Greetings
to our friends in 2010!
Hello,
everyone. Terry and I are back from our 2009
Christmas trip to Ireland and you are probably
waiting to hear all about it. Unfortunately,
it didn’t
go well. It went the way of Murphy’s
Law; if it could happed, it did! In brief,
Ireland had the
worst severe weather than they’ve had
in decades. Because of the weather, the driving
conditions were
the worst I’ve ever seen. Then, Terry
and I both got the flu and were sick for the
entire time.
We weren’t able to do just about anything
we had planned, and we only visited a handful
of our
friends. We tried to make the best of it but
there really wasn’t any best of it to
make. You can read the entire story of our
ill-fated
trip at The
Holidays in Ireland 2009.
The
problems we had on our ill-fated trip seem insignificant
when compared to the tragedy
in Haiti, after being
struck by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake.
PLEASE
DONATE TO THE RELIEF EFFORTS
IN HAITI VIA AMERICARES.ORG
THANK YOU!
Valentine’s
Day is on the way and we have posted many of
our Valentine recipes on our home
page.
There
are all sorts of things from cookies and
cakes to breakfast, lunch or dinner. We are also
featuring
many special Valentine’s Day products
to choose from.
We hope
you all
have a very happy and romantic time with
your sweethearts.
More
Valentine's Day gift ideas on FoodIreland.com
Even
though we have to get through Valentine’s
Day first, it’s never too early to start
planning for your St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.
I have posted several items on our
new Facebook page as
a reminder. And, we do have a special St.
Patrick’s Day recipes page as well.
For some party ideas and menu suggestions,
please
click on How
to Throw an Irish Party
and Irish
Music on the Web.
I
received two books as gifts for Christmas. One
is ‘I Never Knew That About Ireland
’ by
Christopher Winn. It is a collection of interesting
and sometimes little known facts about Ireland, its
culture and history.
The
other book is a real gem because it’s an antique. It is an 1866 edition
of ‘Moore’s Irish Melodies’ by
Thomas Moore, famed Irish poet. This lovely book
is filled with the poems of Sir
Thomas Moore that ultimately were the
result of his interpretation while listening
to various Irish harp music
composed by himself and Sir John Stevenson,
as well as accompaniment
to the works of the master Irish harpists,
such as Turloch O’Carolan. Each entry is beautifully
illustrated with lithographic copies of some of the
artwork of fellow Irishman Daniel Maclise, RA (Royal
Academy).
I
have included two selections on LittleShamrocks.com
~ 'Oh the Shamrock' and 'Dear Harp of My
Country' on our Irish
Poetry page. There will
be more of Thomas Moore’s
poetry to come.
LittleShamrocks.com
had a very busy December filled with lots of
orders for our products
and a large
increase in traffic to our site. Our
Alexa traffic ranking is still in the top 1%
of all web sites worldwide.
We had a great year in 2009 and want
to thank you all for your continued patronage.
In
March, I hope to have more news to report, so
until then ...
Sláinte,
Tyna
