17th March

Happy Paddys Day! The funniest memory I have of Paddys day is arriving in Shannon Airport, and driving down to West Cork and getting caught up in every village St Pats Day Parade, then missing the turnoff at Millstreet and visiting Killarney briefly.

I think some of the tourist hotels may have something on, but I’ll give it a miss. I’m too far out of town to be driving late at night

Another day at the Memorial Gardens, about 60 trees grafted so far, most of them cleaned, we’ll take a break for a week, then I can go back and see if the grafts are going to take or not. A lot of lizards/skinks there, and bull ants. After the crew had lunch, rice and tuna, any rice dropped was soon surrounded by bull ants and carried up into the huge caesalpinia to a dead branch where they seem to have a thriving colony.

Adrian is away sick for a few days, as they say in toktok, Adrian hem belleran, diarrhoea in other words. I was trying to get everyone to turn up this morning with a toilet roll and give them to Adrian, but they don’t have the same sense of humour, well, not yet anyway. He’s also got epilepsy, and having belleran doesn’t let his medicine stay in his system long enough, plus he has lost a huge amount of fluid and salt, so he’s been falling over, can’t sit up without falling backwards or sideways. Hopefully he’ll be ok by the end of the week

It’s 8pm, I’m sweating like a fire hydrant, the air is heavy and humid, all day out in the sun at the Memorial Gardens and I’ve got a bit of sun on me.

Drank 2 fresh coconuts, Jennifer wandered over the road to the stalls, you buy green coconuts before the meat forms inside, cut the top off and it’s a great refreshing drink. $2 each, and the roadside stalls are always busy with stacks of coconuts peeled and ready, stacked like cannon balls

Then you crack them open and scrape the jelly out. No wonder I’m not losing weight.

Hi to MaryAnne staying with her family in Connecticut, take care and have a good time.

I only put that in to show I can spell Connecticut
And Libby having a fun time in Hawaii, Al the Florist in Illinois, murph in Franklin, and Tim and Marye in Martinez, Moira in Canada

Pic is of betel nut juice on some steps