International Birthdays

I feel privileged to have been blessed with the most beautiful day I have had in Ireland yet, as my birthday. Audrey popped her head in the caravan in the morning and said happy birthday and we headed out to the field later on. It was hot, around 75, and not a cloud in the sky. This was fantastic but at a price, Hannah and I both ended up getting burnt. We planted purple broccoli and lettuce or as they say “salad” in the morning. Then before lunch I went and checked up on the pigs. I spent time over helping Mick fix up their shelter and going gaga over the 13 babies. That night we sat in the sun and munched cheese, apples, wine and chocolate and played hide and seek with Leo. Dinner was wonderful and I was presented with a tasty cake after dinner with candles. Mick went down to the store and got a couple more bottles of wine to enjoy and then us girls went out to the pubs.

After a few rounds of pool which Hannah and I quickly became the ultimate losers, we headed back home. We were both decked out in some kind of flashlight finery, Hannah with her handy, dandy crank light that her mother sent her after hearing that she was walking home from the pub at 3am on narrow Irish roads, in the dark.  Myself, I prefer my ever efficient head lamp (no literary embellishment needed for that statement). After dogging speaking cars twice and each stopping to use the toilet, aka a field, we came across an open gate leading into probably what we have learned is a cow pasture. Since it was and it was a gorgeous night we decided to venture in. We chose a nice bit of grass and decided to lay down and gaze up at the stars. In hindsight we probably should have known that the grass was wet, we are in Ireland and no matter how warm it seems to get a rain cloud could appear at any given moment and create a monsoon, so we got wet, and were most likely laying in dried up cow pies but hey it was a hell of a view.  After enjoying our view for a bit (not sure if it was five minutes or a half hour) we headed home to a mug of tea and shortbread.

I think I’ll have to make a tradition of being out of the country for my birthday. Last year it was watching monkeys in Costa Rica and this year I am in the little village of Williamstown in Ireland. Who knows where I will be when the next one comes along?