Booming Banter

A happy Saint Patrick’s day to all you little leprechauns out there.

We were very busy yesterday preparing for an event at the tearoom today.

There is going to be some shenanigans along with soda bread and apple cake.

We made both oven and griddle soda and we’ll let you know which one is rated best. We’re rooting for the griddle farls since we’re from the North!

Do you ever think about how soda bread was invented? Well we hate to disappoint you who think Saint Patrick ate it because he didn’t!

It came to Ireland in the 1800s as an invention brought to Europe from Native Americans. The first soda bread recipe was written by an English man!

Well doesn’t matter a jot as it’s now well and truly linked to the Emerald Isle and makes many a morning brighter.

Enjoy what ever you do today and be sure to turn the sunny side up just like the good Saint!

Blessing#2713-Potash

You all know how much Ma loves a good bargain. Well this weekend she excelled herself.

There was an estate sale just round the corner from us on Saturday. For those of you who aren’t from these parts estate sales are when someone has moved to a retirement home or have passed away and the entire contents of their house is sold.

Ma went looking for teapots but they had none. Instead in the basement she found a huge tote box filled with candles marked $5

The poor man running the sale had to carry it up to her car and was quite exhausted by the weight.

Yesterday we sorted everything out. In total she’d snagged 28 large pillar candle a dozen taper candles and eight tea lights.

We have them all organized now by season and they are tucked away tidily in our big living room cabinet.

It is so satisfying when this happens and made us happy especially since our supply was running a little low.

A God Wink for us to keep her lit!

Blessing#2712-Restocking

Howdee cowboys it’s Kong here to get y’all swimming this Sunday.

I’m a tad shook up right now because I got real scared last evening.

I was doing my usual thing while the tandoori chicken was cooking when all of a sudden I heard my true loves teeth hitting her Nyla kinda hard.

That’s always a sign of stress for my pretty puppy and then old Granny starts screaming. I’ve never heard her shout so loud and let me tell you she’s a sharp shouter Soon after my Father in Law to be starts swearing. Now I’m not saying exactly what he said as I’d shock you too much.

This pattern of crunch, cry and curse went on for a full forty minutes.

All became clear when they all calmed down and came over into my kitchen to eat their dinner.

Seems like a complicated issue! See England whom Ireland usual detests was playing France in a game of rugby and Ireland had just beaten Scotland so if England beat France then Ireland would win everything but if France won they wouldn’t so the Irish were cheering for the English that has never happened in the history of history before!

Did you get that. Well with two minutes to go Ireland scored and were ahead by one point and then France got a penalty and crawled back two points so in the end France won by 48 points to 46.

The high score explains what I had endured. It was worse than a stampede at the High Chaparral! Fortunately the tournament is over for another year and we can get back to simpler sports like swimming!

Y’all keep at it now and keep going round and round and round and dreaming of Pitties.

Blessing#2711-Action Packed

Yesterday it was hard to walk at all as the winds were so wild. They lasted all day. Ma who is ancient said she’d never seen wind like it in her life!!!

Trees were falling, limbs were flying all around, roofs were taking off into the sky and sadly in our town one house caught fire and within minutes the flames had spread to the next house.

People back in our old stomping ground have been without power since yesterday afternoon.

It was seriously bad and so it was just lovely this morning to get a message from Katie our insurance agent at Shamrock Insurance to explain to all her clients exactly what they should do.

She told them don’t need to wait till Monday to call me. “I’m here for you right now”. She also explained that people should take photos of any damage and can call in their contractors immediately to get things fixed.

We have thankfully no damage here at home but many people will have that’s why it gave us such a warm feeling to get that message.

Yet another advantage of living in a small town your a friend rather than a number.

Blessing#2710-Reassurance

Precious Peeps it’s PITS here to whizz you into a wonderful weekend.

Kong and I are planning to hang out together and whisper sweet nothings to each other.

We talk about all sorts of things like swimming and eating and going round in circles.

We’re planning to do some synchronized water aerobics once the pool opens. He probably will have to play his part from the sideline as all the chlorine might irritate his little gills.

It’s fun planning though.

That’s my recommendation for y’all if you happen to have nothing special going on just pretend.

Get out some paper and start making a list of all you have to do before you go on your cruise or to the beach or to the nightclub or the beauty parlor or your wedding or whatever takes you fancy.

Just thinking about it is almost as good as doing it so jump on board and be like like me.

I love y’all almost as much as Kong and hope you have a fun time doing whatever.

