Dolphin Address 14
August 29, 2004
Cross over
Yesterday evening we drove back from Doolin in the dark. Suddenly, in the beam of the car light, we saw a mouse running across the road at breakneck speed. It seemed to us as if it had waited for a car to come along to light its path.
Until the cows...
I wrote before about the house that looks like a cow. The walls are whitewashed and pale away in the distance. The roof and the shadows remain visible. Everyone I have shown agrees that it looks like a cow, although it is too far away for that.
Yesterday we drove over the Slieve Elva. Much to my surprise I saw a house in the distance where I had never seen one before and yes, off close it turned out to be a cow.
Dominator
Verena got the idea to overturn one stone of a stone wall, so through the whole of Ireland for many years stone walls would flatten like domino stones.
Windmill
Everywhere you find 'Roadwork ahead'. Ireland is no exception. This is also indicated by navel high pylons, that ore sometimes mounted with a three-headed reflecting little windmill. Verena nicked one and I mounted it on the support of our roof trunk. Sometimes we see it turn as a shadow aside of the car and sometimes it is reflected in shop- or car windows. For the night we lock it, for we can hear it turning when we are standing still. Would be fun if this catches on.
Nice
As in Holland we inform each other about the weather, in Ireland people inquire about each others health. Though this interest is only knee deep it has a very high frequency. Sometimes I have to go to the M&M shop three times a day and keep them minutely posted on the development of my condition. Sometimes it looks like a form of social self-defense that is automatically triggered. A maintenance of initiative as in chess. There even is an abbreviated form: 'Hiya'.
The classic answer is: 'Not so bad'.
Rock sleep
When I was small I sometimes dreamt a frightful dream. I was falling through space together with falling chunks of rock. All the stones here have fallen, most of them even many times. It is quite impossible to imagine this all. Still I feel very much at ease here. Not only when I'm awake, but also when I sleep.
Drive
When Verena drives, when drinking I have to consider the centrifugal force. In bends the drink will enter my mouth inside my cheek, like when I am drinking from under a tap. Sometimes we hit a ramp. Then it is all over my palate.
Jan Ploeg, Fanore Meadow, August 29th 2004
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