Magical Shannon Mist

I couldn’t sleep last night. I’m usually one of those types who looks at his pillow and is fast asleep before the head even makes contact. I was renown in college for being able to fall asleep anywhere under the most unlikely circumstances. This not sleeping thing – completely disconcerting.

I suppose I’ve had a lot going on lately with work and in my personal life, but whatever it was that kept me from sleeping last night I watched the sky lighten over the town and then around 6am witnessed a phenomenon I have seen usually only when the munchkin wakes this early – the Shannon dawn mist.

It’s really quite startling, actually.

Moving swiftly upriver, a mist rises from the water as if the whole river were about to boil. It moves like a white cloud northward into the town from the Shannon callows and is so heavy it quickly obscures the opposite bank. Then, the sun appears and the whole thing evaporates into thin air in the space of ten minutes or so.

This morning as I sat staring out at the slowly lightening sky I saw the finger of mist making its way upriver and decided to capture the event. I grabbed the video camera and a coat and, startling a lone local fisherman, did my level best to capture the phenomenon. Shooting mist isn’t as easy as one might think, but I believe I got some lovely footage. I’ll edit it together into something watchable and then post it up here later for y’all when it’s done for your viewing pleasure.