Until about the age of twelve with my Grampa being Irish, called Patrick and in my young eyes, really old, I thought St Patrick's Day was all about celebrating his Birthday, bless the innocence  believing that the world celebrated his birthday with us! I must have thought he was as important as the Queen and had two Birthday's, celebrating his 'public' birthday on the 17th, St Patricks Day and his 'official' Birthday three days earlier on the 13th.  This amazing man really was the King of Kings in my world.

Sadly last week was just another expected reminder that he is no longer with us.   If you have been reading this blog for a while or know me personally you will already know that I am one of the most sentimental people around and still believing the magic, he injected into mine and so many others lives, I wanted to tell you about this positive magic and something's that happened last week that I am sure are down to my Grampa's Irish luck!

So this magic I talk about was only too real as a youngster, I genuinely believed that the deer and fawn that visited our garden every other morning were Bambi and his Mum, like my Grampa told me.  I did questioned him one day as we all know Bambi's  mum died in the film I remember him telling me that the magic brought her back to life, because that was her at the top of my garden.  Of course I believed him, who was I to question St Patrick!

Just behind where the deer grazed those mornings was Fairy Forest.  Fairy forest is actually just a wood in the highlands of Scotland with the name Ardross Woods, of course there is a story behind the alternative name I have for it..  Grampa and myself often took walks in the forest with our stick in hand to knock the bad pixies off the toadstools, now I know this is going to sound mental but bare with me.  In the forest lived the Faires, (the good guys) and the pixies (the bad guys). My Grampa and the rest of my family had expanded my imagination so much I genuinely believed I could see these beings, so me and Grampa would knock the pixies of the fairy toadstools so the fairies wouldn't be frightened anymore.  Funnily enough the fairies were always to frightened to come out, so my Grampa says, as we never seen them.  There was also a bridge on the way to the forest where the goats of the fairytale  Billy Goats Gruff lived, with that I'm done looking insane.

Memories like this made for the best childhood memories a girl could ask for and having such a vivid imagination truly was magical and without not only my Grampa but my Granny, Mum and Auntie such things would have probably never been remembered, they were all in on it you see.  I feel so lucky to have these memories and they just remind me how amazing my Grampa was!  On the road where our family home is, there is a carefully placed bench,sitting exactly where my Grampa would often have a rest on his walks with the dog, Cal.  In the picture you can see, our much loved family friend Roslyn (roz), using it for the purposes intended.  Taking a wee break and remembering all the magical things that make up the memories of my Grampa.

So you can't blame me when I believe that the amazing things that happened on his 'official' birthday are all down to him.  As soon as the clock struck midnight bringing us into the thirteenth day of March my creativity and inspiration was booming, I wrote about 6 blog posts through the night but didn't sleep much so slept in until lunchtime the next day.  When I woke up I felt so productive, I replied to more emails than I have all year within an hour, wrote more blog posts, cleaned the whole house top to bottom, walked the dog and got ready for my Mum coming home from work.  During the day I had confirmation that I would be working for Wireless Festival (more on that later in the week), collaborating with my favourite high street brand (you will see this very soon) and one of my closest friends got the job she was desperate to land.  I genuinely believe this was my Grampa helping me out, told you I was one of the most sentimental people you now know.

I posted an extra special Throw Back Thursday photograph on facebook last weekto celebrate what would have been my Grampa's 65th Birthday and urged all my followers to like and share.  I wanted to make the status the most popular ever so I could say, it was about my Grampa, should anyone ever ask me, so he can be a part of it too.  I was absolutely delighted, that status alone reached over 1000 readers, such an amazing amount concidering I only have about 200 likes in total.  Thank you so much for sharing, incase you didn't see it just click this paragraph to take you directly to the update I'm talking about.

With that I wish you all a Happy Saint Patrick's Day and a Happy 'public' Birthday to my Grampa.