The Best-Laid Schemes...

Welcome back!

So, today's post was supposed to outline my wonderful trip to Ballymena to see Gracehill Moravian Mission, the Braid Museum and Arts Centre and the first blooming snowdrops of the season, but then life happened.  I caught a cold and hacking cough from one of my Ballymena trip-mates, and spent a few days in my fleecy robe and Labrador slippers in pretty much this position:

And so I didn't manage to obtain copies of the trip group photos (not taken on my camera), or do pretty much anything else, for a number of days.  I promise a full account of the day's activities, along with photographic proof that I have indeed travelled beyond Omagh, next week.  To make up for this failure, I've included a few more than 5 pictures, and I've added a "places I've visited" page to this blog, with links to any notable spots.  Why not check it out and do a virtual tour?

Before getting sick (or at least, admitting that I was sick enough to stay home in bed), I did manage to do a little bit of wandering around the area, photographing sheep, signs, and sights around County Tyrone (not necessarily in that order):*

*To Geoillogical Guy: in honour of your Vampire-Weekend-filled car trips, I've tossed an Oxford Comma into that last sentence for you.

Kate's Wonder Tour begins in Town Centre, Omagh, which is a short walk from where I'm staying with my lovely hostess (and history-geek enabler) Johanne.  The first shot is of me on the walk in, looking out over the lovely Sperrins (the hills in the background).  It's a self-portrait.  Enough said.

Garden of Light

 Above is a picture I took of part of the memorial to the people who lost their lives in the 1998 bomb attack.  Wikipedia has a pretty good article, if you're interested in learning a bit more about it.  The names of the victims are inscribed on the low wall in the background, and the mirrors reflect light towards the site of bombing in the centre of town, and in the wading pool in the foreground.  There have been a number of security alerts of late in Northern Ireland, so this seemed particularly poignant and relevant, somehow.

On a lighter note, I discovered the following two signs around Omagh, and thought their opposition was too humourous to pass up.  I'm holding out for one that says the water's just right:

Omagh town centre is quite beautiful, and I hope to do it justice in photographs in a few subsequent posts, but I'll finish the town section of the blog with a few night shots, taken on my way home from Marks and Spencer with a bag of groceries...and wine.  I do love being able to buy my salad greens and a nice Italian red two aisles from each other in the same store. My apologies for the quality: with the flash, everything became dark.  Without it, my auto-focus doesn't work.  That's what I get for cheaping out when I bought my camera!

Omagh at Night: This is the worst picture I will post, I promise!

I'm pretty sure this is the Catholic church

On Saturday I went to the Centre for Migration Studies at the Ulster American Folk Park to hear a really interesting lecture on identity and sectarianism (which I'm not going to tell you about, but search for 'Marianne Elliott' and her work if you'd like to know more).  I took the opportunity (between rain showers) of taking a photo of sheep from the front entrance of the Folk Park: 

And lest you think that you'd escaped with only one photo of fauna, back by popular demand are my Folk Park buddies, Eric and Allie. It's from a few weeks ago (when we had a lot of frost), but I couldn't keep their fans waiting. I'll leave you with a goodbye from them and from me.  See you next week!

-K-