For the past few weeks I have been
happily soaking up the joy from all the summer ideas on Pinterest and my
favourite blogs. Summer picnics, frozen treats, BBQ salads, floaty dresses,
outdoor weddings, birthday parties in the park, drive-in movies... Images such
as this beautiful picnic scene are the kind of days I am dreaming about.
And then I remember that I live in
Ireland.
Now, don't get me wrong, there are
many wonderful things about living in Ireland, the 'craic', the great culture,
the stunning scenery, the friendly locals, however it is also fair to say that
we have a fairly complicated relationship with Summer weather.
Put simply, you are likely to need
your raincoat for all but about 2 weeks of the year. I'm not saying that it
rains all the time, because it doesn't, just a little of every day. We have
light showers, heavy showers, every kind of shower except for Wedding and baby
showers (but that is a whole other issue!). It means that only the most
optimistic of party-planners are seduced by outdoor paper lanterns and
luminaries, as damp paper doesn't look good in any language.
Last year I moved to live at the
coast in the most Northwest
corner of Ireland, beside amazing
wide golden sandy beaches, miles long. Here is my local beach on one of the ten
or so days of summer we've had, truly glorious.
Today, in the middle of June, I'm looking out at driving rain and 54 degrees. My garden chairs are calling to
me, bemoaning the fact that I promised them sunshine and lunches and dinners al
fresco, and they have barely a dent so far.
But you know, the Irish summer
makes you hopeful. There is nothing like the rush in the shops for shorts and
flip-flops on the first day of sun in early May when 'exam weather' arrives to
make a whole country think that this will be the year of the hot summer, just
like the ones when we were kids and the sun seemed to shine all summer long. My
mummy will inevitably tell me about the long range weather forecast, which
promises a summer of BBQs and Vitamin D for everyone.
Then when we stop being hopeful,
about the middle of July, we start being grateful. Grateful for even two sunny
days in a row. Grateful for warm dry days at the beach, with hot tomato
soup after you swim in the cool
Atlantic, even if the sun doesn't shine. Grateful for the beautiful green of
the country and for a pub with a fire on and some nice pub grub.
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And there is nothing as hopeful or
as grateful for a sunny summer day as an Irish Bride! Not many people outside
Ireland know that the summer weather for weddings is actually controlled by a
small statue of the saint of the Child of Prague.
It is traditionally placed under a
hedge the night before a wedding to ensure a dry day for the bride. Before the
weddings of both my sisters there were multiple statues under multiple hedges
placed by my mum's friends.. and it did work for them!
However, for those brides who do
have to use their umbrellas after all, there is still gratitude. For a bright
day, or that they at least got from the car to the church without the rain, and
if all else fails, that the notoriously fragile neck on the Statue survived the
trip under the hedge! (There are many Irish homes where a beheaded statue of the
Child of Prague awaits some super glue after an over-enthusiastic game of
football indoors) :)
So come to Ireland... and bring
your raincoat!
And as for me, I'm off to Portugal
for a week to lie on the beach where I am guaranteed a recharge of Vitamin D!
Claire xx
I wanna go!! Thanks so much for joining us, Claire. We'll see more of Miss Claire on Thursday, when she offers us a lovely DIY. How about you, friends? Have you enjoyed an Irish summer? XO, MJ
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