A Passing Shower

Choosing one shot to represent a day which had just about everything is impossible. It was a day that really shouldn't have been, a day gifted from the Gods, and it was grabbed with no great sense of guilt. Perhaps it's a time to grasp what comes to me when so much recently seems to have been lost.

With Inishturk it was almost love at first sight. In the case of Clare Island the love simmered a bit before I once again became smitten! The previous day the big hill was shrouded in mist from morning until evening. Today it stood proud above the weather and provided the most incredibly dramatic vistas, first looking far down to the cliffs we'd walked yesterday, and then across to the far side of the island and back to Inishturk, which you can see to the right here.

We had showery rain on the approach to the hill, which cleared to give us brilliant sunshine at the summit before another shower approached. We missed the worst of the rain but it still turned from summer to winter in a matter of seconds. That was pretty much the last of the bad weather until a short epilogue later in the day.

The scenery at the westernmost point of the island was incredibly photogenic in what turned out to be the most perfect afternoon light and with the backdrop of ever-changing but always dramatic skies. I didn't want to leave. I was running all over the place in an attempt to witness every angle! Once again, I was completely in my element here. 

By the time we returned to our B&B there was really only time to freshen up before walking the five minutes down the road for a meal and the Declan O'Rourke gig we'd found out about. The music was great and would be hard to imagine a better end to such a wonderful day. It was almost right that the Gods had the final laugh by timing the last shower of the day so that the rain started just after we set foot outside the door and stopped just before we arrived at the pub. We had our meal looking out at the glorious evening sunshine while sitting with wet bums, which never dried out all night! It didn't really matter.