I just had to put this somewhere - Radiohead's Fake Plastic Trees

I'm too dumb to fully appreciate Radiohead and their music. But sometimes a light goes on for me. This was one of those moments. For your reading pleasure, Fake Plastic Trees.

A green plastic watering can

For a fake Chinese rubber plant
In the fake plastic earth

That she bought from a rubber man
In a town full of rubber plans
To get rid of itself

It wears her out, it wears her out
It wears her out, it wears her out

She lives with a broken man
A cracked polystyrene man
Who just crumbles and burns

He used to do surgery
On the girls in the eighties
But gravity always wins

And it wears him out, it wears him out
It wears him out, it wears

She looks like the real thing
She tastes like the real thing
My fake plastic love

But I can't help the feeling
I could blow through the ceiling
If I just turn and run

And it wears me out, it wears me out
It wears me out, it wears me out

And if I could be who you wanted
If I could be who you wanted
All the time, all the time

-Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead

This is absolutely brilliant. Love it.

St. Patrick's Day fishing

 In fairness, I'm not too big on St. Patrick's Day celebrations and standing amongst a million other people to maybe catch a glimpse of a parade going by. No thanks.

I do however love fishing, because the amount of people crowding is usually much less.

So this morning, after some time waiting for the Dodder fishing season to open, it was that time at last. And the solitude did not disappoint.

The river flows through Dublin, starting it's journey not too far outside Dublin. It flows into the Bohernabreena reservoirs and then abruptly enters the west of Dublin and flows down past the Aviva stadium and into the Liffey at the entrance to the Grand Canal. While not as famous as it's brother the Plodder, it is much more of a river than the Plodder. 

Angling on the Dodder is managed by the Dodder Angling Association and permits can be bought from most of the tackle shops in Dublin.

Near my home, the Dodder runs through at least three parks in close succession. This morning I decided to visit a spot in the Dodder Valley Park. It's close enough to cycle there, and in fairness, I would much rather park my bicycle right next to me on the river bank than park the car at the entrance and having to walk all the way down with the fishing gear in tow.

So I packed the donkey and saddled up.

And off to the river we rode on the "Fishmobile". 

I am very rusty when it comes to flyfishing. So I will chalk up today to getting the cobwebs out of the gear and re-discovering long lost muscle memory. But even though it was not a very successful trip if measured by the amount of fish caught, it was hugely successful in the clearing of the head and spending quality time in nature. There is nothing as soothing as the sound of a river. At least not today.

Sir Lance-alot, I presume

 As I was washing the car the other day, I was once again struck by how terrible the standard Bosch soap dispenser is. I am also not going to be the one to spend my entire paycheck on a foam lance.

So I started browsing Amazon and came across this one

Does what it says on the tin, really. But does it work?

I'll let you be the judge, but in my opinion it was well worth the 20 squids or so. Does a much better job than the standard Bosch attachment in any event.

Can't wait to let it loose on the bike...

Cars and Coffee Bray - 2nd March 2025

 On the road again!!

Enzo and myself took the bikes out for a spin to the Cars and Coffee meetup in Bray. A couple of very nice specimens were on show, and from what I can gather on the C&C Bray Facebook page, it was one of the best turnouts yet.

My favourite car? Difficult to say. There were so many, and notably no Corvette Stingrays. So, if I have to choose an alternative best for the day, it will have to be this one:

This 1969 Pontiac Firebird just stood out! You could spot it on a mile. Well done to the owner. An absolute beauty!

And here some other pictures of the day.

Stargazing Observation Book

 I'm by no means a professional or seasoned stargazer. It is a hobby (another one) I took up recently. My observations are done with binoculars that I have mounted on a tripod. I do star hopping to find my targets and generally  just enjoy the process.

Recently I decided to start tracing the constellations. Because I can. 

That required me to have a way to record my observations. I looked around online and came across quite a lot of resources. Everybody seems to have their own ideas on how to or why to record your observations. What should and what should not and what type of book to use etc. etc. etc.

Me? I like my own way.

