For those who follow this thing and have been to The Cottage and Ahakista the good news is that the Cottage is dry and still standing (as it should after 200 years) although apparently most of the beach is in the garden and a large part of the garden is up by the yellow door.

It is easy to forget listening to news of the weather in Birkenhead that anything coming in off the Atlantic is likely to hit Ireland and West Cork first. There were news reports over Friday of there being flooding in Cork City but not much else about the rest of the county. Then on Saturday morning pictures started to appear on Facebook showing the damage done to the road from Durrus to Ahakista. It was clear that in parts the sea wall and part of the road had been washed away and elsewhere the road was littered with debris and vegetation.

I have not had any direct contact but we have had reports that The Cottage is okay apart from the rearrangement of beach and lawn.

On a normal high tide the water is not much more than 50 yards from the Cottage. There is a very low wall at the bottom of the lawn and I would guess that The Cottage only rise a foot or so above that. So it would not take too much to imagine a very high tide  coming over that wall and and some wind and waves could then start to make inroads to The Cottage.

It must have been an exciting night and in a lot of ways I am sorry to have missed it. From the pictures I have seen I imagine that the sea and waves must have been coming in over the sea wall that runs along the road running out from The Cottage towards Durrus and I would guess that at the very least the spray from it all would have reached The Cottage. I will have to make sure I am there in 25 years time when it happens again. In the meantime there is an excuse for a quick trip out to Ahakista to help with the clear up!

Last night we ate reassuring burgers. The bean burgers were almost more fun to make than the meat ones.

I used a heavy stone pestle to mash up the beans and then continued with the pestle to stir in the chopped onions, garlic, herbs breadcrumbs and egg.

We ate them with a beetroot dressing made by peeling a beetroot and then mixing that up with a teaspoon of capers, a teaspoon of English Mustard and lemon juice and olive oil.

All very good it was to.

We listened to Duane Allman and The Allman Brother’s Band.