Snippets of Spring - a poem!

Temperatures have increased dramatically in Chicago over the past week or so - it even got into the 60's (that's about 15 degrees celsius) one day. So in honour of this event the following jumped into my mind:

The temperatures are a rising,
My heart is all a flutter,
The snow and ice is melting,
And flowing down the gutter!

Francis : - )

Granny Murphy

I got a couple of photos from home this week one of which was a picture of my dad's mother - the often referred to matriarch of the Murphy clan 'Granny Murphy'. She was an amazing woman - twelve kids, scores of grandchildren and great grandchildren but more than that she was an epicentre for almost all the family. She only learned to drive when she was about 65 but took to it enthusiasitically and I can remember sitting into her car one day as a kid and she 'floored' it in an effort to race my dad to her house - as they say in Limerick she was a 'gas card' at times.

She was strong willed (stubborn to some) and not afraid to speak her mind while also wanting the best for her own. It's a testimont to her that over ten years after she left this world that she regularly comes up in conversation and more often than not in a reverential way. I have heard it said that my dad and three of his brothers are referred to as the 'sopranos' in one of the local bars they frequent- the 'heavy gang' that roll in to their local! If that's true then 'Granny Murphy' was definitely the 'god mother', the one they all looked up to, the one that kept them in line.

It's easy to realise that you miss her, she was such a dominant character and had such an influence on us.
Francis

Bonjour de Montreal

To get away from the cold of Chicago we headed to Montreal for the weekend! Well actually I was working in Canada the following week and so Biz and I decided to go early. It did warm our hearts though as, despite being even colder than Chicago, old town Montreal is beautiful and very reminiscient of some of the European towns that we have been to and have fond memories of. Indeed I have since heard that for those Americans who don't have the time or money to visit Europe, a trip to Montreal is considered the next best thing.

It was bitterly cold (Igloofest, an ice themed outdoor music festival, was in full swing) so possibly not the best time to sightsee the city - we walked outside for 20 minutes or so at a time and then ducked in somewhere to thaw out before going outside again. It provided plenty of opportunity to drinks lots of hot chocolate and beer which wasn't so bad! We managed to visit the local Notre Dame Basilica - it has an amazing interior. It turns out the cathedral was designed by an Irish architect - James O'Donnell (an Irish protestant from New York who converted to Catholicism)- back around 1824.

The food was great, a strong french influence of course, and generally Montreal was a nice change of scenery - speaking the 'cupla focal' of french was a challenge but well worth the effort.