St. Brigid's Day

Today is St. Brigid's Day! Hello to all of the "Breeg's" out there, particularly my friend Kris' little girl whose having some kidney issues.


St. Brigid of Kildare is one of Ireland's patron saints. Here's the story about her that Johnny heard in school today:

One of the more commonly told stories of St. Brigid was when she went to the King of Leinster to ask for land to build a convent. She told the king that the place where she stood was the perfect place for a convent. It was beside a forest where they could collect firewood and berries. There was also a lake nearby that would provide water and the land was fertile. The king laughed at her and refused to give her any land. Brigid prayed to God and asked him to soften the king’s heart. Then she smiled at the king and said “will you give me as much land as my cloak will cover?” The king thought that she was joking and because Brigid’s cloak was so small he knew that it would only cover a very small piece of land. The king agreed and Brigid spread her cloak on the ground. She asked her four friends to hold a corner of the cloak and walk in opposite directions. The four friends walked north, south, east and west. The cloak grew immediately and began to cover many acres of land. The king was astonished and he realized that she had been blessed by God. The king fell to the ground and knelt before Brigid and promised her and her friends money, food and supplies. Soon afterwards, the king became a Christian and also started to help the poor and commissioned the construction of the convent. Legend has it, the convent was known for making jam from the local blueberries which was sought for all over Ireland. There is a new tradition beginning among followers of St. Brigit to eat jam on the 1st of February in honour of this miracle.

 
Tomorrow is Groundhog's day in America which, as far as I can tell, is not celebrated here (there are no groundhogs) and, let's face it, there's no need. I saw these in the garden in Johnny's school today:

After dropping Johnny off at school I snapped a few photos of the kids running around the yard.

Bikes on the ready for our commute.

Johnny and Oscar.

Sheila and I ventured out to Dalkey* this morning after drop-off. Here's Sheila at the Blackrock Dart
Station, Howth in the background.

Every morning the sea is out and Johnny talks about walking on the sand in search of "Sand Euros."

It was a gorgeous day.

We hopped on the Dart and headed south.  

About ten minutes later, we arrived in Dalkey and looked around a bit. We were early for lunch and decided to head up Killiney Hill. The top was a little over a kilometer from the village.

Supposedly Bono lives here in Dalkey which is ironic because we didn't know that at the time and we tromped all around his neighborhood.

 

The path up a hill winds around an old quarry from which stone was taken to build the ports in Dun Laogherie and Dublin. The walk wasn't too bad and ended with stairs to the top.

"From the top of Killiney Hill you get lovely views across Dublin and down into Wicklow. It'll be different every time you come and on a sunny day you can see why this stretch of the Dublin Coast inspired people to think of the Bay of Naples (hence the many italianite names on the streets and houses)"

Rainbow over Dublin Harbor

The other side of the rainbow over Howth

To the West: Wicklow Mountains

It's a pretty posh suburb. Clearly fancy people live here and visit. We didn't have time to see everything, like Dalkey Island, Colliemore Harbor and a beach toward the little village of Killiney, so we'll be back.

Here are a few more photos of the village. I seriously took that picture of the pink house with the rainbow with my iPhone (which is now essentially an itouch).

After lunch we headed back. Johnny and I went over to Oscar's after school, while Sheila did a bit of work and waited for Maggie to come home. It was great to spend some time with Oscar's mom and the five boys that were running around her house (she had three boys over in addition to her own two). I love a household of boys (lads!). Parenthood here seems as frenzied and worrisome as it has become at home. She talked about not having too much screen time, no tv, not too many sweets, trading video game time for doing Kumon math work sheets, etc. etc. Her third grader is vying for a phone and a Facebook account. She sounds just like me so I'm sure we will get along well!

We stayed until 5:30 or so when they had to head out for swim lessons--on a Friday night (again, a lot like life at home! How many times have I run to hockey on a Friday evening?) Johnny and I sped through the park on our bikes to home where we all snuggled in for the evening.

*I found this amazing page of local history for Dalkey. In particular, here is a description of a huge eel being caught in nearby shores (note the title: A Queer Tale of Flanagan and the Eel)!