Irish Spring

There is nothing quite like the refreshingly clean smell of Irish Spring. The world is scrubbed clean of winter's damp and glistens in welcome sunny showers . . . I am talking about weather you know, not some kind of body wash.

I happily welcomed spring and have especially been enjoying the sunshine now that the majority of my schoolwork is completed for the term. Today it reached a lovely 17 degrees Celsius and there was not a drop of rain. Spring weather has been mostly dry, but I have had to re-friend my umbrella on a couple occasions. Not surprisingly it is still broken like the last time I used it. I should really buy a new one. Often in Ireland umbrellas are not practical because of strong winds. On these days I sometimes brave the weather in my rain coat and come home looking like this:

In spring, I always love seeing the leaves come out and flowers bud on trees. Some of them look good enough to eat! The yellow of this shrub, called Gorse, appealed to me until I realized that its attractive flowers conceal multitudes of long thorns. Sneaky plant...

The University of Limerick has quite expansive grounds and many people use its walking paths to get some exercise. With this nice weather there have also been fly-fisherman and rowers on the river, and the sports teams are racing around in their shorts. Even the snails and slugs are back out and about, walkers beware!

Over the last couple weeks I have also been graced by the presence of my sister. Honestly, we are getting along better than I expected! Plus she sometimes makes me supper and washes my dishes so I shall not complain. One day she got adventurous and baked Guinness Bread.  This bread defied our expectations as it was sweet and delicious with butter. Here it is half eaten with some daffodils we "borrowed" from the campus grounds.

This past weekend I had a very enjoyable birthday celebration. I baked myself the most delicious strawberry swirl cheesecake, which I shared with my friends who came over to play a big game of Rummoli. Great games, great food, great people, what else could I ask for??

I'd like to share one more story before wrapping up this blog. I've been teaching a weekly violin class in Limerick to girls aged nine to eleven. Today we used the on-site recording studio to record a song that we wrote. As we were sitting waiting to play, one of the young girls points to some of the sound equipment in the room and says, "That looks like an old-time radio." After a slight pause she added, "from like 1998." I suddenly felt very old.

Happy Spring to all!
Shannon