Where is the bloody summer?

It’s mid-May and summer hasn’t begun yet.

Yes, we have had the odd sunny day. Yes, the Lilac has blossomed and faded again. Yes, the magical Hawthorn has sprung forth its profusion of white florets. And yes, the grass is growing at a great rate. But it is cold. Most days there is a wind that would skin ya. There has only been one day so far that I have taken my coffee outside, which is disappointing in mid-May. This time last year we all had sun tans. Well, we were a bit red.. you know.. an Irish suntan.

But right now, I feel like we are stuck in an everlasting winter.

I am in West Cork, in my beloved Ahakista.. a place very dear to me and that I have written about before. You can read that here.

Every summer I try to spend an increasing amount of time here, spread over three or four visits. This is my first visit this year and I am on day four and so far, it is not an exaggeration to say, that the weather has been atrocious. I have been wrapped in a fog of grey skies, rain which alternates between mizzle and downpours, and it has been genuinely very cold.

Now, I know I am in Ireland and I have lived here all my life and I am not an idiot… I know that this isn’t the South of France or Spain or even England.. and that our weather, especially on Atlantic coasts can be a bit… well erratic.. to say the least. But I don’t ever remember the middle of May being so cold.

Because the weather has been so bad I have been missing the things that I like to do here which restore my soul. Things like walking to the stony beach to sit and watch the water and ponder on the beauty of the cove. I haven’t yet walked on the lanes around the house I am staying in, to chat with donkeys and pick wildflowers. And I haven’t wandered down to the pub of an evening for a drink before a leisurely wander back home in my very fetching high viz jacket.

I am here alone which is not unusual, but because of the weather I am feeling more alone than usual. And I am surprised to find that this level of alone is taking some getting used to. And I am not sure I like it.

I wrote the above on Day 4.

Today is Day 5 and I have realised that although I shout at the weather gods every morning, being very alone can be kind of soothing once you sink into being just you and your thoughts. It’s kind of like a meditation… it takes a while to get used to the silence. And to accept it.

Today I did get out for a proper walk – unlike the drowning I got earlier in the week when I ventured out because I wanted to see the sea. Today it was a mizzle morning and so I wandered out in my rain jacket to see my donkey friends. I visited the local café for a scone and coffee and picked some wild flowers on the way back. I spoke with the cows and with some very mucky and damp sheep and young lambs.

It may be unseasonably cold (yes, it’s cold, not cool) and very wet but as I walked Mother Nature whispered in my ear… “it IS summer, Barbara.. just look around and listen.”

A damp butterfly fluttered by and then I noticed the swallows diving and swooping in the lane and that the honeysuckle is about to flower and the roadsides are full of crocosmia leaves heralding the orange spears to come.

Complaining about the weather on Instagram, one of my smart followers sent me an link to an article describing something I had never heard of before – An Scairbhin.

Apparently this is a weather phenomenon that can occur at this time of the year in West Cork and Kerry. The word ‘scairbhin’ is thought to come from the phrase ‘garbh shion na gCuach’ meaning the rough wind of the Cuckoo. Because this weather often coincides with the return of the Cuckoo to Ireland. When I got out of the car on arrival here on Saturday before the rain, the first thing I heard was indeed the Cuckoo.

An Scairbhin can mean sudden drop in temperatures and a strong Easterly wind bringing rain and sometimes hail. It doesn’t last long and indeed the forecast for the weekend is excellent with a rise of over ten degrees in temperature. Which means that we will all lose the run of ourselves altogether and start day drinking at ten am and will be red raw by lunchtime. I can’t feckin wait!!