First of all, I had to get some star charts, because I'm no astronomer. I happen to wander across this website that has a complete set of star charts, free for you to print.

Check.

I am, however, someone who likes to scribble, and a loose leaf is just too flimsy. Enter Amazon packaging.

I cut the sleeve that they use for small packages just larger than a printed start chart and glued a chart to either side. Bit of support for scribbles and does make it easier to turn a page.

Problem sorted.

What else do I have in the binder?

Well, for starters. The Greek Alphabet. Yes, I am an engineer. And as an engineer I know quite a lot of these, but sadly not all. So, right in the front cover she goes. And page 1? Well, the guys at Skymaps.com publish a monthly evening sky map, complete with monthly highlights and things to look out for. That is next in my book.

What else?

Well, need to record observations, don't I. So I found this observation log from The Astronomical League. I like it. In it goes. In fact, a couple of them.

And then, last but not least, a seeing and transparency guide. There are so many opinions on this, and I am terrible at making a judgement call. I like this one (and I cannot remember where I got it) because it uses the visibility of the stars in Ursa Minor as a guide. That works for me.

In she goes.

And now we are ready to gaze at the stars. 

Now we are just waiting for the clouds to give us a break. You can't win all of them.

For the next instalment I will take you through my process once I have completed a night of observation. Don't hold your breath now. The weatherman says...

Wet Fly - Alexandra

 As they usually do on the clickbait headlines; "This fly is banned!!". And to be fair, it was apparently, because it caught so many trout. It is a lough pattern, but is also used for sea trout on the rivers. Bit of history:

It is a Scottish pattern that was originally called the "Lady of the lake" and was later renamed after Queen Alexandra. It was apparently so successful in the mid 1800's that is was banned on some waters.

The picture below is of a variant of the Alexandra as tied by Davie McPhail. I will link to his video below.

I have to say, though, that it is a beauty. 

The Alexandra pattern is as follows:

Hook: Size 8-12 Wet Fly Hook

Tying silk: Black 

Tail: Red ibis substitute or slip of swan, dyed scarlet. Davie McPhail's variant uses red Marabou.

Body: Flat silver tinsel 

Rib: Oval silver tinsel. Davie's variant uses thin silver wire

Hackle: Black cock or hen hackle 

Wing: A pinch of green peacock sword fibres with slips of red ibis substitute or scarlet swan tied on either side. Red tinsel in Davie's variant. 

I like the variant tied by Davie McPhail. I like his videos in general.

What's up with the weather

 The weather has been, lets just say, less than favourable the last couple of weeks. I've planned and schemed, but to no avail. Every weekend seems to be a wet mess. Did get about between spells of rain, notably to ride up the mountain after storm Eowyn battered Ireland on the 24th of January. Rode up to Cruagh wood on the 1st of Feb for a spot of coffee with a view.

The evening of the 2nd Feb the Crescent Moon was seriously close to Venus. If I had known that it would be the last bit of stargazing to be done for the month of February, I would have made more of an effort. Be that as it may, I managed to get this shot, which I'm quite happy with.

And then it started raining and being generally Irish weather. 

Sitting around moping, I realised that the trout season is around the corner. I have not fly fished in ages, and I have never tied my own flies. Which ones to use though? 

So I have been scouting around for Irish patterns. I will be posting patterns that I have collected along with my attempts at making them. Should be interesting and entertaining, to say the least.

More stargazing

 The weather over the last couple of weeks has been, shall we say, challenging 😁. Fitted one night of stargazing in in the Wicklow Mountains, but the wind was so bad that I couldn’t take any pictures. Need a steadier tripod / bracket combination. 

Did however manage some backyard shots with the iPhone and a new app. The app is called AstroShader and it is a free app. I am suitably impressed. It takes a series of pictures and automatically stacks them. 

The results are quite good. 

This picture of Orion with Jupiter and Aldebaran to the right taken from my backyard in a class 7 bortle sky. I’m impressed. 

Was also able to capture this one with the crescent moon and Venus the other night. 

Tried another setup last night. Let’s just say that it was less than stellar. 

