Nearly a No-Snow Show - from a Waterless West Waterford

Woke up yesterday morning to find we had no water! This is a first in this euphemistically-titled "cold snap" which has now transmogrified into the "Big Freeze" after three unrelenting weeks of sub-zero temperatures. (That's Centigrade, not Fahrenheit for anyone reading this from the USA where I believe Fahrenheit is the norm). I can't get my head around it where the weather is concerned; I believe 0C is 32F, which doesn't seem to make any sense. I learned my body temperatures in Fahrenheit as a young student nurse, and it was much later that the old 98.4F became 37C as the normal human body temperature.


In any case, the cold spell (sounds better!) will be with us for another week or 10 days according to the weather gurus (a.k.a. Evelyn Cusack or Gerry Fleming the winking weatherman) on RTÉ (the national broadcaster).These are real Met Office pros, not what's disparagingly referred to as the weather totties on other channels. That's real RTÉ snobbery, as rocket science isn't needed to read the weather, only to hold a discourse on it. Then you call in the Met Office experts, who can rabbit on for hours about high and low pressure and cold fronts from Siberia and other incomprehensible stuff. I know it's all highly meaningful to some, especially farmers, sailors and fishermen.

The latter probably rely on the Shipping Forecast - which always brings to mind BBC Radio 4 after midnight when the Litany of the Shipping Forecast is broadcast after the strains of "Sailing By " fade away. I love hearing the mysterious terminology and names which are a roll call of the coastal regions of the North Sea and the North Atlantic - from North Utsire to Rockall and all places in between - as I drift off to sleep. I can see why Annie Proulx called her wonderful Newfoundland-set book The Shipping News - it has a romantic mystique, probably because it is so removed from most people's ordinary lives.

Here are some photos of the countryside over the Christmas period right up to today. We are in the grip of winter, the harshest since 1963, and here in Lismore we felt a tad cheated as we had all the cold but none of the fun - in other words, no snow - up to today when Lismore turned white! We had flurries, but nothing that stuck. My son in Dublin was stomping around like Tom Crean of the Antarctic, taking wonderful night photos of the frozen streets landscapes, while we watch the nightly news with shots of the country under a blanket of white. All we could muster here were some tasteful shots of the frozen floodplains I videotaped last month in the wake of the November rains. These never drained away so the water froze in recent weeks, and are now thick enough for skating, which the Irish have adopted with aplomb. We are still a long way from our Dutch speed-skating extended family, but we can dream of an Elfstedentocht on the banks of the Blackwater.


Meanwhile, we suffer on, waterless for the foreseeable future, until the thaw sets in. Then we will know what damage has been done. It is the pipe that carries the water from the mains that has frozen, we presume, as the neighbour has water. They are very good, giving us gallons of their H2O for the loo and the dishes, and people-washing, while other friends are offering us showers and laundry.

It's great to see the community spirit this harsh weather generates. It is like a throwback to the old days when a sense of community pervaded society at all levels and has been lost in the boom Celtic Tiger days. Now people are looking out for older neighbours, and vice versa. Let's hope this "social capital", the term coined by Robert Putnam, persists long after the water has started flowing again.

The photos show Lismore today, yesterday and last week - sunrise over Knockmealdown mountain, the frozen river floodplain in the sun, our house and back garden, Lismore name stone, our "cool dude"snowman, Lismore Castle avenue, castle from the Inches, Dungarvan Community Hospital in early morning frost, and the top pic of my blog header view taken today of the Courthouse and Monument in Lismore.
The YouTube videoclips were taken on 10th Jan 2010 in Lismore - in our garden with Ben the dog, and down at the Castle.

November Rain - Floods in Cork and Lismore

This week has seen the worst flooding in years and possibly living memory in some parts of Ireland. I took some photos of the local flooding in Lismore and the overflowing River Blackwater. You can even see some daring Kayakers paddling about on the flooded Inches on the river floodplain.

There is more bad weather forecast for the weekend and storms later today and tomorrow. Whether this is down to climate change or not is moot, I don't think November Rain was a misnomer whether it's the song or the normal weather in Northern European countries. I always associate November with rain and wind and storms, as I do January. So we shouldn't get carried away by climate change alone, though I am sure that the increased flooding is due to man-made factors totally removed from environmental causes. Towns in Ireland like Clonmel have seen terrible flooding in recent years and it is solely attributable to building on floodplains leaving nowhere for the run-off that would normally result from the River Suir overflowing or bursting its banks - when there are houses and concrete all over what should be a floodplain that's the result.

