Our wee family
heads off to Clonmany
in Inis Eoghain
for a special celebration –
Aoife is turning 25.

During a relaxed breakfast
Aoife opens cards and presents
while we all wish her
a happy birthday.
Then we all hop in the car
and make a bee-line
for Malin Head.

It’s a sunny, summer’s day
and the beauty at Malin Head
is truly breath-taking!

On arrival
we find that the bright sun
and cloudless, blue sky
have tamed the mighty Atlantic ocean
and today
it laps gently
against Malin’s rugged headlands.

As we sit on rocks
savouring the view
Aoife calls out,
“Look – dolphins!”
And there,
coming round the headland,
is a school of dolphins!
We watch for ages,
fascinated,
as these dolphins progress,
in twos and threes,
around the coast –
a continuous sequence
of leaps and dives
that’s almost hypnotic
to watch.

Eventually
the dolphins are out of sight.

Wow!

Lord,
thank you
for this graceful procession of dolphins
that swam by specially
on Aoife’s birthday,
thrilling our wee family,
filling us all with wonder
and making Aoife’s 25th birthday
feel like a joyful, family celebration!

© Claire Murray, Summer 2020

We live in a wonderful house.
And do you know
what is so wonderful about it?
It’s a house of happy memories!

This is the house
whose beautiful garden was built
by Danny and Dolores,
helped greatly along
by Dolores flagging down lorries
from the brand new M1 motorway
and directing drivers to deposit
their loads of top soil
in her garden
(which, like the motorway,
was under construction!)

This is the house
where Paul proudly held
Dolores’s colander
high above his head
to celebrate
so many All-Ireland winning goals
scored in his back garden
and where Paul, as a child,
leap-frogged
over newly-planted conifers
that now stand over 30 feet tall.

This is the house
where I first met Danny and Dolores
and asked a bemused Danny,
a keen gardener,
“Mr Murray,
why do you have
so many spades?”

This is the house
where a mischievous Danny
planted one fox glove,
promising a reluctant Dolores
that it would only last
one year …
and every year
dozens of new ones appeared
to replace the original one!

This is the house
of parties and Christenings,
and of Dolores’s delicious home-baking –
pavlovas and apple cakes,
vol-au-vents and sausage rolls
and ham, cheese and pickled onion
all skewered on a cocktail stick!

This is the house
where Fiachra, Aoife and Niamh
all decorated the Christmas tree
with such enthusiasm
for Danny and Dolores
each year.

This is the house
where Danny would grin out at us
through the back door,
delighted to get spending
precious time
with his beloved grandchildren.

This is the house
where Fiachra stuck a stick
in the ground
and an apple tree grew!

This is the house
where Danny used to walk Aoife
to the rosemary bush
and show her
how to release its aroma.

This is the house
where Danny would gather
tiny wild strawberries
into his giant hands
and decant them carefully
into Niamh’s tiny, eager hands
so that none fell to the ground.

This is the house
where Dolores, who was diabetic,
used to hide sweeties
in the pocket of her pinny
and who assumed
such a look of innocence
when she was surprised in the act
of eating a forbidden Mars bar
and chucked it over her shoulder!

For me,
this is a such house of happy memories
or, to put it another way,
home!

© Claire Murray, 25th July 2020