Mist rolling in from the sea…
Isn’t it great when life comes with a music score? Just as I started my car this morning in the car park at the Diamond Rocks Cafe, invigorated after my walk through a thick, misty fog along the Kilkee Cliffs, my spirits high and my hair a moisture-induced mess of tangled curls and ringlets, the Paul McCartney song, “Mull of Kintyre” began to play on Clare FM. Although Paul sings of a different place, the song could have been written about these particular cliffs on a misty day like today and to me it was the perfect choice as the soundtrack to my morning.
What is it about a thick fog, especially on the edge of the world here in West Clare, that makes me feel so invigorated and at home? Could it be its similarity to my inner landscape and how my dreams and even my waking mind often feel clouded in a mist? Or maybe everyone feels this way and I’m reading more into the experience than it deserves. Perhaps it’s just a human condition – the way a thick fog pulls us into the present, wakes up all our senses and makes us feel truly alive. 
Blogging from the Bog 
10 comments
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July 2, 2012 at 6:14 pm
Kate
Oh Mom, you have a talent in your writing to express perfectly exactly what you are feeling. Your writing seems to get more and more beautiful with every entry! I know what you mean about the fog. There is something exciting yet absolutely arresting about a thick Irish fog. Almost like everything is floating in a layer of magic. Love it!!
July 2, 2012 at 6:16 pm
bloggingfromthebog
Thank you Kate, your comment was well expressed too! “Floating in a layer of magic”… I wish I had thought of that!
July 2, 2012 at 11:41 pm
Patricia
What a lovely post. I absolutely loved those sea mists as a kid when we’d be spending our annual fortnight (as we would call it) by the sea. The suddenness of it coming in and how you could hear the waves breaking but couldn’t always see the water, only bits of it through breaks in the fog, and it was always so calm at those times. What I associate with it is the coldness of the damp sand under our bare feet and the actual smell of sand – you’d never realize it has such a distinctive smell any other time. There was always a kind of excitement about the whole experience. I’m sure you’ll have more misty days while you’re there. Enjoy them. As the song says “It’s a long, long way from Clare to here” and the heat in Chicago tonight is stifling even this near to midnight.
July 3, 2012 at 6:34 am
bloggingfromthebog
Patricia I love your description of your childhood experience with the sea mists! It’s a perspective that I will probably never have because I don’t see myself walking barefoot in the sand any time soon, I think those days are over! I’m at the point in life where I worry about stepping on a jellyfish or something even less inviting!
I don’t envy your weather back in Chicago, though a break in the rain here “wouldn’t go astray.”
July 4, 2012 at 1:26 pm
Janet (Country Mouse)
This is so lovely and peaceful. You make me feel as if I have been there. These are the kinds of pictures that want to float around in my memories.
July 5, 2012 at 6:27 am
bloggingfromthebog
Janet you are welcome to put these pictures inside your head and use them when you need to feel peaceful!
July 4, 2012 at 1:48 pm
Declan
What I would give for a bit of foggy weather. There you are too cold and wet and here I am wishing to be cold and wet. This 98 degree temp is just killing me
July 5, 2012 at 6:31 am
bloggingfromthebog
I read today in the Irish Independent that Ireland just came out of its wettest June in history – and I’m sure that is saying a lot! So here I am experiencing an Irish extreme and there you are experiencing a Chicago extreme of the hottest June in history (and working on July)! Considering I’m the Chicagoan and you’re the Irishman there is some poetic justice going on. Sure there has to be to give it all some special meaning, right?
July 5, 2012 at 8:06 pm
lifeonthecutoff
This was such an evocative post, Janet, and Sir Paul just added to the mood your painted with your words. I do think fog heightens one’s senses and I love the mystery it evokes. You have me feeling all poetic now, though this heat, which exceeded 100°, has me holed up in the air conditioning.
July 6, 2012 at 4:44 am
bloggingfromthebog
That McCartney song has been in my head for days now – even yesterday when the mist was gone and the sun was shining! I wouldn’t trade the weather here for that 100 degrees you’re suffering through over there, but it sure would be nice if both of our locations could receive a couple of weeks compromise!