Category: Website News
Required: energy plus inspiration; unshackling that enables relocation
30th October 2024 While every year of our lives can be unique, 2024 has been more unusual for me than others. The main cause has been the reorganisation of what I have in Ireland, selling some of what I hold while getting a new family base there. All this takes time, of course, and has meant that I spent more time in Ireland than has been the case for a long time. Some of that was used for the painful work of clearing out an old family home for sale. Now that effort is complete, my mind can turn to other things.
Spending more time in Ireland meant that I got to explore the place more than I ever did. There were numerous visits to parts of Kerry and West Cork, while Waterford, Limerick and Tipperary. Clare looked like being omitted until I journeyed through the county while on a day trip to Galway. All that rambling now means that I am a little short of ideas for Munster explorations, a situation in which I never thought I would find myself.
The location in Cork city also is a limitation. While the area is quiet, it also means that there is a thirty-minute bus journey to reach bus and train stations for onward travel beyond the city. In some ways, this takes me back to when I was living in Edinburgh. In those days, youth and novelty were sufficient to overcome some of the inertia that being outside a city centre can bring. It also reminds of how fortunate that ten to fifteen walk from my house to Macclesfield's train station has been for various getaways.
Another thing about Cork that hit me during a week or so spent in Ireland during August 2022 was that any Irish hill country is further away. For that, you need the energy to get to Kerry, Waterford or even Tipperary. For a time during this autumn that was lacking, though things are picking up now. It appears that staying put somewhere for a while helps with building motivation.
In many ways, it is its coastline that marks out the county of Cork as exceptional. There are three main peninsulas, Mizen, Sheep's Head and Beara, and I have got to some part of all of them. Add in Kinsale and there is a building exposure. Around Cork harbour, there is a lot too, though industrialisation dulls the appeal somewhat. In East Cork, there is Youghal and Ballycotton, the latter of which I have yet to visit for its clifftop walk; an infrequent bus service means that might be a full day trip unless inland travel on country lanes is part of a hike. A need to find more of what is nearby had me looking on AllTrails, though use generated content needs care and everyone needs to hike their own hike, not someone else's one.
With time, a stay elsewhere in Ireland might be the solution. In a good way, Limerick is somewhat spoiled by its location with access to Kerry, Clare and Tipperary hills, not to mention Shannon lakes like Lough Derg. Galway and other spots in Ireland's west and northwest have much to offer, and there also is Northern Ireland.
Your possessions can possess you; that might not be helping me with the new base in Cork. Slowly, but surely, I am starting to move beyond the that stage for letting go often is the only way forward. Places in the U.K. continue to beckon; Inverness was another prospect this year, with its potential as a jumping point for hikes around the shore of Loch Ness or further afield for a circuit near Achnasheen comes to mind too. North America again comes to mind as a reward for unshackling myself.
Before the financial transaction went through, I was free to explore several parts of Scotland and France, and did so. There was another session of house clearing before all that: decluttering my own base in the U.K. A lot has happened this year during a break for other paying work. That too needs a return.
Though there is a danger that it could be procrastination, especially at this time of year, much has been happening on the content side with this online outpost. Trips reports have been written that got me past both 2020 and 2021 into 2022. The mention of a certain pandemic will decline to near nothing in these, probably to the relief of some. 2021 was so dull that night walking may have been undertaken for the sake of the novelty that was absent, though it might have been a respite after 2020 brought the most challenging kind of upheaval. That night walking dallying has erupted again along the shores of Lough Mahon too, which makes me wonder if there is any resonance, and 2024 has not been that dull.
In the background, there has been dabbling with what new GenAI tools can do for this place; they help and can be hard work to get anything like what you need from them. They assisted the fleshing out of destination guides for Canada, Australia, the Canary Islands, Cinque Terre and Mallorca. The first of these became a major effort that likely needs splitting apart to produce a Canada section to the travelogue instead. There is another, handwritten, candidate for that treatment too: the Alpine and Pyrenean article that I compiled a while ago. There are other destination guides that I want to add for various U.S. western states, but that will be more gradual because other things need doing in my life.
