Comeragh Mountains

The Comeragh Mountains lie towards the west of County Waterford. All year long we can track the sun as it sets further north or south along the high ridges, from one solstice extreme to the other. Like our elders, we tell the season and the hour by it.

The weather comes to us from these mountains too and so every morning we check to see what's on it's way. As in the old joke, if we can see the mountains there is rain coming and if we can't see the mountains it is already raining. 

Up here now there's a bitter wind: eyes watering with warm tears, breath fogging up the viewfinder. The walk to the waterfall has us bent double against the force of it.

Over the other side beyond the summit, the road heads out west towards the Atlantic; Dungarvan, Youghal, Cork, Killarney, Dingle. 

And as we turn for home I remember that it's time to start planning a longer road trip again......

~Just a moment on the road to the mountain~

I wandered off the route and instead drove towards the Comeraghs. Now I was going to be late. But at least I was living dangerously!

On the boreen I caught a glimpse of the mountain through a gate. The bright morning drew me up through the rise of the land and the cloud skimming the ridge. The occasional grinding mechanism of the lens and my own breathing behind the camera gradually settled my racing mind.

While focussing on the willow hedgerows woven with catkins, I heard her. The song began in bursts with pauses in between. We both waited in the stillness, and every thought of time wasting or even of strategies for change and improvement, abandoned me.

A mate joined her and the blurring began. Just a moment on the road to the mountain and I was back on the right road.

Snowy dawn!

As the evening draws in, the snow settles and I ponder the long trip I have to make that next day. The forecast suggests it will linger long enough for a dawn ramble before I head off.

Just as the sun rises I am out on the snowy lane. One set of tyre tracks tell me that my neighbour has already made it up the hill. This is the spot where I sailed off into the ditch a few years ago in similar conditions.

The sun highlights the few warm spots and the mare and her growing foal are sheltering with their backs to the ditch, lapping up those first rays. A young girl wanders into the field no doubt plotting a day off from school.

A simple change to the lane and the Comeraghs, but one that makes for a giddy stroll and a decision to postpone my long drive to the midlands for a day or two....

Just a little bit of magic and a whole lot of hope........

Christmas is here!

I hope you find some solace in retreating a little from reality. Adventure stories and films, riding a one horse open sleigh across the snow, seeking out the magic in frosty dew drops.

I will escape into it as much as I can! (Already it is bringing out my Mother Hen side even more than usual!)

I wish you all a joyful Christmas, just a little bit of magic and a whole lot of hope for 2013. Thank you for all your support throughout the year and a special thanks to those patient customers who dived in and bought work from me this year! I hope you continue to enjoy Foxglove Lane, and celebrate the ordinary and the everyday with me again in 2013......


Catherine

Those deep dark blue days

There is a cold blue light that we sometimes experience in Ireland especially on an overcast day. The land becomes deeper and darker and occasionally a streak of sunlight will flash on a ditch or on a hill spotlighting a paler green or the gold of furze. This contrast between the dark sky and the bright hills creates layers of colour from the deepest blue greys to the paler mauves.

These layered and darker days draw me towards the bigger picture landscapes. On my creative path I still have a lot to learn but I now see the limitations in the longed for purely "blue sky days". I never thought I would be saying that!

The darker cloudier days have a soulful still quality. You can see further to the horizon, the mountains soak up the light and the hedgerow plants sparkle against the fierce grey backdrop. I still love the warm sunny days but the cold blue cloudy ones have won me over to their unfathomable mysteries.