But I think I am on the right track. Some more experimentation required. 

Good week for stargazers

 A couple of things happened this week. 

Firstly, I dropped the bike. Some idiot in a van coming barrelling around a corner on the wrong side of the road. Had to stop very sharpish. Unfortunately I was committed into a corner of my own. Tried to keep the bike upright. No luck. Broke some indicators, a mirror and the clutch lever. I can tell you it was fun getting home with half a clutch.

Approximately €100 later, everything is repaired and ready for the next round. Except my wrist, which is still slightly sprained, but not half as bad as it was on Thursday.

To lighten my mood, this week saw Mars and the twins line up perfectly. In true Irish tradition, the weather did not want to play ball. I was in and out of the house a million times just to be greeted by spectacular cloud cover right where the objects of my interest were supposed to be. Eventually, 11pm on Friday evening the clouds mostly parted, and there it was, all three of them in a row:

The other item of significance at the moment is the proximity of Venus and Saturn to each other. In fact, on Saturday (18th Jan 25) Saturn and Venus were 2.2degrees from each other. This time the clouds played along.

These shots were taken with an iPhone, so excuse the quality. 

Hiking around Powerscourt Waterfall

 On Christmas Eve I felt the need to escape the maddening crowd and headed to Crone Wood just outside Dublin. From here you can hike up Maulin mountain on a loop trail. 

A plus on this route is that you have rather spectacular views of Powerscourt Waterfall on the way up. There is even a bench or two set up overlooking the waterfall if you want to have a bit of a rest.

There was a lot of fog about, and I found "Far over misty mountains high" stuck on repeat in my head.

The trek up to the top of Maulin Mountain was rather muddy, and when I reached the top, fog all around. So no spectacular views for the album. I did however get my picture of the cairn, as you do.

I might just return in the summer for some spectacular view photos.

The entire trek up the mountain and the associated video clips can be found on the newly created YouTube channel 😁. 

Oh look, here is a link: https://youtu.be/GGWnR-Y8j0U

I used the All Trails app for general navigation. My expedition can be seen here 

Mars and the twins greeting me this morning

Taking the bins out this morning I was greeted with Mars, very low in the West, with Gemini just to the right. Mars is at it's closest to earth on the 12th January. In true Ireland tradition it looks to be cloudy that day. So I'll take this. Took a snap with the iPhone.

And for reference, the snip from Stellarium

And now, off to work we go for, as I like to call it, day one of the hostage situation.

Shooting Jupiter

 Seriously chuffed with myself. I tried my hand at astro-photography some time ago, and it was, shall we say, less than spectacular. On Thursday we had a rare, cloudless night in Dublin. Well then. Out comes the camera.

Now it is very low tech. I have an ancient Canon EOS 1000D and I have some kit lenses, a nifty fifty, and a 300mm zoom lens. From my research online it seems the prime lens is the best option and armed with my remote shutter, some crazy calculations for exposure times, a warm jacket and a mug of coffee, I headed into the back yard. 

I lined up on Jupiter, because it is bright and easy to see 😉. Did some focussing and fired away. Only did about 100 shots and stacked them using Sequator. 

On closer examination it is clear that my focus (or at least those of my pictures) are not all there. But it is close enough and definitely a base to build from.

Well, what? I think it is quite stunning. I am especially amazed that this was taken in the middle of Dublin, with an silly old camera and a wee little lens. 

Tonight, I went on to Stellarium and searched for the specific section of sky on the night in question.

My wife says it's cool. I agree. 

Misty Morning Spin

Yesterday morning started off foggy. Wanted to take the bike out for a spin to see if the cleaning of the injectors did anything to the mysterious misfire, but I thought I would give the fog some time to burn off. The day before yesterday, the fog lingered around all day, so I did not hold my breath.

But then, lo and behold, the fog lifted and the sun came out.

So I left home. The sun was shining. I checked.

As I went over the hill at Dundrum heading down to Blackrock, the fog returned. And properly so.

But I persisted.

Rode all the way to Dun Laoghaire harbour and parked on the old quay at the old coal harbour. I've not been down here in ages. Was amazed to see that quite a lot of boats were still moored there. 

