18 September 2012

A stroll on a bright and sunny autumn evening

The setting sun above Firhouse and Knocklyon this evening (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

For the past two days, the low-rising sun and the low-setting sun has been casting long rays of bright sunshine, causing problems for motorists trying to leave the ramps on the M50 on the south side of Dublin.

Although autumn colours are spreading through the trees, we have had bright blue skies since Monday morning, and only those autumn colours and the occasional burst of rain stop any chance of being deceived into imagining that there might be final burst of a late summer before we face into the full cycle of autumn and winter.

The students are back, the full round of lectures, tutorials, dissertation supervisions and chapel services is under way.

Late summer reflections on the banks of the River Dodder in Rathfarnham this evening (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

It has been a joy heading in to work in the morning with the rising sun shining on the trees along the banks of the Dodder. This evening, for the first time in many weeks, I had a walk along the banks of the Dodder after work as far as the bridge at Rathfarnham Road.

The midges and flies above the water added to the atmosphere of a late summer evening. Through the reflections of the trees in the water there were small mirror patches of the clear blue sky above.

The water was flowing quickly, families of ducks had found dry pebbly islets below the cascades of the water fall, one lone angler stood silently, and the pair of swans who live near the bridge were content in the late evening water.

By the time I got to Ballycullen Road, the low-setting sun in the west was casting its bright rays across Firhouse and Knocklyon towards the slipways on the M50.

Cascading waters in the River Dodder below the bridge at Rathfarnham Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)