Robert’s Ramblings

All day long the sun toiled hard to burn away the stubborn clouds. Hiding below, in the gloom, life continued in a manner familiar to anyone living through an Irish winter.

In the distance, defiant at last, a few lucky homes emerge from the mist to glimpse the setting sun.


#Ireland #clouds #village #mist #misty #landscape

The more I learned about the European Robin the more I wondered where it came in the running relative to the movie character’s actual angry bird, the Northern Cardinal.

Apparently, the friendly and inquisitive robin red breast, one of Ireland’s favourite birds, can develop quite a temper when confronted with another red bearing antagonist.

Fortunately I was wearing green today.


#Ireland #europeanrobin #robin #redbreast #birds #kilarney

For most of the day we found ourselves shrouded in fog with a landscape of frosted green and white vanishing into the mist less than 50 meters away in all directions.

Where the sun should have been was a vast brightness while somewhere above a hint of blue suggested we had been under a receding ocean of white.

As evening approached, like a tide, the mist ebbed away leaving us in a land above the clouds.


#Ireland #cork #landscape #clouds #aerial #panorama

2023 is now part of history and was our last year in Australia before embarking on a new adventure.
I have been to Ireland many times before but coming here to live is completely different.

This is a move my wife and I have been planning for many years. For Jennifer it is a long awaited homecoming. For me it is fair trade between the comfort of living in Australia and the challenging but exciting opportunities of Irish landscape and underwater photography, of getting involved in traditional Irish music, and being close now to my family in continental Europe.

For now we are being looked after by Jennifer’s family in their cosy Irish countryside home. Tomorrow I start working again, and after than we’ll see how this adventure unfolds through 2024 and beyond.

#Ireland #countryside #rural #home #aerial

Adnane, sits perfectly still in the darkness for what must seem like some strange dream.
Meanwhile all around him there is a flurry of activity as artists with torches and wands of coloured light paint in the scene.

White light’s painted where the colours should be real, elsewhere we used colour to create the surreal. Once it took a darkroom to bring the painted man to light. Now we just preview and review and repeat ‘till it is right.

This was a fun night experimenting with long time exposures and light. Thank you Silvi for the experience and thank you to the models who stayed motionless all night.


#Morroco #lightpainting #art #experimental #travel #photography #light

Castanets

In Marrakech I noticed castanets in many market stalls and alleyway shops. I even got the chance to see them being made in the local metalworking workshops.

It was not until well into central Morocco I finally got to hear them in traditional music.

I thought about bringing home a set to learn but decided on just memories instead.


#Morocco #music #musicians #castanets #traditionalmusic #instruments

The hijab need not be be the symbol of modesty many people automatically think.
When the eyes are all there is to see there is so much more imagination, curiosity, mystery and of paying attention to that beautiful human behind those eyes.


#Morocco #travel #woman #hijab #mystery

A nomad father lifts his son to high five visitors to his campsite.

Despite regular contact with travellers and their obvious wealth, the nomadic tradition is alive and well in central Morocco. Still, the telltales of change are obvious. Solar panels on the tent roofs, mobile phones and Chinese sneakers were signs of little cracks in tradition.

What the children will do is really the big question. Will they keep alive the nomadic ways of their forbears or will the lure of a bigger world out there be too much to resist.

Will there be any high fives here a hundred years from now? Time will tell.


#Morocco #travel #ergchebbi #nomads #travel #family #silhouette

The riads of Marrakech, the mountain guest houses and the nomadic desert camps all shared the same Moroccan tradition, they greeted us with a tea ceremony on our arrival.

Sugar sweetened mint tea is most common but during our stay in Morocco we were offered brews of green and black blends, mint leaf tea blends and various combinations with and without sugar.

It’s quite special watching the tea being poured into tiny cups from a half meter above without a drop being spilled.

Here Adnane deftly demonstrates his skill dealing with a heavy teapot, sloping ground and a fresh crosswind, all while maintaining his boyish smile. A most hospitable teatime welcome in the desert.


#Morocco #travel #mint #tea #tradition #desert #nomad #ceremony

Somewhere in the heart of Morocco we watched a band of bikers emerge from the distance, turn into the place where we were and pull up as a group. Should we be concerned?

The moment helmets came off and they shared their beaming faces with each other I felt the same joy and elation of travelling with friends, exploring far away places and sharing extraordinary experiences.

Perhaps they started their travel as strangers and became friends on the road, perhaps they were life long friends. What matters, like us, they were sharing the time of their lives.


#Morocco #travel #bikers #motobikes #comrades #mates #friends #blackandwhite