The Vikings are here. Grab your loved ones, round up the livestock and run for the hills.

Both my mum and my cousin, Josephine, have been visiting us for the last week, and I feel like I’m about ready to run for the hills, if only so I can get a few hours quiet to myself. Both Saturday and Sunday were spent driving, sightseeing, driving, shopping, dining, driving, keeping Caira happy, driving, stopping myself from kicking mum and more driving (thank you Mariah <3) but beyond that it hasn't been at all bad. I cannot give a full report until everyone has gone home lest I get my arse kicked in turn, but I’ll say provisionally that it hasn’t been that bad.

I’ve locked horns with mum through the week over my approach to raising Caira and I’m going to say first that yes, you’ve opened my eyes about certain things. I’ve been callous about certain matters and I’ve taken others for granted, but some things I’m going to stand firm on and always will.

I’ll leave raising Caira aside and say that the weekend was fun. I only have one photo from the Hoover dam, yesterday, online right now, but we went down through Boulder City and Lake Meade and out to the Hoover Dam yesterday, which was honestly a lovely evening, long drive aside. Caira went to play in a park afterwards and wound up running around half naked because her pants were too big for her. She loved playing with the other children, and trotted around after some five-year old boys, swinging out of…everything and actually playing with them for once. I’m halfway of the opinion that we need to adopt some older children to have around her.

We finished the evening with dinner at the Boulder Dam Brewing in downtown Boulder City. Nice setting, okay food.

And now the weekend is over, woe is me.

Hoover Dam

Soft focus…

Caira’s taken to calling me dada, which is absolutely heartening and adorable, although I have to be either exceptionally good or bad to her before she will do it, heh.

“Dada!”
“Sweetie?”
“Dada…”
“Yes?”
*I get hit with something*

:[

Heh.

Mariah and I went out hiking at Red Rock yesterday morning, it was beautiful, sunny, and with a nice breeze, so we went around the scenic drive and up part of the trail to Icebox Canyon, although there was no waterfall at this time of year, which made me sad. I wanted to shoot infrared, but having no cable release forced me to stop down to f/2.8, which made for some very soft photos, when you add in the winds. Not so great. I did get one cracking photo:

One does not simply walk into Mordor…

Kittens!

Mariah rescued two kittens, named Nibbler (the Second) and Scooter, from a customer at…work? Yeah, work. They’re adorable balls of fluff who poop everywhere. And are adorable. Glee!

Scooter

Lastly, if you use IE7 you probably can’t read this blog. I don’t have IE7 installed to test the problem myself, but I’ll eventually - time permitting - update the Wordpress installation. For now, try a better browser.

Kinda.

Disclaimer: Traipsing around any kind of ruined structure can be incredibly dangerous unless you keep an eye on precisely what you’re doing.

Anyways.

Some young vagabond(s) had forced open the door of Doughiska Castle in Merlin Park forest, which for me turned it into a veritable wonderland. The keep is wonderfully intact, to the point that I was able to make it up onto the roof of the castle, explore most of the rooms and cells and even go down into the cellar. A manifest lack of torch and flashgun, combined with a very short time limit put me off getting more photos, although I really want to get back into the castle before I leave on Wednesday.

Mayhap I can bug out of work early on Sunday and make a beeline for this magnificent building.

All I really got from the castle were some excellent infrared photos:

Doughiska Castle

The Keep

Doughiska closeup

Looking down

Untitled

In amongst my wanderings and doing of the past week, I had another run-in with the world’s most awesome alley cat:

Tough Cat +1

Incoming terror

She just wants love…

I really love this cat. She’s beautiful, friendly, and very playful to boot.

/lame_blurb

I was in connemara with Mike on Tuesday morning, although honestly most of my photos outside of the IR I took at Lough Corrib were muck. We met Katie in Spiddeal on the way back for lunch and I got sun burnt.

/lame_blurb_2

The vanishingly rare Pink Tree

One alone