We went to Tesco's this afternoon...look at me, writing about a feckin' supermarket as though it's seriously interesting...anyway we went and the sky was bright blue and the wind howled and rocked the car when we came to the open parts of the road...
Lorries were tucked into the slow lane...it must be seriously scary driving anything high-sided in such powerful winds...
I found a pair of black cargo trousers and a really pretty plain purple silky top...it doesn't have long sleeves though and I'm horribly conscious of having very skinny but flabby upper arms...perhaps they'll look better if they get a bit of sun.
A small girl stuck her tongue out at me so I stuck mine out at her and she looked so alarmed and hid behind her mother...one of those hefty security men was watching and he laughed and gave me a wink...
I suppose they rely on their size to frighten shop-lifters...there's a bloke in Heaton's in Roscommon who doesn't actually have a neck...his head sort of sits on his shoulders and he's built like a barn door.
Makes me giggle though when I notice people's reactions to the oxygen...some sort of dither when they see me approaching as though they don't quite know what to do...some stick their noses in the air and others stare...I smile at the starers and ignore the others...
That's just in Tesco's though, where most of the shoppers come from Essex in England and spend endless hours grumbling about the price of pizza and not being able to buy Heinz Salad Cream...
On reaching the checkout, the girl said there was ten euro off the clothes...excellent!
We were blown home again along the new road going from County Mayo into County Roscommon, with the long sweep of the Ox mountains on one side and the tiny stone-walled famine fields on the other...home now to a horse or a couple of donkeys, standing with their backs to the walls, trying to keep out of the keening wind.
Long deserted cottages surrounded by clumps of delicate wild daffodils...there will be bluebells soon...misty clouds of shimmering blue under the trees and around the edges of the fields...but for now, there is the occasional patch of coltsfoot flowers and some brave dandelions.
Please the gods that warm sunny days are not too far away...