Handsome fella

and it took ages to arrange that pompom satisfactorily! Damn, too early for Silly Saturday! There were four of these fellas down by the lake, all recently shorn - knock kneed and slightly smug looking. Sue & Himself did the market, I swam then we did a very pleasant walk down here.
Good lord, sunshine here today - a very pleasant 18C with sunshine, a stiff breeze and only the hint of a spot of drizzle. Hope everyone is cooling off across the water.
I'm going off piste for a few days- back to Ballyferriter which we love so much! This time I am climbing a mountain. Hmmm. You realize of course that it's Lunasa, the start of the Celtic Festival of harvest and one of the things that people used to do, and still do, is nip up mountains, have a ceremony of thanks and then party. Well, along with Croag Patrick, its traditional to climb up Mount Brandon in Kerry on Garland Sunday/Bilberry Sunday/Downach Crom Dubh, the last day of July. Crom Dubh is an ancient deity - the black crooked one, associated with harvest, probably keen on regular sacrifice and his abode (or one of them) was Mt Brandon - that is until St Brendan came along and smote him! Now St Brendan is in charge and the faithful and the hill walkers, hopefully me included, will be going up to pay our respects. Yes, there is a well at the top! Incidentally it was here that St B received his vision to take to the seas and find paradise. In doing so he probably arrived on the North American continent way before those Vikings. And  Mt Brandon is Ireland's second highest mountains (or 3rd, possibly 7th/8th or 9th depending on which source you read) and it's big - 953m! Fingers crossed please!