Spanish Point, resplendent in September sunA DAY BY THE SEA
Just as summer gloriously arrived back in April while students were head-bent knuckling down to their exam preparation, now as they diligently return to desk and whiteboard, we are experiencing the best weather of the whole season. Strictly speaking we have slipped over into autumn but to judge by today’s temperatures (20-23 C) , this is the summer that has been absent since those heady early delights of four months ago!
Endued with thoughts warm and cheerful, I have ensconced myself overlooking the glistening sea at Spanish Point in County Clare. As it is Friday there are only a scattering of souls on the beach as the incoming tide dashes against the golden sanded shore (yes I know it’s a cliché, but on this particular day it’s true!).
What is it about the sea that so invigorates and revitalises ? Earlier dipping my feet in the shallows of the great Atlantic I could feel the briny refreshment rush between my toes. Even the embarrassment of slipping on stones crossing a stream and landing sodden on my backside could not diminish my sense of utter freedom and rapture at my outing by the sea.
The rhythmic pounding of the surf- crested waves is the hypnotic audio background to this golden day. The ocean is bejewelled as the sun skims its dazzling surface, and in its waters a few surfers are propelled shore-ward by the rushing tide. A spray of swallows swiftly move across the surge and are lost in the shadow of a wave. A mother and her two tots walk along the beach while clutches of people bask on the rocks just beyond the reach of the swelling sea. It’s like a national holiday has been declared by the Magisterial sun and we have been summoned away from cloudy skies and the incessant summer drone of falling rain.
There is an urgency too as the autumn evenings draw in and our intake of vitamin D reduces daily.These pet days are our nut store for the confined hibernation of dreary winter months ahead.Now I close my eyes and deeply breathe the soft sea air,locking the whole panoramic spread to my remembrance .This mental hearth will be sat around and its embers raked as the days shorten and the nights close in. This glorious sea-side day will live forever !
GERARD O'SHEA
1 comment:
What a glorious day now captured by the pen of a wounded warrior, still I think not too high a prise to pay, even if I myself escaped with nothing more injurious than wonder!
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