The sea will always hold you. It will keep you afloat in your worst times.

The verge is sometimes punctuated by the strong sharp blue of the sheep’s-bit, a tiny wonder of a weed that is particular to this corner of Ireland, a wildflower that looks like a dandelion dipped in cobalt, and infinitely precious to me; it’s my favourite flower, a blue weed, and I only find it here.

It’s less than ten minutes’ walk from the campsite to the beach, and it’s a walk of unsurpassed beauty. To the north, the mountains of Beenarourke, Farriniaragh, Coomnahorna, Cahernageeha and Coad form a natural boundary, along which the Ring of Kerry route runs. Derrynane lies the other side of Lamb’s Head, to the west, the east is the Beara

Querencia (n) (Spanish) – a place from where one’s strength is drawn, where one feels most at home; the place where you are your most authentic self

And I’ve got a map of the way through that nobody else possesses. Its grid references are love, strength, graft and determination.

and when they are blue and golden, when they are perfect. It will never be too cold for a swim and every swim will be worth it, a sacred talisman of salt and minerals and wave to imprint and tattoo on my soul to carry me through the winter.

found the words in deep, wild, secret places where no words are spoken. I heard them in the silence of mountains and the roar and pounding and the quiet breathing of the sea. I often found the words where no sound is possible, in the green depths

You know they are inside you, and it is your job, your work to get them out. Even if writing sometimes nearly stops you breathing.

You come at it sideways, like a diligent crab, stacking thousands and thousands of words up that will be lost in the end, but you had to write them to find the others.