For me, nothing can rival finding the tiniest orchid bravely growing between the karst limestone of the Burren. Or the trees so bent by the wind that every branch reaches away from it. You wonder that life didn't just up and quit this place when the glaciers razed it.
And just when you think you get it, the sea pulls back and reveals more defiant lushness. And you breathe deep in the fragrance of it and feel at once its clemency and might.
But still beyond all that there's a mystical feeling to the place. Maybe it's more than the rocks, or the ever-changing skies, or the deep boom of the sea. Whatever it is, people past felt it too and left their marks, dolmens from barely comprehensible 3500 BC, castles and holy water shrines by the roadside.
And I believe the tourists feel it too, for there's a silent kind of reveried hush over most of the places you visit. And the locals seem to have a gentler grace too. Or maybe it's just my own fondness for the place, for childhood holidays when it seemed like another country altogether, that makes me feel these things. But somehow I don't really believe that.
More photos on my Flickr.
I miss home now! While the UK isn't quite as far from Ireland as Toronto, it's still different.I know how you feel!Fabulous photos.
ReplyDeleteJane K.
Your descriptions and photos are beautiful Jane. I would love to visit Ireland.:)
ReplyDeleteMartha B.
so beautiful. and your description makes me almost smell the sea air.
ReplyDeleteI gravitated back to those stone walls and skies so that my life could have this pictorial quality.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding me of the beauty of County Clare. This is where my family is from and I visited my distant relatives there in 2006. I got to tour the family homestead too. It was a memory I'll never forget :)
ReplyDeleteDunguaire! We always used to holiday in the little thatched houses opposite there - returning to Kinvara now at 20 I wonder how I didn't go mad, but I remember spinning and spinning in fields of buttercups and watching the boats in the harbour.
ReplyDeleteYou've just made me homesick! I will have to round up some pretty pic sof Ireland foe my Irish blog soon :)
ReplyDeleteAh, the green and the grey. I have found that colour combination SO inspiring during my time over on the emerald isle... I think it has even seeped into our packaging choices too for abigail*ryan... ;)
ReplyDeleteThese are gorgeous though - hope you had an amazing time Jane! xo
I've so enjoyed your photos. We're planning a trip to Ireland in May so it's great to be able to see interesting places other people have visited! Leigh
ReplyDeleteI lived in Galway all last year and with all the gloomy rainy weather in Alberta lately I keep thinking about how much i'm missing Ireland! You're pictures are soo lovely and remind me of my year there! xo
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