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, Anna...

This whole day have I followed in the rocks, And you have changed and flowed from shape to shape, First as a raven on whose ancient wings Scarcely a feather lingered, then you seemed A weasel moving on from stone to stone, And now at last you wear a human shape, A thin grey man half lost in gathering night. Fergus and the Druid - W.B. Yeats Welcome one and all to The Art of Caesura! Today I have a very special post for you. I mentioned in the birthday post a couple weeks ago that I want to re-introduce some non-miniatures-based content back into the blog. I'm going to try to post photos every now and then from the monthly hikes that my wife and I go on. We really are lucky to live in one of the most amazing places so I'd love to share it with you! Our first hike of the new year was to a mystical valley drenched in history, folklore and...rain! Here's what the local tourist board has to say about it: The Loch a'Dúin valley near ...

Beer Speaks. People Mumble. ~ Lagunitas Brewing Top up your pint glasses as I welcome you back to another Friday on The Art of Caesura! I hope you've all well recovered from the excitement of St. Paddy's Day. I went on a bracing 16km hike on Paddy's Day in the glorious pelting sideways rain and raging winds. A hike that led to one poor member of our party breaking her ankle! Yikes! Luckily we had something to numb the pain - whiskey! Following on from our ale-drenched post last week , comes the all-important Robber's Gold: Tasting and Judgment! Robber's Gold must have been reading last week's post, because it hits on a lot of the points that we talked about with golden ales in general. In colour it is more towards the lager end of the spectrum, but in taste it is still firmly rooted between a lager and an ale.  Colour : Golden Clarity : Clear Head : Full Aroma (hops) : Peppery Aroma (malt) : Biscuity Fruit flavours:  Citrus Floral fl...