I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.
L.M. Montgomery
October is one of our favourite months. The stunning colours of autumn, fresh crisp mornings with sunlight slowly burning off autumnal mists, and days long enough for decent walks make it an ideal season for our main holiday.
This year wasn't an exception. For the first time we set off for Ireland to explore its dramatic coast along the Wild Atlantic Way. Though our search for the wild Atlantic was not successful - it was as calm as a millpond - we discovered many peaceful beaches and magnificent parts of the Irish coastline. The 1500-mile route doesn't always hug the coast and in many places you can't get access to the shoreline at all, as most of the land is privately owned. But if you look beyond the estates of ordinary, uniform bungalows and holiday cottages scattered along many parts of the WAW, if you withstand many long and boring stretches of the remote roads, you will be rewarded with many scenic driving routes, stunning beaches and incredible ocean views. For us it was definitely another unforgettable adventure, a road trip with many fascinating discoveries and memories to keep.
O, Ireland! isn't grand you look —
Like a bride in her rich adorning?
With all the pent-up love of my heart
I bid you the top of the morning!
John Locke
When we got back home the autumn was in full swing. I didn't get a lot of chance to enjoy autumnal woodland, but I was lucky to steal a few moments of the seasonal mist in the city and on the coast. A wonderful month full of special memories.
Pale amber sunlight falls across
The reddening October trees,
That hardly sway before a breeze
As soft as summer: summer's loss
Seems little, dear! on days like these.
Let misty autumn be our part!
The twilight of the year is sweet:
Where shadow and the darkness meet
Our love, a twilight of the heart
Eludes a little time's deceit.
Are we not better and at home
In dreamful Autumn, we who deem
No harvest joy is worth a dream?
A little while and night shall come,
A little while, then, let us dream.
Beyond the pearled horizons lie
Winter and night: awaiting these
We garner this poor hour of ease,
Until love turn from us and die
Beneath the drear November trees.
Ernest Dowson
If you would like to see any of the images and read the stories behind them, please us the links below. There are also a few outtakes that didn't make it as a picture of the day, but which I found hard to part with.
