At this time of year in Ireland there’s a scant eight hours of daylight. The sun rolls lazily over the horizon at 8.30 am, and is already slipping away by 4.30 pm, leaving sixteen hours of darkness.
Of course the reverse is true in the summer with close to seventeen hours of daylight. On Midsummer’s night on June 21st, you can still be leaping the St. John’s Day bonfire in twilight at 11pm. But you’ll need to be up by 4am to milk the cows at dawn.
This is not surprising, given it’s latitude, (roughly 53˚North) which it shares with southern Alaska, Canada’s Hudson bay, and Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. The Gulf Stream’s North Atlantic Drift, however, sweeps warm water up from the Gulf of Mexico, giving Ireland a much more temperate climate, thankfully.
No matter how grey and wet the day, at dusk, a little magic happens.
Melissa Shaw-Smith 
Very lovely.
Thanks!
Thank You
Ireland is the land of magic and mystery. And the birthplace of my ancestors. I was raised on stories of the ‘wee folk’. Some of them scared me spitless!
Yes, we were always taught to treat the fairies with the greatest respect, or they would do very unpleasant things to you.
you have captured some spectacular color in your photos; beautiful!!
Thank you, Lori.
Wow! Truly amazing photos! This makes me long to return to Ireland and discover more of its majesty.
Hi, Angie, Ireland may be small, but she’s packed with wonderful surprises–well worth a lengthy stay.
Truly beautiful!!
Thank you. Glad you liked them.
Your pictures are amazing. So beautiful!
I appreciate your generous comment.
Beautiful photos, Milissa, and a fun blog to back them up. –Curt
Kind words. Thank you, Curt.
That first shot is especially exquisite. It draws you in to drift along that misty dyke.
Thank you. It was a gorgeous, frosty morning–calm and dreamy. So glad I was able to share it.
Generally I don’t go much on what people post as ‘poetry’ … but yours has a quality that most others lack: poetry.
And I suspect there’s more than a hint of the untamed ancestral pagan in you? It shines in your works.
There’s technology and there’s art—technicians count the beat and follow the formula, artists create—and if the work arouses emotions, it is art. It rings a bell.
There are lines of Tennyson do that to me, as in ” … on a sudden, lo~! The level lake, And the long glories of the winter moon …”
Resonates. Been there, done that; and you have the gift.
Thank you so much for you kind words. I try to write from the soul, nothing fancy, just the way I hear it in my head. So glad it resonates with you.
Very beautiful and magical.
Thank you. Glad you enjoyed the photos.
Thanks very much for reading.