When the cab driver took three of us to paint near a wind farm on the side of a mountain we regretted not having warmer clothes but we had no choice now since he was coming back for us in a couple of hours. Not a house in sight anywhere and maybe 5-6 cars passed by while we painted. With fingers chilled to the bone and feet wet with bog water we turned our backs on the windmills and gave our attention to the hills. "Terrible bad land" was how locals would describe it. Too marshy and rocky to grow anything but reeds and bushes, its not even suitable for sheep to graze on. But the wild plants that flourished there had wonderful colors and textures. Im not even sure where we were but about half an hour from Skibbereen in the wilds of West Cork. That there was a road there is a testament to the efforts of the starving men who signed up for famine relief in the 1840s and were made to carve roads to nowhere as the price of government help. Most of the visitors to the Wild Atlantic Way would stay closer to the sea and miss this wilderness but it had it's charm. Still the returning cab was a welcome sight and we packed up our easels and paints and thawed out in that nice warm cab on our way back.
When the cab driver took three of us to paint near a wind farm on the side of a mountain we regretted not having warmer clothes but we had no choice now since he was coming back for us in a couple of hours. Not a house in sight anywhere and maybe 5-6 cars passed by while we painted. With fingers chilled to the bone and feet wet with bog water we turned our backs on the windmills and gave our attention to the hills. "Terrible bad land" was how locals would describe it. Too marshy and rocky to grow anything but reeds and bushes, its not even suitable for sheep to graze on. But the wild plants that flourished there had wonderful colors and textures. Im not even sure where we were but about half an hour from Skibbereen in the wilds of West Cork. That there was a road there is a testament to the efforts of the starving men who signed up for famine relief in the 1840s and were made to carve roads to nowhere as the price of government help. Most of the visitors to the Wild Atlantic Way would stay closer to the sea and miss this wilderness but it had it's charm. Still the returning cab was a welcome sight and we packed up our easels and paints and thawed out in that nice warm cab on our way back.