Emma, Patrick and Gertrude!

What thread ties these names together? Read on!

Yesterday my gorgeous granddaughter Emma, had her First Birthday! I looked forward all day to seeing her on Skype, but when we finally made contact, all I could see were vague coloured shapes on the screen, distorted and fuzzy. Mateo was holding up his hand so I could count the number of fingers he was showing me, but all I saw was a waving lump! We cut it short to try again during the week. Isn't technology wonderful? And frustrating!

Gorgeous girl!

Happy Birthday my darling!


Yesterday was The Most Important day for the Irish and the Irish-at-heart! It was of course, St Patrick's Day! Interestingly, he was not born in Ireland, but in Scotland, in 390. When he was sixteen years old, he was kidnapped for slavery, but escaped six years later. In 417 he was ordained as a Priest and in 432 was consecrated as Bishop. In 444 he founded the Cathedral Church of Armagh. He died on 17 March 493 in Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland. (Do you think that the name 'Downpatrick' is because that is where he died, i.e fell down?)
Now, I am sure that you knew all that, more or less, but did you know this............   St Patrick is also the Patron Saint of Snakes, Snake Bites and Fear of Snakes! All this even though he is credited with driving all the snakes out of Ireland! And into the sea! (Ireland was indeed snake free, but that's most probably due to the Ice Age and not St Patrick.)

St Patrick. (Thanks to Google)

Here's another fact, St Patrick is also the Patron Saint of Engineers!

St Patrick's Day is celebrated all over the world, wherever Irish people have settled. The colour green is synonymous with Ireland and St Patrick's Day, and some people go as far as colouring their beer green to celebrate! (I'm not sure about that!)

Cheers! (Thanks to Google)

And finally, yesterday was also St Gertrude's day. For those of you who regularly read my scribbles, you may remember that St Gertrude is the Patron Saint of cats. My daughter is under her protection as her tally of trapped, neutered and released cats continues to rise. And my sister and her husband have just welcomed cat number 13 into their home, picked up in the car park of their local shopping centre. (My granny's name was Gertrude, I wonder if that had an influence on them?)

St Gertrude (Thanks to Google)

So now you know what Emma, Patrick and Gertrude have in common!