: Butterflies - 21st Anniversary of the Manx Conservation Trust (Artist - Collen Corlett

Butterflies who have found their home on the Isle of Man. The cover features Small Tortoiseshells 

The stamps top - Peacock, Dark Green Fritillary and Painted Lady. Below are the Holly Blue and Red Admiral. The Red Admiral, unusually for a butterfly, sometimes flies at night.

2021: 70th Anniversary of the Manx National Trust

when the Garden Tiger Moth will be flying. The moth's striking black caterpillars are covered in long black and ginger hairs so referred to as 'woolly bears'.  The small island of the Calf of Man is a nature reserve and Bird Observatory.

1985: Flora and Fauna (Artist - Ian Loe)

Hopping over from the Isle of Man to the larger island of Ireland and a Marsh Fritillary, once widespread across Britain and Ireland but has declined in number and now mostly restricted to the west coasts of Britain and Ireland where it is sure to find its preference for wet meadows and boggy places.

Sunday Stamps A-Z - I for Isle of Man, Ireland and Insects - See It On A Postcard 

Long and Curvy

 See It on A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt looking for long and curvy bridges

PHQ Card - 2015: Bridges

The Peace Bridge curves and snakes over the River Foyle joining the two communities of Derry/Londonderry in Northern Ireland and opened in 2011.  The Protestant Unionists on the east bank will refer to the city as Londonderry and the Catholic nationalists on the west side as Derry.  The BBC gets around this problem in their news broadcasts by always referring to it as Derry/Londonderry.  The bridge however has been a great success, becoming a beloved part of the city and it features in New Year and numerous other celebrations. Even the Dalai Lama has visited and walked across it.

Now travelling by postcard over the water to the city that is sometimes jokingly called 'the second capital of Ireland', Liverpool. Many of those emigrants from Ireland may have worked on the building of  its Overhead Railway and definitely worked in the docks.

Liverpool Overhead Railway Poster

As well as carrying millions of passengers Liverpool's overhead railway was a tourist attraction, this poster from the the 1930s invites a visit for "unrivaled views of Dockland Shipping"

Originally opened in 1893 it was the first overhead railway in the world to be operated by electricity. Rather ironically one of the factors of its eventually decline was due to the corrosion of the corrugated iron decking caused by the steam operated Docks Railway plying its trade underneath some of the sections.  The cost of repair was too much and it closed in 1956.  Once known as the  'Dockers Umbrella' its 7 miles (11km) was demolished in 1957/8.  I have two photo cards of the railway but only this one has a postbox. Spot it near the link bridge.

Neolithic

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is in search of the ancient, buildings and artifacts

Entrance Stone c3000BC

I couldn't find a card for the Summer Solstice which will be celebrated at Stonehenge when the sun rises on the 21st but here is the Entrance Stone at Newgrange passage tomb and where, when the Winter Solstice occurs, a beam of light will come through the window and illuminate the small room inside for 17 minutes at dawn. The room can hold 20 people at a time and there is a lottery in Ireland where the fickle finger of fate will decide who will journey into this ancient space at that hour.

Newgrange or in Gaelic Bru na Boinne, is located in the Boyne Valley, a place full of ancient neolithic structures.  What is striking from the outside are the quartz walls gleaming in the light.  Quartz was important to our neolithic ancestors as rock crystals do unusual things with light.

For scale travel to France and the 3000 Carnac stones.  The card shows the Menec alignments and says on the back "Will the Menec Lines ever reveal their secrets?" The question remains unanswered but as can be seen there are not only stones but lichen too so something to wonder about for both historian and naturalist.

Chasing Waterfalls

 Thursday Postcard Hunt is in search for watery delights and starts the month with waterfalls...

Thornton Force, part of a series of cascades and waterfalls that tumble over Yorkshire Dales limestone.  The other photo shows a typical limestone pavement with Ingleborough in the background, one of the three peaks people like to run as a challenge (a 24 mile round trip).  For something more relaxing then it is definitely the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail.  Refreshment in the village of Ingleton a happy end to both endeavors.

Ireland's highest waterfall (121metres/398 ft) flows over granite and at the bottom is a recommended picnic spot.

What looks like a lively cascade of water. The card says, rather enigmatically, "The Old Mill's story...". 

Gardens

 My contribution to Thursday's Postcard Hunt, and it will be a hunt for my postcards, although not numerous, are in a state of disorder but to bring a sense of calm to my mind

time to gaze upon Triton Lake in the Powerscourt Gardens, Country Wicklow as autumn approaches; open all year (apart from Christmas and Boxing Day) so all the seasons can enjoyed here. 

In the 1000 acres of the Powerscourt Estate there are 47 acres of gardens and Ireland's highest waterfall.