Saint Patrick. Sponsorship of artists. A good washing day. And help for happy bees.

 Well, Saint Patrick”s Day passed us by unnoticed in this house yesterday. Not that we had any intention of dressing up in green and celebrating, having no connection with Ireland whatsoever.

That doesn’t prevent quite a lot of people using the saint’s day as an excuse to go out and party. 

This morning I was reminded that the day had been and gone. And I remembered that I had a suitable cartoon about good old Saint Pat and the snakes. 

And someone passed on this joke to me:

“An Englishman, an Irishman, a Scotsman and a Welshman were riding in a hot-air balloon.

The balloon was about to crash into a mountain, so the pilot says, "We need to lose more weight to get clear. One of you has to jump."

The Scotsman says, "I do this for the glory of Scotland!" and he jumps out of the basket.

But the balloon still wasn’t high enough. "We need to lose more weight!" the pilot says.

The Welshman says, "I do this for the glory of Wales!" and he jumps out.

"We need to lose just one more person, and we’ll make it!" the pilot says.

The Irishman says, "I do this for the glory of Ireland!" — and he picks up the Englishman and throws him over the side.”

There you go!

On the subject of Ireland, here’s a link to an article about Ireland awarding a basic income to artists so that they could develop their talents. Not all striving artists received it; there was a kind of lottery to see who would get it. But it sounds like an excellent idea. 

Summer seems to have arrived here, skipping over False Spring and Actual Spring a d pushing aside Second Winter. Not only has it been a fine day to hang the washing out to dry in the garden, but said washing has dried nicely. Well, the stuff that went out first thing has dried nicely. I cannot guarantee that the last lot to go out will do as well. We shall see.

I spotted the first dandelion of 2026 in the garden this afternoon. 

Pretty soon the grass will be sprinkled with yellow stars. The bees will be happy. We must not use weedkiller or cut them down.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!