. . . Shades of (the) Green

It is hard to believe but it is the day of the "Irish". And after all the rain we have had this week -- it is certainly green around here. We know that it is "white" in many locations around the U.S. but that will soon give way to -- green.

There is a lot to be said for the color green. Kermit certainly knew that as did Robin Hood and his merry band. When I think of green -- so much comes to mind. My eyes are hazel colored at times, they do change once-in-awhile I'm told.

It almost makes me want to be an artist as I look at the various shades of green. The textures too are quite attractive. As I look out the window today the predominant color is green.

I remember being "pinched" on this day if not wearing green somewhere -- I am at risk of that happening if I actually went out today -- but I don't have plans to do that -- we went out yesterday . . .

And our poor green wet-Pelican weather vane . . . standing watch over several days of rain this week -- and maybe even some today.

There is a sense of calm looking out and seeing the pelican while warm and comfortable inside and he/she is weathering the storms.

The arrow of directions appear to be correct, I think. I'm not exactly sure how that happens -- but it does.

So, all is well on the "western" front.


While there is not a predominant color of green in the puzzle, we are happy to say that it helped us enjoy the rainy week. We actually started the puzzle last Saturday and finished it up last night just before dinnertime.

We almost always remark that there is "no-way" that we'll be able to do "this" puzzle. But, as time goes on and with a little patience we manage to be totally hooked on "getting-'er-done".

Right down to the last piece -- which unfortunately is missing -- but one nice thing about Liberty Puzzles is that if I send a picture of where the missing piece would go, they will send me a duplicate of that piece -- nice.

These puzzles are laser-cut wood -- and the smell of freshly cut lumber is very present when you open the box. The wood fragrance did fill the house this week. We have a fairly good collection of these puzzles and so probably our next session will be to re-do one of those.

About five years ago in a September post
that year, I wrote about another "green" that is -- a Gretna Green.

Gretna Green is actually a town in Scotland which is "just across the border" from England.

Apparently on the road from London to Edinburgh is where it is found. It is supposedly the first town after crossing the border.

England was apparently becoming a difficult place for young couples to marry due to the many rules and regulations. Scotland had relaxed rules and made it very easy for couples to marry -- thus, Gretna Green became very attractive.

Gretna Green has since become known as a place that allows marriages to take place easily and without all the rigamarole -- above on the U.S. map illustrates where a lot of these are located.

The picture is of my parents -- may be on their wedding day, possibly at a "Gretna Green" in 1931.
I don't know for sure -- but I do know that I have not heard of where they married -- only that they did and only an announcement of that event was made by my mother's parents.


To the left is a colorized presentation of my ethnicity. There is green on it -- but nothing to do with Ireland.

As a matter-of-fact, Ireland is not colored at all on the map because so far there has not been any presence of Irish in my ancestry.

My children, however, do have Irish ancestry as their mother's family did come from Ireland (and Germany).

Actually, the smallest color depicted (pink) represents the largest percentage of my ancestry -- England. Then comes Germany, Finland and finally Scandinavia.

Again, as the world of DNA keeps growing by leaps I receive "tons" of so-called matches. How to get my arms around these matches is another thing though. Hopefully, that will change with enhancements of technology.

And lastly, there is the universally recognized green shown to the right.

While we actually seem to need less and less of the physical paper money there is no reducing the need to buy, spend, pay or give some form of money -- electronically, by check or credit card or some means other than actual cash money.

Society in the U.S. has come a long way from the days of lugging gold and silver around -- not that that would be so terrible in some sense, but so much more convenient and easy to push the "add that to the cart" online button . . .

That's a bit of our week, see you all "in a few" !  😃