Sweet

• St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes from Martha Stewart
• Clover Cookies from Martha Stewart
• Grasshopper Pie from Martha Stewart
• Shamrock Shake from Jannypie.com
• Irish Potato Candy

Savory

• Irish Soda Bread from Martha Stewart
• Homemade Corned Beef from Martha Stewart
• Irish Beef Hand Pies from Martha Stewart
• Shamrock Green Peppers from Martha Stewart
• Colcannon from Martha Stewart

Many, many additional recipes can be found at the following sites: Irish Tea Traditons, Timeless Treasure Trunk: St. Patrick's Day, Luck of the Irish, Irish Recipes, St. Patrick's Day Recipes, Irish Recipes and Baking, Irish Cuisine, etc.

This afternoon I ran to the local library and was greatly distressed to discover that someone beat me to all of the St. Patrick's Day books available, excepting two (quite by luck, since they weren't on the same shelf as the others!). While I normally prefer to buy our books anyway, in this case I'd hoped to borrow many since I'm already desperately short on time. Here's what I did manage to find:

• Saint Patrick by Ann Tompert
• St. Patrick and Irish Christianity by Tom Corfe - Now OOP, but an excellent little book which is packed full of information!
• Ireland the Land by Bobbie Kalman (OOP?)
• Ireland the Culture by Bobbie Kalman (OOP?)
• The Legends & Lands of Ireland by Richard Marsh - Worthwhile for the photographs alone
• Celtic Fairy Tales by Neil Philip and Isabelle Brent
• Favorite Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs - Quite a slim book, also available free online (see below)

For myself I picked up The Irish Way: A Walk Through Ireland's Past and Present which I suspect will displace Abundance as this week's selection for "52 Books..." Also, I was reminded that we already have a book about Saint Patrick (as part of Sonlight Core 6), Flame Over Tara by Madeleine Polland. Therefore, we'll be dividing our month in this way...the first two weeks we'll read "Flame Over Tara," followed by Celtic fairy tales, myths and legends. I think. Returning back to Amazon to determine what I needed to purchase, I came across the following to supplement my earlier list:

• Twenty Tales of Irish Saints by Alice Curtayne
• Treasury of Irish Myth, Legend & Folklore: Fairy & Folktales of the Irish Peasantry by Lady Gregory and William Butler Yeats
• The History of Ireland by Richard Tames
• This is Ireland by M. Sasek
• Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850 by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
• Children of the Troubles: Our Lives in the Crossfire of Northern Ireland by Laurel Holliday

Picture Books

• Katie's Wish by Barbara Shook Hazen - About the Irish potato famine
• Market Day by Eve Bunting - Set in an Irish village

Also, I checked The Baldwin Project for books that were available free online, there we have:

• Our Island Saints by Amy Steedman: Gentle stories of saints from the British Isles
• Ireland: Peeps at History by Beatrice Home
• Favorite Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs
• Donegal Fairy Stories by Seumus MacManus
• In Chimney Corners, Merry Tales of Irish Folk Lore by Seumus MacManus
• The King of Ireland's Son by Padraic Column
• Celtic Tales Told to the Children by Louey Chisholm

Lastly, if we had more time, we'd read the Bantry Bay Series by Hilda Van Stockum - a fictional series from the 1930s, set in Glengarriff, County Cork, Ireland.

Poet Elizabeth Alexander was on NPR this afternoon, reading some of her work. I enjoyed this poem, so thought I'd share it here:

Poetry, I tell my students,
is idiosyncratic. Poetry

is where we are ourselves,
(though Sterling Brown said

"Every 'I' is a dramatic 'I'")
digging in the clam flats

for the shell that snaps,
emptying the proverbial pocketbook.

Poetry is what you find
in the dirt in the corner,

overhear on the bus, God
in the details, the only way

to get from here to there.
Poetry (and now my voice is rising)

is not all love, love, love
and I'm sorry the dog died.

Poetry (here I hear myself loudest)
is the human voice,

and are we not of interest to each other?

- From American Sublime

Despite my earnest efforts, I came up mostly empty-handed while looking for Irish/St. Patrick's Day crafts that weren't completely tacky. True it's not exactly a major holiday, but somehow I expected more options than were available. Nevertheless, Little Irish Blessings had quite a thorough list and The Crafty Crow has a great round up as well; here's what else I came up with:

• Shamrock Boutonnieres from Martha Stewart
• Saint Patrick's Day Pins from Martha Stewart
• Shamrock Potato Prints from Martha Stewart
• Lucky Sprouts from HowStuffWorks
• Shamrock Origami: How to Fold a Shamrock From a Dollar Bill from Curbly
• Vintage St. Patrick's Decoration
• Shamrock Collage
• Shamrock Frosted Glasses (I suspect these could be done a bit more nicely)

I also found some DIY decor ideas: The Felt Mouse @ Flickr, JannyPie.com. Sadly, that is all for now.

