Good morning All. Coffees on.

[KymmieL]

Forgot to mention, the official fencometer is saying 6 degrees. Still haven't got one to replace our fencometer. Forecast for 43.

 

 

Kymmie

[April Marie]

Sounds like a productive first day of work @Willow!  

 

I am so glad to see things have smoothed out at home @KymmieLI can feel you smiling as you typed your message. 

 

Have a wonderful day, everyone!!

[Mmindy]

Good morning everyone,

 

My family is MooreClan from Scotland. On this day we wish you a happy ☘️St. Patty's Day☘️.

You can kiss the Irish, however it's a Scot you'll want to take home.

 

🐛🏳️‍⚧️🦋

[Willow]

Amen to that @Mmindy

 

i am mostly clan Stewart of Scotland, but I am also clan McDonald and Young.  However, a bit of the Irish sneaks in there with clan Donovan. My Donovan ancestor left Ireland mid 19th century and there is a castle Donovan.  I don’t know much about my Young ancestors and I know little more about the McDonalds.  But I do know for certain I am Celtic through and through and the all spoke Gaelic at one time.

 

Willow

[heatherd]

Irish heritage,know of many that came from Ireland.Lot of history knowing this.Two served during the Civil War,union and have pictures of them in their uniform.Dad has their 1861 Springfield rifles which are worth money.We do visit their graves on Veterans Day and I do put a penny on their headstones.

[Marcie Jensen]

Aye, clan Moore, clan Stewart, clan McDonald, clan Young and my own--clan Johnstone. Scotland forever! Although, I can claim some Irish since the English kings kept deporting us to Northern Ireland for being too feisty, Makes me want to go read Lochnivar and sing Flower of Scotland.

[KathyLauren]

I am clan MacCallum, clan Gillanders, and a few othgers that i don't remember without digging out my father's genealogy. 

 

But, this being St. Paddy's (not "Patty's") Day, it is a good reminder that I need to mail off my Irish passport application.  I have not a drop of Irish blood in me, and I have never been to the Republic of Ireland, but I am an Irish citizen by right of birth on the island of Ireland.

[Ivy]

1 hour ago, KathyLauren said:

I need to mail off my Irish passport application

An Irish passport could be good to have these days.

[Willow]

@KathyLauren I have never looked up the rules on that. I know with certainty that my great grandfather was born in the land of the Blarney Stone and amongst the green hills near the Irish Sea.  But better still, I have proof of my Stewart blood living in Perthshire where they were Earls and Lairds and cousins to the true Kings of Scotland, and descended from the Bruce Kings which takes us back to the 7th or 8th century.  Now where they were before that I have no clue.

 

I plan to drink a shot of Jameson Black in honor of me Irish ancestors.

 

Willow

[Ivy]

I settled for a Guinness.

But as much as I love Celtic music, not a drop of Celtic blood.

[KathyLauren]

11 minutes ago, Ivy said:

An Irish passport could be good to have these days.

 

My thought exactly.  It's good to have an escape plan.  It opens up the whole EU as well.

[MirandaB]

Mrs has been working on Irish passport for years now. We checked out her grandmother's old house (from the street) in Belfast a few years back (and the great uncle who came to US as well worked on the building of the Titanic). 

 

Still hasn't happened, partly due to covid of course, but also so many bits of the official record don't exist or were sloppily recorded or they just called someone one name but the records show a different name. It always seems to be just a few more steps away. 

[KymmieL]

Scottish here. Clan Hunter, So a big family across the pond. and British royalty on the other side. a ancestor of King Henry V. Supposed to have a big family estate some where in England.

 

Hugs,

 

Lady Kymmie.

[KathyLauren]

1 hour ago, KymmieL said:

and British royalty on the other side. a ancestor of King Henry V

 

When my father was researching his ancestry, he found one branch of the family that was minor royalty, meaning that there were royal ancestors all the way back to William I.  I was impressed.  Until I calculated how many ancestors I would have had in 1066 and looked up the population of Britain at that time.  The number of ancestors is considerably larger than the entire population, meaning that it is very likely that anyone with British ancestry is related to William I somehow!  😄

[April Marie]

3 minutes ago, Hannah Renee said:

Tomorrow may be a banner day, as my older daughter has agreed to meet with me for church in the town where she attends college. I'm hoping it starts a process of reconnecting, acceptance, and understanding.

Sending my prayers.

[Dillon]

I'm feeling more aware today of how lonely I've been since my wife died, which was nearly two years ago. I have some people I can count on, but most days and most of the day I'm at home because the fatigue from fibromyalgia has been limiting. I have been intensely out of sorts about some things in my life lately, and today it hit me clearly that it's really the feeling of loneliness. I'm pretty independent and love solitude so it's an odd contradiction. But I could see clearly today how lonely I am, and it was both relieving to know why I've been so weird and also like a kick in the stomach to feel the loneliness so directly. I do get out at least twice  week, one of those days is to a gay seniors center in Queens that has a new trans support group. 

[Ivy]

3 hours ago, KathyLauren said:

one branch of the family that was minor royalty

I have heard that there was some kind of nobility on the Swedish side of my family, probably pretty far back.  But as far as I can tell, it wasn't a big deal.  Apparently it wasn't as important there as in some other countries.

