Last year when we drove overnight across Ireland to the Cottage it was late August, it was cold and wet, great gobs of rain on the windscreen the whole way down. This year it was warm and dry and rather than rain it was white moths caught for a moment in the headlights of the car before either passing in the dark or splatting in quick dash of blood.

For the first two hours out of Dublin there was a heavy deep yellow moon in the sky in front of us in the West. It got bigger as it slipped down until it disappeared over the horizon.

There were hardly any cars on the road and from Bandon to Ahakista I only saw one lorry. As I drove the headlights caught at the eyes of foxes and rabbits by the side of the road.

There were pockets of thin mist in the lanes from Bandon. It would come up quickly as the road dipped and we were through it before I had a chance to register it was there.

Once we were passed Durrus I could see over my right shoulder a lightening in the dark horizon to the East as the sun started to nudge its way up the black sky turning it to a dark blue.

We were in bed and asleep before it was light and woke up four hours later to clear blue sky, a hot sun and still water.

But it was a Friday and Bantry market was on. I made a better fist of it than last year and had money in my pocket. The colours stood out clear and sharp in the sun. I was by myself and made my way quickly past the tractor seats and heavy work gear to the corner where the food stalls are.

The fish stall was there and had a whole tuna at the back that looked tempting but I kept myself short and bought a monkfish tail and a bag of bones for soup.