Cummeenduff Lough, Co. KerryThe Black Valley in February. I'd walked in from the road end with frost still on the ground, fingers already gone. Cummeenduff Lough was frozen at its margins but the centre held perfectly still water. Not a ripple. The kind of morning where you can hear your own breathing and not much else. Snow held fast on the upper slopes, lit hard by low winter sun from the south. The conifer plantation on the right bank stood almost black against it. Reed stems