County Kerry

Diving into the past of Google, I found a photo taken along the Ring of Kerry in 2007, and an even older poem about the Irish landscape by Seamus Heaney:

A rowan like a lipsticked girl.

Between the by-road and the main road

Alder trees at a wet and dripping distance

Stand off among the rushes.

There are the mud-flowers of dialect

And the immortelles of perfect pitch

And that moment when the bird sings very close

To the music of what happens.

Though my next encounter with the Atlantic will be 1,700 km further south in Andulusia, I will have Ireland just across its waters in April when Anna and I take on the Pembrokeshire Ultra. And then in August, it is time for the greatest of maritime adventures as my dad and I will sail for two days aboard the grand dame of ocean liners, the Queen Mary 2, from Hamburg to Southampton, celebrating that dad turned 75 last year. With all this (and more) in store, I am really looking forward to taking Rawls & Me along as I look back on almost twenty years of blogging.