Silver and gold in the hillsides of West Cork

ON these dulcet summer evenings, more often than not, sunlight streams down the west-facing bays of West Cork.

Even if the day’s weather has been cloudy, the sky brightens as evening arrives. With my erratic work hours, I don’t have to wait for it; I can go out early or late, so long as I get the work done. But it is hard to stay at it when the sun lights up the fields opposite my workroom. So, I try to get out for a walk then.

Looking west, the bay toward the village is a broad river of silver or golden light, so strong one has to narrow one’s eyes to look at it. The light floods the woodland paths and sets the orange montbretia flowers, now in full bloom, ablaze. The bluebells are gone; the seed capsules that top the stems drying out and dispersing their shiny, almost spherical. black seeds. There are millions of them. Now wonder the woods are carpeted in late spring.