Good books

Off to the library today. Here are some books we're returning, but would read again. This one is about little Seán and the big hen. It has beautiful nostalgic illustrations which show rural Irish life in the 1940's/50's. It's about sibling responsibilities as Mammy asks Seáinín's brother and sister to look after him. They are both reluctant to do so, which leads Seáinín into the clutches of the huge hen down the road, but the resourceful little tot escapes, much to the relief of his brother and sister. This was published in english as John Joe and the Big Hen, but seems to be out of print now.

Spooky little visitors!

The cobwebs are actually hammocks for caterpillars. And they're everywhere. Lee commented on them too, spotting them as he drove around for work.

Strange cobweb-like thingies.

Here's Roo with his new swimming goggles. They are in the shape of two crabs and make him look like Dame Edna, but he likes them nonetheless. He's wearing the swimming cap because it stops the elastic catching his hair. The Hawaii 5-0 shirt just completes the whole ensemble, don't you think?

Happy Birthday Church!

After mass and devotions to Our Lady of All Nations in town, we celebrated Pentecost with Mum and Uncle Bee with a special cake. I was inspired by the indefatigable Jessica's Mighty Wind cake, one of her many ideas for celebrating the birth of the Church.

Ours was a bit more haphazard, but we all enjoyed it nonetheless. I only got a chance to take one picture before the Lego tongue of fire in the centre started to melt from the heat of the 12 Apostle candles lighting around it!

I used the brilliant Allegra's Big Kitchen cake from her Leon cookbook, then slathered it in Glenilen double cream that I added a bit too much vanilla to, and then decorated it with our first strawberries of the year.

Sssstarting phonics

Roo and I have been doing some work today while Poonch was snoozing.
I'm going to follow the Jolly Phonics programme with him and see how we get on.
First up- the letter 's'-although he already likes to spot 'o', his first initial, when we're out and about.

An answer to prayer?

It is very warm today. But that's not the only reason it's a lovely day.

Poonch, Roo and I all squeezed into the doctor's surgery to check out Poonch's head circumference. Last week, the health centre doctor decided he needed to be checked by a paediatrician because his head circumference (HC) had crossed percentiles since he was born. Being 16 months now, there is no space in Poonch's health record book to record his current HC and I couldn't remember the figure she measured because I got such a fright from being told he needed to see a paediatrician. Waiting for an appointment could take months in the public system, so after voicing my worries to Lee and Mum (exacerbated by a brief trip on the internet... I KNOW!...) I asked my GP for a private referral. She said she'd have to examine him in order to write a letter, so in we went today.

Roo read a lovely Richard Scarry book from the waiting room while our GP gave Poonch the once-over. Then she checked his head circumference against a chart she had.

And pronounced it normal and decided there was no indication for referring him.

So is this a case of 'doctors differ' (and Mums worry) or a true miracle whereby Poonchy's head shrank back to normal size?

Either way, I am most grateful to Louis and Zelie Martin, who went through the pain of losing four of their children, and William Tirry, whose resting place (Fethard Augustinian Abbey church) we visited last weekend. All of them put in a good word for us.

Happy Feast Day Blessed William!

Today is the feast day of Blessed William Tirry, of Fethard, the martyred Irish priest.

We pray to him today to help renew the Church in Ireland, which is facing a different crisis to the one he experienced in his day.

Ever faithful God,

You gave to Blessed William, your martyr,

the strength to give his life for the faith in a time of persecution.

Help us to be true disciples and witnesses of the risen Christ,

Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

One God, for ever and ever.

Amen

The images are from a medal cast to commemorate William Tirry's beatification in Rome in 1992.

Construction work

Don't let the doom and gloom merchants tell you there's no building going on. 'The buyers of great presents' gave the lads some lovely blocks for Christmas which were very well received. Roo has gone from building towers to quite elaborate structures such as this one which I believe is for the moon buggy.
He does get upset with baby budda, whose main contribution seems to be health and safety inspection which involves demolishing any building which he deems unstable. But even he has got bitten by the building bug as the other picture shows. He likes to applaud his own efforts, and who can blame him?

Our Annual Little Flower Pilgrimage

We visited Knock today with Gran for St Therese' National Pilgrimage. It was a lovely sunny day as you can see, which is a rarity in Knock. We managed to see the relics after Mass, after they were literally snatched away earlier.
Roo was very good and came home with a new digger. He is interested in shadows at the moment, hence the picture below. Thank you Therese for a lovely day (all 12 hours round trip of it!)