While spring traditionally begins in Ireland on the 1st of February, on Saint Brigid's Day, meteorological winter continues through until the 1st of March.

We have had some snow already in 2021 here in Ireland but most has now melted with warmer and wetter temperatures returning. In fact we had a 14C temperature change in 48 hours from -7 degrees Celsius to +7 degrees.

Typically we would see about a week of snow in the southwest, the warmest and wettest part of Ireland, to three weeks in the higher ground of the Wicklow Mountains and north midlands of Ireland. Away from the west coast essentially.

But at lower levels, in most of the towns and cities, you might not see snow at all in winter. Of course, every so often we get extreme cold and snowy conditions running from late autumn through to spring (November to April) such as in 2010 and 2018 with the Beast from the East.

And in the more usual years, snow depths might only be a few centimetres at low levels. Ice can be more of a problem with many small roads in the country not gritted and often not seeing enough sunshine to melt.

So here, another image from the fine mountains of Ireland with a good covering of winter snow.

While the current lockdown due to COVID-19 in Ireland will not end in time for you to join me photographing in the snowy conditions I am taking no-deposit, no-fee provisional bookings for the rest of 2021.

The West of Ireland, it's the place that I photograph most often in Ireland along with the Antrim Coast and Dublin.

Here, a typical western scene of rugged mountains, very often coated with a soft green of grass and, here where you see the reddishness, bracken that has died back for the winter. 

Bracken is a type of fern Pteridium that dates back some 55 million years, is highly invasive and can cause cancer in humans (only if eaten) and is poisonous to animals (again only if eaten).

Bracken creates its own ground shade preventing shrubs and trees from establishing like a forest canopy in miniature.

In the landscape, in winter, it gives a characteristic reddish-brown look to hillsides and open ground that combined with golden sunrise or sunset light gives a warming glow to the treeless Irish countryside as seen here until spring arrives again.

A 9th Century Irish poem refers to bracken and its characteristic autumn / winter colour:

SUMMER IS GONE

My tidings for you : the stag bells, Winter snows, summer is gone.

Wind high and cold, low the sun, Short his course, sea running high.

Deep-red the bracken, its shape all gone

The wild-goose has raised his wonted cry. Cold has caught the wings of birds ;

Season of ice—these are my tidings.

And in the late 1930s, a story from County Cavan:

Locally it is believed that the herb known as the "bracken", (which seems to me to be nothing other than the wild fern) is said to blossom and seed all in one hour, the hour being that from twelve to one o'clock on the night of the 21st (or 2th) of June. Of course to all appearance the bracken or fern never blossoms.

The person who succeeds in catching the seed is supposed to be all powerful. In order to catch it a person must go at its blossoming hour, mentioned above, and stand inside a circle of the brackens which he has carefully placed around him. While waiting inside this circle for the lucky hour, he is supposed to be tempted very strongly by the "Good People" (fairies) to leave the bracken-circle. They offer him all sorts of attractions from outside the ring in the endeavor to allure him out of it; for for once he leaves the ring, he fails to catch the bracken-seed.

And there is a lot in that story from Cavan, brackens like all ferns do not actually have seeds, nor flowers, but spread by spores (sporangiforms) and rhizomes.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph and to learn more about the Irish countryside on a photography tour in 2021. No deposits are required to reserve a day for when we can travel again.

Morning, and a thin band of sunrise sunlight pierces thick cloud to illuminate the lower slopes of a cloud-covered mountain in the west of Ireland.

Roads like these take you into the splendid scenic views in Ireland as they twist and turn, roll and flow through the rocky, boggy and lush green landscapes of the Irish countryside.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, on a photography tour in the west of Ireland and the rest of Ireland.

The sky above the west of Ireland, in particular Connemara, is more impressive than those of the rest of Ireland.

Big, open blue skies and stormy skies stretching for miles are the likely scenes awaiting the photographer and visitor alike.

Panoramic Ireland's photography workshops run all year round in Connemara, in Dublin and throughout Ireland.

Contact me today to find out more about the places and options for 2021.

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