What's up with the weather

 The weather has been, lets just say, less than favourable the last couple of weeks. I've planned and schemed, but to no avail. Every weekend seems to be a wet mess. Did get about between spells of rain, notably to ride up the mountain after storm Eowyn battered Ireland on the 24th of January. Rode up to Cruagh wood on the 1st of Feb for a spot of coffee with a view.

The evening of the 2nd Feb the Crescent Moon was seriously close to Venus. If I had known that it would be the last bit of stargazing to be done for the month of February, I would have made more of an effort. Be that as it may, I managed to get this shot, which I'm quite happy with.

And then it started raining and being generally Irish weather. 

Sitting around moping, I realised that the trout season is around the corner. I have not fly fished in ages, and I have never tied my own flies. Which ones to use though? 

So I have been scouting around for Irish patterns. I will be posting patterns that I have collected along with my attempts at making them. Should be interesting and entertaining, to say the least.

Good week for stargazers

 A couple of things happened this week. 

Firstly, I dropped the bike. Some idiot in a van coming barrelling around a corner on the wrong side of the road. Had to stop very sharpish. Unfortunately I was committed into a corner of my own. Tried to keep the bike upright. No luck. Broke some indicators, a mirror and the clutch lever. I can tell you it was fun getting home with half a clutch.

Approximately €100 later, everything is repaired and ready for the next round. Except my wrist, which is still slightly sprained, but not half as bad as it was on Thursday.

To lighten my mood, this week saw Mars and the twins line up perfectly. In true Irish tradition, the weather did not want to play ball. I was in and out of the house a million times just to be greeted by spectacular cloud cover right where the objects of my interest were supposed to be. Eventually, 11pm on Friday evening the clouds mostly parted, and there it was, all three of them in a row:

The other item of significance at the moment is the proximity of Venus and Saturn to each other. In fact, on Saturday (18th Jan 25) Saturn and Venus were 2.2degrees from each other. This time the clouds played along.

These shots were taken with an iPhone, so excuse the quality.