I had to travel far to appreciate home

WE arrived home to spring in all its glorious colours, and to lovely weather.

After two months in Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, I was stopped in my tracks when I emerged from the Pier House bar in Courtmacsherry, following a sociable pint in the wake of the Patrick’s Day parade, and saw the boats, the bay and the fields beyond lit up as clear and sharp and vivid as Wordsworth saw London from Westminster Bridge in the late 1700s: ‘... all bright and glittering in the smokeless air’.

For two months I hadn’t seen a view with such clarity. Humidity hazes distances, water vapour in suspension softens the edges, dulls the colours.