It's perfectly true that in Connemara you can find the four seasons in the one day - indeed, many would say in 20 minutes! But the mixed weather is what makes Connemara what it is - something special for the soul.
Let us show you some of the Aughrus Peninsula's splendours and joys throughout the year.
In winter, the Purple Moor-Grass lives up to its name; willows and dogwoods, their stems bare of leaf, can show up their gleaming orange, red, yellow or green glory, especially when wet with rain. The resulting scene resembles something the twentieth-century Spanish painter, Eusebio Sempere, might have produced.
Our winters are usually mild, though very occasionally the temperatures may plummet. One year Omey Sound actually froze over...
That year, the Walsh's turf-pile had a covering of snow, and their donkeys (and the blue-tits!) would have had a hard time of it had they not been so well looked-after...
... And nearby Cregg Mountain - over at Moyard - became a two-kilometre snowboarding run for the intrepid.
And Fahy Lake on Omey Island was frozen solid.
But that's the exception. Usually the small waders have no problem in digging around in the sand for food...
And soon enough there are other tangible signs that Spring is on the way.
The days lengthen, hope returns.
Soon enough, the wild Orchids
appear again...
... And the primroses in the fields and along the banks.
There are mild, sunny days and nights, although still punctuated by days of wild storms, the kinds of wind that blow the roofs off barns and keep sensible people indoors by the fire
At Aughrus Point, a Force 10 storm batters the rocks, fresh in from violent weather in the middle of the Atlantic.
But it's still beautiful - "the ocean...wild with foam and glitter", as the poet Seamus Heaney puts it.
And soon we see frogspawn in the ponds, and in due course it hatches, and tadpoles appear, and as the Spring turns to Summer - their process of transformation into tiny frogs begins.
This three, tiny, sitting together on a single water-chestnut leaf not an inch across, haven't formed their frog feet yet, though in every other way they're frogs, and not tadpoles anymore.
Along the roadside, the Summer madness of wild flowers appear on all the banks.
These are Ox-Eye Daisies, at Emlough, near the road to Rossadillisk
The wild Dog Rose, a rampant and beautiful rambling single rose, with soft pink single-petaled flowers to die for, can be seen scrambling over walls and through hedgerows....
If we're lucky, there are
glorious midsummer
sunsets to be savoured
- the midsummer sun
setting into the Atlantic
just between the
islands of Inishbofin and
Inishark...
... And the sea warms, and there is Summer warmth to be enjoyed on the many beaches around the Peninsula.
Above is Tra Bhride, at low tide, looking towards the back of Cleggan Bay, the Twelve Pins mountain range behind.
The swallows have long since come; and found their mates;
and returned to and repaired their mud nests in barns and sheds; and laid their eggs; and then there are hungry mouths to feed!
A baby Robin fledges - this is the
very first day away from its nest
for this young Robin.
As the Summer draws on, the banks along the roads of the Peninsula just grow more and more lush and colourful, like the narrow road here leading to Rossadilisk, orange Montbretia and red and purple Fuchsia forming the main backdrop to others, such as Purple Loosestrife, Meadowsweet....
As if that were not sufficient colour, the moths and butterflies are everywhere!
This is a Six Spot Burnet, one of the day-flying moths, and a very handsome one at that. They seem to love the small wild flowers growing in the short grass near the coast, especially in the sunshine - a lovely sight.
Even more striking, the Common Blue butterflies - especially the more colourful males, as this one is - are everywhere to be seen, especially among the rough grasses and granite rocks at the head of beaches such as Tra Mhor and Sellerna.
And inevitably the summer draws into Autumn, though the days may still be lovely, and the early morning mists lie over the Peninsula, as here, at Emlough and over Rossadilisk.
Late Autumn, and into Winter, the colours can be very special indeed - sometimes with strong winds, dark grey skies, and wild seas, as here at Aughrus Point.
And on into Winter again.
But there are still lovely days to be enjoyed - even the wild ones, when the sun shines just as the gale blows, such as here, at the "Anchor Beach", at Aughrusbeg.
...These photos were taken of the seas just south of Aughrus Point.
Thankfully, that is the exception, though, and during such days it's good to be indoors, thankful to be ashore and dry and safe.
But... the Aughrus Peninsula is always lovely, even on the bleakest of days.
Well... we hope that you have enjoyed this wee trip through the seasons of the Aughrus Peninsula. Aughrus is always lovely, in all of the seasons of the year.
Sellerna Beach: "Combing the White Hair of the Waves Blown Back"
"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each...
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown."
T S Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, 1917