The 'staycation' industry has been booming in Ireland over the past month or so, as non-essential overseas travel is strongly discouraged during this post-lockdown time, and therefore, people have been spending their summer holidays in situ. Luckily, Ireland is a wonderful place in which to go exploring, even if the weather is often entirely erratic. We had organized a few days away in northwest Connemara way back at the beginning of the year, and so, off we went to Cleggan, just north of Clifden, in the middle of August. I had never been to this part of Connemara before and it was lovely; there was plenty of sea and bog and mountain and walks, and the weather was surprisingly sunshine-y.
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I have to say, I've loved our autumn this year, despite my initial reservations; this has definitely been helped in no small part by our two expeditions during the month of October, the second of which I'm going to regale you with now! Before I get started, however, I need to write a little bit about the current state of play here... we've had several days of heavy rain over the last week or two and the skies have been magnificent, all silvery-grey metallic and full of atmosphere, perfectly setting off the last few golden-orange and yellow leaves on the trees. Since the beginning of this week the leaves have pretty much disappeared, and it's now starting to feel more like winter; it's darker and colder, but I'm still rather enjoying the drama of the heavy, saturated skies and the general moodiness of the weather (remind me of this in three months' time when I'm bemoaning all the grey). Our latest roadtrip, which took us to Tipperary and Wexford, allowed me to soak up the last of the crisp autumn weather before the deluge and even though it was only for four days, I still feel utterly recharged - it was fantastic! Our itinerary was as follows:
Day 1: Galway to Cashel in Tipperary via the N24 through Limerick county and the wonderfully named Oola (I think I would actually move here just so this could be my address). Day 2: Several hours spent wandering around the Rock of Cashel before heading back on the N24 through Clonmel and over to Waterford city, down to the Passage East ferry which brought us to Ballyhack in Wexford, and further down to Duncannon and the seaside. Day 3: A tour of Hook Head lighthouse at the tip of the Hook Peninsula, and a jaunt around the peninsula, taking in Dollar Bay, Fethard-on-Sea and Grange Strand. Day 4: Duncannon to New Ross (R733) to Kilkenny city (R700 through the villages of Inistioge and Thomastown) for hot chocolate and scones and a gander, and on up to Portlaoise (N77) and Tullamore (N80) before joining the M6 west to Galway at Kilbeggan. Following on from my last post, we have had such a lovely autumn, and October has just been splendid! Not only have I really enjoyed our immediate environment (so many colours on the leaves this year, and for so long - it seems that autumn only lasted for about a week in Galway the last couple of years), but we've also had some fantastic excursions during the month, including a drive around Lough Mask a few weeks ago. Lough Mask and Lough Corrib are the two major lakes straddling the Galway-Mayo border (Lough Mask is mainly in Mayo and Lough Corrib is mainly in Galway) and off we went, for a look-see. The weather was perfect; sunny and cloudy with the ever-present threat of rain, and the roads were empty... ideal weather for a Connemara-Mayo jaunt.
Well, the summer went quite quickly for a finish, albeit with a final, defiant flourish of sunshine and loveliness for a few days in September, and autumn is now upon us. There's a chill in the morning air, the nights 'are drawing in' (please note: this is the opposite to 'a grand stretch in the evenings', which applies to spring only), and the leaves on the trees are starting to display their beautiful colours. After several years of west of Ireland living following our relocation from the more benign climes of East Anglia, I have re-assessed my previous antipathy towards summer and now crave all things sunshine - it's certainly a strange state of affairs. I find the Irish winters long and dreary, particularly post-Christmas, and the unremitting grey and gloom make me long for spring and green and blue and yellow. Consequently, I no longer unreservedly rejoice in the coming of autumn and it's taken me a couple of weeks to make my peace with its arrival; saying that, in the last day or two the changing colours of the trees have been unobliterated by sheets of torrential rain (notwithstanding the overnight onslaught of Storm Lorenzo, which appears to have abated this morning after a dramatic 12 hours of wind and squally showers) and I've really enjoyed strolling through the little park beside our house, with early piles of yellow and red leaves crunching underfoot - I think my main issue is with the rain and the grey rather than the change in season per se. Anyways! Here we all are, and it's going to be great!