I was in Cork on the day the flooding began - two days ago. Jany had her first booking ante-natal visit at the wonderful new Cork University Maternity Hospital and we drove up in filthy weather through lashing rain and gale-force winds. Walking from the car park to the hospital after dropping the parents-in-waiting off at the main door was a major challenge and one cheap tattered umbrella later I joined them soaked to the skin with drenched jeans and leaky shoes.

After three hours reading a book in the waiting area as the hospital banned partners due to swine flu fears we went across the road to Wilton Shopping Centre for lunch and hit Penneys, where I got fluffy socks and fake Uggs (Fuggs?) for a fiver and felt like a teenager but they were deliciously furry and warm and I am now sharing ownership with my 13 year old daughter who has already borrowed them! We then went to visit a friend in a suburb near the River Lee and found a number of access roads closed off due to flooding. We finally parked the car and splashed the last 200 metres to her house, and left within a half-hour as her daughter rang to say she was leaving the city centre as the Iniscarra Dam was being opened -controversially - to relieve the flooding upstream on the River Lee and Cork would be inundated when the tide peaked in about two hours. We were glad to get home safely as the M8 to Fermoy had awful cross-winds and surface water, and Fermoy is one of the worst towns in the country for flooding. The road from Fermoy was OK but the River Bride at Tallow had burst its banks and the floodplain was like a lake.


Lismore Canal after the deluge

Yesterday Lismore was cut off to the east - the N72 to Cappoquin was closed and I had to drive up the Vee Road towards the mountains to get to work - a major detour that doubled my 14 mile journey. I had the same detour home last night even though there was no rain yesterday, but the river rose all day as the tides came back and there were more roads flooded. Tallow, 5 miles west of Lismore, was closed off and kids couldn't get to school.

Today the weather was dry and tonight has already had a flash hailstorm which flooded our patio. The rest of the country is in bad shape with Cork's water supply cut off to 18,000 households due to possible contamination. The city has practically shut down - no tap water means the army have been drafted in to supply tankers of water for household needs and bottled water for drinking and cooking.


The River Blackwater in flood today

I went down to the river (unintended homage to Bruce there!) today with Jany to take some photos of the floods around Lismore and you can see some of the results here and a few video clips. The rest of the country is in much worse shape - Ballinasloe in Co. Galway has been hammered with the overflowing of the River Suck, and many other towns have been affected adversely.

So I guess we are just lucky here that we escaped the worst of the floods and the ensuing havoc - being delayed and diverted en route to work is a small price to pay compared to what many others are enduring and the misery they will have up to and beyond Christmas. We are very lucky - we have our family all safe and well and we will all be together for Christmas again this year, with the joyful prospect of out first grandchild in February - a real cause for celebration!

Waterford's Wintry Weather

We often say that in Ireland we have four seasons - thing is they can sometimes all arrive on the same day! This time of year is probably the most changeable and while we are officially in Spring - St. Brigid's Day on February 1st marking the traditional start of the Irish "spring" - we have had floods and snow in the past week.

These photos show the garden and our house in the snow - a rare sight!

I thought I would share some photos of my locality with you, which show the extremes of the weather patterns in this country and how we are totally obsessed with weather. We don't get proper winters; snow that actually lasts and that you could do something with, like skiing or tobogganing; and we don't get it cold enough to skate, like they do in Holland (where my husband comes from) with their tradition of the Elfstedentocht, or the 11 towns race, where skaters follow a cross-country course over canals and lakes, in Friesland in the north. It only happens sporadically when there is a really hard freeze, but at least it happens.

This shows the same view of Lismore Castle in flood and snow!

Here in Ireland the country shuts down when there is a snowfall for a day or so, the roads can't handle the traffic, and in Britain it is the same. Right now there are news headlines that Britain is running out of road grit for de-icing the roads, and it is causing chaos. What would we do if there was weather like in the movie Fargo, which I loved, where everything is engulfed in a white blizzard wilderness.

