The Turn of the Irish Summer

Lots of things symbolise the turn of the Irish summer from July into August but none more than the blooming of Montbretia in gardens and along lane ways and even by the side of the road.

Montbretia

It’s all about the colour, I suppose ~ the green and orange that are such fundamental parts of our Irish flag.

I’m not so sure that everyone knows that the Irish Tricolour was first flown in Waterford City  for 8 days in 1848  by Thomas Francis Meagher, who was a Young Irelander.

The green in the flag symbolises Irish nationalism: the orange, Irish Protestantism and the white, the hope of lasting peace between these.

The Irish Tricolour and the Co. Waterford Flag

That white, for peace, is HUGELY important and nature serves up some lovely whites at this time of year. Nothing is more evocative for me than white hydrangeas:

Peace 

 

 

 

 

 

In-Betweenness

There was space in my life today so I seized the chance to take what may be my last walk around the beach in Tramore for 2015.  It was overcast, misty, windy and wet but I loved every single step of it.

Silvery Shimmers on Tramore Bay, Co. Waterford.

There was a real sense of  in-betweenness about the walk ~ these last days before a whole new year opens up in front of us.

I couldn’t but think of the old year leaving the stage when as I watched this gull taking flight:

Flying Away

And this man  trudging homeward in the soft sand down by the end of the beach was yet another symbol of the departing year:

Homeward Bound

It was round by the Backstrand that I got a sense of the new corners and undulations that lie ahead:

Curves of Life

But all the while, there were gems of the sea shore to keep me firmly grounded in the present moment:

Nature’s Treasures

More than anything, the old railway sleepers that are so much a part of the Back Strand in Tramore made me think of both continuity and change as they gleamed in the dull light:

Continuity and Change

What or where are YOUR symbols of the in-betweenness of the old  year and beginning of the new? 

 

 

Raw Nakedness

Garrarus Beach, Co. Waterford

There are times when nature seems so much at one with me that I can hardly bear it and early this morning at my precious Garrarus Beach was one of those.

I had some fairly deep-rooted dental work done yesterday afternoon  and woke feeling very raw indeed. Puppy Stan greeted me with such enthusiasm down in the dawny kitchen that I just had to give him a gummy smile and succumb to his pleading eyes to go for a walk.

It was like we caught Garrarus before she had time to get dressed. The tide was lower than low and it was like she was doing everything possible to show us her roots ~ her beautiful reflective roots.

Here’s a sense of the wide open, cleansed, untrodden space that welcomed us:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.