Most years, our St. Patrick's Day celebration consists of green bagels for breakfast, maybe a little bit of Irish Soda Bread and a Guinness or five for Dad. There ain't an ounce of Irish in any of us, but we still enjoyed the day in our own way.
Fast forward to last year when my exuberant daughter declared that if you leave your boots outside on St. Pattie's Day Eve, they will be filled with candy and the leprechaun's will then enter the house and wreak major havoc. This was news to us old folk but we decided to play along. That is the kind of effect my daughter has on us. Her enthusiasm and zest for life is contagious and you can't help but join in. Corned beef and cabbage alone won't cut it.
So the boots went out Saturday night and sure enough, they were filled with Skittles, Twix and all sorts of other similarly healthy snacks come this morning. Girlfriend was right.
As we then made our way through the house it was quite obvious that the lepechauns were good and liquored up late last evening. They toilet papered the entire house:
Danced on the kitchen table with their green painted tiny shoes and even painted a rainbow for kicks:
I can't even describe some of the other stuff those heathens were responsible for. Let's just say one disgusting joke involved a sock puppet, a toilet and a plunger. Need I say more?
After we all recovered from the inhumanity, we calmed things down a bit by resorting back to one of our safe go-to St. Pat's breakfast of green bagels:
We could feel the sense of normalcy return and all was good.
Later on, while the kids were bouncing off the walls on a sugar high and my wife was making sure the f'n leprechauns didn't steal any valuables, I ventured outside to my happy place. Those little green bastards can TP my house, turn my milk green or even swing from the chandeliers, but they better not have touched any of my plants.
All looked OK upon further inspection, except it was damn frigid outisde and there was still a decent amount of snow lingering around. Enough already!
I did observe that some of the daffodil blooms are further along than others:
And I jumped for joy when I saw that the bulbs I planted on a whim back in the fall, in a super soggy part of the garden, made it through:
But then again, look whose bulbs I planted in that spot
Martha knows best.
Quick aside - There is no better comedy on the radio today than Martha Stewat taking callers questions over the phone on her radio show. Her inability to relate to the "common folk" or to even try to put herself in their shoes is hilarious. I honestly believe she thinks every single one of us has a few maids and laborers at our beck and call or have access to French batards we can have flown in overnight. Genius radio. Oh yeah, she also clearly eats while she is taking these calls. Total Gangster.
And we're back.
A few additional observations from my walk in the garden today:
This is one of maybe five buds that has survived the deer on my Viburnum 'Aurora' (Maybe I should call Martha for advice):
The Dappled Willow (Salix) has managed to hide from the deer to date (and of course I just jinxed myself):
I think the Rosemary has managed to make it through the winter; a bit beaten up but still alive and kicking:
Welcome back Geranium 'Karmina'. We expect big things in year two:
Two weeks ago the grasses were cut down and now they are covered in snow. C'mon man:
We are looking at continued cold here this week but as far as I know, the leprechauns are headed back to wherever it is they came from.
John