A mountain stream in flood

I went to Dublin last weekend for a meeting, and it was raining torrentially for the duration of the trip which is 130 miles or so, taking about 3 hours on our average roads. We don't have motorway all the way - Ireland is only just catching up on the rest of Europe where our road network is concerned - and a large part of the journey is on poor roads through towns and villages. The first 20 miles is across the Knockmealdown mountains (for those of you with Google Earth interest!) and it was pretty dodgy with so much flash flooding and runoff. The mountain streams turned into raging torrents and looked impressively dangerous.

I made it there and back safe and sound, and took some photos of our lovely castle and the River Blackwater in flood, with the flooded inches (the floodplain of the river) which always look spectacular, and on Monday awoke to snow! I took some photos as it is such a rare event it is worth recording.

So I hope you enjoy these snapshots of moments in an Irish winter. I promise you the summer views are even more beautiful, when everyplace is in full bloom - and I'll be back!

The photos show Lismore Castle and Inches in flood, which then froze over when it snowed a few days later.

Frosty, Fluey January days

This week has been exceptionally cold in Ireland, and here in West Waterford we have had some really freezing days, when the white hoar frost stayed on the ground all day where the sun didn't thaw it, and the clear sunny few days compensated for the bone-chilling cold. While this is cold Irish-style, I realise it is probably a warm day for people in countries where you get proper winter weather, snow and ice and a real demarcation between the seasons. The trouble with Irish weather is that you can get the four seasons in one day in the same place, and the fluctuations this week have been from -6 degrees Centigrade on Monday and Tuesday, to double figures above zero towards the end of the week. No wonder we're all weather-obsessed and it forms the basis of much casual conversation - a sort of ice breaker, you could say (in a dreadful pun!) Photo: A frosty sunrise in the garden in Lismore

Ben looking sad in the cold!

I was back to work this week after being off for a week over New Year, and I didn't do a lot of going out as we had a New Year's Eve party (see the blog post New Year Reflections), and then the house became an offshoot of work with an outbreak of flu, mostly the new variant gender-specific Man-Flu, which made for some sleepless night duty! Luckily a lot of paracetamol, ibuprofen, hot tea, iced water and tons of TLC later, and the patients were on the mend. I had the flu vaccine at work and it seems to thus far be warding off the virus, which (all jokes about man-flu aside!) is pretty awful this winter. It's known as the Brisbane H3N2 strain, and is at epidemic level in much of Europe and probably further afield.

Some frosty leaves and grass
The week began with a foggy 3a.m. journey to Shannon Airport to bring Shayne and Jany to the Girona Ryanair flight. They had been here for a month, and we were sad to see them go, sick and flu-ridden after a miserable last few days. Thankfully they are both much better now, a few days later. Shannon airport at 6a.m. was a bit like the airport in that Stephen King film, The Langoliers, deserted and dreary, with not a cup of tea or coffee or a functioning dispenser to be found until the cafe opened, which it did eventually but not before they'd gone through security. We got home at 8.15a.m., not long before the Girona flight landed, and I just had to take some photos of the frost as the day dawned clear and sunny.

The view over Dungarvan Bay from Ring
I went back to work on Tuesday and took the camera with me as it was one of those days in a million when the countryside and especially the coastline in my work area looked spectacular - as long as you were viewing it from the warm car and well wrapped up! The photos show the southern coastline of Co. Waterford heading west from Dungarvan towards Ardmore, along Helvick Head and the Old Parish coastline towards Mine Head Lighthouse, which is the highest lighthouse in Ireland, perched on a 200ft high clifftop. It is no longer functioning, and is on private land so not easily accessible, but is visible from a distance.

Two views over Helvick Head: looking eastwards... ...and westwards, from lay-by above Ring

When you are seeing a place every day it becomes almost mundane and taken for granted, and though days like this are rare they are worth capturing for posterity. I hasten to add that I wasn't just taking photos all day, but actually did a day's work as well -it's just lucky that my work entails a lot of driving through such lovely countryside!

I hope you enjoy the photos of a beautiful part of the Irish coastline, and it is even more lovely in summer - when we get one! Maybe this year will be our turn for some fine weather, and then who needs the Med!

Dungarvan Bay with the Cunnigar sandspit... ...and looking eastwards past Clonea to Stradbally