Setting out

The last time we got the ferry to France it was very grey and overcast as we headed out from Cork. This time, though there were some clouds, it was lovely and sunny and quite warm. We were able to sit out on sun chairs on the deck for quite a while after most people had moved in and enjoy the warmth and sunshine. Cobh looks a lot prettier in the sunshine - or else they've painted it up a lot since 15 years ago.

I'm going to totally skip chronological order here and add two pictures from the way back. The first one was taken through the portholes at the front of the ferry. You can see the Breton flag flying. It's hard to tell how rough the crossing was - it was certainly rough in our cabin, which was very near the front. Even though we weren't out at the side but well towards the centre we could hear the waves against the side (or front) of the ship, and all Saturday my head was spinning in circles. But at least we both managed to sleep more than we expected we could, and in spite of C's expectations a couple of times, I never fell out of the bunk.

We arrived back to a grey, rainy day. It was very heavy rain for about half the drive home. We'd have stopped off at my brother's for a break from the rain and a cup of coffee, but when I rang him, there was some special event on at the kids' riding school and they weren't going to be home for some time yet, so we soldiered on.

On the home front - the coal tits were the first to realise the feeders were filled up again. I've seen a couple of blues and greats too, but the sparrows are only slowly returning and I haven't seen any robin yet. You know I've often mentioned how territorial robins are. I actually got to see two fighting on our last morning. A whole big campsite, and all the time we'd been there (and in the previous one) I'd heard a lot of territorial robin talk. C was having a last strum on his guitar before packing it into the car, so I went off walking round the site and just at the end of the row where we were pitched, I saw some movement on the ground. A closer look and it was two robins up close and personal tussling on the ground. So it is true what they say!! No photos of that, and none of the first ever kingfishers I saw :D. We saw one on an outing from our first campsite, from a hide beside a lake, and I saw another one from the little boat when we had our trip along the canals in the Marais.