Tag Archives: The Celt

A Celtic Hodgepodge

“May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow, and may trouble avoid you wherever you go.”
Luckily, Joyce from This Side of the Pond, has a fresh set of questions for us to answer for Wednesday Hodgepodge!
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1. St. Patrick’s Day lands on March 17th. Do you believe in luck? Are there things you do thinking they’ll  bring good luck or  things you avoid because they’re considered bad luck? 
Nyet, nyet, nyet. 🙂
I believe in the sovereignty and providence of God. This is a deep subject.
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Here is a quote (Daily Doctrine pg. 97, Providence, DeYoung) that sheds some light on this belief;
“If sovereignty is God’s power to do whatever he pleases, providence is the wonderful good news that this power is pro-us. “Providence is the almighty and ever present power of God by which he upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty–all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but from the fatherly hand.” Therefore, we can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and have confidence for the future that nothing will separate us from God’s love (Heidelberg Catechism Q/A 27,28).
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2. Forest-lime-sage-mint-olive-emerald…what’s your favorite shade of green? 
Of these shades sage is my favorites. I really enjoy the combination of pink and green.
Purple/lavender and green is a lovely combo, too.
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3. In Ireland the meal on this day is often a hearty beef or lamb stew served with colcannon (mashed potato mixed with cabbage and leeks). In the US corned beef and cabbage is the more typical St. Patty’s Day meal. Will you/did you mark the day with one of these dishes? Baked-fried-roasted-mashed…what’s your favorite way to eat a potato?

We have enjoyed corned beef and cabbage on this day and other days, too.

 

On Monday, because my creative energy levels are at minus something,  I bought a package deal for a slow cooker corned beef and cabbage meal. I just have to open the package and put all the ingredients in the slow cooker. Everything is washed and ready to go, corned beef, carrots, potatoes and cabbage with a spice packet, too. On Tuesday morning I put all the ingredients in the slow cooker and let it prepare itself. The aroma was wonderful during the day. We enjoyed the meal when it was ready to eat.

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4. What color of the rainbow best represents your personality/mood today? Tell us why. 

I’m going with a lighter answer here after my deep one in question one!

Sisters wknd 076

Yellow is the color I’ll go with, as in daffodils and sunshine. I like to smile and share the light.  Daffodils and sunshine make me smile and tell me Spring is on the way. The photo is of  my sisters in a sea of daffodils, in the glorious sunshine from 2016 in Mount Vernon, Washington State!

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5. Which ‘lucky’ quote resonates with you. Elaborate. 

 ‘Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.’ E.B. White 

‘Diligence is the mother of good luck.” Benjamin Franklin 

‘Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.’ Seneca 

‘Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.’ Ralph Waldo Emerson 
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I’ll go with ‘Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.‘
We are just back from 16 days abroad and many good things culminated in the research that we made before we landed in all the places we visited. The preparation made the opportunities more meaningful and enjoyable.
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6. Insert your own random thought here. 

An Old Celtic Blessing

May the blessing of light be on you –
light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you
and warm your heart
till it glows like a great peat fire.

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Dublin ~ Day One

This will be the start of a several post travelogue of our time in Dublin, Northern Ireland and England. There will be many photos to accompany the many posts. You have had your fair warning, dear readers.

The six of us parked and shuttled to the Seattle Tacoma Airport for our check-in and wait for our flight on Aer Lingus to Dublin on Thursday evening September 14th. The security line was especially long but we were at our gate with time to spare.

After arriving in Dublin on Friday September 15th, these two split off from us and headed to the train station that would take them to Galway for the start of their Wild West and North Ireland 6 day tour.

The other four of us waited in the taxi queue for our ride into Dublin to our hotel for 3 nights. Edward, our taxi driver, shared a lot of things with us and suggested we try The Celt for a meal before we turned in for the night.

The main section of the Pub was full and hopping but there was room in the back room for us.

Slainte! Our first Guinness in the land of Guinness.

We all enjoyed our meal choices, too.

From the The Celt we made our way to O’Connell street and walked down to the bridge to view the river. We snapped a few photos of our first views in Dublin.

 Sir John Gray (1815-75),  honours his efforts to bring a water supply to Dublin in 1868. 

O’Connell Monument

Freestanding commemorative bronze monument, commissioned by Dublin Corporation, conceived 1866 by John Henry Foley and completed 1883 by Thomas Brock. Located at southern entrance to O’Connell Street comprising numerous bronze figures on large granite plinth surmounted by bronze figure of Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847). Tall bronze cloaked figure of O’Connell standing on tall cylindrical pedestal, encircled below by bronze frieze of people of Ireland in high-relief, having nearly thirty figures symbolizing church, professions, arts, trades and peasantry. Central figure of Erin trampling upon chains, points upwards and holds 1829 Act of Catholic Emancipation in her left hand. Larger limestone-clad drum sits on square granite base, at angles of which are seated four winged victories, grandly scaled bronze figures representing Patriotism, Courage, Eloquence and Fidelity. Evidence of bullet holes on arms and breasts of two victories, legacy of unrest in 1916-22.

The River Liffey with the Ha’penny bridge beyond, a landmark 1800’s pedestrian bridge.

The O’Connell Bridge, historic stone and granite road bridge.

Before we turned back to our hotel we made a final stop at Brannigan’s. Another pub that was full to the brim with room for us upstairs! It was a Friday and raining when we arrived to Dublin so I’m assuming more folk were seeking shelter in a cozy pub.

Back to our hotel for hopefully some good sleep before our 7:20am start to our all day tour on Saturday.

While we were all away we enjoyed updates from our Colville kids and Grands. Miss Addy lost another tooth so is in the right position to be singing “All I want for Christmas are my two front teeth!”