The fog made for some great pictures, though.

It made  such an impression that I could not help myself, and had to have a stab at sketching it. I'm pretty happy with the result.

St. Annes Cemetery

 

When I visited Bohernabreena Reservoir and read up about the area, I stumbled across a name on a map. "St. Anne's Cemetery". On Google Maps someone left a "review" about how stunning the place is and "how did I not know of this"? 

So I was instantly intrigued.

So on a Friday off I donned my HiTec's and went searching for this hidden gem.

Following the reviewer's instructions I did not go through the reservoir but rather approached the cemetery from the upper road. A small road, almost hidden, leads from the lane down, through a rather apt gate, and through some farmland to the graveyard overlooking the reservoir.

It is difficult to believe that you are, for all intents and purposes, still in Dublin. The peace and quiet soothes the soul. And the grave yard is ridiculously picturesque. Overgrown in some areas with new gravestones popping up here and there.

Standing there I was reminded of one of my favourite books; "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman. If you have not read it yet... shame on you.

 If I could choose a place to be buried, it would be here.

Looking deeper into the history of the site, it seems that it once housed a church, of which only one portion of the wall still exist. The site was actually called Kilmesantan, meaning Church of Santan and was dedicated to St. Santan. The church was in use until the late 1600's but was then abandoned and fell into ruin.

Remaining portion of the church wall

I absolutely love this place. If you take your time and look around there are some surprises looking up at you from the grass and some newer gravestones standing between the old ones gives a nice contrast. But for me, the best part is the peace and quiet.

Bohernabreena Reservoir

I was off for a couple of days after the Easter Weekend and decided to explore around the Bohernabreena Reservoir one afternoon. 

Alright, so let me give you the lowdown on the Bohernabreena Reservoir. Picture this: tucked away in the scenic Dublin Mountains, this reservoir has a pretty fascinating backstory.

Back in the day, way back in the late 1800s, Dublin was booming, and the city needed a reliable water source to keep up with all that growth. So, they came up with the genius idea of building not one, but two reservoirs: Upper and Lower Bohernabreena. Construction kicked off in the late 1800s, and by 1887, the Lower Reservoir was up and running, supplying fresh water to thirsty Dubliners.

But here's where it gets interesting. Fast forward to the 1930s, and Dublin's thirst had grown even more. So, they decided to build a massive dam to create another reservoir: the Upper Bohernabreena. Construction took a while, what with the whole World War II situation slowing things down, but by the 1940s, the dam was standing tall and proud.

Today, these reservoirs aren't just about quenching Dublin's thirst, they've become a haven for outdoor enthusiasts, with folks flocking here for everything from fishing to hiking. Plus, the stunning views of the surrounding mountains ain't too shabby either.

There is a decent walking route around the reservoir, but keeping one eye on the weather I decided it might be best not to venture too far. Did not have the brolly with me, after all.

I started from the main carpark, which is only 15 cars big, and ventured up to the lower reservoir. There were some signs along the route reminding me to take it easy.

A section of the dam wall was closed, so I could not walk onto that. I could however get onto the section above the spillway, and I have to say the rushing water is very soothing.

 

I hiked to the upper reservoir from the lower. There are some brilliant wetlands next to the road with an abundance of birds. It is not nearly full summer yet, in fact, I wonder if it will ever be summer this year, and already the birds are aplenty.

The ducks were having a little nap as well...

 I did not walk around the reservoir, although there is a clear walking trail around the reservoir. I will however be back to explore that. Because it was a work day, it was deadly quiet around the reservoir. The birdsong was clear and I really enjoyed the hike. 

There were some fishermen doing the fishermen thing and I came across some walkers / hikers, all being much faster than I am. No worries.

Fisherman doing the Fisherman thing.

I had my cameras, do photos were plenty. 

I did not even scratch the surface of this beautiful area. I only hiked up to the dam wall of the upper reservoir. There is still the entire ring route around the upper reservoir to explore. 

The route I took

 On the to-do list then!!