St. Patrick's Day and more

March hasn't been so hot for my writing process, but it's been great for being sick. Spencer caught the flu when I returned from Georgia, then Emerson followed with a cold and 103.7 degree fever for three nights accompanied by lingering congestion and cough. I succumbed to a cold after taking care of them. Somehow Scott managed to stay healthy, despite my waking him up at night when hacking and reaching for yet another delicious cough drop. Our client is healthy, his bedroom is downstairs and he has less exposure to our germs. Today we've turned the corner, I feel almost healthy.

St. Patrick's Day is a national holiday in my mind, we all wore green today and I didn't have to ask. Scott arrived home from work with a Guinness for us to quaff with the homemade pizza he made. I love St. Patrick's Day because I believe I have an Irish soul. I'm 100% German (my great-greats hail from Germany), but as my husband the history buff tells me, long before the land was Germany it was occupied by Celts. This works for me. The local PBS station and IFC (Independent Film Channel) played Irish themed shows; we taped "Visions of Ireland" for the next time I need an Ireland "fix," and a great movie starring Richard Harris, "The Field". We considered going out to celebrate the holiday, but with snow flurries on and off all day, we chose to stay inside and keep warm.

While eating pizza, we cheered on VCU (Virginia Commonwealth) in the NCAA tourney, but no upset last night. Tomorrow we'll see how UVA and VT do, whether they'll advance or not. We enjoy watching sports, but we're selective. We like football, the NCAA basketball tournament, the Tour de France, and the Olympics. My family is from Indiana, so we have a long history of attending or watching The Indy 500. The last 20 years we've watched during the annual Memorial weekend relative-a-thon.

I make no promises, but I'll get back on the productive blogging track I was on earlier this year. I'm expecting the book Getting Things Done in the mail any day. We'll talk about that subject in future posts.

[St. Patrick at Croagh Patrick, driving the snakes out of Ireland. Photo by Pat O'Connor.]

The View

Just thought I'd share with you all a view from the pasture looking up towards the house, the stone structure you see in the distance up on the Rock of Cashel. My husband and I own a stone castle on a thousand-acres in South County Tipperary, Ireland. These are our sheep, aren't they beautiful? They're harder to take care of than chickens ever were, but we're still in the learning curve. With all this wool on hand, I'm learning to card and spin wool and to knit. Next year, everyone will receive an organic wool knit scarf for Christmas. That will be light to send (even if mailing overseas), my husband will be thrilled. He's been after me to choose lightweight gifts or convert to gift cards. We live just a half-mile from the nearest pub, after I'm done working in the garden and hubby's through playing some Celtic blues on his guitar, we often stroll to town for a pint (or two) of Guinness. Ah, life is good in Ireland. Come visit us, won't you? We keep telling our family that we have plenty of room for them to stay, and even more than one bathroom (since 2004) but we seldom have visitors. So you're invited.

Whoops, sorry folks, that was just my daydream. I was staring out the window when the sheep caught my eye. Don't want you to get the wrong idea. Try this picture instead taken a few minutes ago from my office window. Really. This is a 100 year-old Stayman Winesap apple tree, give or take a few years. And look! That pretty white layer on the tree, that's Snow. It's a natural phenomena that usually happens during the season known as Winter. Whether it's Global Warming, Climate Change, Climate Crisis (see should-have-been-President Al Gore's great documentary) or Mother Nature Being Downright Persnickety, we haven't had much winter to speak of this year. Three cold nights near Thanksgiving--already several holidays ago--that's been it so far. In fact, we've had five weeks of April, until today. I took this picture specifically to document that snow still falls in the winter month of January in the Appalachian mountains of southwestern Virginia.

Even in my Double-4th year I still find myself wishing for a Snow Day when it's been a while--or since last winter--that the snow fell. You know what I mean; a Snow Day filled with sledding, hot cocoa, a hot bath and a good book (in that order). But we have a problem since tomorrow happens to be the last half-day of the public school semester. Spencer (my son, see Healthy Cookies post) has two finals (Chemistry and Algebra II) and we'd rather he get them out of the way instead of having to take them next week. So as much as I long for a true Snow Day, I really don't want it tomorrow. Another time.

Where'd the sheep go? Don't worry. Here they are...all month long.
In May you'll enjoy photo's of our cattle along the Burren, in County Clare. Meanwhile, the snow is still falling, just not as vigorously as before. Using my imagination, from Floyd County....