Monday 26 March 2018

Operation Rainy Day Suit Hike And The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Music.

Just for a change its raining cats and dogs today.  So I decided to put on my 'rainy day' suit (waterproofs) and go for a seven mile walk on the hills and boreens and roads of the land of my dad's ancestors: West Cork.   

I started off listening to some brass band music on Spotify on my phone, like you do!  Then it went off and all I had to listen to was the birds, sheep, gurgling and gargling water in the streams and drains and the rain dripping on my wide brimmed hat.  If you have spent a night or ten trying to sleep in a tent and its pouring rain.  You will know exactly what "drip, drip"  noise I mean.

Then I started to think.  This is the acoustics of the hills.  Like Julie Andrews or Walters once said in that musical: The hills are alive with the sound of music.  Long before motorcars the only sounds in the hills was that what Mother Nature makes!  A symphony in the hills perhaps?

18 comments:

  1. its cool here today white sky. Yesterday I was on the beach, thin cardigan no coat walking the dogs. you can hear the waves from our house. At night it is quite nice but it also means the wind howls like mad. Rainy weekend here! I planted my first few bits in containers that I will plant later once I know that the weather is defo warmer. I need some wind breaks in the garden where we are going to grow the veg

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  2. Hi Sol. Hope you're well. I walked next to the bay today. Cormorants huddled on rocks looking forlornly out to sea. We get some terrible gales from the Atlantic. Can you paint? I wish I could paint the incredible West Cork scenery. I have seed potatoes chitting next to the computer and we sowed some carrots in the tunnel at the weekend. Willow make good windbreak hurdles? Or you could go down the hedge road. Giving yourselves a hedge trimming job for ever. I dream of a walled kitchen garden like the one at Heligan. Have you been there recently Sol. Thanks!

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  3. I like walking in the rain so long as I have a good waterproof hat on to keep the rain out and suitable footwear. It has been dry and sunny here all day. Not very warm, early morning frost, but lovely and sunny. I have only ever camped in France and then we pitched the tent in the wrong spot and it got blown over in the night and collapsed on top of us. We wondered why nobody else had pitched there. But nobody told us! I think they all had a good laugh.

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  4. Hi Rachel. I got myself a really strong waterproof jacket and trousers and now I can walk or garden in the rain. I would like to try glamping with a bed to sleep in. Once slept in a tent in the Lake District and a stream flowed through the middle of the tent. I was not an happy bunny. Thanks for telling us your camping tale!

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  5. It is the bird song, the lowing of the cattle and the sound of distant vehicles on the main road (5 km away) that are the daily morning sounds which I enjoy. Rain well I don't mind it at all except when the road floods, not that it enters the house, but some of the damn drivers do their level best to splash my garden walls - them I do not appreciate!

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  6. Yes put it far more poetic than me Heron. I don't like the rain. Ireland seems to be getting more wetter every year. I get annoyed with cars speeding so close to me when I walk on the main country roads. Thanks!

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  7. You know it is the 'Me First' people who drive cars, they are the ones who over take on bends, or approaching the brow of a hill or park inconsiderately and as you say are mindless of pedestrians.

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    1. I agree. And a lot of litter is probably thrown from cars. Not that you ever see any litter bins anywhere. I also think eighty kilometers is far too fast for rural roads.

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  8. Providing I have my waterproof kit on I love walking in the rain, not so good to get caught out in a shower without it though!

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    1. I often get caught in a shower with no waterproof kit Vera. I seem to be checking the weather websites everyday. Hope we get an hot summer. Thanks!

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  9. Walking out n that weather you could sing as loud as you like and no one would hear but you!!

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    1. Only the sheep and the birds would hear me singing LA. I don't think they would like my choice of songs or my voice.

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  10. I imagine waterproofs are very important when walking in Ireland.

    I like the sounds of a lone seagull or an oyster catcher when I'm walking. All we have here are crows. Caw, caw, caw . . . It's not quite the same is it?

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  11. Yes waterproofs are very important in Ireland Gwil. Otherwise its working in the sheds, houses, polytunnel or go for a walk. I like listening to Rock music and brass bands and folk music when I am walking. Its like being in the opening and closing titles of a film.

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  12. As a teenager I used to sing in the rain. I wonder when that stopped? Looking back I wonder how the heck I changed. Where does the romance go, I wonder.

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  13. Yes it would be great if we all started singing. Especially when it's rain. I often baa back to the sheep on my walks and caw at the crowd. Thanks!

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