07 Aug 2019
by Roberta McDonnell
in Nature, Photography, Places, Seasons, Walks and Walking, wildflowers, wildlife
Tags: Down, flowers, Ireland, nature, Seahill, walking
A few days ago I had occasion to take a walk along a lovely lane in Seahill, County Down. To say the wildflowers are in their prime fails to do justice to the enchanting display.
Everywhere you turn there’s another beauty to beguile you. Then the sea, lapping along a gentle rocky shore, completes the spell. Before that day, I had not even known about the place and a return home by train via the quaint little station sealed the deal on a remarkable and memorable day trip.
Bangor next, I think.
23 Mar 2019
by Roberta McDonnell
in Inspiration, Mindfulness, Nature, Photography, Places, Seasons, Walks and Walking, winter
Tags: birds, Ireland, light, Trees
A day in December past, Ormeau Park, Belfast. The air was crisp chill, the sunlight pale and hypnotic. One tree had bark of a peculiar orange shade, made more surreal by the way a sun shaft illuminated its branches. A bird puffed its body up against the breeze and sang in muted tones. I walked and breathed the mist and light.
06 Jul 2017
by Roberta McDonnell
in Creativity, Nature, Photography, Places, Seasons
Tags: Belfast, flowers, Ireland, Summer
Hello again from Belfast Botanical Gardens. Several weeks of mid-summer heat, a rare enough treat in these climes, along with intermittent heavy rain, have brought about a magnificent swathe of blooms of all colours and variations. Most striking is the wild flower patch with deep blue cornflowers and lazy daisies. I’m doing the best I can to squeeze in a morning walk around Botanic at least once each week and catching a coffee with Fintan or a daughter into the bargain. While I tend to enjoy each season for it’s unique beauties, for now summer’s where it’s at. Happy Summertime folks!
30 Aug 2013
by Roberta McDonnell
in Anthropology, Archetypes, Creative Journaling, Nature, Poetry, Symbolism, Writing
Tags: arts, authors, books, creative writing, identity, Ireland, meaning, Paul Muldoon, poetry, Seamus Heaney, Symbolism
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/festival/2008/10/history-and-hom.html?mobify=0
Click the link above or the image below for the actual conversation between Paul Muldoon and the late, great Seamus Heaney.
My graduation day at Queen’s University Belfast was graced by an honorary guest, a Queen’s Alumnus himself, the wonderful poet Paul Muldoon. How exhilarating then to find this lovely video of Paul Muldoon in conversation with our sadly deceased Seamus Heaney. Please enjoy this clip from the New Yorker Festival a couple of years ago.
Do also please look up some of their work for a truly uplifting take on life and the search for ‘true understanding’, a term Heaney was often heard to quote from Basho’s definition of poetry.