The Chair-O-Planes at sunset beside the Yellow Steeple at the Trim Balloon Fiesta.

Telefonica tower at the Olympic Stadium, Barcelona.

The balloon fiesta continues today until Monday. Tomorrow promises to be the best day weather wise and display wise. Drop over to Trim, the kids will love it!

The Trim Balloon Fiesta starts today. Lets hope the weather keeps up and everybody has a ball!!

Rooftop swimmers in Barcelona.

Latex @ Laytown.

White Strand, Cahersiveen.

This is what the inside of a can of Guinness really looks like.

I know I said that the last one would be the last one but I didn’t know then that there would be more blown up this morning did I? Distortion thanks to the lovely Sigma 12mm.

The last balloon shot until the big event at Easter.

Sonic being deflated after the press shoot on Friday morning.

On the Easter weekend Trim is hosting a balloon fiesta with all the weirdest shaped balloons in the universe coming to participate. Could be worth a gander!!

The iconic image I have from the 1992 Summer Olympic games in Barcelona is the view over the city from the diving arena. It has to be one of the most unique locations since the ancient games in Greece. The stadium is now locked and chained and a little run down. Kind of sad actually. I couldn’t get the shot I wanted with the diving board but I think this reflects its past glory and its present isolation.

La Boqueria Market, Barcelona.

Discuss. 35/100 Taken at the Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona.

Reminds me of something that J. D. Salinger said, “Just because I’m so horribly conditioned to accept everybody else’s values, and just because I like applause and people to rave about me, doesn’t make it right. I’m ashamed of it. I’m sick of it. I’m sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody. I’m sick of myself and everybody else that wants to make some kind of a splash.”

A jet over the beach at Laytown, Co. Meath,

Apparently Mars is closer than it has ever been to the Earth tonight. And it really is red! Click on the photo to see a larger size on Pixie.

I have four photos up for auction for Haiti. Please read my profile here:http://pix.ie/valentia for all the details. It would be wonderful if you would consider putting in a bid on one of them. Thanks.

Heavy snow over southern Germany. It looks like they have mastered the art of keeping the roads clear!

And finally, more or less as Tommie predicted. Pictures on a wall.

I know it must seem strange to many people but the man is nearly a saint. Already? What did he do with those reports he was getting from Dublin and Ferns I wonder? Would he too be asked to resign if he was around?

The St. Bridget’s Cross which is associated with the saint’s feast day on February 1st. Good of them to at least allow women saints.

Christ, next to the cable that connects us to heaven.

This is the first in a short series of photographs which captures an Ireland that is reported to be disappearing. An Ireland when people believed what they were told by those “in charge”. Some say that it is nearly gone. Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be the case. Judging by how lightly the perpetrators mentioned in recent reports, and those who shielded them, are getting off I fear we are still under the spell of an unholy alliance. Our lack of outrage continues to shame us.

As fossil fuels go turf must be the one with the best soul! Is there anything better, on a cold winter’s night, than sitting around an open turf fire, with friends and talking pure drivel and having the best of craic? Nothing, I say. Nothing on earth.

One of the advantages of a twilight wedding…

Dara Kenny & Bernadette Walsh in rehearsal for A Galway Girl by Geraldine Aron which continues in Trim Town Hall tonight and tomorrow night. To repeat the details I gave a few days ago: Semper Fidelis, by Henry Hudson, is being directed by Kevin Martin. A Galway Girl, by Geraldine Aron, is being directed by Barbera McGonagle (nee Mellerick, for those of you that don’t know!!) and Ruby of Elsinore, by Bruce Kane, is being directed by Delphine Coudray. The overall title is ‘Truth, Lies and Murder?’ A really varied and fulfilling night’s entertainment is guaranteed!

Dara Kenny rehearsing the Galway Girl. Three one-act plays this weekend in Trim Town Hall. See this post for details.

I was messing about with very high ISOs around the house the other day and liked the colours in this, so here you are….