Hello, lovely friends!
What a splendid almost-spring day it is to be celebrating St. Patrick's Day.
In our home, this is always a day marked with fun, good food and happy memories. Fun...listening to favorite Irish music and wearing green and enjoying a delightful celebration. Good food...preparing a traditional Irish meal of Irish stew and soda bread and a scrumptious tea cake for dessert. Happy memories...this day always makes me remember our two holidays in Ireland, just over five years ago now.
As I write this post, a most delicious Irish tea cake is sitting on the countertop cooling, awaiting the time for us to slice it and serve it with some freshly whipped cream and sliced strawberries. Our dinner is always authentic and traditional and reminiscent of the meals we ate and saw on menus at the pubs whilst travelling through the gorgeous countryside of Ireland. Irish stew simmering on the stove and finishing off in the oven. And a loaf of fresh and warm, home-baked soda bread, something we ate way too much of during our time abroad. And of course, no St. Paddy's Day would be complete in our house unless we played some of our favorite Irish music. Most definitely The High Kings or Cuig...both groups some of our favorites to see live in concert, too.
And I love just how much St. Patrick's Day seems to gracefully and gently usher in springtime. It is this holiday that feels like the start of spring to me. On this day, when wearing green is the tradition, it seems as though the earth gets the message too...bits of grass popping up here and there, tiny leaves pushing through on the branches of trees, and green shoots coming up through the hardened dirt with promises of daffodils in the coming days. Yes, St. Patrick's Day is a marvellous way to welcome in spring.
Come by the hills to the land where fancy is free
And stand where the peaks meet the sky and the loughs meet the sea
Where the rivers run clear and the bracken is gold in the sun
And the cares of tomorrow can wait till this day is done
Come by the hills to the land where life is a song
And stand where the birds fill the air with their joy all day long
Where the trees sway in time and even the wind sings in tune
And the cares of tomorrow can wait till this day is done
Come by the hills to the land where legend remains
The stories of old fill our hearts and may yet come again
Where the past has been lost and the future is still to be won
And the cares of tomorrow can wait till this day is done
Wherever you are in this grand world, I hope you are safe and well. Despite the troubling news and heartache that is taking place every day, I know it can feel like darkness is taking over. I hope that days like today can remind us that celebrating even small things and holidays and occasions is important. We need to remind ourselves each day that goodness is alive and beauty is real and that there is hope. Even with all the bad and evil, there is still goodness and beauty.
Springtime is also a reminder of that.
May green be the grass you walk on,
may blue be the skies above you,
may pure be the joys that surround you,
may true be the hearts that love you.
·An Old Irish Blessing·
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Happy St. Patrick's Day, dear friends!
May your day be filled with beauty,
even in all the nooks and crannies...
♥ ♥ ♥