An Irish Beach in Winter

We have had wild weather this winter, which is not unlike the rest of the world, I suppose. Luckily, our weather has really just involved howling wind and lots of rain. I’m grateful that we’re avoiding polar temperatures and ice storms, but sheesh that wind is tough sometimes. It has made getting outdoors harder than usual. For days leading up to Christmas, the wind howled and roared. But on Christmas Day, it was perfectly calm, like the wind was taking the day off with the rest of the country!

My sister-in-law started a new family Christmas tradition last year – a dip in the ice cold ocean before dinner. We were in Maine last year, so we didn’t have a vote. Needless to say, we are very big wimps and managed to wriggle out of it this year! Michael decided to put himself in charge of hot whiskeys for everyone, and I manned the cameras. We aren’t the polar bear dip types, but we were there in spirit!

We made it to the beach at sunset (which was probably about 3:45pm) and the sky was filled with the most perfect muted colors – like an impressionist painting. 

 

Meanwhile, our motley crew was not at all like an impressionist painting. Michael’s littlest brother, Eric, decided he needed to jump into the ocean wearing a costume. 

And Michael and I managed to stay nice and dry and cosy! We’re hoping for lots more calm days for more beach strolling this winter – and we’ll be keeping all our clothes on, thank you very much!