A portent of new beginnings in an ongoing journey for the last day of February, 2022
Rosy Fingers of Dawn
Iliad and Odyssey reference for Monday
Category: Sky
Above Muirthemne Plain
Romance of Ruins
This series of posts started with “Proleek, Grandfather McCardle’s home” where we explored the site of great grandfather James McCardle’s Proleek farm. A kilometer from there, at Proleek Dolmen, the ancient portal stones line up to face the plain rising to Slieve Gullion, a name for the mountain taken from the Irish, Sliabh gCuillinn, meaning “mountain of the steep slope” or Sliabh Cuilinn, “Culann’s mountain.”
Click photograph to view my Ireland photography gallery
There is an connection between Proleek and Slieve Gullion. Cycles of Irish Myth place a boy named Sétanta living on Muirthemne Plain, of which what we call Proleek Townland was a part. One day, the king Conchobar was passing his kingdom, Muirthemne, on the way to a feast on the slopes of Slieve Gullion hosted by the blacksmith Culann when he stopped to watch boys playing hurling, Sétanta among them (it is ironic the Proleek Dolmen is surrounded by a golf course in modern times).
Impressed by the Sétanta’s skill, the king invites him to the feast. Having a game to finish Sétanta promises to follow. As evening falls the boy approaches the smith’s house to find himself attacked by a huge, aggressive dog. Acting in the moment, Sétanta dispatches the dog with the hurley and ball he had at hand, driving the ball down the hound’s throat. (In another version he smashes the hound against a standing stone.)
Feeling Culann mourn the loss of his beloved animal, Sétanta promises to raise and train a guard dog equal to the one he slew. Until that time he also pledged to guard Culann’s home. From that time Sétanta was known as “the hound of Cullann”, Cú Chulainn in Irish.
References
Wikipedia articles “Slieve Gullion” “Cú Chulainn” and “Conaille Muirtheimne.”
Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Venus at dawn
Planet Thoughts
Since 1500 B.C. until today…..
The planet we call Venus has ancient associations with fertility goddesses. The link has persisted at least from the 1600 century B.C. inscribed on Sumerian cuneiform tablets. Three thousand years later the Italian artist Botticelli created in tempura paint on canvas the image of Venus rising from the sea, as the planet Venus does today.
Venus Rising
Here is Venus rising from the sea at dawn January 2022, at its brightest and most beautiful. Some mistake this new light in the east for airplane lights; the bright disk of Venus is 25 times brighter than Sirius, enough to cast shadows at night. As Venus proceeds in its orbit, the planet alternately sets after the sun and rises before it, seemingly appearing new each time.
This February I caught a newly risen Venus in this IPhone 7 video, reflected in the waves. It seemed to be a flashing headlight on the beach, the Venus reflection came and went with the passing waves. Venus is the upper, the reflection is beneath. Use the lower right control for the full view.
Looking from his window June 1889, Vincent VanGogh included Venus in his “Starry Night” painting, seen to the right of the Cypress tree.
Here is a closer view of Venus last January, the planet disk is apparent, unlike even the closest stars, Venus is seen as a whole object. Click on image for a full view.
Venus and Mars
Venus and Mars shared 2022’s pre-dawn winter sky. Click on the first image for a full-size view. Mars is seen above the palm tree stump, on the right. In this photograph, from early February, Venus and Mar apparently moved closer. The closeness is an illusion, the planets are millions of miles apart, on either side of Earth’s orbit. Click on the photograph for a full-size view, Mars can just be made out to the right and above Venus.
This crop clearly shows the brightness of Venus compared to Mars.
Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Valparaiso Departure III “The Sunset”
The Sun’s Progress
Two minutes after capturing the last light on Concon Point, see “Valparaiso Departure II”, turning the camera 180 degrees, to the south, looking along the Chilean coast, to capture birds on the wing headed toward shore at day’s end.
Remembering other times,
waiting for darkness
with a sky map, studying it to make sense of the stars.
How far? How large?
Light from our star, eight minutes old,
grazed the earth’s rim the breath of a moth wing ago.
Connect the dots, stories of heroes, monsters.
Our star, as we know it now
Singular, alone,
Progress, an illusion to be understood
No less mysterious for that
Look back to the sheltering headland of Valparaiso, glowing.
Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Moll’s Gap on Getty
Happy New Year….starting it off right
We are near Molls Gap on the Ring of Kerry. At our feet is Eric townland, there’s an eponymous Bog Nature Reserve down there. At our feet is Eric townland, there’s an eponymous Bog Nature Reserve down there.
Click me for the two (2) Molls Gap photographs accepted and published by Getty.
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Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Seven Ladies View Accepted by Getty
My wife, Pam, at Ladies View, on the Ring of Kerry
Here we are, on the road from Kenmare to Killarney, N71, part of the Ring of Kerry around the Iveragh Peninsula. The view was celebrated by Queen Victoria’s Ladies-in-Waiting during an 1861 tour of Ireland
Click me for the seven (7) Ladies View photographs accepted and published by Getty.
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Ladies View, Killarney National Park, Derrycunihy Townland, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland.
Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Ladies View 10
last version
Here we are, on the road from Kenmare to Killarney, N71, part of the Ring of Kerry around the Iveragh Peninsula. The view was celebrated by Queen Victoria’s Ladies-in-Waiting during an 1861 tour of Ireland
Here the camera, link #9, is turned toward the sun, low in the evening sky, emerging from clouds with a bright sunbeam on Upper Killarney Lake. The previous view was portrait orientation. This is landscape orientation.
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Ladies View, Killarney National Park, Derrycunihy Townland, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland.
Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Ladies View 9
Derrycunihy Townland, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland
Here we are, on the road from Kenmare to Killarney, N71, part of the Ring of Kerry around the Iveragh Peninsula. The view was celebrated by Queen Victoria’s Ladies-in-Waiting during an 1861 tour of Ireland
Here the camera is turned toward the evening low sun, behind clouds, with subtle light beams. That is Upper Killarney Lake, the Gap of Dunloe behind the far hills.
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Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Ladies View 8
the penultimate
Here we are, on the road from Kenmare to Killarney, N71, part of the Ring of Kerry around the Iveragh Peninsula. The view was celebrated by Queen Victoria’s Ladies-in-Waiting during an 1861 tour of Ireland
We are almost done with this series….sorry to leave this place.
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Ladies View, Killarney National Park, Derrycunihy Townland, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland.
Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Ladies View 7
My wife, Pam, at Ladies View, on the Ring of Kerry
Here we are, on the road from Kenmare to Killarney, N71, part of the Ring of Kerry around the Iveragh Peninsula. The view was celebrated by Queen Victoria’s Ladies-in-Waiting during an 1861 tour of Ireland
My wife saw the title of this series and asked, “What ‘Ladies’ are these you are so interested in.” “Why YOU, silly, was the response. And here she is!!
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Ladies View, Killarney National Park, Derrycunihy Townland, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland.
Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Michael Stephen Wills Photography 