‘Nor dread nor hope attend
A dying animal;
A man awaits his end
Dreading and hoping all;
Many times he died,
Many times rose again.
A great man in his pride
Confronting murderous men
Casts derision upon
Supersession of breath;
He knows death to the bone —
Man has created death.’
Death by W.B. Yeats
Pictures of abandoned farmhouse in County Westmeath
So poignant, that wheelchair and April being the cruellest month …
Two tough ones within an hour. With this one I had a hard time scrolling, first imaging that I was going to see a dead body. Or maybe a dead animal? Every single picture, a slow brave scroll. What was behind that closed door, up those steps? The house is taking on damp and vines are creeping in. Then, outside we go and I see the trough with scum. It’s incredibly sad. Time marches on but the living go in cycles. I had to keep telling myself this as I stood in my late father’s bedroom days after he died. Earlier today in the Daily Mail I had just seen the beginning of a story about a house in Louisville Georgia (I think) that has stood empty for about five years. Everything still in place. I just could not open the story to read it. Endings are so sad.
Poignant pictures and poignant poem which reflect the human condition. We have a promise of a very different home in heaven, and I thank Christ that His death opened the door to me! Sola fide!!
Ditto on the poignancy mentioned above, but most important to thank you on how you cover all of Ireland. I think the locations like this are most at risk as they are less ‘commutable’ to a city to make them viable housing for the living (if someone was willing to take on the restoration) and are not in the realm of being used for tourism. It also speaks to the changing of agriculture and the sad truth that after waiting centuries to get their land back, the Irish farmer finds his holding no longer (if it ever was) profitable and there are few heirs or others willing to farm it (other than to consolidate it into larger holdings).
Well that caused some pause for reflection. Shows how valuable/vulnerable life is and
we all really only have a short time here.
Beautiful and sad. What an extraordinary image: the coat still hanging in the open cupboard and vines climbing up the wall. Makes me think of William Trevor.