We arrived back from Ireland last Tuesday evening having left the Cottage at just after 8.00 in the morning.

Not for the first time the water was perfectly calm as the cases and bags of bacon and cheese were squeezed into the back of the car. There was no wind and there was a quiet stillness that hung in the air that seemed to be trying to tell us there was no reason to leave and the world would carry on turning if we just left the car in the orchard and went back to bed.

Walking up the pier I met Tommy pulling up in his red truck. He was just off to work in his boat, to go pulling pots, and we spoke for a few minutes – the weather was going to be good the next few days and we’d had it shitty – and then I pulled away to the car and the drive back to Dublin.