This is the second part of the talk Kate and Jan had about Dusty. Enjoy, Happy Christmas and a good New Year.

In the summertime I like to post my Dusty videos on Facebook asap. So I did with the ones I took of Kate and Dusty. But these are exceptional and I saved them until now for Dolphin Address, as a Christmas surprise.

Just now at the very end of the swimming season I have invented an underwater tripod. And it’s oh so simple. I only need a short plank, a bit of rope, a plastic bag and a stone.

I had an idea. Sometimes water runs into my mask, blurring my vision when I look down as it spreads over the glass. I thought to sniff it up through my nose and spit it out through my snorkel.

In a Zen koan a monk is chased by a tiger. At a precipice he can just in time swing himself over the edge, and dangles from a branch, the gnarling tiger just above him, beneath a fathomless depth. Then, just within reach, he sees a wild strawberry. Oh, how deliciously juicy!

The other day and by chance I was an earwitness to a conversation between a Canadian tourist and an Inisheer local. The Canadian asked: ‘What do you do on the island?’ The answer: ‘As little as possible’. 

The good thing about a hard place is that it’s always there, like the rock bank that has become sort of my living room on Inisheer.

Monday will be the day. After crippling eleven months of excruciating leg pains I’m going to be operated on my back. Actually it’s been bothering me since 1986, so tings being sorted will be close to a rebirth. But there’s more…

In 2006 George Karbus(www.emerald-vision.com) filmed Dusty, his partner Kate and me at Dusty’s favored location that year, Green Island. At the time I was not allowed to publish the footage. Now the company and her director have gone off the grid, so here you are.

As dolphins navigate chiefly by sonar Dusty’s choice to return to Inisheer after a brief but worrying stay in Doolin and Fanore might be taken as a generous gesture for meeting up yet another glorious summer in the turquoise water at the golden beach of this hospitable Aran Island.