March 31st (Holy Saturday)

Today is Saturday,

Tomorrow is Easter,

Also,

April Fools Day.

I looked up the origins of Easter.

Its really an obscure holiday,

the beginnings of which are possibly pagan.

Seems there was a Saxon goddess of the east called

Eostre.

She was a symbol of fertility and her festival was the spring equinox.

But,

there isn't any real hard evidence of this except

from the writings of an 8th century monk.

He translated the name Eostre, to the Latin, Paschal

thereby making it a  

Secular holiday corresponding to

the crucifixion and resurrection.

 The bunny and eggs are from Germany.

They called him the Easter Hare.

He brought colored eggs to good children.

Nope......

I prefer Easter Bunny!

Or,

Maybe an Easter Hen should bring the brightly colored eggs?

Rabbits don't lay eggs!

C'mon.

 

Yesterday was Good Friday.

I found this beautiful picture.

It really is moving.

 

The first Louisiana Iris.

Beautiful.

 

I'm in a pun obsession now.

I love them!

 

Here's a good one.....

There was a group of Friars who were behind on loan payments for church repairs,

so they opened a small florist shop to raise the money.

Soon everyone from far and wide came to buy their flowers.

But,

a rival florist in the village wanted them shut down.

He tried to get them to close up shop to no avail.

So,

he hired a henchman called Hugh to "persuade" the monks.

Hugh beat them up and trashed the store.

The monks were so terrified that they closed down the florist shop immediately.

Proving........

 

(wait for it....)

 

that only Hugh can prevent florist friars!

 

(groan)

 

Here's another......

 

 

and in the spirit of the season....

 

and this one......

though not a pun,

is too funny.

I can some of my harvest and I was looking for a new recipe.

That's when I found this picture.

but,

it looked a lot like this to me.......

a doppelganger?

L.O.L.!

 

 

This is a beautiful Silicon Valley California sunset.

The picture is taken from one of the parking lots at Google.

Beautiful!

 

 

This is Alum Rock Park

in San José, California.

(I'm assuming that my son, who sent the pictures, knows the way)

(Hadda get that Dionne Warwick reference in)

The park is in a valley of the Diablo Mountain range.

 

 

Chicken Segue....................

 

I was going to dye eggs for Easter,

but,

I realized that our girls already lay colored eggs.

So, I think I'll just hard boil some.

We've collected quite a few eggs in the past week.

 

 

Everything is quiet in the coop.

Its 7:30

When it gets dusk, they file in and settle down for the night.

They'll grab a site on the roosting bar

 or

squish up closely together in a laying box.

Then we go out and close the coop door.

They make a few "cooing" noises at night sometimes,

but not much else.

At dawn they get vocal.

No cockadoodling,

but they make it known they want out!

We are early risers anyway,

so we let them out and we give them fresh water and feed.

Then its time for Leia's insulin shot and her arthritis meds.

Sometimes feels like that movie...

"I Bought A Zoo"

 

 

"and on the fifth day,

God created fish and birds,

(and chickens),

and then

on the sixth day

He created animals (dogs).

And then God said "Wow, I have literally

outdone myself!

Oh, wait!

I'll create someone to love them and take care of them,

and then I'll rest!"

Book of Genesis

according to me

😁

 

 

 

 

Peace out!

 

 

March 25th

Today is Palm Sunday.

It's absolutely beautiful weather too.

I didn't make it to church, but I spent most of the morning in the garden.

That's kinda the same thing.

 

Since spring began on the 20th,

the flowers are looking beautiful....

These are Amaryllis

there's many more in the back yard,

but these are the prettiest.

and the veggies are outdoing themselves....

This is the" salad garden",

its a bunch of different greens.

They are beautiful as well as tasty.

 

This is the potatoes

They won't be ready till much later in the season.

 

and the carrots.....

If you look really hard, you can see the

the baby carrots poking out of the soil.

too cute!

