Looking on the Bright Side

Sadly Irish eyes aren't smiling at Golden Beach

So no corned corned beef and cabbage for us this year. And with the world in turmoil it's tough finding something to cheer us up but I'll try.

Well for one thing, the white orchid tree in the back garden is bloomin' marvellous..

....And the politically incorrect Confederate jasmine is getting going.

There have been bird fights over the bird bath - the woodpecker pushing the dove off the rim, then the dove diving in and splashing around spilling all the water. I don't blame them. It's been very dry

Meanwhile the mocking birds seem to have multiplied and upped several gears, going through their high-decibel repertoire of any bird song ever heard in these parts, plus an encore from the one that disturbingly knows how to mimic the telephone.

  Birds don't read the news - not our news anyway - so they are enjoying life as usual. Here were some unusual visitors to the beach

They flew like ducks, dived like ducks, so they must be..... I didn't hear them quack, though, so they may have been imposters.

  The beach early in the morning was peaceful as ever with just a few people looking for sharks' teeth. 

No one had found my phone though. Maybe it was eaten by one of these chaps.

There were more pelicans this morning than I've seen all winter. Must be something good there. Can I have some?

Other reasons I can think of to be cheerful:
There are still loo rolls at the supermarket though for some weird reason they had run out of potatoes.
Also soap, which is more understandable. Plenty of strawberries, blackberries and blueberries though. "Please take them off my hands!" the chap begged, "I've got loads here". Clearly someone in Buying clicked on the wrong button. Strawberries instead of soap. "Glad to hear people haven't started stockpiling those yet", I said, "Oh we want to make sure our customers get what they want!" he beamed. Unless it's soap. And there may be a bottle of rubbing alcohol in a museum somewhere but there certainly isn't any on the shelves, though there is a forlorn sign, "Only Two Per Customer Please". "I only wanted one", hubby said sadly.
On a more philosophical level, were are rediscovering things: good books, binge watching silly old films, emailing old friends, the fact that, as a human race we are all in the same boat, that we don't know it all and may need in the future to shed a part of our egos. Maybe some good will come out of this. Stay happy and healthy everyone!