Fast hands

I know Rathlin is only a wee island 3 miles of the Antrim coast and it has electricity and 3G coverage and everything but there is something different about it.  When the weather is good the evening can be a really special time on the island.  After the last ferry leaves for the mainland there's a stillness about the island.  You can just mosey around, perhaps head down to Rua Point where the South Lighthouse and the seal colony are and generally feel at peace with the world.

Unfortunately on our visit a couple of weeks ago the weather wasn't great.  Although it wasn't particularly cold, there was a wind that would have nearly taken your head clean off and so we retreated to the shelter of McCuaig's bar/restaurant/tea-room/general-place-to-go-when-everywhere-else-is-closed.  After refreshments and something to eat (pretty good fare, truth be told) we headed back to our room for the night.  

Isn't it great when you're forced to make your own entertainment?  While The Brother and I reflected on the day just past and our hopes for the following day the girls kept themselves amused with camp-fire songs and general mayhem:

One of the many, many, hand-clap songs the girls amused themselves with.  It was great to be party to - all to easy to forget how the simplest things can lead to so much enjoyment.  They had a lot of fun.  I tried my best to capture them on HP5 - tricky enough, when your widest aperture is only f4 and it was as dark as it looks here.  I think I was somewhere around 1/4 or 1/2 a second on the rangefinder. I printed this one out on Ilford RC Warmtone.

Now the thing is, if we'd been at home as usual, these moments would never have happened.  Well, they might have, but doubtful if The Brother or I would have been witness to them.  There's something about 'going away', isn't there - puts us in the holiday spirit and all that.