Of course, the inspiration for the title of this blog is Prince's
Sometimes it snows in April - but the snow I was walking in today fell in March, so I had to tweak his famous line slightly.
It's incredibly tough to find the time to do a bit of outdoors training when having a sick child at home; Sophia had a kidney infection, poor girl, but the antibiotics are doing their work and she is recovering really well. Of course I was getting mad having to be at home, because the weather was so good this week - so off I went this Saturday morning for a hike up the hills!
Lough Tay has an even deeper dark (Guinness) colour due to the extreme contrasts of snow and the - usual - 50 shades of brown of the Wicklows. Snow always makes me feel excited; even when only dusting the tops of the hills. It makes everything so much softer - and there is this touch of adventure when walking up well trodden paths when they're covered in snow - you don't know where you are quite often. I'm sure that's why so many people were drawn towards the mountains in the last couple of weeks to do a bit of hiking - but unfortunately that gave a lot of extra work to the Mountain Rescue people.
This snow is typical for spring time though; slowly melting away around plants and the sound of trickling water is everywhere.
I walked from Ballinastoe up to the summit of Djouce Mountain and back via a number of mountain bike trails. What struck me the most today is that it's so nice to meet other walkers, exchanging a few tips about the different routes when at the summit. It was nice and quiet when I started off but plenty of people enjoyed the radiant sunshine when I came down from the summit. And everyone was happy due to the sunshine!
So, I guess next time when up there, the snow will have melted away. It'll be back in November I'd say... so long! Time for flowers to appear now!
