St. Patrick's Day Parade in Northern Ireland - Xtra Special Day

Where is the most appropriate place to have a St. Patrick's Day Parade?

I bet your answer is Dublin because that's the capital city of Ireland.
Or perhaps you want to say New York because you have heard of the celebrations there.

I don't agree!!!!

Last year Fred & I went to the place which we believe is the most appropriate because it is the place St. Patrick is supposed to have landed nearby and also supposed to have been buried in.

The town of Downpatrick in County Down in Northern Ireland.

We had never been to any St. Patrick's Day Parade anywhere before so this was one of our Xtra Special Days


Having arrived there we got parked outside the town and followed the crowd of people until we got to a part of the town where others were already standing waiting.  We discovered this was the end of the parade route so decided to stay here also.

Soon along came the Street Performers to help to keep us entertained until the parade could make it's way through the town to our position.

Some of them threw sweets to the children

                              and one of them came right over to greet Fred.


Well because I already had the phone out to take pictures and we were getting a bit bored we resorted to one of the few selfies we have taken, some are mentioned previously in  Does My Nose Look Big in This?

Then along came the Parade.


No, correct that,  it was only the Pre-parade of Vintage Cars.

Not really a novelty around Northern Ireland as there are quite a few of these each year now.


Very shortly after that came the real thing.




The Parade

First of course we had St. Patrick and he was accompanied by two snakes.

Poor man had to walk the whole parade in his bare feet.

Then some Roman? soldiers.



Some other highlights of the parade were:

Colourful lady stilt walker.

Was this an Irish Wolfhound?

A Butterfly!


Never heard of a butterfly having anything to do with St. Patrick, but hey we like butterflies on this blog in fact  I Love Butterflies  and  I Was Going to Miss the Butterflies  and I have butterflies on mugs too 3 More Coffee Mugs  



then there was

A Pipe band.

A "Mash Direct" bus.
This is one of the good local food companies we have and I have to say their mashed turnip is great.

A DeLorean Car?

Yes a bit after the time of St. Patrick admittedly but Northern Ireland does have a link with DeLorean too.  You know a bit like our link with the Titanic.



What could you possibly have after a futuristic car?

Some Large headed characters.

A Christian Music Float.


We were delighted to see this - after all what are we celebrating St. Patrick for?


Not the shamrock,

           nor the snakes (or lack of them)

                        but for the Christianity he introduced to our island.




But then suddenly

2 Elvis impersonators??


No I know, we just could not see any connection here at all.
If you can think of one then please let me know.

And here come the Leprechauns - really?

This of course was clever and I hope not too heavy for the poor guy to carry along.

We also had two Mickey Mouse characters.

Okay we know they were there to amuse the children.

Another Pipe band.

And where else in the world would you get to see a POLICE TRACTOR  but in Northern Ireland?


Not even in the Republic of Ireland (Southern Ireland)  because it would be a Garda Tractor there.

A group of colourful children.

A Large Mushroom - presumably advertising the mushroom growing industry here.

Some more colourful children.

A Flower Giant.

A Blue stilt walker.

Another Pipe band.

A colourful dragon.

And no St. Patrick didn't slay the dragon - St. George the patron saint of England did that.

So a bit confused about the dragon but then realised he was followed by some dinosaurs and they didn't have anything to do with St. Patrick either so obviously we just enjoy colourful creatures.

Now we do have some folklore about a giant or two in Northern Ireland so to see a giant in this parade was not too unusual but riding a quad?

Although I must say I rather liked this guy.

Then we were coming near the end of the parade with another mini parade this time of Vintage Tractors  -  Fred quite enjoyed this bit as he was brought up on a farm and could remember some of them.

No I did not say my husband is vintage!

And some more very colourful people and children as the parade came to an end.


You could probably see from the pictures that it was a very cloudy, windy day and it was rather cold so Fred & I were all wrapped up in our heavy coats with gloves and scarves but regardless of the weather thousands of people came to Downpatrick to see the parade.


It was an afternoon out that was definitely not the usual for us and it was nice to walk back to the car with smiles on our faces even if they were getting red from the cold air.

Have you been to see a St. Patrick's Day Parade too?


Or are you planning to go see a St. Patrick's Day Parade in this year?


If so leave me a comment to say where you went or will be going, it will be interesting to see how many different places are covered.

Standing not Sitting - A Dose of Encouragement

     
  There is a seaside resort called Portrush on the northern coastline of Northern Ireland, which has a headland jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean.  This area is called Ramore Head and all along the shore are beautiful but rugged rocks.

         

When we were living in the State of Delaware in America many years ago we took a trip to visit seven of the north-eastern states; and there in the smallest state of Rhode Island, in the picturesque town of Newport, we found the same type of rugged shoreline as at Ramore Head.  

         We stood on the rocks, sat on the rocks, took photographs, and laughed in the breeze that was blowing in from over the ocean - we felt "at home" on these rocks.

            Perhaps it was because of these memories, that a picture the Lord gave me a few months later in church one Sunday morning, seemed to really touch me deeply.  

I saw a figure of a man, tall and dark, standing on a rock facing out over the ocean. Even though the wind was blowing strongly, this person was standing firm. 

