“May is white clouds behind pine trees,
Puffed out and marching upon a blue sky.”
By Amy Lowelle

If you were out on Mother’s Day, you saw the most beautiful blue sky, with just a few puffy clouds. Of course, you had to withstand some strong winds that added to the discomfort of the cold temps. Hubby, thank goodness, had taken the tomato plants that he bought on Friday in the house. I am not sure if they could have withstood the temperature in the 30s on Sunday morning. He had also purchased some additional pansies, this time choosing peach-colored ones that look beautiful next to the purple and yellow ones already on the porch. He also bought two pots of hot pink geraniums that I will plant in our whiskey barrels. We took advantage of the sales of impatiens offered over the Mother’s Day weekend. They will also go into the whiskey barrels after the cold predicted for all of this week subsides.

Back to our rainy weekend at the Red Jacket: Susan joined us for an early breakfast on Sat., Apr. 17. Because she wasn’t feeling well, she went off to our room to rest while Hubby and I went out shopping. We first stopped at the Dennisport Post Office, which is just a wonderful place to buy stamps. The postal workers are so pleasant and I was in and out in a couple of minutes. Almost across the way, we went into the Ocean State Job Lot Store. This store is larger than the North Quincy Store and it doesn’t seem so busy as the other store. (The Marshfield and the Brockton stores are the most spacious.) We, of course, then stopped at the Christmas Tree Shop in West Dennis. I can remember when that store first opened.

After shopping along Rte. 28, we turned and went up to the Patriot Mall. Daughter Sue had asked us to get some nasal spray. We took a quick run into CVS to buy the spray for her. Back we went to the hotel. Mass was not until 4 p.m. so we had about two hours to rest. Daughter Jeanne called Sue on her cell phone and said that she, David, and the kids were at the Sagamore Bridge. They would be with us in about a half hour. They arrived in mid afternoon. After Mass, we all gathered at the Hearth & Kettle Restaurant in South Yarmouth. Jeanne told us all about the charity walk that she and Erin had done that morning. They ended up very cold and very wet by the end of the walk. They were looking forward to the warm pool.

We had more fun at the restaurant. Of course, each person had what he or she really wanted. We had a wonderful waitress, who was able to handle the seven of us very easily. At the end of the meal, we began to say “No, thanks” when the waitress asked if we wanted dessert. She got to Hubby, who had “a face on.” “I want a dish of vanilla ice cream.” Then we all turned to David. “I think I’d like a hot fudge sundae,” said he. We asked the waitress to give us seven spoons. “I think it had better be a large-sized sundae,” said David. Sue then piped up, “I think you had better bring two large-sized sundaes.” The waitress went off, laughing. Down on the tables went the two sundaes. Out came the seven spoons. I stopped everyone, at first, so I could put a small amount of ice cream on a separate dish for daughter Sue. With her bad cold, she could have infected all of us. Then I gave the go-ahead. The six of us polished off the two big sundaes in no time at all. Everyone had a happy face. As my aunt Ethel used to say, “I never saw a sad face eating ice cream.”

Back we went to the hotel. Sue was still feeling terribly sick. Both Jeanne, a school nurse, and I discouraged Sue from going to her friend’s home in Hyannis to spend the rest of the holiday weekend. “Either you will spend the rest of the weekend in bed or you will give her your cold. Go home and rest.“ Sue took our advice and got ready to make the drive home. She had not been shopping so she had little to take to the car. Hubby walked her out to the parking lot. We figured that her cats, Cleo and Tia, and our outdoor cat, Louie, would be delighted that she was home for the night. They would not miss a meal that evening.

