Blessings!

It's a Bank holiday here in Ireland today - the island is heaving with visitors, motorhomes, motorbikes and cabriolet sports cars - it's an invasion! Mind you with the weather as fabulous as it has been I'm not surprised everyone headed for sea and beaches. And we do have five of the best beaches in these isles.
I decided to avoid the crowds and head up high - you can drive up Minaun Heights in the centre of the island and have grandstand views of the island and half the mainland (or so it seems!) to boot!. It just happens that today, on the summit, at 2pm there was a blessing Ceremony being held for a newly-erected Italian marble statue - Our Lady, Star of the Sea. So i tootled up there to witness it and catch a cooling breeze.
And I was very glad I did because not only is the scenery breathtaking but the ceremony was uplifting as more than a hundred of us that climbed to the summit to witness the blessings by the Parish priests. All around us the Atlantic ocean sparkled, and other islands floated lazily in the heat-haze. Across Clew bay, Ireland's Holy Mountain, Croagh Patrick's pyramidal peak loomed large. Some people stood, a few sat a little distance away, others a little apart, lost in their own thoughts. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Next, I headed down to Keel beach, Tramore Strand, down the island, which was thronging with people. There must have been two hundred cars, children playing, surfers surfing, and some people just chilling out. I ate a 99 ice cream cone, dropped in at 'The Beehive' for a cappucino and to pin up a poster to promote my poetry book, and drove back home for a celebratory meal of salmon, summer pudding, and plenty of sparkling stuff with Eileen. I do love my life.
Have a good one!