It has not been a surprise to us that the weather in February in Ireland has been chilly and wet. That said, it has actually been quite variable. The old saying that I’ve heard about many places in the U.S., “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes” holds true here.
Most days we’ve walked extensively, and even if caught in a bit of rain, the rain has been not much more than a drizzle, enough to splatter the eyeglasses but otherwise not much of a bother. But then there will be a brilliant blue sky, until the next cloud rolls through. The temperature is fairly predictable, ranging mostly from low 40s to high 40s. Without looking at the day’s forecast, a guess of 45 degrees with a 50% chance of rain has a good chance of being accurate. And 45 degrees is actually not a bad temp for some vigorous walking.
The last few days have been a bit more severe. Storm Ciara (rhymes with tiara, with a hard “c”) swept through over the weekend, with wind-lashed rains loud enough to wake us up in the middle of the night. There were reports of power outages throughout Ireland and the UK, as well as some snow at higher elevations. The storm left a cold patch in its wake, so in the past 24 hours we’ve seen a spattering of hail and sleet.
But poor weather just means different opportunities. Yesterday, as Barry noted in his post, we ducked into a café for a cup of tea as weather threatened, and when it later started to rain in earnest, ducked into the Crawford Gallery of Art, a free museum which was on my list to see anyway. A perfect rainy day activity!
Today was colder than usual…the high of the day barely scraped 40. So we took the opportunity to check out the Tabletop Café, around the corner, where we had some noshes and played a game called Unearth most of the afternoon. Had a nice time chatting with Chris, the owner, and Tom, a regular patron. I could see us returning on another cold or rainy day, especially so that I can have a rematch with Barry, who won both games.
Cork Spring 