The automation also helped to build up the long-distance trails article, as well as the one for additional outdoors inspiration. Numerous empty spaces are getting filled while I get to grips with the technology tsunami that is starting to affect us all in so many ways. It is neither as good as its promoters claim nor as bad as its detractors suggest. One thing is certain: it will be a step change, much like the way personal computing became pervasive thirty years ago.
This will be something to domesticate over time, and retaining our connection to the outdoors is never more crucial. Just like the internet nearly a generation ago, there is the risk of getting lost in a technology bubble with all that is happening. Getting outside in nature can be a counterpoint to all that is happening, for nothing what is perceived using our natural senses. Online experiences may be a way of limiting overtourism, yet we are tactile creatures who need that physical connection to wilder places.
That drew me out to Curraghbinny Woods not so long ago. The day was mild and sunny, and there were sunlit sights of what lay around the place, including nearby Crosshaven and more distant Cobh. No metaverse can replace that. Unshackling oneself to get to these and other places remains more necessary than ever.
More photos of North America
21st March 2024 
The North America section of the photo gallery now looks a little more substantial after adding an album for photos from last year's trip to the San Francisco Bay Area. There already was one for those from 2019's trip to British Columbia, and that looked a bit lonely on its own. It is not so easy to claim an interest in exploring another continent with only one substantive visit having happened.
While my appetite for North American explorations has been sated somewhat by those two trips, I cannot rule out the possibility of there being another this year. Seattle and Washington State both look tempting. A visit to Olympic National Park could be a possibility. However, as I know from my designs on Denver and Boulder in Colorado for the summer of 2020, anything could happen that stymies such schemes. Nothing has been planned yet, since I have a few things on my plate at the moment.
Jubilees
9th July 2023 In Britain, last year saw a public jubilee being celebrated, though I took no part in that. This year marks some private ones of my own, but it is the silver jubilee of my own shamblings on the World Wide Web that I have in mind here. Things have come a long way since those tentative steps on the now defunct Geocities. Meanwhile, my interests in technology and transportation have found other homes to leave what you find here.
In the dying years of the last century, explorations of the sort that you find shared here only could be a pipe dream. Even photographic efforts were only tentative and involved a compact camera. SLR's and hillwalking all lay in the future. Explorations of portions of English, Scottish, Welsh and Manx countryside could come only because of what I earned from a working life. These needed time to make them happen, too, and clement weather to make the experiences desirable.
It is only within the last ten years that I could have entertained notions of international travel that has taken me to various parts of Iceland, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Canada and France. Even a return to the Channel Islands to follow up on a school trip only happened this year. In the next few weeks, I hope to embark on another international escapade, the details of which I will share later.
The wanderings continue and photos keep coming. Since Easter, there have trips to Ireland, northwest Wales and highland Scotland. The last of these saw me spend some time around Aviemore taking Craigellachie National Nature Reserve, the top of Bynack Mór, Loch Morlich and Rothiemurchus. A tumble may have ruined a pair of trousers, but it pained me to leave the place with a week of sunny weather in train. The Welsh trip had no such drama and featured the top of Y Garn near the Ogwen Valley on a day of gathering heat.
The weather on the Irish trip was mixed, yet there were a few highlights that avoided the razzmatazz surrounding a coronation. A walk from Newcastle West to Abbeyfeale along the Limerick Greenway convinced me that it is best enjoyed as a cycling route. That exertion may have left me feeling the worst for wear, but that did not stop me heading to Clonmel for a circular hike taking in part of the Comeragh Mountains as well as a walk by the River Suir.
The threat of rain did not stop me spending a few hours around Ballybunion or Galway. There was a soaking at the former after a stroll along the Long Strand and a cliff top walk. That was while I was awaiting the bus back to Limerick, and I dried on the way back. The day improved in Galway and I got no wetting around Salthill, it somewhat pained me to leave sunny Eyre Square to return from there. Return visits to either place cannot be discounted, even though I have been scathing about the first of these; my parent's chosen form of enjoyment was not mine, I need to say.
Stories of all the journeying over the decades would have stunned a young university student all those years ago, and there may be more yet. New locations continue to beckon to me, and old ones entice return visits. More of those may await and inspire more writing on here afterwards.
