Canon Fever

It’s been some year. I lost track of what level of lockdown we were in by the start of May. That ‘I’m so lucky to live where I do’ positivity started to wear thin around January when I had walked my 500th kilometre in the same 5km radius and I ran out of trees in Phoenix Park to photograph. If anyone needs an arboreal tour of Phoenix Park though, I am more than qualified for the job.  Bit niche, but anything different seems exciting these days.

During the first four months of the year in Defcon 1, the most exciting thing that happened was in March when I saw a guy in the dairy aisle of Dunnes wearing a tracksuit from the very recently launched Ivy Park x Adidas range. It was hideous and magnificent in equal measures, and I told everyone I knew about the encounter. 

Escaping the confines of Dublin in May, was a breath of fresh, sea and silage filled, air. Cows in the front garden, horses and deer out the back. I felt like the landed gentry for a week. The plus side of going on holidays just as distance restrictions lifted is that no one else was around. Driving the ring of Kerry and Beara with no traffic was a pleasure, I say pleasure but it’s probably not the best adjective to describe driving on those ‘roads’. The downside is pretty much every town and village were still closed for regular business so, no Guinness, but the lack of annoying tourists, like ourselves, really did make up for that.

The delight that was the January and February weather, coupled with the 5km cabin fever, meant enthusiasm had waned for taking photos at the start of the year, but the minute I drove over the border into Clare I started getting excited about where to go to take my next batch of pictures. A change of scenery does the power of good and, let’s face it, after the last year and a half sometimes going to a different shop for groceries fits that bill. 

I took about a million pictures on my country retreat, of which I liked about 10, of those 10, some are in consideration of being posted on the website. Who knows, in the spirit of having lost all ability to focus on one thing during the pandemic, maybe it’ll be 2022 before I get this last batch edited. Or, maybe the vaccine will give me the adrenaline shot I need. Either way expect more posts of sheep, weird bugs and rainy Irish vistas. 

One day soon I hope to be posting photos from my next sunny trip “abroad”.