Paddy's Day...And A Warm Sunny Afternoon...

Oh the sheer bliss of warm sunny days...so warm this afternoon that I didn't need the heater on in my little shed...

Paddy's Day tomorrow, so most of Ireland will be drunk and incapable while wearing daft green hats and sporting wilted bunches of 'Shamrock' in grubby button-holes...there'll be a parade in our town of vintage tractors and floats from the playgroup and other worthy bodies...might be a group of Irish Dancers with their bare legs mottled blue from the chilly wind...everyone will say wasn't it grand so and then they'll descend into the nearest 'pub and squabble between themselves...

The chippy will do a roaring trade...piping hot chips and cod in crispy batter...greasy sausages and dubious burgers...Guardia cars will lurk at cross roads ready to pounce on drunken men in charge of ancient tractors...everyone will be saying it was the best Paddy's Day yet...

The road cleaner will be busy on the Friday sweeping up broken glass and pouring sand on patches of vomit...he'll lean against the wall by the recycling bins and have a roll-up...talk to his little dog who goes out with him...before he sets off again, fortified by his rest and the baccy.

Flowers will be laid at the feet of statues of St Patrick...the paint from his garments peeling...his face all but obliterated by the years and the weather...perhaps some will gaze in awe at his footprint in a stone or gingerly sit on St Patricks Chair...nothing more than a mossy stone in a wood with an empty tin can on a bit of string tied to the bush nearby...'for contributions' it says on a fading label...

Unsold bunches of the so-called Shamrock will be binned...the silly hats and the Irish flags put back into their boxes for the next year...window displays will come down to be replaced by Easter Bunnies and expensive chocolate eggs...

We need these rituals of course...they give some order to our lives...and they bring much pleasure and enjoyment to many.