The end of summer

Column from 19/08/09

Image via Wikipedia

House martins whirl and swoop overhead, making the most of a brief spell of sunshine to feed themselves up before the long journey ahead. They’re gathering now in large numbers, preparing for a migration that will take them across Europe to sub-Saharan Africa for the winter. After the summer we’ve had I wish I could join them.

Soon the swallows will follow suit, the hedgehogs will intensify their hedgerow foraging before settling down to hibernate, squirrels will horde caches of food, blackberries will ripen…. It can all mean only one thing: summer is already drawing to a close.

But nature isn’t the only thing telling us that things are about to change. Parents the length and breadth of the nation will have noticed other signs. As the new school term approaches the kids start getting restless, realising that their long weeks of freedom are coming to an end. It affects parents too: conscious that there’s not much of the holidays left, we rush to cram in all the things we’ve been putting off over the summer break.

Last week, for example, we found ourselves on Sherkin Island putting up the tent in weather that was, let’s face it, marginal at best. It was certainly a far-cry from camping nirvana, but we’d promised the girls, and after letting much of the summer slip by waiting for a break in the weather we suddenly realised that time was running out. We panicked, packed and headed for Baltimore.

Sitting on the ferry watching tendrils of mist settling over Sherkin, I couldn’t help wondering what on earth we were playing at.

Camping is one of those curious things that is at its best before you leave and after you get back. The anticipation and the memory tend to surpass the actual experience by the proverbial country mile. Yet despite the dubious-looking weather we got lucky this time. It’s true there wasn’t much in the way of sunshine, but at least the rain held off until after the tents were up, and we all managed to stay reasonably warm and dry. When you’re camping anywhere in Ireland that’s a bonus!

The children had a ball with their friends, and that evening, pint in hand, listening to the trad session that had just started up in the pub, I began to think that this camping lark wasn’t so bad after all.  We arrived home from our trip exhausted, happy and more than a little smug that we’d managed to conquer the soggy Irish wilderness.

August is generally a frantic month when you live somewhere like West Cork. Visitors tend to descend; just like us they’re in a last minute panic to make the most of a rapidly evaporating summer. Of course that’s lovely, but it’s also very disruptive to any sort of routine. I’ve come to realise you just have to accept things are going to be manic, go with the flow and wait for everything to settle down again come September.

September, of course, is when the real summer starts. As soon as the children go back to school we’re pretty much guaranteed a week or two of solid sunshine. It’s an immutable natural law. You can’t help but feel sorry for them as they trudge onto the school bus laden with their back-to-school paraphernalia. On the plus side, with the children all back in school the beaches of West Cork will be practically deserted. Pass the sunscreen!

Still waiting for that last prediction to come to pass… but it will come, it has to come!