Ghost Town

I needed this photograph to tell a story. It was taken at a place in the middle of desert that is just so isolated and yet was once a town of 4000 people, with schools, shops and even a post office. Eagle Mountain as it is known was run by Kaiser Corporation and supplied iron ore to Kaiser's Fontana steel works near to Los Angeles. It is located about 20 miles north of the 10 freeway between Indio and Blythe.The first time I went to Kaiser mine I could not believe what I saw. It reminded me of one of those towns in Nevada that you see in films where nuclear tests were conducted in the 1950's. Everything was there, all the shops, houses and even the gas station, it was just missing one vital element, people. It was like someone had just vaporized all of the life from the town. On a side note to that I have a very good friend in Big Bear that I had no idea until after my first visit to Eagle Mountain, that he lived and worked there for a number of years. The mine closed in 1983 and just left everything where it stood, buildings, vehicles and even locomotives. It still gets used to make films and commercials though. Well now we are building a new radio site on the mines property so I hope to visit there soon and take some better photographs of this ghost town and post them on here.

The Burren

The Burren is a 135 square mile limestone plateau in County Clare, Ireland. It's a fascinating place to see and experience. The limestone was formed millions of years ago under a tropical sea and then it was shaped by hard weather and ice. Walking on it is tough as you are constantly looking down trying not to fall in the cracks. One of the places on The Burren that is highly recommended for a visit is the portal dolmen at Poulnabrone (photographed above). A dolmen is a megalithic tomb formed out of stone that looks like a table.

Traitors Gate

On our visit to England we decided to spend a weekend in London. Janet wanted to visit the Tower of London, so who was I to argue. I lived in England for 29 years and had never been inside the walls of the Tower, I've walked around it more times than I can count, just never had the desire to go in and take a look. It's a strange place and totally not as I imagined it to be, the Crown Jewels exhibit is amazing and a must see for anyone that goes there. The one part of the Tower that always fascinates me when I walk around the outside is Traitors Gate. It's an entrance into the Tower from the River Thames and is accessed by boat. As the name implies for you to be taken into the Tower that way the chances were that you were not coming out alive. So after all those years of seeing Traitors Gate from the outside I finally got to see it from the inside and that's the picture I share with you here.

The Duck Pond

When I was young we used to walk our dogs or ride our bikes down a lane to a farm about 3/4's of a mile away called St Mary's Farm. The reason why was this pond. It never used to look like this, it wasn't fenced off and didn't have any trees growing around it. It just had big white ducks living in it and a wall at one end that was kind of derelict, but safe enough to lean on and feed the ducks bread. I guess eventually it dried out, but now the owners of the farm have reestablished it, fenced it off and it has geese living there. You know it's like everything in life that you take for granted when you live right by it or when you are young, you miss it when you leave and love it when you go home to visit. You also don't realise how lucky you were growing up in a small village surrounded by fields and countryside and 15 minutes from the sea.

My Nephew Josh

This is my nephew Josh, he is Shannon's older brother. So a strange fact about Josh is that he doesn't eat much, unless you put a plate full of ribs in front of his face. He can eat as many pork or beef ribs in half the the time that I can. In Florida last year twice at a rib place he munched through 6 large beef ribs and still wanted more. Here he is a my sisters birthday dinner enjoying his baby backs.

The Place I Grew Up

This is where I grew up, the village of Great Bentley in Essex. As places to grow up go it was pretty good, we had a population of about 2000. My dad was the village postman for 10 years so he knew a whole lot of people. This photograph is of the village green and at 43 acres in size is the largest in England. As kids we would play soccer, cricket, ride our bikes, fly kites and even once crashed a radio controlled airplane into the green. As teenagers we would get drunk, party and just hang out and have a good time. I have many fond memories of things my friends and I did when I lived there. The green is also used for the yearly carnival, the cricket and football clubs have there pitches on it and the when the fair comes to town they use it.

The Cliffs of Moher

So another photograph of Ireland, it was such a beautiful place that I just took lots and lots of them. Anyway this is the Cliffs of Moher, the main place we went to visit in Ireland. It was just such an amazing view and one that I would recommend to anyone that gets the chance to visit Ireland. This was taken just before we left to go to the harbour for the sunset picture I posted last week. Hope you enjoy it.

A View From 7000 Feet

This is the view from Artic Circle on the road to Big Bear Lake at 7000 feet. The clouds in the "V" of the mountains are hanging over San Bernardino and Riverside. When I commuted from Big Bear to Riverside I would always look down through here to see what my day had in store. Sometimes it was clear, sometimes it was cloudy like this scene but, most of the time it was just a layer of smog and pollution. What is still amazing to me is that I can be in the sunshine of California and an hour later be in the snow of the mountains. When I first moved to Big Bear the road around Artic Circle had no guard rails around any of the curves, so one missed turn and you were flying for a few thousand feet, right before you hit the rocks at the bottom. After several accidents of people going over the side the authorities got forced to add guard rails.

Brightlingsea at Night

This is one of my personal favorites of all the photos I have taken. While back in England we went to visit my friend Stephen and his wife Emma. As it got later we thought we would go for a walk down along the sea front by Bateman's Tower in Brightlingsea. It was about 10pm, pretty dark and just a beautiful evening for a few photos to be taken. This is the view from next to Bateman's Tower looking towards Mersea Island. The crane floating out in the estuary is being used to build a wind farm off the coast of Clacton-on-Sea. Brightlingsea by the way was where I spent my high school years attending the Colne High School from age 11 thru 16. Click on the image for a larger version.

Muckross Lake

This is Muckross Lake located at the back of Muckross House in Killarney, Ireland. Ireland has some of the most beautiful scenery you can ever imagine. The weather had cleared up from our previous day of driving the Ring of Kerry and Muckross House would have been our last stop that day had we not have been staying 5 miles away in Killarney at a great Bed & Breakfast. If you ever make it to south west Ireland pay Muckross House a visit, you will not regret it. Click on the photograph for a larger version.