 

 

the strawberries are doing well...

If the hens don't eat them!

We have 3 pots of them growing.

the grape vine is coming along too.

 

 

this is variegated English Ivy.

I thought it had died in the frosts, but it too

is rallying.

 

I decorated for Easter......

Yeah, I'm lazy.

I sincerely don't like to take anything down.

Don't mind putting it up though.

So this, along with a few stuffed bunnies scattered in the den,

is the grand total of my decorations....

 

I think he may be a tad crooked.....

I'll fix it.

Later.

Maybe.....

 

I haven't felt much like cooking lately, so the CEO picked up some pizzas.

He got the NORMAL kinds of pizzas,

then he bought, what I call,

"pizza abominations".

These......

are NOT acceptable pizzas!

He likes this stuff.

The rest of us?

Nope!

Gimme a regular cheese or pepperoni.

Maybe a few other added items

(not anchovies)

and I'm in pizza heaven.

However,

I did see these pizzas on Pinterest.

I'm on board for these!

Even a taco pizza,

Or

Chicken pizza....

 

chickens?

 

 

Did someone mention chickens??

This is Ethel.

She's so nosy.

 

This is Lucy,

you can see how much more golden her neck feathers are than Ethel's

She's bigger too and she lays a bigger egg .

 

 

And these are Pepper and Nugget.

They love Kale.

We pick a few pieces and give it to them.

Its like a parade when we are outside. The girls follow us wherever we go.

 

 

This is the remainder of the load of mud.

I think maybe the CEO is trying to tell me something....?.

 

 

Oh, well,

 maybe they'll come in peace,

Like ET??

 

 

 

 

March 17th

Happy St Patrick's Day!

A little trivia about St Patrick:

He didn't drive snakes out of Ireland and he (most likely) didn't teach Christianity to the pagan Irish with the clover as a visual aid.

He did, however, return to Ireland to convert the masses after being kidnapped in 530AD Briton.

He was from a wealthy family and the captors sold him to a warlord. Inexplicably, he tended the warlord's sheep. I guess they couldn't get decent shepherds back in the day. 

Meanwhile.......

he escaped back to his family, converted his atheistic ways, enrolled in the priesthood and went back to convert the Celts.

And now,

somehow,

we celebrate by getting drunk on green beer and getting pinched if not Irish?

Ok. Seems legit.

 

We celebrate with food (as any self respecting person from New Orleans does)
This morning it'll be scrambled eggs, courtesy of the girls, with bacon and green pancakes.
I was going to make something for lunch with cabbage, but that particular veggie, isn't well received in this house.
The CEO and myself like it, but the others, not so much.

Since March 14th, so much has happened......
March 14 - Pi Day.
I was gonna expound on the number, but something far more serious happened.
Sadly, one of the greatest minds of my time has passed.
Stephen Hawking, the theoretical physicist and cosmologist succumbed to ALS.
He did beat the odds though. He was diagnosed at 21 and made it to 76.
He was quite the wit. I remember him on an old Star Trek playing poker on the holodeck
with Data, Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton. It was a funny little skit.
Sad day for mankind.

 

 

 

March 15th - The Ideas of March. I'll bet Shakespeare would have never guessed that in the 21st century people would go to such lengths the work out silly memes for this date.

they even got Brut(us) in there!

Funny!

And sadly, for us, Tom Benson passed away.

Our savior in many ways. A man who truly loved this old town.

You will be missed. I like to think he'll be watching the games and cheering from a box seat neat to St Patrick.

(although, St Patrick has the green beer rights, but Tom brought the Dixie!)

 

 

 

March 16 - Everything You Do Is Right Day.

Its not literal.

It seems that whatever reason someone thought this would make a good day to celebrate, meant that "you can't do anything wrong".

So in the sense of "safe, legal and fun", anything is game.

One word.

'Merica.

