The rain

I've been watching a dam. Well I call it a dam anyway. It's right next to the M1 motorway, nestled into a hill on the northern side on the Boyne Valley, on my way to work. The water level was pretty high over winter. Then the fishing season started and every morning keen fishermen were evenly spaced around the edge with their rods dangling in the water. Then, at some point, someone let the plug out, literally, and the dam drained away to nothing (I have no idea how you pull out the plug in a dam!) Overnight, the water was suddenly gone, and grass took over. Now June has seen some serious rain in Ireland. Heavy, heavy rain in short bursts, but lots of them. Not soft rain like usual for Ireland, but more like the way I remember how it rained in Brisbane in the 1980's, when you got soaked in 3 seconds. So every day, the water level in this dam is getting higher and higher, and I think soon it'll be back to the level it was over winter. So, this dam has gone from full, to empty, and is getting close to being full again in a matter of weeks. Silent Valley Reservoir, in the Mourne Mountains has an amazing spillway like a giant plughole too. A huge concrete tube leading down a channel carved into acres of carefully levelled green slopes, ready to take the spill that might just happen one day when it doesn't stop raining. I for one want to see the water flowing down that massive plughole. It'd be a pretty incredible sight. Not sure if they'll send me a "spillway alert" on my mobile though, so I'll probably miss it anyway. Just up the road in Northern Ireland, we saw playing fields and ASDA carparks completely submerged. Fenceposts cutting through paddocks where cows would need snorkels. This is a wet, wet place. You get used to it, you don't notice it, but you just think of how much Australia (and lots of other places) need this rain so, so badly. The sort of rain where you've gotta pull out the plug in your dam then let it fill up again. You wish.
Took a few more pics at Dublin Airport on Sunday too, against very stormy skies (and rain of course). Geeky I know, but something I don't think I'll ever tire of.

(please click on any of these photos for a larger version)

Finnair OH-LVC A319, Sunday Afternoon

My Travel G-OMYA A320, in stormy skies

Ryanair EI-DHI B737, with nice wing vapour

Girjet EC-JTN B757, charter operator based in Barcelona