high tide.

at about 5 in the evenings i like to sit at the end of the quay and dangle my feet off while the tide comes in. eventually the water gets so high that when it's windy the waves almost reach my soles. i've fallen totally and completely in love with the sea.

swim.

i went for a dip on tuesday off the rine. so cold, but i want to do it again! and again! and again! the water here is so clear and it was all sand (no seaweed or rocks!) where i went in, even though it's not technically a beach. i've found my little swimming hole!

welsh music weekend.

this last weekend was a traditional welsh music festival in ballyvaughan! apparently a well-known welsh musician was tragically killed in a car accident here several years ago, so each year at this time musicians come from wales (and scotland and the rest of ireland) to play music in memorial. all of the pubs in town were completely packed and ballyvaughan was bumpin'! the music was so beautiful and such a variety! there were of course plenty of fiddles and whistles and drums and flutes, but also a few harps and spoons and such were spotted throughout the weekend. such a great sense of community everywhere! i was at greene's pub for a while on sunday night and snapped a few photos before it got too packed. video at the bottom as well - enjoy!

new lens!

i got my new lens in the mail! yesssss - so nice! i can spy on things from so far away now. here are some test shots...

(took all these close ups in my studio from a good ten feet away. whuuuuut? crazy!)

(i love these two! they're so friendly and run over to greet me every time i go to the rine.)

(rain over connemara)

(these cows hang out on the beach too.)

cahermacnaghten, cahercommaun, and more fairy forts.

last friday's irish studies trip took us first to cahermacnaghten, an old Brehan law school. gordon read us some of the laws that the Brehan lived by, a bunch of which were pretty funny and seemed ridiculously frivolous.

after that we went to cahercommaun, which is a big fort on the edge of a vertical stone cliff. so cool! it was a pretty steep treck up there but totally worth it! and i don't think you can tell by the photos, but the fort was huge! and full of the longest, cushiest grass i've laid around on yet. i never wanted to leave it was so comfortable!

check out all these wild goats! they were running all over the place when we climbed up the cliff.

view down into the valley below. watch your step!

mmmm... laying around in the grass...

running around.

at the end of the day we swung by the fairy forts in the valley again. we visited them the first week with tim and i'd just gone to one the day before again, so i skipped taking photos other than these ones of people climbing the trees.