Thursday 17 March 2011

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I see, from my second photo, that last year I managed to capture St. Patrick on a sunny day with blue skies.
Despite the fact that we've had a good amount of sunshine recently, the day I walked up Watling Street last week was grey, cloudy and overcast. Oh well - that's Ireland for you!


From last year :D


The 40m-tall St Patrick's Tower, built around 1757, is the tallest surviving windmill tower outside the Netherlands.

George Roe & Co Distillery on Thomas  Street  was powered by the largest smock windmill at that time in all Europe. Today the windmill's tower still stands and graces the Dublin skyline, blue capped with copper sheeting and a wind vane in the likeness of St. Patrick. It is known as St. Patrick's Tower, and it is located on what is now Guinness property. In fact, it was two years after Peter Roe established the Thomas Street Distillery, that Arthur Guinness set up his famous St. James' Gate Brewery across the street - quoted from http://www.classicwhiskey.com/history/georowhis.htm

We've had long-tailed tits visiting the garden; I've seen them in the neighbourhood before but never at the feeders. We've both seen them now, so they must be coming fairly regularly.  And we definitely have a pair of robins, I've seen them together several times now. Looking forward to the warmer weather when I can sit in the back porch with the door open and watch them without freezing. Today was another frosty morning - when I first got up it was sunny and misty and quite beautiful, but by the time I went to get the bus it was just grey and damp.

1 comment:

Lorraine said...

You are so lucky to have such historical places nearby. That tower must be awesome in real life.

I find it exciting to see a new bird at the feeder or in the yard as I'm sure you do. We've hung feeders outside the window at work and I get to see birds that don't visit ours at home and it's only about 2.5 miles away.

I too am looking forward to warmer weather. We are having quite a tease of a day with temps in the upper 70's but it's going to drop tonight.

Hope you had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day despite the weather.