Sitting at home this morning and arranging photos from a recent trip to Ireland, I sorted pictures taken from County Fermanagh. We stayed within a few miles of the border with Northern Ireland and found ourselves in Fermanagh several times during our trip.

It rained a lot during our stay so the grass was green and the vegetation lush. We visited Marble Arches Cave on two different dates. The first visit, we took a boat into the cave. It was a little exciting riding silently into a cave and floating among the formations. We had to duck in several spots to avoid a rock induced headache.

A few weeks later we returned with our house guests (daughter and son in law) and had to enter through a different entrance because the water level was higher. No boats today….just a longer walk in and out of the length of the cave on foot. It wasn’t nearly as “cool” and we were disappointed. The reason we can back was to do the boat ride. We come from cave country and have seen a lot of show caves. The big draw at Marble arches is the boats. The formations aren’t really that spectacular.

As I am lamenting our bad fortune, I see a newsfeed from a Fermanagh newspaper (I subscribe to wherever we have “lived” on an extended stay just to stay connected.) I click in the video that shows people being evacuated from the cave. Water is pouring in. Guests are being escorted up stairways with torrential flow coming down. Water is above ankle deep in the cave and rapidly rising. Even the staging room is flooding. I can’t believe it is the same place. I am looking at a photo of the cave interior and watching a corresponding video of a cave rapidly filling with water.

Suddenly, my disappointment about the water being too high to ride a boat seems a little silly. Thank heaven we weren’t in the cave for a flash flood.

On our first visit we experienced a light misty rain. While I got a little wet, it happened moving to and from the cave entrances not form gushing water inside the cave. While I climbed lots of stairs, I didn’t have to do it while a river force avalanche of water was coming down them.

Because it was raining when we visited, we decided to also tour nearby Florence Court. This estate was home to the Earl of Enniskillen. It was just a few miles away. I thought it would be an indoor house tour. Instead, we parked pretty far from the house and walked in the rain.

The flowers were wet in the lovely walled garden. There is something about rain kissed blooms that can’t help but make me smile. Even is my tennis shoes are becoming soggy.

Florence Court is impressive. Even if the main house is actually quite compact. The servants wings, workshops, and kitchens make a sprawling estate. The landscaping and views from the house are beautiful.

For an all too brief hour, I have my Downton Abbey moment. And then it is back out into the rain. Just when I was starting to dry out. If only the tea and biscuits laid out in the kitchen were real.

If you are already wet, we figure you may as well visit a waterfall. We stop at Tullydermot Falls. Not surprisingly, we have the place to ourselves….except for the sheep. The trail to the falls is lined with sheep droppings. It is hard to find a spot to put my already wet shoes so that I don’t slip in dung. We giggle and laugh our way to the viewing area.

On that day, the river seems to be moving fast. Today, as I watch the massive flooding along the Claddagh and Owenbrean Rivers in Fermanagh…I think how lucky we were to be laughing in the rain. People have died in the flash flooding since. Water is over roads, filling caves, and ruining houses.

I sit here looking at photos of Fermanagh and I pray for its people. May blue skies be in your future my friends.