"Ford of the Heroes" - Meelin Hill

In the Ford of the Heroes

there he lies,

brave Tom Crean

noble son of Annascaul

"Ode to Tom Crean" - Brigid O Connor

Hello hello, step in to the warmth of The Art of Caesura!

You may recall that one of my New Year's Resolutions for the blog was to bring more of the lifestyle stuff into the blog. As you can see, I've failed miserably thus far, with only 2 non-miniature related posts all year!! So, today we're going to change all that!

I want to show you a hike that my wife and I went on a few weeks ago in ancient Annascaul.

Annascaul means "River of Shadows" or "Ford of the Heroes" and is a town about half an hour from home, and when I say it's ancient, I mean ANCIENT!! For starters it's where a bunch of tectonic plates collided and they have found 380 million year old fossilized sand dunes there, as well as the footprints of one of the very first land animals on Earth!

In slightly more recent history, Annascaul is the closest town to the grave of the legendary mythological hero, Cu Chulainn ("The Hound of Ulster"). And the place is littered with standing stones, ogham stones and other neolithic wonders.

Here he is in comic format

Zooming forward in time, Annascaul is now best known as the birthplace of Tom Crean, the Antarctic explorer. Crean was part of Robert Scott's ill-fated attempt on the South Pole and then went back for more with Shakleton! When he got back from Shakleton's expedition apparently he settled down, opened a pub ("The South Pole Inn") and never really talked about his adventures. We went to his pub after our hike...but now we're getting ahead of ourselves!

We had done an epic hike in Annascaul before, and knew there was much more to be seen, so we set off with only one bit of the "essential" gear (we had the rain-gear down, but were sans map / compass / GPS / food / water).

I must say, the hike up Meelin Hill was uncharacteristically well signposted, although the "three peaks of Annascaul" seemed more like 7 peaks! We were lucky to get some great views from the top of Inch Beach and the Iveragh Peninsula across the way.

The rain stayed away for most of the day, so we were thrilled.

Every good hike ends in a pub, and ours ended in the famed South Pole Inn. Guinness has never tasted so good!

Thanks for tuning in for my first hiking post in a loooooonggg ass time, right here on The Art of Caesura!

Reading: Being Mortal - Atul Gawande
Listening: Counting Crows

Next Week:

"Left to pit his wits and will against nature's fury..."

Comments

The Full Stop - Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood

The monstrous Deepwood has consumed the land. No farms or fields remain. There is only corruption, rot and the endless shadow of the twisted trees. ~ Shadowborne Games Pot's Peace, Oathsworn. Welcome to The Art of Caesura! What's all this then, TWO posts in one day!? Well yes, you see timing is of the essence here. Today marks the 200th post of The Art of Caesura , so if you haven't had a chance to check out the celebratory post, please do so ! There is also a Kickstarter ongoing at the moment, that I am getting quite excited by, but it closes on Tuesday, so if I left it till next Friday to tell you about it...it would be too late! Hence, in a world first, two hits of The Art of Caesura in one day! Now onward, into the world of Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood ! Credit: Shadowborne Games Nota bene : I am not associated with Shadowborne Games, and am just writing this because it is something that I am genuinely excited about. None of the ...

The Full Stop - A Deep Dive into Warhammer 40k Combat Patrol

Welcome to Combat Patrol! Whether you are a new recruit to Warhammer 40,000 or a seasoned veteran, Combat Patrol is all about getting your forces into action as quickly as possible. - Combat Patrol Rules - Games Workshop Welcome back to the Art of Caesura! Recent readers will see that we've been looking at our fun little Warhammer gathering, KillCon over the past few weeks. Two weeks ago I provided a narrative verion of my game of Combat Patrol of my Black Templars vs. Tristan's Tyranids where as l ast week I gave a more "gamer oriented" play-by-play of the game. Today I want to dive deeper into this accessible and engaging game-type. I want to argue that Combat Patrol is not just for beginners. Combat Patrol in 10th Edition is Games Workshop's new smallest scale Warhammer 40k game type. But unlike in previous editions, where it just meant that both sides took 500 point armies and went at it, in this edition, Games Workshop has changed things up a litt...

"The Skinny" - Scale 75 Flesh Paint Set Review

The complexion of a light-skinned face divides into three zones: The forehead has a light golden colour because it's freer of muscles and surface capillaries. The ears, cheeks and nose all lie within the central zone of the face. Those areas have more capillaries carrying oxygenated blood near the surface, causing the reddish colour... The zone from the nose to the chin (where there are relatively more veins carrying blue deoxygenated blood) tends toward a bluish, greenish or greyish colour. Some artists accentuated this subtle bluish or greenish hue to bring out the reddish lip colour. Color and Light (page 156) - James Gurney Welcome all to The Art of Caesura! So I finished all the models in Warhammer Quest Silver Tower!! Wooohooo!! Now for something a bit different! This week I'm going to do something I've never done on the blog before: write a review!! I've been wanting to write my thoughts on Scale 75 's Flesh Paint Set fo...

Search This Blog