I simply can’t resist the temptation to head to the beach to watch the sunset. It’s one of life’s greatest pleasures and no two sunsets are ever the same.
Home Sweet Home
Tag: sunset
A Tale of Two Waterfordian Sunsets
Today’s sunset was a blaze of colour. I was out on the Coastal Path in Dunmore East and could hardly tear myself away.
Yesterday’s was a much more subdued affair which I witnessed out on The Copper Coast which is further on down the coast.
What brought special magic to this sunset was that I had brought my own blackness to take over when daylight succumbed.
The softness of his coat and the starry glint in his brown eyes rendered the deep darkness warm, companionable and ours.
Pierced
Evenings with Dad
Kilfarassy Beach, which is about four miles from Tramore, always evokes thoughts of Dad. He first came to love it in the early 1940s when he came to Waterford as a young bank official. Having grown up by the sea in rugged Co. Clare, he had an instinctual need to see tall cliffs and sunsets.
It was the place where he brought us for swims and picnics when we were kids and it was the place where he and I used to go for our evening outings when he was nearing the end of his life. We’d go for a tiny walk, linking arms, and then sit in the car and watch the sunset. Sometimes, we would just sit in companionable silence; other times, we’d chat about his memories, our shared memories or about things that we wanted to discuss in absolute private.
Kilfarassy’s cliffs light up magnificently at sunset but our eyes and talk was always about that spot down at the end of the beach by the jaggedy rocks which was ‘ours.’ That’s where we once sat as a family ~ buckets and spaces, deck chairs, togs, towels and the leaky thermos flask wrapped in an old tea towel.
Both of us had a fascination with the eye of the cliff right out at the edge. We called it ‘the eye’ but there were times when we thought it was more like a big arm enfolding or maybe a heart.
The chance to have all those shared hours with Dad, especially in his last years, is something I treasure beyond description. Sometimes, he would nod off to sleep in the car on the way home but never once did he nod off when we were watching the sunset and waiting to soak up the afterglow.
Solsticing in Tramore
December 21st is a HUGE day on my calendar as it marks the turn of the year in terms of daylight.
I was down the beach in Tramore watching the sunset at around 4pm and looking forward with glorious anticipation to the lengthening days that lie ahead.
The sunset was magical and it felt just perfect to be watching it on Tramore Beach looking towards the famous Metal Man.
My excitement was matched by the gathering and twittering of the birds on the lamps that adorn Tramore’s Promenade.
Oh happy days!
Feast Your Eyes
Here’s a little video I shot of my precious Garrarus Beach in November. I hope you enjoy the sound of the waves and that it soothes your soul.
Another Side of Sunset
The sun was breathing its last over Tramore Beach when I took this photograph a few nights ago. All eyes seemed to be focussed on the golden hues that were embroidering the sea as it gleamed under the watchful eye of Tramore town up on the hill.
But somehow I couldn’t keep my gaze off this little boy with his back to all that. He reminded me of all the evenings that I have sought to eke the very last drop out of days spent at the beach, especially as Summer holidays draw to a close and school looms on the horizon.
He personified the craving for freedom that has always been part of my very being. Oblivious to, or delighting in, the waves soaking his bright red, flapping coat, he played in the waves and then stood still in what seemed like a moment of lingering oneness with a place where he had found peace, happiness and hope.
I’ve known those moments; they are what sustain me through the storms of life. Memories carved in sands with the sea absorbing the layers of emotion; a treasure trove of memories in a shell box that houses those secret securities that we all need.
Shifting Horizons
Eyes are drawn skyward
to the crooked horizon
of promising pink
The Copper Coast at Sunset
The Copper Coast here in Co. Waterford is beyond special to me. It brings incredible peace but there are also haunting echoes of times past when there was a vast mining community based there.
Here’s how it looked yesterday evening as the sun was setting ~ I think of it as the glow and the after-glow.
Sunset
sunsets and dying natural and bittersweet some days end early
SOCIAL BRIDGE ~ Jean Tubridy connecting with you from Ireland 