Indulge Me

The plan is to get my long-dormant Flickr account up and running again so I have somewhere to put all the photos I’ve been taking during my postgrad year abroad (and I have been taking them – I promise).

For now, though, I just want to share a few photos of the Antrim coast. I have long held the belief that the Glenns of Antrim are home to the most beautiful scenery on the planet. Some people like rocks and desert; some people love the sun and sandy beaches. Me, I like trees and the ocean, so the pretty coast of Northern Ireland is my idea of heaven. I first visited eight years ago, and immediately fell for the Glenns of Antrim, nine valleys that run along the northeastern coast of the island. I was almost scared to come back, because I’ve built it up so much in my mind, but nope – still beautiful.

These photos will not do justice to the scenery because 1) I have little-to-no photography skills and 2) the bus never actually stopped in the Glenns, which are the best part of the coastline, in my humble opinion. But here are a few shots of the more touristy destinations, just as a taster.

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Look at that orb! So cool, and such an accident!

This was fun!

All throughout July, I participated in a Pinterest/Instagram/Twitter photo project called #dailybookpic. Proposed by Cassandra Neace of Indie Reader Houston* and BookRiot, the daily prompts ranged from current read to reading glasses to book fetish to did not finish.

I was thrilled to make several of BookRiot’s daily lists of featured photos (I had seven photos chosen, to be precise). I also used the different uploads on Pinterest and Instagram in order to publish outtakes of each day’s photos (although I have to admit, I still don’t really like Instagram).

Sometimes the serendipity of the day’s assignment and whatever was going on in my life was spooky. On July 11, for example, the prompt was new release, and that very same day I just happened to win a copy of Cheryl Strayed’s new book Tiny Beautiful Things from BookPeople.

I think my favorite photo – and I’m not just saying so because this blog has an Irish theme – is my book and beverage photo (July 6). My boyfriend got strep throat over the Independence holiday, and only let me coddle him when I promised there would be whiskey involved.

I made us some hot toddies with two types of whiskey (Tullamore Dew and Michael Collins), raw honey, cloves, and lemon, and told himself to pick out a book so I could stage my #dailybookpic photo. Darling that he is, he chose the copy of How the Irish Saved Civilization that he gave me before my trip to Ireland eight years ago.

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*I think she is changing the name of her blog soon… to Houston Reader.