We were watching the news last night.

They had an item on about lost currency.

The Euro was introduced here five years ago and the old Irish Pound, or Punt ceased to be legal tender. You can’t use it any more. It is worthless, though you can still get it changed in the Central Bank.

Apparently, they estimate that there is still £300,000,000 out there. Yes – that’s three hundred million Punts. That is one heck of a lot of money.

We started surmising where all this money could be. Under mattresses? In attics?

I casually mentioned that, now that I think of it, my father didn’t trust banks, and may have buried his retirement fund under the vegetable patch.

Herself never even asked why I hadn’t mentioned this before. She was gone.

She came in once or twice during the evening for a drink of water and to get extra clothing. It was very cold out there, and the snow is still on the ground.

She came in at around one o’clock and said she had dug the entire patch [and it’s a very big patch] to a depth of about two feet and had found nothing.

“Ah no” Says I. “Dad was thorough. He always said to bury something at least three or four feet, or it might surface accidentally”

She came in at around eight this morning and collapsed in bed.

She found nothing of course, because there was nothing to find

I’ve been meaning to dig that vegetable patch for ages.