Books, Breakfast, and Babby

This past Saturday was Valentine's Day.  We are not the "hearts and roses" type, so our celebration boiled down to picking up a prescription, retrieving a held book at the library, and going out to eat.

It has been raining here a lot.  And by "a lot," I mean that native Irish people are even saying "What the feck?"  Over the last couple of months, there have been only a few days that had a break in the rain.

We got lucky on Saturday - the sun was even out for a while.

One of our paths to the tram takes us through a canopy of trees, and the birds were going nuts with song.  Since we moved here, we have been fortunate enough to see a lovely black cat around the neighborhood, and s/he was sitting on the path, so of course we had to stop and give him/her some pettings.

When I looked at the Google map once, I noticed an icon labeled "Babby's Residence" not far from us (we're the red target on this picture).  It was listed as a "tourist attraction," and when I clicked on it for more information, there was a photo of a black cat with a small patch of white on its chest.  The kitty we see around also has a patch of white so I'm thinking it might be the same cat.

We had good tram luck and were soon headed for our stop at Ballyogan Wood.  During the walk to the pharmacy, we noticed some deer friends in the field.

All in all, this small herd had nine deer.  Usually we only see one or two at a time, so it was really cool to see so many at once.  The pictures don't do him justice, but one of the bucks had a good-sized rack of antlers.

Here are some deer zoomies for your enjoyment.

After visiting the pharmacy and pet store, we walked to the library to get my book and then continued walking to the restaurant.

Standing beside the path was a couple with a large whippet-looking dog.  Even though I'm more of a cat person, I can't resist stopping and talking to the doggos we meet.

We were careful not to reach out to the dog because we're never sure how they'll respond to a stranger.  It was funny because one of the owners said "He's a bit nervy" right before he came over and started giving us dog hugs (leaning into our legs).  The owners seemed pretty impressed that he had such a comfortable response to our attentions.

We continued on our walk, and I pointed out that the puddles along the path had some fairly thick ice on them.  It has been chilly here (below 30 degrees Fahrenheit) but even so, I'm always surprised to see ice or frost.

The Pantry has become a favorite restaurant for us, and it's both a blessing and a curse that it's so close.  It was humming with customers on Saturday, which is good to see.  I hope that means it'll be successful and stay open for a long time to come.

I had my usual Irish breakfast (egg, sausage, bacon, hash brown, white pudding, toast, beans, mushrooms - the beans and mushrooms get teleported immediately onto Eli's plate); he had the veggie breakfast.  We each got a sweet treat - I had a cinnamon swirl muffin, and he had a lemon dessert of some kind.  I also got a pineapple burst smoothie made from pineapple, strawberries, OJ, and yogurt - sooooo good.

A little girl walked by our table, and she was wearing a rainbow-colored tulle tutu and gold unicorn horn headband.  I had the thought that we think it's adorable when we see a child wearing this type of outfit, but if an adult walked around with a gold unicorn horn headband, would we feel the same way?  Would we applaud that person's sense of whimsy or would we think they had a few loose screws?

There was a line from the TV show "Night Court" that has always stuck with me:  Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle is a lie like all the rest.  The astronauts killed the man in the moon, growing up took care of the rest.

Adults tend to suck the fun out of most things.  I hope that little girl will still wear a unicorn head band when she gets older.  The world could certainly use more unreserved joy and whimsy.