And what will the robins do then?
Ireland is not noted for its snow. They sometimes get a few inches in the far north of Donegal,
which is good enough for them up there, but here in the sunny south east snow is a rarity. If
more than ten snowflakes fall on the roof of the car in one day, we all go into hibernation.
Just as in Camelot, "there's a legal limit to the snow here", and "winter is forbidden till
December".
Late last month (November 2010), however, we got an awful shock. The whole country was hit by a
combination of unusually early arctic and Siberian air masses which conspired to dump a lot
more than the regulation ten snowflakes on an unsuspecting populace.
In Ireland, waking up to snow is like stepping through the looking glass. You find yourself in a
different land in a different time. There are no cars passing by the gate; there are no
people to be seen; all is silent. Even the birds stay at home while they figure out what all the
white stuff is for. After a while things start to happen - magical things. A neighbour you have only
nodded to in the last two years drops in for a chat; someone phones to say that he is going to
attempt to drive to Tramore and is there anything we need; there is an invitation to trudge half
a mile through the snow to share a coffee with a friend.
The scenery is changed, too. The house or the tree or the hill that you see every day now has a
magical, mysterious quality. Naturally, you feel that you want to preserve the images, so you
reach for the camera. We did, too, and we have made our photos available to you in the "Winter
Wonderland Gallery" which you can see if you click one of the links on the left.
We hope that you enjoy them.
