Blue Heaven

Cuckoos call, evenin' is nigh
Hurry to my blue heaven
Turn to the right, there's a little white light
Will lead you to my blue heaven
(apologies to Frank Sinatra!)


The sun was bright  behind the blinds: Do you fancy a day out? I inquired. Yes was the reply. We headed off to the Mizen Peninsula and 3 Castle Head. This is an amazing place - more or less as far as you can go on the Mizen before dropping off, and the roads get smaller and smaller as your travel with spectacular views in all directions. You park then walk over pasture, up the hillside and then suddenly in front of you is a castle and lake, ruined of course but what a position. Late primroses and thrift still flourished and choughs, wheatears and larks abounded; in the distance a cuckoo and its hypnotic call. Climbing up even higher and the views are 360 - today everywhere a clear and startling blue.
We  stopped off at White Strand to check out some standing stones that are visitable when the tide is down. I thought it was raining but the puffs of water were coming from out of the sand! A few minutes later and four Japanese people arrived and began digging things out in much excitement. Himself reckoned it was razor shells. The view was fabulous. A man on a sail board glided in from the bay. I may have gone a bit mad with the processing but all the blues were so intense.

We lunched in Crookhaven which was heaving and the two pubs doing a brisk and cheerful trade. We shared a table with another man and of course a conversation began. Quite a story - he had set sail four days earlier from Youghal and is sailing all around Ireland single-handed, to raise money for cancer. The most astonishing thing was that he had never sailed before in his lfe until four days ago. Brave and bonkers.
Ice creams in Goleen and home the extra scenic way. Lovely.

Ps I've put a folder of Corpus Christi  pix up on Flickr should anyone be madly interested.