Calm, Colourful, and Miss Marple's Cottage

No sun so far today (yay!) and in contrast to how things usually are, it was very calm at the water's edge this morning, while up the hill on the road there was a bit of a breeze. Hoping the breeze stays around because temps and humidity levels are supposed to rise tomorrow.

It is still nice and cool in our apartment though, for which I am grateful. We live in a renovated old corn store and have the middle floor of the building. A newly married couple lives upstairs and no one lives downstairs--it is an office which is usually empty. It is technically the address of the community group which worked to acquire the funds to get the building renovated, but there is rarely anyone there. People come and go once in a while to collect mail, have a meeting, or collect tools, but mostly it is empty.

One of the projects they are involved in is keeping the shore path in good shape. They hire people to do whatever maintenance work needs to be done. We have seen them clearing up litter, fixing the footpath, and topping off a small concrete wall. Today they were strimming.

I would occasionally hear people mention strimming when we first got to Ireland and I did not know what it was at first. Then I realised it is what I would call 'weed whacking.'

We started off on the shore path this morning with many shades of grey in the sky and very calm waters. Whereas yesterday we stood and listened to the water splashing against the rocks, today it was silent.

The ferry has resumed running between Greencastle--a few km to our north--and Magilligan, which is across Lough Foyle in Northern Ireland. You can just see it in the distance making its way back to Greencastle in this photo:

It has been interesting to see the plants blooming and then fading away and different plants having their season . The look of the landscape has already changed quite a bit since we first came here to visit in March. There are definitely not as many wildflowers, but there is plenty of colour just the same.

I love the texture of the lichen on that stick.

We walked to about the halfway point on the path where there is a small beach and a car park at the start of the lane to the main road.  Just before the entrance to the lane we saw a new bench that had been placed alongside the path. The plaque says it is in memory of Jennifer Green. It is a lovely bench.

This is the view from the bench:

We decided to go up the lane and come home on the main road.

We passed this cottage on the way. Bill commented that it reminds him of Miss Marple's cottage--as a huge Miss Marple fan, I like it!

Miss Marple is a keen gardener (and knitter, of course) and the person who lives here has some beautiful flowers too, including these roses on the edges of the property. I do not know whether the pink flowers are a sort of wild rose or not, but whatever they are, they are lovely!

Further along the road we saw these:

The little orange flower made me think of autumn. As I saw it and looked at what was around it, I realised that if I pay attention, I really can see signs that fall is coming. The things that are growing and blooming and those that are fading away are different now. The seasons change. All is impermanent--even this seemingly endless summer. Autumn is coming. I smile at the thought.

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