Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Dhuit!

 

The Hobbit Door decorated for St. Patrick's Day.  On the little sign, Cead Mille Failte. A hundred, thousand welcomes! Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Dhuit! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Whatcha Doin?

I'm planting tulips

 

And they bloom at night!

Whatcha doin?

T Stands For Everyone is Wild About Harry's

Our plans for the day were to go to the big box stores and to price a new front entryway door. We also decided we would go out to lunch and stop at Harry's,  a hole in the wall diner with amazing food. We especially love their seafood.

The only problem with our plan was our erranding happened to fall on Ash Wednesday. Harry's is a popular spot no matter what day of the week it is, but we figured we might not be able to get in as they only have a dozen or so booths and about the same number of stools at the counter. We didn't really want to do take-out.

We decided we would do our erranding around 2pm and then stop for a late, late lunch at Harry's at 3pm. We reasoned the late lunch crowd would be through or finishing up, and it would still be a little too early for the dinner crowd.

Our planning was perfect and there was only one other couple in the restaurant.

I started with a Raspberry Lime Rickey and a cup of clam chowder. Harry's uses real clams in their chowder, not a few clam bits waved over the stockpot. Himself had a coffee frappe (shake) and a cup of Lobster Bisque.

As an appetizer, we had fish cakes with a dill sauce. Isn't that a pretty presentation?

I was going to get an order of fried clams, but there was a special on Coconut Shrimp so I had that instead. Himself had Fried Scallops with Fried Onion Rings. We both had awesome lunch the next day.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s blog to find out what the rest of the T gang is up to. If you want to play, include a beverage or beverage container in your post. Don’t forget to link your blog from Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s page.

Happy Mail and Pi Day

 

Besides a residential address, I have a post office box. Informed delivery usually lets me know if there's anything in the PO Box. Nothing had come through for the po box for several days. Not unusual. 

 I was at the post office to buy stamps to use for my Graceful Envelope entry and thought, just for fun, I'd check the PO Box.  Inside were a few fliers, local paper, and imagine my surprise to find this awesome first day cover for the Year of the Tiger stamp, and it was addressed to Calli and Quill.

Even without turning it over, I knew it was from Finnbadger from Envelope 100. Finn must have been very busy or bored with blogging as there wasn't much happening at the blog. I was pleased that he didn't fall out of the Ether.

Besides the first day cover (the day a new stamp is issued), there was wonderful card inside. One thing about Calli and Quill is they do see themselves as their larger cousins, especially Quill with his few orange tabby stripes and markings.

Thanks for brightening my day, Finn.

Oh, and I wish everyone a very Happy Pi Day!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Another blazing sunset

Timex danced for Calli getting her all excited 

Finally! All the snow is gone!

Oops! Spoke too soon.

Another dusting turned into 2 inches of snow

Finnegan doesn't mind dancing in the snow.

Snow all gone from the front yard on a foggy morning.

Snow almost gone from the back yard.

Ready for St. Patrick's Day

And the wind blew, and the snow came.

It's still Winter.

How does your garden grow?

Saturday Mornings at the Library

 

When I was 5 years old, I was forced to take dancing lessons while the Brother was forced to take accordion lessons. I hated dancing class. The Knights of Columbus Hall where the classes were given had no heat or it wasn't turned on. I hated wearing the pink beginner tights. I liked clacking around in the tap shoes, but Ma wouldn't let me practice inside the house on the wood floors. I spent most of my time in class being miserable and crying. Eventually, I was taken out of class.

While the Brother still had to endure accordion lessons, Dad took me to the library. He would leave me upstairs in the children's library where I could look at the books and choose to take some books home with my own library card. As I got older, I would go downstairs to the adult library and wander among the stacks enjoying the scent of the books before going to find Dad in the reference area consulting the law books and catching up on his work.

So for the next several weeks, a list of my favorite books, some I have read as a child, others as an adult and some  I have read more than once.

This week, The Thornbirds by Colleen McCollough. Set in the Australian Outback, a story about passion, ambition, secrets, and forbidden love.

If you haven't read this book, you can find it at your library or favorite bookstore.

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Went to the Knights of Columbus Drive-by Fish Fry for dinner.  A hat trick! No cooking for the third night in a row

2. The Roku device was no longer working for the television in the living room even after changing the batteries. Good thing there's an app for that.

3. Calli and Quill got some happy mail.

4. Himself went to the grocery store early to pick up salad items. He also brought home some muffins.

5. Had a nice chat with our mailman. He inherited the route from his father about the time we moved into the house 36 years ago.

How was your week?