Water & Ground

The sun was shining, chores were abandoned and boots put on. We headed north across the mountain and parked at the Cove and walked along the northside towards Tooreen. It is much wilder on this side, the wind was against us and it was cold but the views were incredible. You walk along the top of cliffs for most of the way, passed a waterfall and wild headland; passed a cluster of ruined cottages clinging to the mountain; passed a patchwork of tiny fields and turf cuttings; passed bluebottomed sheep and then across the mountain and up. Worth biggifying to see the shower passing down the bay that's caused the rainbow. The marker with the yellow top guides you along the Sheep's Head Way. All very exhilarating. Cheese on toast and a cuppa has just been taken.

The Peninsula
When you have nothing more to say, just drive
For a day all round the peninsula.
The sky is tall as over a runway,
The land without marks so you will not arrive
But pass through, though always skirting landfall.
At dusk, horizons drink down sea and hill,
The ploughed field swallows the whitewashed gable
And you're in the dark again. Now recall
The glazed foreshore and silhouetted log,
The rock where breakers shredded into rags,
The leggy birds stilted on their own legs,
Islands riding themselves out into the fog
And drive back home, still with nothing to say
Except that now you will uncode all landscapes
By this: things founded clean on their own shapes,
Water and ground in their extremity.

Seamus Heaney