I've been thinking about islands...

Dear Diary,

Actually, that's all I'm good for right now, thinking.  This heat has made me immovable.  Of course, my visit to Appledore Island set me off but then yesterday my two new photobooks arrived.  One is on The Burren, which is in Ireland, a rather large island, and the other is about two of the Aran Islands, Inis Oirr and Inis Meain.  The photo today is from the Burren book and is one of the many stone studies I did in that amazing landscape.  I've visited there three times and will return next May to celebrate my 70th birthday.  

I've been to the Aran Islands twice but only to these two islands.  Next year I will visit the third and largest island, Inis Mor.  I am really looking forward to that.  (I've added an extra of the two new books.)  The Aran Islands are a very special place, a place where time moves very slowly, to the rhythm of the sea and the schedule of the ferries.  It is a haunting landscape, mostly devoid of trees and crisscrossed by miles of stacked stone walls.  I can't wait to return.

But first, there is my exciting trip to the biggest island of all, the UK where I will spend most of my time in Scotland (a blip meet is scheduled!).  I will visit Inchcolm Island, the "Iona of the West" as it is called,  and also the holy island of Lindisfarne in Northumbria.  Yes, I am completely consumed by islands at the moment.  Some cool sea breezes off the North Atlantic would be heavenly right now!