There is a problem with photography in Ireland - of which I took note on my previous visit (in late winter and early spring), then inconveniently forgot and with which I was recently reacquainted (in early autumn) - and that is that there is no sky. None. Earth and Sea and - nothing.

Eighteen percent gray (more or less) and flat as a flapjack - does not show up on film or digital. May as well be in a studio. Great if your subject thrives on flat light, only you must really either not shoot it to begin with, or crop it out or colour it in after. It does not read as sky.

Perhaps the real sky is reserved for the paying tourists. If so I may never know. Every shade of green. Not one of blue. Strange. And somehow impoverished.

I long ago observed that Wales subsisted on secondhand Irish weather. However, between the sea crossing and whatever else, Welsh weather has variation - diurnal, nocturnal and inverted, yet variation - the winter pattern being mild wet grey days (no sky) and bright cold starry nights.

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In the olden days...
it was thought that, if you walked, it was because you could not afford to ride, and that if you ran, something was chasing you, and notwithstanding the current popularity of hiking and jogging, many of the same biases endure.

Motor scooter riders in particular look down on cyclists, seeming to regard pedal power as suitable for only the youngest children.

Little do they know.

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Thumper

1982.06 - me with my BSA 250cc single - the first of four old british bikes which passed through my hands, and a great one on which to learn motorbike safety - i have always felt that more can be learned about the zen of driving from the piloting of underpowered vehicles...