So, as you can probably tell from the image at the top, I'm going to write about my latest personal shopping consultation book, 'Convenience Store Woman' by Sayaka Murata, translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori. On the surface this book reminded me very much of Strange Weather in Tokyo, and it actually has a recommendation from that author on the cover; however, despite the similarities in tone and style, I think this book is an entirely different kettle of fish. We spent a few days in West Cork at the end of July for a family birthday, and it was wonderful! I had been to Cork before (you may recall our Youghal adventures, in East Cork) but the furthest west we had ventured previously was Bandon (birthplace of the TV presenter and author Graham Norton, incidentally). Cork is a vast county and West Cork proper feels very far away as it takes so long to get there; interestingly, however, it didn't seem that remote once we arrived. This is perhaps due to the fact that it was July and the height of tourist season, and also - and this I didn't expect - the landscape in Cork is entirely different to that of other parts of the Wild Atlantic Way, such as Galway, Clare and Kerry. Cork is green, green, green, with lush, rolling hills and fields of barley as far as the eye can discern, right down to the sea, in comparison to the bare, stony mountains of Connemara and the windswept, empty vistas of West Clare. Cork feels prosperous and 'big' and sure of itself - perhaps the Irish version of Texas in the US? Anyways, I digress! This was our itinerary:
DAY 1: Galway to Killarney (via a break for lunch in Newcastle West in Limerick - we were glad we didn't wait to eat in Killarney because it was HOPPING and the traffic was unrelenting); part of the Ring of Kerry to Kenmare and on to Bantry taking the N71. DAY 2: From Bantry we drove to Mizen Head and Barleycove beach, before heading to Skibbereen via Schull. After stocking up on supplies in Skibbereen we (eventually) found our way to one of the Great Lighthouses of Ireland, Galley Head, near Clonakility. We stayed for two nights in the lightkeepers' houses down at Galley Head, which really was a dream come true for me... more about this further on. DAY 3: This was spent hanging around Inchydoney beach, just down the road from Clonakilty, and bothering the lighthouse (walking around it, looking in all the windows, taking photographs from a million different angles, etc.). DAY 4: After a fantastic tour of the lighthouse from lighthouse attendant Gerald Butler, we said our goodbyes and made our way to Kinsale, via the Old Head of Kinsale and Ballinspittle. From Kinsale we soldiered on up north to Cork city, Limerick, and finally, home to Galway. In summary, we had one night in Bantry and two in Galley Head and we drove about 800km in total - we couldn't walk or talk for about two days after returning to Galway but it was TOTALLY WORTH IT. I've written all about our West Cork expedition below... I've been having such a lovely summer; although the weather has turned a bit ropey this week, we've had loads of sunshine and the national mood has definitely been cheered by the long days and warm evenings. Notwithstanding my Iran trip earlier this year (this was amazing and I am so grateful), Anthony and I have had quite a stressful time of it lately (seriously though, who isn't stressed these days?) but I feel like we've been granted something of a reprieve over the last few weeks and I've thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to recharge my batteries...
Where, oh, where, has March gone?? The last few weeks have been busy, with Anthony caught up with college stuff and me editing and pottering away, doing my thing, and there has been NO TIME for reading or photograph-taking or enjoying the wonderful spring blossoms that made their brief-yet-lovely appearance almost unbeknownst to me (the photograph below was taken yesterday on a spontaneous jaunt around the green across the road from our house - I hadn't been outside in three days and I decided that some fresh air and sunlight was probably necessary at some stage). It does feel like spring has definitely sprung now; the days are longer, the air feels marginally warmer, and we haven't had a good old storm for at least several days...
Continuing on my quest to learn more about Ireland's lighthouses, I found myself at Loop Head lighthouse in Clare last weekend. This is one of the 12 Great Lighthouses of Ireland and is located right at the end of the Loop Head Peninsula. We had amazing weather (sunshine! blue skies!) and the views were just wonderful... we could see all the way to the Dingle Peninsula in Kerry to the south, and up to Galway in the north.
