There are 100 islands in Roaringwater Bay

Packing a small rucksack for a weekend trip to the West. Maybe I should pack for Summer and for Winter?

Yesterday: a long, golden evening of Summer sounds. I put my head out my window to eavesdrop on the birds chirping - they sounded full of exciting news. The breeze was making the sunlight dance on the leaves and the leaves to sway on their branches. All around gentle Summer movement.

Today: grey clouds covering the blue sky. Hopefully they will fly away for the weekend and the sun will return for a visit.

A song to go sailing to.

There are 100 islands in Roaringwater Bay and the most southern lighthouse in Ireland.

Flutterby. Like a butterfly.

The summer is only flitting here and there these days. Quick little glimpses. Landing for a few moments and then disappearing away again. Fluttering by like the butterflies.

A Quest for Pink

Searching for a very particular shade of pink.
A dusty, dusky, soft pink. (Pinksy?)
Permanent Rose or Alizarin Crimson to start with?
Both together perhaps?
Some blue to cool it?
No. Start again!
A touch of green, its complementary colour, to dull (dusk?) it.
A little Burnt Sienna to warm it.
A dot of White to fade it.
A splash of water to soften it.

:)

April's days

Spring was hiding a bit through April's days. Shyly and slowly she is making little appearances. Longer evenings are calling for short walks, every time a little glimpse more of green along the way. Dots of pink and white cherry blossom buds waiting to open. Hinting. Just needing a touch more of sun and warmth. Evening visitors of robins and blackbirds. They are not shy or slow to broadcast the Spring.

Windy. Gaofar. Vindful. Venteux. Winderig. Ventoso

A week of windy days. Windy outside, causing the daffodils to turn and stretch almost down to the ground. Windy inside at my painting desk too where a tiny boat is trying to sail the wind-tossed seas. 

They make it!

When bad weather is good weather

Some snippets from conversations I have heard lately:

Where is the Spring?
It's been a long Winter.
That's a skinny breeze.
Bbbrrrrr!
I normally have my windows and curtains washed before Easter, but this year the weather....
There's no growth. The field is too wet to get the tractor into it.
This weather would put years on you!

Still though, this spell of Wintry weather is very good weather for painting. Snow and rain outside make for perfect sitting at my painting desk conditions. And this unseasonal weather is also very apt for reading Endurance,  true story of survival.  28 men (among them Irishman Tom Crean) drifting, after their boat was crushed by ice,  for over a year on the unknown, ice-packed Antarctic seas with no way of contacting the outside world. Very inspiring story of how they overcame seemingly unsurmountable obstacles.

It makes this present cold spell seem not too bad after all!

February, 28 skies come and gone (where do they go?)

February skies. Soft and blue and misty. Fringed with branches beginning to bud pinkly pale and unfurl leaves greenly. Then, for a few days, cold skies filled with flurries of snow.  Lengthening light in the evenings and soft sunsets at February's end.