Alone again, naturally.

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Pictured above is the lone heron I often see on my early morning walk along the shore. They are such elegant creatures - nimble, solitary and melancholic, a bit like myself I’m told. In spite of the prevailing great European heat to the east of us, Ireland is escaping the ridiculous temperatures complained of by our English and continental neighbours. Our mornings are misty, cool and mysterious - ideal for solitary herons and me. What we aren’t escaping is an invasion of visitors. Belfast, just 20 miles up the road is expecting 800,000 visitors over the course of this week. The attraction is a big Irish music festival - the Fleadh Cheoil Na hÉirann. Belfast is a very small city so it’s going to be a very unpleasant place made shabby by heaving crowds, overflowing rubbish bins and interminable queues to eat, fiddle and piddle. I’ll not be going of course, being allergic to crowds, queues and decimated cafes. However I used the word decimated incorrectly but it’s too late at night to find a suitable synonym for a place being laid waste which is what will be happening in every Belfast cafe overpricing itself for the occasion. Decimation originally referred to the practice in the Roman army whereby ten soldiers would draw lots to see which of them would be beaten to death by the other nine if, as a group, they had disgraced themselves in battle. Sweet.