St. Patrick's Day does not pass uncelebrated in the O'Donoghue Home. It's a far cry from days gone by when my general knowledge of St Paddy consisted of shamrocks, pots of gold, green beer and a mental image of him driving the snakes out of Ireland in a bus

When I taught Grade One, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, we were expected to teach a small poem to the kids on St Patrick's Day. I'm pretty sure nobody teaches it now.

Oh my Mother isn't Irish and my Father isn't too.
But today I feel as Irish as the really Irish do.
For today I wear a shamrock that is very green and gay.
And though I'm a Canadian, I'm Irish for today.

When I married Tim, I made a point of cooking an Irish type of meal on March 17th. Usually it was corned beef and cabbage and Irish Soda Bread. For the last year or two, the corned beef has become steaks (health reasons).

Tim's trip to Ireland a few years ago inspired this year's meal - breakfast. For years he's talked fondly of the scrambled eggs with smoked salmon at Benner's Hotel.


Here's breakfast!
 

Topped with a bit of cilantro (because I forgot to buy parsley) the Smoked Salmon hides creamy scrambled eggs cooked gently in a double boiler and seasoned with a bit of dill. They were wonderful
 
Homemade Irish Soda Bread has buttermilk in it, and two kinds of raisins and caraway seeds. Yummm! Today it was toasted and slightly buttered.
 
After breakfast, Tim suggested a visit to the nature trails at McCollum Park just north of here. It was sunny and cool, and a walk sounded good to me.
 
Just before we entered the trails, we met Bea. She was celebrating her third birthday.
 
It wasn't Beau's birthday but he wanted a pat too so we obliged.
 
Over the bridge and into the woods we went.
 
It was so quiet.
 
Tim found interesting things to photograph.
 
I hugged a few trees.
 
We watched a striking Hairy Woodpecker for a few minutes.
 
Nearby were some exotic/carnivorous plants although most seemed dead right now. Here's a Cobra Lily.
 
We didn't find a Pot of Gold in the woods, however we spotted a tiny little Inukshuk. Perhaps it was telling us 'You are on the right path.' It made me smile.

It was a nice day (and we still have dinner to look forward to).
 
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