Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Malasada Day, or Pączki Day — whatever you call it, today is the last day before Lent begins. In Ireland, it is Pancake Tuesday!
24 February 2009
Pancake Tuesday!
Comments Off on Pancake Tuesday!
22 February 2009
Photoset: Naples, October 2008
After most of a day in Pompeii, we spent the evening in Naples. We got lost several times, ate pizza on the run, and felt just a little of the nervous energy that the city is famous for.
We posted a small photoset of Naples on Flickr. Also, as a special bonus, one of the photos includes a lengthy rant about a crucial detail of Rick Steves’s travel guide for Rome! (more…)
Comments Off on Photoset: Naples, October 2008
20 February 2009
Wexford coast: first the Bakkers, now peril from the seas
Last weekend, Anita and I drove through one of the few regions of Ireland we had not yet visited: the Sunny Southeast. In February, County Wexford is not so sunny, but it was a worthwhile trip nonetheless. Naturally, we posted a photoset of our trip for you.
I rushed this set of photos to the blog because some of the places we visited are under threat from a large oil slick in the Irish Sea. (more…)
Comments Off on Wexford coast: first the Bakkers, now peril from the seas
16 February 2009
First Signs of Spring in Dublin
Sunday was gorgeous: warm and partly sunny. Today was almost as nice. It feels like spring!
In some places, robins are a sign of spring. In others, the heavens are the guide.
Here in Dublin, we know it’s spring when the flocks of tour buses take to the streets. (more…)
Comments Off on First Signs of Spring in Dublin
13 February 2009
This Week in the Tumblr
Alert readers have noticed the regular updates to this blog’s sidebar: daily photos, news stories from Ireland and all over the world, and other items of general interest. If you’d like to see Tumblr entries in full (or subscribe to their RSS feed), go to the website, bugle.tumblr.com.
This week’s tumblr included these items, and more:
(more…)
Comments Off on This Week in the Tumblr
12 February 2009
Caption Five
Hello, Bugle readers! You’ve probably had enough of Italy, from the photos posted this week. So Caption Five is once again from a photo taken in England.
As usual, click on the image for the full-size version.
8 February 2009
New Photos from Italy: Pompeii, Oct 29
The Bugle’s Photochromacommunal Promulgators prepared, especially for you, a tour of the renowned archeological site of Pompeii. On October 29th, Will and Anita took a train from Rome to Naples, and from there to Pompeii.
Pompeii was a seaside town of about twenty thousand residents in 62 CE. In the preceding seven hundred years, it had seen quite a few conquerors come and go, never able to act as an independent power. It had also felt frequent rumbles from the nearby Mount Vesuvius, but nothing that threatened the town itself. It had been generations since the last eruption of smoke and ash, and that was mainly an agricultural concern.
(more…)
Comments Off on New Photos from Italy: Pompeii, Oct 29
6 February 2009
Yes we have winter in Dublin
If you follow the Tumblr photos in the sidebar of this blog, then you’ve seen a few shots of the snow in Dublin this week. If you’ve visited the Bugle B&B, then you know that there’s a desolate mountain range just south of Dublin. It’s one of my favourite places in Ireland.
It’s still fascinating to this child of the Corn Belt that such an inhospitable area is so close to Dublin, just a few kilometres beyond the suburbs. You can take the urban bus system into the Wicklow Mountains. If you research hillwalking in County Wicklow on the internet, you’ll see plenty of warnings about weather conditions. Those warnings resonated with my wariness of mountainous terrain. And I was not long in Ireland before I saw how quickly a sunny walk along a little trail can turn into a beating administered by a cold, wet wind followed by rain and flooding creeks.
This week, those warnings were completely vindicated, (more…)
Comments Off on Yes we have winter in Dublin
3 February 2009
Ninetieth Anniversary of The First Dáil Éireann
The Bugle is a bit tardy in reporting the 90th anniversary of the first independent parliament of Ireland. The celebrations in Dublin were understated and mostly for the political elite, but the pivotal moment, ninety years ago, is too important to let pass.
The idea of forming a government apart from the British Parliament was promoted for 15 years by Arthur Griffith, the founder of Sinn Féin. According to Michael Laffan of the Irish Times, many Irish voters at the time saw their representatives at British Parliament as lobbyists who could occasionally bring home pork projects (to put it in American terms). Why give up those lobbyists for the sake of an improbable ideal?
The equation changed when the three years after the Easter Rising added new factors. (more…)
Comments Off on Ninetieth Anniversary of The First Dáil Éireann
2 February 2009
Joyce’s Birthday today!
James Joyce was born in Dublin on this day in 1882. In honour of one of Ireland’s greatest writers, I set out to find his birthplace. (more…)
Comments Off on Joyce’s Birthday today!