This morning I had a rather inspired idea...I've decided that for the month of March, we will take a "time out" from our regularly scheduled history studies and focus instead on the rich history and traditions of Ireland. My new history schedule is coming together quite neatly and will allow time for this, so I expect it to be quite fun!

Needless to say, because I hadn't exactly planned for this, it will take some scrambling to throw together a decent plan...I would imagine that we'll mostly read, watch a lot of movies and documentaries, listen to some Irish music and enjoy some Irish food.

Since I've already covered many of the books, let's move on to movies and music:

Irish Movies

(See also: The Irish in Film database)

• The Secret of Roan Inish
• Darby O'Gill and the Little People
• Waking Ned Divine
• The Seventh Stream
• The Field
• Tristan & Isolde
• The Quiet Man
• A Love Divided
• The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns
• Michael Collins*
• Omagh
• The Wind That Shakes the Barley*
• Finian's Rainbow
• The White Pony
• The Luck of the Irish

*Contains some violence

Documentaries

• Visions of Ireland
• Nature: Ireland
• The Celts: Rich Traditions & Ancient Myths
• Patrick: A documentary about Saint Patrick
• St. Patrick: Apostle of Ireland*
• In Search of Ancient Ireland*
• Come West Along the Road: Irish Musical Tradition*
• The Irish Empire
• Duffy's Irish Circus
• Irish Writers
• Pillars of Faith: Celtic Saints
• Greatest Journeys: Ireland, Great Britain & Brittany: Journeys of the Celtic Legends

*Not available from Netflix

Irish Music

This list is far from comprehensive, I merely picked what appeared most interesting to me:

• Ireland's Greatest Hits
• Irish Jigs & Reels
• Traditional Music of Ireland
• From Galway to Dublin: Early Recordings of Irish Tradition (I love this one!)
• Upon a Shamrock Shore: Songs of Ireland and the Irish by Irish Rovers
• Milestone at the Garden: Irish Fiddle Masters from the 78 RPM Era
• Gaelic Storm
• A Taste of Ireland: Irish Traditional Music
• Putumayo Presents: Celtic Tides
• Putumayo Presents: Celtic Crossroads
• Putumayo Presents: Women of the World - Celtic Women of the World

Books with an Irish Theme (Many discovered via By Sun and Candlelight):

• Jamie O'Rourke and the Pooka by Tomie de Paola
• Patrick Patron Saint of Ireland by Tommie de Paola
• Tales From Old Ireland by Malacy Doyle
• St. Patrick's Day in the Morning by Eve Bunting
• Shamrocks, Harps and Shillelaghs: The Story of St. Patrick's Day Symbols by Edna Barth
• St. Patrick's Day Alphabet by Beverly Barras Vidrine
• Small Beauties: The Journey of Darcy Heart O'Hara by Elvira Woodruff
• Fiona's Luck by Teresa Bateman and Kelly Murphy
• O'Sullivan Stew by Hudson Talbott
• A Fine St. Patrick's Day by Susan Wojciechowski
• That's What Leprechauns Do by Eve Bunting
• Pot O'Gold: A Treasury of Irish Stories, Poetry and Folklore and (of course) Blarney by Kathleen Krull
• Favorite Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs
• The Blackbird's Nest: Saint Kevin of Ireland by Jenny Schroedel and Doug Montross
• A Child's Book of Celtic Prayers by Joyce Denham and Helen Cann
• The Ancient Celtic Festivals: and How We Celebrate Them Today by Clare Walker Leslie
• Celtic Memories by Caitlin Matthews
• Tim O'Toole and the Wee Folk by Gerald McDermott

Our book basket for March will include many of the Books for St. Patrick's Day and a few of the following:

March 2: The Boy on Fairfield Street by Kathleen Krull; Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) born March 2, 1904.

March 3: Alexander Graham Bell by Victoria Sherrow; Alexander Graham Bell born March 3, 1847

March 6: Michelangelo by Diane Stanley; Michelangelo born March 6, 1475

March 6: Susanna of the Alamo: A True Story by John Jakes; Battle of the Alamo - March 6, 1836

March 14: Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein by Don Brown; Albert Einstein born March 14, 1879

March 17: Franklin & Eleanor by Cheryl Harness; Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt married March 17, 1905

March 19: Cowboy Charlie: The Story of Charles M. Russell by Jeanette Winter; Charles Russell born March 19, 1864

March 21: Sebastian: A Book about Bach by Jeanette Winter; Sebastian Bach March 21, 1685

March 23: Fannie in the Kitchen: The Whole Story from Soup to Nuts of How Fannie Farmer Invented Recipes with Precise Measurements by Deborah Hopkinson; Fannie Farmer born March 23, 1857

March 24: The Secret of the Great Houdini by Robert Burleigh; Houdini born March 24, 1874

March 31: Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull; Cesar Chavez born March 31, 1927