My other side is German, and nothing special there either.

Guess I'm just a regular people person.

[Ivy]

1 hour ago, Dillon said:

I'm feeling more aware today of how lonely I've been since my wife died,

My ex is still living, but remarried now.  But I sure understand the loneliness.  We were married around 45 years and I still miss her and she's frequently in my dreams.

[Rianon]

1 hour ago, Dillon said:

… and today it hit me clearly that it's really the feeling of loneliness.

Hello, Dillon

 

I know exactly what you mean when you say that, for a stretch of time, you'd been feeling … what shall I call it? out-of-sorts? ill-at-ease? and it may take weeks or even months before we realize it's loneliness. I live alone, and, although I have a life-partner, we lived apart. Recently, she and I have talked about how on how few friends we have left. That reality became extra-clear only the other day when I was updating my Will and considering whose names to enter for the Will's witnesses. When I had done my original Will about a dozen years ago I might have chosen easily from among my many friends and co-workers. Today it's a real head-scratcher. I mention only to say that for both my partner and I: we've decided we are going to have to pay extra-special attention to the friends we still have left. It's a bit like your going to the Queens seniors' group: real action on our parts is necessary to lessen, if not eliminate entirely, this awful feeling of loneliness.

 

I wish you the best!

Rianon

 

 

[heatherd]

Met up with good friends from the high school years,we were on the football team and some on the basketball team.It was tough for them to accept the changes when I told them I was going to transition at first.Good thing is they see me as the same person but much happier.Took them time to accept it and did support me 

[Marcie Jensen]

2 hours ago, Hannah Renee said:

Top o' th' mornin' to you all. I've no Irish or Scottish blood in me - one half is a mix of English, perhaps Welsh, and German. The other half is Finnish - my mother's parents both came from Helsinki. Ok, so I'm half Finnish, or finished, or perhaps to correct term would be Finn. For the few of you who know my last name, Finn would be appropriate.

 

Anyway, lazy day today. Tomorrow may be a banner day, as my older daughter has agreed to meet with me for church in the town where she attends college. I'm hoping it starts a process of reconnecting, acceptance, and understanding.

Hi Hannah. Since one of the great Celtic heroes is named Finn McCool--or McCaul back when, we weren't very good at spelling--you are now an adoptive Scot. My own clan will take you in; welcome to the "Gentyle Johnstones." The sobriquet was not intended as a compliment as the clan was a bunch of border reivers.

 

Enjoy church with your daughter.

[rachel w]

2 hours ago, Dillon said:

I'm feeling more aware today of how lonely I've been since my wife died, which was nearly two years ago. I have some people I can count on, but most days and most of the day I'm at home because the fatigue from fibromyalgia has been limiting. I have been intensely out of sorts about some things in my life lately, and today it hit me clearly that it's really the feeling of loneliness. I'm pretty independent and love solitude so it's an odd contradiction. But I could see clearly today how lonely I am, and it was both relieving to know why I've been so weird and also like a kick in the stomach to feel the loneliness so directly. I do get out at least twice  week, one of those days is to a gay seniors center in Queens that has a new trans support group. 

Hello Dillon    It has been 2 years at the end off april that my wife passed away, I to feel the loneliness I still have my work 4 days a week but I do miss someone to talk to, just wanted to say that you are not alone.

[Rianon]

1 hour ago, rachel w said:

Hello Dillon    It has been 2 years at the end off april that my wife passed away, I to feel the loneliness I still have my work 4 days a week but I do miss someone to talk to, just wanted to say that you are not alone.

Hi, everyone!

 

As I've discovered, it takes real work to combat the feeling of loneliness. It still comes on me, but each morning when I'm journaling (I'm one of those odd people who journals every day 😊 ) I will jot down something –– a call I might make, a friend I should visit, a neighbor whose door I could knock on and ask how she's doing –– something, anything to lessen the feeling that comes with living alone.

 

Stay strong, all of us!

 

Rianon

[miz miranda]

I'm another one with plenty of Celtic ancestry, Scottish and Irish. Clan Malcolm (also MacCallum) on the Scottish heritage and the family Kearns on the Irish side. Alas, I would need to naturalize as Irish citizen. I lived in Ireland during 1989 and 1990. As part of obtaining a work permit, it was discovered that I met none of the family qualifications.

 

I am always bemused by how American St Patrick's day is. At the time we lived there it was still a religious holiday and didn't have a formal parade I believe, although there is a good  sized one in Dublin these days. Pubs were 'closed' but you get a drink if 'ye knew the barman' or were staying at a hotel. In 1990, we stayed in Dingle and turned a late night music session into a impromptu parade at 5:30 am, when our hotel bar ran out beer; marching to the other  hotel for a morning cap.

 

Corned Beef was unknown to the Irish so we substituted Irish stew. Most folks drank stout (Guinness or Murphy's), we lived in Cork city where Murphy's was brewed.

 

 

[Marcie Jensen]

2 hours ago, Hannah Renee said:

Regardless of the origin, I proudly accept. "Do dheagh shlainte!"🥃

 

😁