In honour of St. Patrick's Day, I'm sharing a couple of photos Professor X took during our time in Ireland. We lived in a magical village called Murrisk, just outside Westport in County Mayo. The view from our house in one direction was a sacred mountain called Croagh Patrick. Pilgrims go there every year to climb the rocky trail to the top, where there is a little chapel. St. Patrick allegedly stayed at the summit in 441 AD. After 40 days of fasting, he banished all the snakes and demons from Ireland. This is his view from the top:
Clew Bay stretches out to the north of Murrisk. It is largely undeveloped, and just thinking about it makes my throat tight. Looking at this picture reminds me of the beauty we left behind as well as the wonderful friends who remain there. I miss all of it.
Let's not have me sink into melancholy, shall we? What else do I have to tell you about?
My sweet friend Mama Milton recently posted something that inspired me.
You can click on this badge and travel to SusieJ's blog, where she describes what this is all about. Suffice it to say that Amazing Children and I are about to embark upon an incredible journey of attempting to scrabble in the soil and sow seeds to help hunger at home and elsewhere.
I think this is a dandy way to commemorate St. Patrick's Day. Sadly, we can't afford tickets to return to our beloved Murrisk this year, and there aren't particularly large numbers of snakes which need to be driven out of any local environs. Sure, we will eat some Irish stew and soda bread for supper tonight after wearing green clothes. To be clear, we will keep the clothes on while eating. But the wearing will begin before the eating. Anyhoo, back to the gardening thing.
I've wanted to grow food for a while now, and this is a good time to start. So we will be digging up a bit of the backyard tomorrow and planning our planting. I am now taking suggestions for what we should include in our Victory Garden.
I can't resist including one non-edible that I always love to see, although it looks like my supply might be limited:
St. Patrick may have chosen to fast, but I'm determined to do what I can to help those in my community who are hungry. How about you?
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6 comments:
Growing food for others is a great idea. Good luck. A church in my neighbourhood sponsors a "plant a row, give a row" program. They distribute donations of home grown produce to shelters and soup kitchens. I don't grow more than a few pots of tomatoes, but you have inspired me to donate the crop from one of the pots to the program.
V.
Susie is going to love the plug - her heart is gold, I tell you.
That's a really cool idea. I am tryign to expand my garden a bit this year, so we'll see how successful that will be.
Those are breathtaking views of Ireland - I can't think of a better way to honor the Irish!
Gulp! What beautiful photos of Ireland.
I always give veggies to my neighbor(well she helps herself) and friends but this makes me want to put some aside for the local food bank in Batavia. I've actually been thinking of being a "community organizer" and getting a community garden going at the local Fermilab. I haven't got an answer back on my request yet but I may just have to be more demanding. What better time than now for some Victory Gardens.
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