Sunny spells with scattered showers

Both yesterday and today, we woke up with the sun blazing over the river Shannon. While having breakfast, we saw the showers come and go. It’s so fresh our here – the air is as clean as can be, you can walk for miles without seeing a single discarded Lucozade bottle or Tayto crisp packet in the ditch. I can only think of two possible explanations. Either, people out here care more about their environment, or, it’s so windy that the rubbish blows away.
It’s Bank Holiday (silly concept) Monday, hence Lyon’s won’t be open today. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to restock the fridge.
Out here, it’s the ultimate sensorial quality. You might think that when John Cage spent some time in an anechoic chamber, he experienced silence. In fact, he did not, which he also wrote – that there is no silence. Cage thought he heard his own blood stream and nervous system (I’d say, his own tinnitus!). Here, in West Clare, you can have real high quality silence. This silence is not quiet. You can hear the structure of nature surrounding you – sea, wind and possibly some rain. You start to notice the sounds of your own footsteps, your own breath, your dog’s movements, etc. Out here, you could navigate by sound. In a noisy city, you can’t, or, it’s very difficult.
We’ve been to two of the beaches today, Carrigaholt and Rinnevalla. Now, we have the tides right. Charlie, our dog, is totally exhausted after retrieving a stick hundreds of times from the sea. Normally, he has tonnes of energy left over each evening but here, he goes into the bedroom and sleeps when he gets back to the house.

QuickTime VR panorama

When we got back to Lisheen House, it was time for hot cocoa and sandwiches (although I have to confess that I grabbed a can of Guinness instead of the cocoa ;-). Mona discovered that they were showing the first Star Wars film on TV, and we enjoyed our late lunch (or as some would call it, tea) while watching the old movie (and listening to an extremely quirky old sound design. When C3PO kicks R2D2, or, when R2D2 falls over, apparently the Foley guys had a great time with a metal trash can). At this time, I can’t help Mel Brook’s version to interleave my perception of the film, and I think it is partly because the telly here is about 14” (which adds to the cartoon feel) while at home it’s 28”, and the film was designed to be seen in overwhelming wide-screen format, with surround sound.