The end of Summer

Hi everyone,

While I have been in Ireland every September for the last four years, this is the first year I lived through the summer and experienced the bitter sweetness of its ending. We had a brilliant summer by all accounts - more dry sunny weather than in the last 20 or so years by everyone's personal reckoning. About mid August that began to change with a colder night or two thrown in. You know the way where you just get an intuitive feel that says "oops feels like fall is closing in." Today, September 1st bears out that hunch, with cold rains keeping all who can in doors.

Neighbors left starting last weekend. We are down to maybe two households of summer owners and I am sure they will leave soon enough. Bitter sweet indeed - sweetness in the blackberries which line the road and break up our evening walks with goodies. Sweetness in having the place more or less to ourselves, but sorry to see some of our best friends more than a shout a way. I remember these feelings, when I was a child and the summer drew to an end and I had to go back to school. All in all it is good to be in touch again with the ebbs and flow of time passing.

All the best,
Alana