An Irish Country Doctor

(Above is the first book in the series.) I just finished reading An Irish Country Courtship, by Patrick Taylor, the last book in an enjoyable series about a medical practice set in 1964/65 in the fictional small town of Ballybucklebo, County Down, Northern Ireland. Doctor Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly is a locally legendary rural GP who hires Barry Laverty, a promising young doctor to share in the work and life of this small town. They live at Number 1, Main Street, with their housekeeper, Mrs. Maureen "Kinky" Kincaid; O'Reilly's dog, Arthur Guinness; and the homicidal white cat, Lady Macbeth. A great series of five books offering hours of good reading.

Windy Memorial Day

Windy day! Went to the cemeteries.

Interesting stones.

The Girls and Me

They say we look alike.

Rainy Days

Rainy day supper at B-H's with an impromptu play by the middle girls.



W. enjoys one of our new kitties from Mitch and Betty.

On the porch. W. whittles and M. reads in the nice weather.

The corn is up. We drove around to check fields so Husband could decide if he would be able to finish planting. It has been very wet and windy this week. He got 400 acres planted in 24 hours and was almost done when the rain started again. Our fields by the river may be too wet to get planted at all this year. One of the fields has lots of wild turkeys.



Checking the fields for the last run at planting.

The Rhubarb Queens

The Rhubarb Queens were out cutting rhubarb today. They had a very zen way of hacking the tops off. Hai-Ya!

More birds in the yard. The beautiful, troublesome Blue Jays, and this little guy, who fell out of his nest. He could fly some, and perched on the spigot a bit before a cat took him to the great birdhouse in the sky. He was cute while he lasted.

Our city has a Sculpture Walk downtown every year. There are around 50 sculpture installed for one year. The city buys the viewers' choice each year, which is voted on by the public. There are also some prizes from a contest. Many of the sculptures are for sale, and the artists are from all over the US and the world. It is a great program, and really fun to take in each year.

This morning we ran to town to check out a possible apartment for Daughter A. and then spent an hour walking the sculpture walk with my cousin Melonie who is here for a visit. Fun!

THIRTY YEARS!

Husband and I have been married thirty years today. Seems impossible. He is just as handsome and sweet today as he was then. To prove it, here is a picture of us when we were in the high school royalty in 1979. We married two years after that. And here is another picture of a rock he found while planting and brought to me last week. (Yes, I kissed on him.) The lilacs are from husband for our anniversary, brought in from his "home place" yesterday.

Craft Update

Here is a roundup of recent crafts I have worked on this last month or so.



Baby booties and baby buggy mints, with color coordinated napkin flowers for our nieces baby shower. I had never made mints before, but they turned out fine.

A left-over picture of some of our Easter eggs.


This is a delightful project I just completed. One of my art class students, Tessie, designed her own stuffed octopus pattern (above), and asked me to make it up for her. I stitched it out of felt, and it turned out to be very cute.

Every piece worked as she drew them, except the bottom, which just had to be made slightly smaller.



I had my beading supplies out for several projects, and so I made a few earrings before I cleaned them up.


Wedding prep! A niece on the other side is getting married, and I have a few little projects to make for her. I did a batch of corsages and boutonnieres out of artificial flowers for their cake cutters, gift carriers, etc. I haven't been a florist for 25 plus years, but I find the skills never go out of style!

I designed these earrings (below) to go with a necklace for the bride, and a back necklace for the back of the dress (here modeled by L.) The back necklace will need to be reworked for the final look, but it is a neat idea.



And this week we congregated at G and G's to make mints for the wedding. (L to R-Aunt Shirley, Betty, Gaylin, Mother)

One batch was cocoa mints, which we had never seen before, but they were delicious, and worked perfectly with the bride's color scheme.