A spot of refinement
20th March 2023 A matter in Ireland weighed heavily on my mind for longer than expected until its recent completion. There are others to follow, but I hope that their execution will not turn out to be so injurious to my emotions as this one. There is more letting go to be done before burdens are relinquished. It can be difficult to transition them to someone else; they have to be wanted first.
None of that helped with my taking advantage of any fleeting episodes of dry, sunny weather that came our way since the start of the year. That there were a lot of grey, outcast days too meant that I never got to feel too badly about what was left to pass. It is all very unlike this time last year, when I embarked on a Pennine walking project in and around Marsden. Maybe it is better that way for now.
None of this stopped me from refining some of the content that got on here, though. Photos got enlarged, many posts had their writing improved, and some early redundant posts were removed. The photo overhaul took quite a lot of time since there are so many of them, even if it also was an automation project of sorts. It does not help that this is a fiddly exercise too.
Now, I am starting to think ahead a bit more as the rain falls outside the window. Easter is coming, so my mind starts to ponder possibilities for a much-needed getaway, and there may be time for another one or two in May. Those aforementioned matters will take me to Ireland again and again, so that might add more walking opportunities too.
It feels a bit premature to start thinking of trips to other parts of the world yet, but that cannot be discounted either. Usually, it is best never to discount what weather windows can facilitate. There are times when it is better to let any opportunities arise organically.
A new weather map
25th August 2022 In the past, seeing changes in the presentation of weather information is something that has raised my ire. When the BBC did away with weather maps, I moved over to the Met Office for sake of keeping the added overview that such things provide. Location-based weather forecasting undoubtedly is useful and I use it a lot but the overview remains especially helpful.
It may seem a niche interest to many but one thing that I find really useful is a rain radar map. Handily, both Met Eireann and the Met Office incorporate these into their phone apps so you can use them while out hiking. In the case of the former, it really saw usage during a recent trip to Ireland when light rain showers dampened at least some of the Kerry mountains. Seeing that the shower was only a passing affair helped enormously with decision-making. Naturally, this all depended on the availability of phone signal and it was never up to the minute but the lag never got in the way of seeing the way that things were moving.
A rain radar map often helps when you are indoors too since waiting out a passing shower or a spell of rain can allow you to do things outside when conditions are drier. This applies to cycling to and from work, going shopping, exercising or travelling further afield. For all these, websites are as useful as phone apps.
That brings me to the main subject of this piece since the Met Office is trying out things all the while. Some are appreciated and successful while others are unwanted with some needing to be tolerated when they become permanent. Of all these, there are some changes that get previewed and a new way of presenting past and predicted weather is among them.
Both now appear in the same place and it only is the timeline that tells you that you are dealing with observed or predicted weather. However, the difference between the two is not as clear-cut as it could be. With rainfall patterns, there are hints like the extra resolution of observed data compared to what is predicted. There is one other thing to realise: the frequency of the predicted data appears to be once every fifteen minutes. Thus, if you see timepoints that are not at 0, 15, 30 and 45 minutes past the hour, then you definitely have an observation map layer on display.
The new map may not be intended to remain open in a web browser from one day to the next but that is a habit of mine. The older maps work well with this since they reset to the latest data even if you may need to advance the timeline accordingly on the radar map. The new map does not do this but it is in its beta phase at the moment and hence could change according to user feedback. For that reason, I am not being as critical as I have been in the past when equivalent changes have been made and it is larger too, a boon for those of us using larger screens (I am writing these words on a 34" widescreen monitor that I use with my home workstations). So far, what is there looks interesting so I plan to keep an eye on where it goes now.
Things change all the time anyway and not always for the better. The location-based forecasts on the Met Office website do not allow for favourites to be kept or previous searches to be retained so I would like to see them look at this as well. At the moment, I am looking at setting up a list on this website of links to ones that I commonly use for the reference of visitors to this website as much as myself. Handily, you can get forecasts for mountain tops like Helvellyn and even lakes like Ullswater so that might be the basis of an interesting selection.
