It’s the first week of March and temperatures have dipped again with no real sign of spring in Connemara just yet. This week saw our first real snowfall with spectacular drifts on the mountains and a heavy smattering of white along the valleys and roads. We’ve been hearing about the icy weather around the country for a while but our proximity to the coast has kept us just above freezing point.
Yesterday I had to stop the car at the side of the road to take some photographs as the landscape was too beautiful to resist.
The water had the colour of steel that seems to me to reflect the mood of this time of year. There’s a harshness and a kind of savagery about the landscape that is beguiling. Even when the sun makes it’s way out between the clouds, it’s glint is sharp and cold, testing us with its glare as it brightens the land and bewitches our eyes.
You want to relish these moments in all their perfection but there is also a longing for springtime, promised to us on the first day of February but rarely seen before the end of March.