Everyone was tired from the long day. Hubby and I went to bed fairly early, just about 10 p.m. During the middle of the night, I heard a “beep, beep, beep.” The electric clock in our room was slow so I had fixed it earlier in the afternoon. I figured that I must have put on the alarm by mistake. About two minutes later, I heard the beep again. For about an hour the beeps came every few minutes. I finally turned on the light and Hubby woke up. He listened and discovered that it was the small fridge that was beeping. He checked it out. The ice had turned to water in the freezer. The only things we had in the fridge were several cans of soda and Hubby’s eye drops. It was too early to call the front desk. Hubby fell off to sleep for a little bit and then woke up again with the beeps. “I think we had better pull out the plug.” We slept for another several hours before we had to get up for breakfast with Jeanne, David, and the kids.

I did go out to the front desk about 7 a.m. on Sunday to report our beeping refrigerator. Daughter Jeanne was already up so we got several cups of coffee to take back to our rooms. It was still rainy so we walked through the dining room to get back to our rooms via the indoor route. We could see that there was a big brunch being assembled for breakfast. Within an hour or so, we were back in the dining room with Hubby, son-in-law David, and the World’s Greatest Grandchildren, Brendan and Erin. All of us, but one, opted for the buffet. (Just the fruit cup alone made me order the buffet.) Hubby ordered Eggs Benedict, which he indulgences in eating two weekends a year. We all enjoyed the breakfast and then said our goodbyes. We were going to do a little shopping at Kmart before we started back to Boston. With all lanes on the Sagamore Bridge open and very little traffic because the weekend was extended another day with Patriots’ Day, we sailed home.

I was delighted to hear, from proud Grandma Mona and Grandpa Gary Miller, of the safe arrival of Thomas Anthony Lucas III, on Tues. May 4, at 5 a.m. Thomas weighed in at 10 pounds, two ounces, and is 22 inches long. “He’s a nice, big boy,” according to Mona. Thomas is the first child of Thomas and Lori Lucas of Dorchester. The other proud grandparents are Kathie and Tom Lucas, also of Dorchester. Thomas is fortunate to have two grandmothers: Dorothea Miller of Braintree and Gertrude Lynch of Dorchester. I send my congratulations to everyone.

I was sorry to read of the death of Laurentine Mullane on Apr. 7, at age 94. I send my sympathy to her children: Lt. Det. William “Bo” Mullane, B.P.D. retired; Lt. Neal Mullane Sr. B.F.D. retired; Jacqueline Miner; Ann Diodati, and especially to my friend Jane “Sissie” Mullane, B.T.D. retired.

Thanks to Mary O’Brien, I learned that the Office for New Evangelization of Youth and Young Adults of the Archdiocese of Boston has honored two of our local people. Paula Skalinski, from St. Ann’s Parish in Neponset, received one of the Light of the World Awards, given to adults serving youth. Corrine Ball, also from St. Ann’s, received the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Award, given to an adult serving youth through the CYO. Bravo, Ladies, and we thank you for all your work with the young people of St. Ann’s.
In one of the Irish newspapers I read that there will be an “addition” to The Quiet Man. The movie named Connemara Days will deal with the story of John Ford’s arrival in the little Irish village of Cong, back in 1952, to film the John Wayne-Maureen O’Hara classic film. Roger Moore, Aidan Quinn, and Geraldine Chaplin will appear in the film with Stacy Keach playing John Ford. Roger Moore, who is the Executive Producer of the new movie, considers The Quiet Man to be John Ford’s best movie. (It is positively my favorite movie.) Cong, by the way, had just been electrified back in 1952, just before the movie crew arrived. I can hardly wait for the new movie to be shown.

I just found out who is the protector of the home and I am so happy that she is an Irish saint, St. Brigid. Now I realize why it is good to have a St. Brigid’s Cross in the kitchen, the heart of the home. My St. Brigid’s Cross, made of reeds gathered from the Shannon River, is nailed to the canopy over my kitchen sink.

Thanks to all the catalogs that our terrific mailman Mike lugs to our home each week, there is usually a good supply of wise saying to share with you. Here is an excellent one: “The largest room in the world is the room for improvement.”