We started out from Galway on a wet and grey Saturday afternoon and I drove all the way to Doolin (to practice my bendy road driving) through the Burren and along the coast via Kinvara, Ballyvaughan and Fanore. The rain gradually cleared as we ventured south, although it was still kind of spitting when we arrived in Doolin for dinner. We had a quick jaunt around Doolin pier (I finally got to see Doolin pier on my third attempt; I've been to Doolin twice before but never actually saw any of it apart from the inside of several pubs and my hotel room) and then headed inland to Lisdoonvarna where we were staying for the night. The sun made a welcome appearance the next day and we had a beautiful, low-stress, meandering drive all the way down to Kilkee on the N67, through Ennistymon, Lahinch, Miltown Malbay and Doonbeg. I particularly enjoyed the Kilkee to Loop Head leg of our journey; it's quite a remote part of Clare and definitely not touristy at this time of the year, but while we pretty much had the road to ourselves there was still plenty of agricultural-related activity and locals bopping around. We spent a couple of hours at Loop Head itself (there were tours of the lighthouse going on but in a remarkable feat of ill-preparedness we HAD NO CASH to pay the entry fee so we could only gaze up from outside at the cheerful tourists admiring the inner workings of the lighthouse. Saying that, I'm not sure I'd have been able for the twisty descent back down from the top so maybe it was all for the best); there were amazing clifftop walks and we went all over, making our way down to the impressive sea stack known as Diarmuid and Grainne's Rock (Diarmuid and Grainne being the ill-fated lovers from 'Toraiocht Dhiarmada agus Ghrainne' or 'The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne', one of the stories comprising the Fenian Cycle within Irish mythology, and a feature of the Leaving Certificate Irish syllabus when I was in school; also, see the video below!) and the Loop Head EIRE sign. These signs were constructed along the Irish coast during the Second World War to identify the Republic of Ireland and to act as navigation aids. It's been a busy, busy September here in Galway as Anthony returned to student life (exciting news alert: Anthony has gone back to college!), and the house slowly adjusts to unprecedented 7am wake-ups. I've been feeling kind of frazzled by the sudden lack of routine, and the weather definitely isn't helping. Our wonderful, giddy, non-Irish summer has packed its bags and left for pastures new, without so much as a backwards glance at the trail of broken hearts and pale faces left in its wake, and we're back to grey and grumpiness, interspersed with an increasing number of Christmas adverts (only 85 days to go!). Autumn always used to be my favourite season, but since we moved back to the west of Ireland I've slowly realised that we don't really get much of an autumn in Galway because as soon as the leaves begin to change colour we're hit by storms rolling in off the Atlantic and that's the end of the lovely leaves. Saying all of that, last Friday was uncharacteristically sunny and joyful and it's amazing the way the weather impacts the mood of the populace - everything feels lighter and brighter, and YAY for blue skies! Also, there is something supremely satisfying about crunching through the fallen leaves at the moment and I've just returned from a nice, robust, leafy walk that's caused me to look more benignly on the bare Galway branches - it's an ill wind, etc.
I recently had the pleasure of touring the Ardnacrusha Power Station in Co Clare (you can get information on the tour here and I also have a video below!) and it was so enjoyable I just have to write about it. This hydroelectric power station was constructed between 1925 and 1929 (at the same time as the national grid with the ESB or Electricity Supply Board established in 1927), and constituted a massively ambitious civil and electrical engineering project that cost the fledgling Irish state almost 20% of its revenue budget in 1925 or £5.2 million. Electricity is now something we take entirely for granted in the developed world but rural electrification in Ireland didn't really gain traction until the 1950s - although there was some electrification from the late 1800s this was fairly limited, and there were still 400,000 rural homes without electricity in the early 1940s: the Ardnacrusha project represented the beginning of electrification in earnest. At the time of its construction in 1929 this power station was capable of supplying 100% of the electricity needs of the country but today it only supplies about 2.8% or 46,000 homes. The project was spearheaded by an Irish engineer called Thomas McLaughlin who worked for the German company Siemens-Schuckert which was given the contract for the build.
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Really, it contains a little bit of everything, from a celebration of science and the English language to the joys of travel and the Shipping Forecast. The title ('Meanderings') is a fairly accurate description of its content: I write about different things as the mood takes me, but hopefully there's something in here for everyone... Categories
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March 2021
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