I was sure this man felt secure as he stood on that rock.

              

There is only one rock that we can be secure on and that is the Lord our God.  

Several times in the bible we read that God is our rock. 

I like the personal touch in 2 Samuel 22 v 2 where David started his song of praise to God (after he was delivered from Saul) with the phrase:

                                    “The Lord is my rock”   

and also in Psalm 31 v 3  where he says

                        “Yea Thou art my rock and my fortress”.  (RSV)

          So what type of a rock is our God?  

Well in the picture I saw a large, firmly placed rock that gave a good foothold.  There was no fear of stumbling or sliding off; the rock was good enough for the man to stand steady and at peace in the wind. 

I believe that illustrates the type of rock our God is!  He’s dependable, solid, firm, sure and steadfast; we need have no fear of anything else when we have such a foundation to stand on.

As I considered the picture, I sensed the most important thing was that this man was not sitting, but standing on the rock.    He was standing firm, standing boldly, not being swayed by the wind; not sitting/crouching scared of the wind.  

In Ephesians ch. 6 we read about the armour of God, each part of it is important but Paul stresses three times that we must not only put on the armour but we must also stand

·         We need to be able to stand against the devil’s schemes v.11

·         We need to be able to stand our ground and after we've done everything else to still stand v. 13

·         We must stand firm v. 14             

            We are exhorted to stand not sit, perhaps because sitting might lead us to relax (let our minds wander and not be alert) when God is really saying:

                        “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.”

                                                                                                1 Cor. 16 v 13   

           

The man in the picture I saw definitely seemed to feel "at home" on the rock. 

Do you feel "at home" on the rock?

Are you putting all your trust in God?

I was going to miss the Butterflies - A Dose of Encouragement

When we lived in Belgium there was a strange type of bush that grew up high in the summertime at the front of our house.

So we never bothered to find out what type of bush this was.

Because we were renting the house the owner was responsible for the borders, shrubs and trees and all we had to do was cut the grass.

One day in July 2009
Fred and I were sitting in the house on our own when I saw a butterfly go past the front window.  Then just a few mins later I saw another one and then another and another.  I remarked to Fred that I had seen four of them and thought that was unusual.

Then when I saw another I walked over to the window to have a look to see if it was simply the same butterfly flying past different times or had we got a few hovering around.

You can imagine my surprise when I saw not one, not 5 but loads of butterflies all the same type sitting on that strange bush.  I called to Fred and we both opened the window and stepped out onto the balcony/veranda that stretched the length of the house.  We were able to stand there and see the butterflies close up and we counted 34 butterflies on that bush at the same time.

Fred went and got his camera and spent some time taking pictures of this awesome sight.

We stood for about 30 mins watching the butterflies as they fed on this bush, parts of which were showing the effects already.

We just stood and watched in amazement, not able to tear ourselves away from this beautiful sight.

How did all those butterflies know to appear at our bush on that one same day?

This was a day we will never forget, a unique day a quiet but awe inspiring day.

14 months later and we were in the throes of doing the inventory of our belongings in this house and organising to buy a house back in Northern Ireland.  The time had come to leave Belgium.

We had been back on a few different trips looking for a house and had fallen in love with one which had a lovely kitchen and Sun Room and nice bathrooms, almost the opposite to this one in Belgium.

At different times I would say about what I would miss about the house in Belgium but there were a lot of things I wouldn't miss.

One of the things I would miss was the fact that our house was in a lovely location enabling us to drive past the Tervuren Roundabout most days and that was a sight that put a smile on my face with it's beautiful fountain.

Another thing I was going to miss was the butterfly bush as I continued to call it even though by this time I had looked it up on Google and found out it was really called a "Buddlea".  I knew I was going to miss seeing the butterflies gathering there even though mostly we only saw a few at a time.  I have always loved butterflies and like things that are decorated with butterflies.

Along with all the friends we had made I knew that certain little things had made our 6 years in Belgium very happy and special to us and this simple bush was one of them.

Well in December of 2010 we left Belgium covered in snow and could hardly see what was left of the Buddlea bush which had been pruned back excessively and was practically hidden by the bush in front of it

We moved to Northern Ireland also covered in snow and were very busy moving in the week leading up to Christmas.     

The New year passed by and quite a few months also as we continued to get settled in.

We were going to miss the Butterflies!

Then one day we realised that a bush in our new front garden which had been rather scrawny looking when we arrived was now growing up tall, then a while later it started to flower and you can image our surprise and delight to discover that we had a Butterfly Bush at our new home.

We had even taken a family picture in front of the bush a few days after moving in not realising what it was.

Now we have never had 34 butterflies on this bush in Northern Ireland but in the past few summers we have regularly seen 5 or 6 at a time.  Maybe someday they will all come but because of our open location at the top of a hill we may never get a mass of butterflies like we did that day in Tervuren.

It is hard to move home and to move from one country to another.  It is hard to leave people & things behind

So thank you God that I don't have to say  "I miss the butterflies".

Who can say that God doesn't care about how we feel when we see that he gave us another Butterfly bush in our new home!