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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Happy Uncle Patrick's Day! : : Anne McAllister



Sorry I'm late. I was celebrating.

I have a son named Patrick, so we always celebrate St Patrick's day or, as his youngest niece has dubbed it, "Uncle Patrick's Day."

Today, as well, I did a bit of reminiscing with a friend about our trip to Ireland three years ago. It was a business trip -- the best kind -- where because I was researching a book set in a large old country house, we went to stay for a few days in a large old country house in the south of Ireland.

Unlike home, where the snow was still thick and deep on the ground, in the south of Ireland the daffodils were everywhere.

It was gloriously green with splotches of vivid yellow so bright it almost hurt my 'accustomed to gray and brown and white because it's winter in the midwest' eyes.

We did a lot of touristy things as well as basking in front of the fire at the country house. We visited the cliffs of Moher and we wandered around the streets of Galway.

We visited the amazing library at the University of Dublin (seriously reminding me of Harry Potter books) and strolled through St Stephen's Green.

We drank tea at Bewley's and Guinness in more places than I can remember (imagine that) and one afternoon and evening got to watch Harlequin Mills & Boon's own Abby Green do her 'day job' as an assistant film director. Very impressive she was, too.

It would be hard to decide what the highlight of the trip was. There were many.

But one of the things I never expected to see -- but I'd read about -- was road bowling. It is exactly what it sounds like: a bunch of men bowling a ball down country lanes where you (or at least I) least expected to see them. Loved watching that.

It sort of captured Ireland for me -- delightful, homey, familiar, and yet at the same time, unexpected.

Happy Uncle Patrick's Day to all!

10 comments:

Pat Cochran said...

Today is my saint's day! Not sure,
but I think my Dad was the one who
chose my name. I knew I was in big
trouble when he called for "Patrick
Ann!"

"Happy St. Patrick's Day" to all and
a "Happy Uncle Patrick's Day" to your
Patrick from this Patricia. LOL!

Pat Cochran

Anne McAllister said...

Happy Saint's day to you, Pat! I wish you the very best. Enjoy! And thank you from "Uncle Patrick" as well.

Dina said...

Happy St. Patty's Day too.

Anne McAllister said...

Dina,
Best wishes for a very green and happy day!

Kaelee said...

Happy St. Patrick's Day or Uncle Patrick's Day. Your trip to Ireland sounds wonderful. I love the road bowling idea. Might be rather dangerous to try it on the NA side of the pond though.

Anne McAllister said...

Hi Kaelee,
Happy Uncle Patrick's day to you, too! Road bowling would work in the country around where we live. Not so much traffic. Might be a little boring as there are plenty of straight roads! But, I could see it happening.

Michele L. said...

Happy Uncle St. Patrick's Day Anne! Hope you had a fun one! My hubby and I went out for a dinner and had a nice meal. I wore my green today too. I didn't want to get pinched!

It was fun hearing about your trip! What a nice time you had!

Nas said...

Happy St Patrick's day, Anne. I loved reading about your trip to Ireland.

Kaelee said...

Anne ~ Straight roads would make for a boring game. I think northern NA's play road hockey year round instead.

ev said...

I've seen road bowling on CBSW Sunday morning a few years ago and thought maybe I had finally found a sport I could actually enjoy participating in!!

Happy Whatever Day!!! (Unless of course you have a hangover then, happy whatever day shhhhh.....)