Monday, March 17, 2008

St. Patrick's Day!

Yes, it's my birthday!





I am a St. Patrick's Day Birthday Girl.
I am wearing my lucky shamrock necklace today. If I wear it on St. Patrick's Day, I avoid getting pinched by anyone who is foolish enough to try and pinch me. You see, as a St. Patrick's Day Birthday Girl, I have a lifetime exemption from the "pinching if you're not wearing green" business. This necklace is especially lucky because it was bought on St. Patrick's Day for me by the person who made me a St. Patrick's Day baby--my mother. I was pregnant with Kiti and visiting my mom and dad in BOSTON.
My mother and father thought about naming me Patricia, in honor of my date of birth and also in honor of my great uncle Pat who was also a St. Patrick's Day baby. But they thought better of it and changed their minds at the last minute before committing the name to official paper.


The kindergarteners were all in a doodah today because 'Lucky the Leprechaun' visited the classroom yet again and this time spilled the green paint and walked through it, leaving little footprints. However, he was sorry about it and left us all pieces of gold covered candy.


I got to wear the birthday crown and carry Birthday Bear with me.


Now I am home at Willow's Cottage and shall enjoy the rest of my day looking at green growing things in my garden.


The new green leaves on Mayflower Rose.



The green carrot top leaves of the California poppies.





The wonderful sagey green of my favorite lavender plant.





The snappy, smelly green of the catnip I grow for the grandkitties.





All while wearing my olive and avocado green gardening clogs.




I am not wearing green clothing, nor should I be. I should be sporting orange because in Ireland (the land of ONE of my ancestors) the Catholics traditionally wore green on St. Patrick's Day and the Protestants wore orange. I'm not wearing orange either; I have on navy slacks and a navy sweater because it's my birthday and I am wearing my favorite color.


Anyway, it's fun to drink green beer and look for green four leaf clovers. All I could find today was old, withered three leaf clovers in the front school yard.


27 comments:

Heather said...

Happy Birthday Mrs. Willow. I hope it's a great day and you get lots of attention.

Jane said...

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Willow Happy Birthday to you. Jane x

Beatriz said...

Happy Birthday!

Yolanda said...

Have a Happy and spectacular birthday.

Islandsparrow said...

Happy Birthday Willow!! Hope your day is filled with happiness!

Sara at Come Away With Me said...

Wow, a Saint Patrick's Day birthday....I wonder if you enjoyed that as a child or was it a problem?

Happy Birthday, it's a beautiful day today too....may you find it to be a wonderful day and may you be pleasantly surprised with gifts and love and laughter.

Sara

Barbara said...

Happy Birthday to you Willow.
Lovely bright spring yellows.
We have had so much torrestial rain that many of my daffs and narcissi have been beaten down and now their poor heads are lying on the grass.

ellen b. said...

Love your birthday post Willow! Wish you had a photo of yourself in that crown carrying the birthday bear!

Willow said...

Hah! I'm smarter and bigger than a kindergartener, so I didn't get caught on camera with the crown on my head and the bear in my arms.

Mary said...

Happy Birthday Willow. I wish you a year filled with love, laughter and good health. Please drop over to my blog. I have a little something for you.

Blessings,
Mary

Elizabeth said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR WILLOW!!!!!!!
A lovely green post.
What fun to have your birthday be a big celebration.
I used to wear green when I taught because the kids liked stuff like that.
In England it is not a big holiday.
Many happy returns of the day.

Flower said...

The cake is at my place!
Happy Birthday! Love you!

Knitting Linguist said...

Happy, happy birthday! I hope that you have enjoyed an absolutely lovely day (by odd coincidence, St. Patrick's Day is my adoption day, and when I was growing up, I always got two birthdays to celebrate -- the one when I was born, and the one when I came home, so this is a biggie for me, too!). I love all of your green photos :)

Sherida said...

Happy Birthday! I am green with envy at all your gardening greenery. I aspire to be a container/patio gardener, but have been without the time or motivation this year. Maybe this week will be different, since Spring will officially begin.

Mary said...

Willow,

Actually I have two things for you. The first is in my sidebar near the top. The second is in tonight's post.

Unknown said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY..
may you have great health
may you have endless happiness
may you have lots of good luck
cheers :)

Mama Mia said...

Happy Birthday, mumsy. :o)

Loved all the green in your post!

Bethany said...

Happy Birthday Willow!!!! I am so mad at myself that I forgot to check in with you yesterday!!!! I hope you had a fantastic day...sounds like school was fun! I never thought about how it would be to be born on a holiday that everyone is kind of silly about. Good for you -- wearing blue! I always wanted to do the little footprint thing but I never remember to. My son's b-day is Thursday so we call him our St. Patrick baby-- his middle name is Quinn after the Irish Quinns on my side of the family. He thinks he's a leprechaun. So now I'll be celebrating YOU on March 17th every year!! It's not so bad to share a b-day with the feast day of St. Patrick. He was a good guy!

Knitting Linguist said...

I haven't quite started knitting at stoplights yet, but it's good to know it's an option :) And yes, the Tulip cardigan is knitted from the top down, no seams (yay!). :)

Anonymous said...

Happy belated Birthday! And even the green clovers look pretty nice to my Minnesotan eyes. Thank you for that birthday gift to all of us.

Felicia said...

Hope you had a fabulous birthday :)

Flower said...

Hi! Thanks for coming by to see me. You have had a big day!!

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday!!!

Mary Sheehan Winn said...

Happy Birthday :D

Boston?
Is that where you're originally from? That's my neck of the woods. I'm a Snowbird in Naples until May 10th or so, then back North.

Marg said...

Happy Belated Birthday. I love how you intertwined the green theme through your post.

Jani said...

Hope your entire birthday week is a happy one! My daughter & I are both March babies, too, but you got the best day in March, by far!

kate smudges said...

Willow,

Happy birthday to you. I am way behind in my blog reading!! I love that you got to wear the birthday crown and that you carried birthday bear with you.

You're the first person I know with a birthday on St. Patrick's Day!