 

 

Then, on March 19th, we celebrate St Joseph's Day. Well, it actually is an ecclesiastical holiday but mostly Italians celebrate. Then there are the altars!

 

We all know that St Joseph is the "stepfather" of Jesus, but he is also the patron saint of Italy. In this tradition, it is more aligned with Sicilians. The celebration was brought to New Orleans with the arrival of immigrants. The feast day was celebrated with altars to commemorate a thanksgiving for relief from famine.

So....

Back in the 1700's in Sicily, a long drought occurred. The people had to live off of their livestock feed (the livestock died). They typically grew and dried fava beans to feed the livestock. The were considered "lucky" because the beans survived with little water.

Anyway......

 the farmers prayed for the intercession of St Joseph to bring rain. It did, the crops grew and they vowed to give thanks with the altars and to feed the hungry.

These days people pray for St Joseph's help for a number of reasons.

FYI, it is usually a meatless bounty because of Lent.

 

There's been no more sightings of hawks or owls. Whew!

Thank goodness for that.

The girls are happily going about their daily duties.

They produce about 5 eggs a day. That's perfect for us.

 

An observation......

The word "phonetically" doesn't even start with an "f"!!!

This is the kinda crap that makes any intelligent aliens keep on flying

straight past this blue marble.

 

But that's just me.

 

 

March 11th

It's Sunday 3/11, but its never too early to say Happy St Paddy's Day.
I'm reading the paper.
Its just me and Leia.
I'm sitting in the kitchen with the natural light coming in the kitchen window and she's lying at my feet.
Its overcast and looks like rain any moment.
I love the rain......
I digress.
(feels like I'm trying to write Haiku, LOL!)

I was just thinking....
On March 10th in 1876 Alexander Bell's assistant, Thomas Watson, heard his "Master's Voice".
It was such a breakthrough.
Bell was in the next room and said "Mr. Watson come here, I want to see you".
The.
Next.
Room.
What?
Seriously?
I remember reading this for some long forgotten history class and thinking,
"Did he really hear him on the phone or through the walls?"
Had he been talking to my Mom, she would have heard him loud and clear
WITHOUT any device!
She knew details from my one sided conversations that I found nothing short of clairvoyant.
It's serendipitous that Mr. Watson was male.
It would have made for a whole different historical record had it been Mr. Bells' Mom!
And.....
Since I'm on the "phone" subject,
I'm glad the initial greeting upon answering the phone is "Hello".
I coulda been Ahoy!
Just sayin'.

                                              Some of the plants are coming back just fine

The buds are Amaryllis,

can't wait till they open!

This is my little "mailbox"garden.

Chrysanthemum, creeping sedum and dusty miller.

 

New developments with the backyard mini farm.

The hens have had some unwanted company.

This isn't an actual mugshot of the hawk that's been hanging around,

but it certainly looks like him!

He sits on our wooden fence and harasses

the hens.

All he does is stare, unblinkingly at them.

He hasn't done anything overt, yet.

Last week he managed to catch a squirrel.

I saw him up in the tree with his unfortunate "lunch".

He's about the same size as the hens, so I don't think

he poses them an actual threat,

But....

You never know.

 

And

this guy

(again, not an actual mugshot)

He watches silently from the neighbors roof.

I've seen him eyeballing the girls in the evenings.

They are hyper aware when there is any predator around.

They stay under things or go back into the coop.

This guy is actually smaller than the hens,

so

I hope he poses no real threat as well.

The thing is,

both the hawk and the owl are beautiful

birds of prey!

I have never seen either one of these animals that close.

Just hope they don't get closer.

 

The girls don't mind sharing the larder with the friendly neighborhood

fauna as long as they aren't on the menu.

The Mallard couple are still around,

periodically.

I think they are only here for the food and fresh water.

I can't find a nest,

and the girls would never allow the female duck in their coop!

 

 

Today there are a couple of parades for St Patrick's Day.

Any excuse for a parade, right?

So...