Green Day ..no, not the group, it’s St Patrick’s day!

“Top of the morning to you” to which you should reply “And the rest of the day to yourself.”

I remember a great tale somebody told on the radio many years ago. There was a large lorry travelling behind a learner driver in the middle of Dublin. They came up to some traffic lights just as they turned red, so the traffic stopped. When the lights went green, the car didn’t move. The lights went back to red. When they went to green, the same thing happened. This went on a couple more times. When the lights were on red yet again, the driver of the lorry got down from his cab and went up to the car and tapped on the driver’s window. The poor harassed driver wound down her window and the lorry driver with a big smile on his face asked her, “Are yis waiting for any particular shade of green?”

Spring has sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where the birdies iz?

(or something like that)

Well it certainly seems as though Spring is here. Last Saturday we were freezing our bits off in zero temperatures and cold, grey skies. Yesterday I had to go and do a drug deal in the local town (monthly visit to the docs for my diabetic medicines) and stopped off to get la D and myself an extraordinarily delicious pastry from the local patisserie. I came back, about 10:30, made some coffee and La D and I sat outside and drank the coffee and ate the pastries in the blazing sunshine. It’s glorious. We wonder if it is going to be similar to last year when it almost seemed that we went from Winter straight into Summer. We’ll have to see.

What’s this?

Well done. Good to see you are on the ball. Yes it’s a fire engine. La D asked me to put a picture in of one as it is now early year bonfire season. I’ve had a couple of crackers already this week and probably a couple more tomorrow and Friday. Although I think la D has something else in mind.

I have been very good. Checking the wind strength. Trying to gauge whether it might pick up by studying the weather over the mountains. Using little petrol. No, no ignore that. Forget I ever mentioned the awful spirit. If La D sees this she’ll rip my head off and stick it on a spike outside the front door. – I think I have been reading too many books about Vlad.

But they have been most satisfying although I am again missing my Firestarter Secondo Classe, the DIL. He’s such a help at keeping the fire going. In fact I think he has a nagging ambition to becoma a Prima Classe. It’s his enthusiasm that does it. If you watch him closely as he looks at the flames erupting from the bonfire, his eyes are dancing and you get the distinct feeling that in his mind he is doing some sort of primitive fire dance round the bonfire. It’s very good to sense such a thrill in another. Maybe we could start a society like the Masons or the Buffs (Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes). Maybe.

Ciao, mantenere la fede