Big tides, Small waves.

Along with the UK, Ireland has been battered with tremendous winds and bucketfuls of rain, it has not been continuous rain, but very large deluges, coinciding with this were the spring tides which has caused flooding in many parts and huge waves. We decided to have a day out on Twelfth Night, and to head for the coast in the hope of seeing spectacular seas,

Grey, but calm.

                so we headed for the south Sligo coast, not a breaker in sight,

Just a small splash.

a calm sea although clearly there had been quite a stir up on the sea bed, masses of seaweed, sugar kelp, which unfortunately was far too long and heavy to bag up for compost at home. Had we gone to Mullachmore on the west coast we would have seen breakers of over ten meters as well as international surfers riding the waves. These surfers have arrived from far and wide to take advantage of the surf. If it happens again, we will know where to go.
Although we missed the spectacular surf we still blew the Christmas cobwebs away, spotting a  Rath which we had not found before,

A small rath.

this Rath appears smaller than most, possible a fortification for a single family or maybe just a fortified tower or place of refuge, as it was raining very heavily we didn't explore it, but if we can find it again it would be worth taking a closer look, many of these Raths date back to the iron age, Sligo is littered with archaeology  sites, many are not documented.

Unloved, and abandoned.

 We also found beautiful deserted thatched cottages, still managing to look romantic, despite being abandoned long ago.

                                          The rivers were spectacular,

                           normally  gently meandering along, they were in full spate, quite beautiful.

We arrived home to the most lovely sunset which changed from blues and greens

Fantastic.

So much beauty.

                                                        to vivid red and magenta.
With all this wet weather nothing can be done in the garden, it is not good to work wet land as it destroys the soil structure, so we will just have to be patient. The rhubarb did get it's compost mulch, and is now up over two inches, if this mild weather continues we will be pulling some in February, the first harvest of the year.
Sunday dinner was the game bird which was harvested last week along with some La Bresse, this game bird  proved to be the best eating bird we have done, the breast meat was extremely well formed with good depth of muscle, he was so tender and the flavour was  superb, it tasted like chicken used to. After having done a roast meal and then cold on Monday there was still so much meat, this has been made into a chicken and mushroom pie, courtesy of Simon,

Good enough to eat.

 enough for the two of us for two days and then enough to make ten pasties, these will be frozen for use when we have another unplanned day out, far more interesting to have a picnic with pasties rather than sandwiches, plus being ready to go, we don't have to plan what we will take for an outdoor lunch. Not a bad result from just one bird.