Notices by Bob Downie (geomannie@mastodon.scot)

The matchmaking festival is also celebrated by one of the pubs which calls itself the Matchmaker Bar, with suitable painted decoration. Not at all over the top 😄. #Lisdoonvarna #Ireland

We are actually staying in #Lisdoonvarna, a village famous for its Matchmaking Festival where traditionally people would come to find a marriage partner. The village/festival are celebrated by Christy Moore in his famous song. #Ireland
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4vA3Z2RDz20

As a final note on our trip to #Ireland & Clare, we had planned to visit the #CliffsOfMoher & the #TheBurren. The Burren was superb in every way, scenery, geology, fauna, walking but especially #flora. The Cliffs of Moher were OK but I hadn't realised just what a massive tourist industry was based around this single feature. We shared the view with 500+ people, multiple shops, a visitor centre etc etc. We were also restricted from getting near the cliff edge. Rather diminished the experience.

Passed by...?

Walking in #TheBurren is like walking in a botanical sweety shop. Everywhere there are flowers, many common (& rarer) species but in their profusion and association with other types are a visual feast. #Orchids are particularly prominent & we saw many species, some I show in the pictures. #Ireland #Botany

We visited the #Laxey Wheel, just the biggest waterwheel in the world! I'm afraid my #bicycle wheelbuilder's brain kicked in & I couldn't help but notice the lateral truing was out a bit. Now that would be a big spoke key #cycling. #IsleofMan

If you hadn't gathered, we are on the #IsleofMan for a few days. As well as cracking geology (check out the folds in the picture) birdlife (choughs!) and adventures with #kippers we had a brilliant day's cycling. For the evening's entertainment we managed to blag two of the last tickets to see the #Proclaimers in the magnificent Art Deco Villa Marina Royal Hall. A great day indeed!

The #Laxey Wheel in operation. It's impressive! #IsleofMan

A nice plant spot on the #IsleofMan is navelwort. It's not a plant I know from #Scotland but it's very common on rock faces & walls here. #botany

5:15am and bleary-eyed we are heading for the ferry from the #IsleofMan to #Dublin. I love the absolutely bonkers IOM ferry terminal. Classic mid 1960's concrete architecture.

Now getting the train #Dublin to #Tralee. I love that when you have a seat reservation, Irish Rail puts your name above the seat. There is no argument. "It's my seat!".

Our next surprise was to see on my phone GPS that our ferry to #Dublin, the Mannanan was travelling at 61km/hr. So fast! How could this be? Stepping out to the stern revealed all; we are on a massive catarmaran with ginormous engines. Check out the wake!

We are arrived in #Tralee #Ireland where we are going to stop for a few days. I am delighted to see that the tradition of smaller town Irish shops being more than one thing continues with vigour 🙂!

Jim Caball "himself" - selling bikes & garden machinery

Tralee Gas, Cycle & Nursery Supplies- selling bottled gas, bikes & prams.

We are now in County #Claire & have been walking in #TheBurren, an area of extensive #limestone pavement & karstification. I don't have enough superlatives! The scenery, the flora & geology are unique. I have been to many places but few tick even half as many boxes.

#Ireland #Geology #Karst

This #Tralee pub looks promising. I could really do with using their drinking consultation services to improve my technique 😂.

If the government really wanted to get kids off #socialmedia it's pretty easy. Rather than ban the <16's I would :

1. ban algorithmic feeds on social media
2. ban advertising on social media.

Bit like #Mastodon really. Social interaction is ready and waiting for everyone but you have to work at it a bit.

IMHO most kids would likely give up and go do something else.

A timely safety reminder from Natalie Horberg 🤔

#roadsafety #drivinglaw

FFS

"A man crashed his car into a wall, knocking it onto the rail line and shutting it for five hours. He disappeared during that time and attacked police after a manhunt. "

"has been allowed to keep his licence so he won't lose his job at the National Grid."

Talk about #motonormativity. Get him banned😡. https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/26151069.speeding-bolton-man-knocked-alexandria-wall-onto-rail-line/

@Infoseepage Your point about Ted I being slipped a dummy is quite possible, but if the symbolism is the issue it doesn't matter if most people think it is the "real" stone.

Regarding the footprint at #Dunadd, this is truly a fake. I'm a geologist & on my first visit I looked at it & realised that the stone around the impression didn't match the surrounding rock. I took my hand lense & realised it was a man made composite. The original is said to be below. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12357773.coronation-stone-not-all-that-it-appears/

I have just re-read The Fifth Elephant by #terrypratchett & was a bit embarrassed to say that on my first reading I had missed that a main feature of the story is a parody of the theft and return of the #Scottish Stone of Scone, aka Stone of Destiny, rendered by #Pratchett as the Scone of Stone. As in life & in the book, is the recovered stone/scone real or a fake, & more importantly does it actually matter? The symbolism is the thing.
#discworld https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_of_Scone