Blessing#2709-Dream Maker

You never know the minute! Dad and I were settling down to a quiet day just after Ma left for work when poof the electric went off.

There had been some serious stormy conditions all morning so Ma had put the niece in her crate before she left so she’d feel safe.

We were isolated but warm and it was daylight so we could get on and do things but little did we know what was going on around us.

Aunty Marsha was the first to, pardon the pun, get wind of the situation. She saw a post from the county saying people must avoid the Richland Road area due to downed power lines.

She texted Ma who left work to see if we were all OK but all roads leading to our house were blocked off. Ma ended up parking her car and walking to our house.

Just beside our street not one not two but three electric poles in a row had fallen. There were crews everywhere working on them.

Dad assured Ma we were fine so she returned to work and sure enough power was restored within a hour or so but by which means we are not sure as the poles were still down and the roads closed at bedtime.

Anyway we were all lucky that no one was hurt and no houses were hit and that those cross winds crossed where they did and missed people, cars, houses and trees!

Blessing#2708-Close Call

Precious Peeps it’s PITS here to heave you over the humpty.

This recent warm spring weather means Granny is on a roll in doing fun things with us.

Yesterday we did another major trot and then she piled us in the car and got Grandpa and we went for a little ride around some of the cute local towns.

I did a serious amount of barking as we drove past people. I learned that from my uncle and it’s all to do with keeping Granny safe.

Anyway it worked and we made it back home in one piece and then after a snooze we played fetch in the garden. So much fun. We recovered all the toys that had been scattered around and we now have them all in one place for more play days to come.

I’m going to see if we can take Kong out to the yard. Even if he can’t fetch he can umpire. That would be great because I know he’ll score me the winner.

Alas this is unlikely to happen in the next few days as we are in for storms and a return to winter but when you get to mid March you know the worst is over even if the swings are crazy.

Hope y’all have some good indoor projects for the days to come I’ll just hang out with Kong and kiss.

Be like me and enjoy all the seasons in this week. Be good till Friday and I’ll talk to you then.

Blessing#2707-Highs and Lows

Well what a day we had yesterday. It was so beautiful that Ma just had to take us trotting.

We went on an adventure to THE TALL GRASS TRAIL. This meant a little car ride to get there and then when we started walking I thought we’d never stop.

We walked the entire trail all the way around the little lake.

It’s such a cool place. We heard lots of birds and bullfrogs and encountered some people and pets too. We also discovered that the skeleton of a wholly mammoth had been unearthed there in 1976. Don’t you just love it when you think of prehistoric possibilities!

Best of all it’s mostly a paved path so no chance of slipping for the old gal if the niece tugs too hard!

I was so happy if a little tired by the time we got back in the car.

I love my new town so much.

Blessing#2606-Nature

My Bro is suffering with a bad cold. He’s coughing and spluttering and his voice is all croaky.

Why is it that humans get symptoms like these and dogs don’t.

In my pondering on the subject it struck me that we canines generally exist in environments with just a few other dogs whereas humans are always socializing.

I know there is a thing called kennel cough that is transmitted by Bordetella virus and that my vet shoots me up for it if I ever have to stay at a kennel but of course I don’t do that often.

Medics correct me if I’m wrong but I believe humans aren’t vaccinated for the common cold because it generally isn’t deadly and it mutates so fast a vaccine wouldn’t be effective anyway.

In the end though I put the problem all down to hands. Humans go around shaking them and they touch all sorts of surfaces like door knobs and things like money!

So what to do? Either abandon the bipedal lifestyle or wash those paws over and over again or simply stay home and be with me!

Blessing#2705-Isolation

My Bro is suffering with a bad cold. He’s coughing and spluttering and his voice is all croaky.

Why is it that humans get symptoms like these and dogs don’t.

In my pondering on the subject it struck me that we canines generally exist in environments with just a few other dogs whereas humans are always socializing.

I know there is a thing called kennel cough that is transmitted by Bordetella virus and that my vet shoots me up for it if I ever have to stay at a kennel but of course I don’t do that often.

Medics correct me if I’m wrong but I believe humans aren’t vaccinated for the common cold because it generally isn’t deadly and it mutates so fast a vaccine wouldn’t be effective anyway.

In the end though I put the problem all down to hands. Humans go around shaking them and they touch all sorts of surfaces like door knobs and things like money!

So what to do? Either abandon the bipedal lifestyle or wash those paws over and over again or simply stay home and be with me!

Blessing#2705-Isolation