I never feel alone in the garden. As soon as my trowel hits the soil, a flash of orange appears at my feet. There it is, the self-appointed supervisor of all my gardening efforts. The robin has arrived to see what I’m doing on his patch!
Superstitions in Ireland - a light-hearted look at bad omens
I recently googled to find out which is the most superstitious country in the world, fully expecting it to be Ireland. Surprise, surprise; it wasn’t. It was India. And within Europe the most superstitious people apparently live in Serbia. Perhaps we are beginning to shake off our belief in bad omens in Ireland. I was brought up by superstitious parents and it took me years to abandon their worries about magpies, broken mirrors, spilled salt and peacock feathers, to name but a few.