De Basin and another beautiful day in Dublin...

YET again, it has been a magnificent day in Dublin, I started off my morning going to a chiropractor and after having my neck clicked, my ass smashed into a moving table (I kid you not), my spine pressed and prodded, I walked home back through Phibsboro’s finest, De Basin.



De Basin is its actual name, just ask any of the locals, but to those of us who do not find the pronunciation of ‘th’ a problem, it is called The Basin or more accurately The Blessington Basin.

De Basin is a former reservoir which used to supply the greater Dublin area with water and now is a fantastic public amenity.

If you come from town, you hit De Basin first, but if you come the Phibsboro way, you hit the Long Park first, that could be its actual name, I am seriously not sure.

It’s a long, long stretch of green, and it’s a lovely cherry tree lined, benched filled long park and come rain or shine people will be out walking, sitting, enjoying the Long Park.


There were people everywhere here they are just hiding, really!

I always loved De Basin from all those years ago when I first moved Dublin, it was my favourite spot to hang out for five minutes, admire or lament the weather, watch the ducks, seagulls and pigeons fight over bread, have a ciggy, listen to a great song on the walkman, before heading on the last wee stretch in the walk to town.



However, at that time, it was wildly overgrown and you could barely make out the reservoir because of all the sprawling bushes.

Then FAS (a training agency) used it as a training ground for its students and now we have the most amazing place to relax, chill, walk the dog, meet yer pals, hang out with the other teen wannabe Goths (deep sigh), rest after shopping or a five minute breather before going on into town. And it sure is wonderful.


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But today, it seemed to even surpass itself, De Basin was fantastic and thankfully I had my camera.

I have taken to ensuring I have my camera when I walk through it because I missed a great picture there a couple of years ago when I saw pigeons sitting in a row on the wrought iron fence surrounding the reservoir and I didn’t have my camera, and all in a row they were.

Ha, but little did I know, the pigeons are well-groomed in this wee exercise and I have since managed to capture it here and many others as these pix from today testify.








a personal fav this pic!

I was trying today to capture the craic and banter in the park, the people shouting hello at each other, the elderly folks having a laugh without intruding and I think I managed it.





I tried to take interesting pictures of ducks and hung around one corner waiting for one to submerge they way they do right under the water so I could TRY to capture their ascent back from water to air.

However while I have the coolest digital camera and have had so much fun with it, it is limited in some ways, in that when you hit the button, it is the NOT the moment that is actually captured.

So while I try to compensate for that, sometimes it is a b*ll*x and you miss the moment. The good thing about digital is that you can keep trying until you do get it, which I do and I did this afternoon.

Until I saw the distinctive form of a large swimming ambling fin and all, da daa, through, da daa, the, da daa, water, da da da da da da da dadadaalala.
And I swear to GOD it was THIS ]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[bloody big, I swear, no exaggeration.

To my delight I have seen tiddler fish come up before and eat the bread that people throw to the ducks but I have never seen an actual big fish, like a foot long fish, so despite the dying batteries on my camera, I hung around longer than I had expected too. But I didn't get it, yet, as the following pic shows.



Then just as I was taking a pic of a family’s reflection as they looked into the reservoir, one of the kids shouted ‘Jaysus look at that fish’.



Off I shot camera in hand being turned on and off in a vain attempt to make the batteries work and maybe prolonge their short life and not only was there one, but two were coming up to the surface to lie in the sun and take in some oxygen, excellent and I got millions of good pics.







See what you think, for someone who hasn’t a garden, isn’t this a great spot?


Google Earth pic of De Basin