It the time of the year.......

......in the Bay Area to plant Tomatoes. We went to OSH today and got some tomato plants, I grow them every year and have fun seeing how they grow and how many actual tomatoes I get per plant. Here is what I planted today:

There is one empty pot to plant cherry tomatoes, which they didn't have at OSH today.  Now I just have to remember to water them every day and promise to post pictures again in a few week to show you all how much they have grown!

My Happy Birthday trip......Happy Birthday Aunt Veron

My recent trip to Ireland allowed me to celebrate a number of birthdays.  

Aunt Veron and I went for Lunch at Hayfield Manor a wonderful 5 start hotel near our home.  Here are some pictures of the birthday girl:

And a slide show of all the pictures taken that day!

A Cork tradition - Feed the Swans at The Lough

On Sunday morning the O'Flaherty girls - Aoife, Aislinn, Eimear, Gwen and Leona - took a walk to The Lough to feed the ducks and swans. This was a very special occasion as it is a Cork tradition that goes back generations. Nannie Gwen used to go to The Lough when she was a little girl, I spent allot of childhood there and it was really wonderful to spent a few hours there with my three wonderful nieces. We fed the swans and the ducks, played on the swings in the little playground, met "Len" the dog and of course I took lots of pictures:

And of course the ususal slideshow:

Am I in Cork or Africa??

Sunday afternoon the O'Flaherty family took a trip to Fota Wildlife Park and had a wonderful time. 

My favorite pictures was the Peacock with his tail up, I loved the giraffes and the monkey very funny too.

And of course the usual full slide show of the afternoons visit:

More bread has been made this time in San Francisco

I have just been reading one of my favourite blogs and low and behold I saw my name mentioned and was so happy to learn of the healing power of my Irish Brown bread I had to post about it here on my blog.

Alexander you may remember was also featured in my Easter Sunday photo slide show as I had Brunch with him, his sister, Charlotte and his Mummy, Maria and some more friends.

Apparently Alexander has been under the weather with a fever and I am happy to report is back to his happy go luck self again which is contributed to the wonderful healing properties of Irish Brown Bread.

Alexander and Charlotte have had one of my famous brown bread kits and Alexander and his Mummy decided to make it recently. Here are some pictures to show you what a great job he did:

And here is Charlotte enjoying eating the results of all Alexanders hard work:

Charlotte since you were at school and missed out on making the bread I will make you your own very special kit anytime you want it.

I am so glad you all enjoyed the Irish Brown Bread and that it has such magic powers to make Alexander better from his fever.

Oh and I should probably note that the Maria mention in the post below who sang with me at Andrea and Gerry's wedding is Alexanders and Charlotte's Mummy. We know each other a long time now and sang together at St. Dominic's Church in San Francisco for a number of years and have been really good friends since. Here is a picture take of the two of us on Easter Sunday:

More Irish Brown Bread is made in Arizona!

Last Thursday at lunch time I took a visit to the post office and sent one of my Irish Brown Bread kits to Arizona to Andrea and Bernadette to surprise Gerry, a fellow Irish man. Of course their were pictures take of the Bernadette's first adventure of making Irish brown bread:

From all accounts it seems like a big success and Gerry looks really happy in the last picture with his big slice of brown bread. It is breakfast time in Cork as I write this and I am having my brown bread slightly toasted with lots of Kerrygold butter!

There is another Cork connection to the Murphy family as in preparation to Andrea and Gerry's wedding I was asked to sing along with my friends Maria and Catherine. One of the hymns that Andrea picked was the Lourdes Ave Maria. No where in San Francisco was the music to be had but the words were available. On the Thursday before the wedding I got the words by email and I smiled as I had sung this hymn since I was a very young child. I knew exactly where to get the music.

A late night phone call was made to Len, my Dad, in Cork with the instruction to go to our parish church, go to the choir loft and get the music. As it was early morning in Wilton, Len headed up to 10 AM mass. There he encountered another hurdle as the choir loft was locked but with the help of Don Moran the door was miraculously opened ( I think without a key both must have been boy scouts) . The music was scanned and emailed at Brian, my brothers office and when I got out of bed in San Francisco next morning I had it sitting in my Inbox.

Gerry and Andrea's wedding was a very touching ceremony but I must admit there was tears in my eyes for most of it but mostly when I sang the Lourdes Ave Maria when the Mothers walked up the aisle. I closed my eyes and I remembered all the times that I sang it as a little girl in Ireland especially during the month of May at school in front of our May alter.

Skip forward to 4th September 2006, the Honan Chapel, University College Cork a 2pm wedding is just about to start. A choir from San Francisco are singing, the Bride arrives and the music changes to the Lourdes Ave Maria as the Mothers and Bridesmaids walk up the aisle. The music sheet the choir are singing from is the exact music that was scanned and emailed for Andrea and Gerry's wedding as this was my wedding day. I was inspired by Andrea to use this wonderful hymn that honors Mary our Mother as part of our wedding ceremony.

Gerry are you sure with a name like Murphy that you are not from Cork??