Spring, in Pictures

I had in mind something ponderous about spring and Easter, but boy howdy, I'm tired. So enjoy, instead, these pictures of this evening's culinary project. I regret that I didn't get pictures of some of the steps, just because I'd like to have them for myself.

Anyway, Easter. Well, last night (unless it's still tonight: it's just gone midnight here), YFU came to me and said, "What's for dinner?" And I said, "Hmmm. Dinner: interesting notion." And then I took her to one of my favorite local restaurants. She had chicken enchiladas, and I had the Pato alla Saviliana, which was not quite as tender as usual but still delicious. And we were eating, she was telling me stories from her recent trip to Boston with her Religious Education class from church, and she told me about her friend Jack, who has a fear of crosses. Her narrative went something like this:

So we're all, like, how can you be afraid of crosses, and he tells us how when he was a little kid, he saw Hellboy, and he was confused, and he thought that Hellboy was the devil, and Hellboy's the good guy, so he was talking to some friends and said "The devil's a hero!" and a priest heard him and the priest got really mad at him and started waving a cross in his face and talking about Satan and he got scared. But we still didn't understand and we were all, well, still, you should be afraid of priests instead of crosses, and then he said, "But when he waved the cross in my face, it went in my nose."

That story reminded me of this passage from Brave New World.

I guess Jack will be safe from bookspriests and botanycrosses all his life.


Easter has always struck me as the least satisfying of Christian holidays. I just never really understood why if God created everyone and then decided that they were sinful, he needed a sacrifice, of his own son yet, in order to forgive those people. It's really very difficult to reconcile the Easter story with the omniscient and omnipotent God that modern Christians would have us accept.


Anyway, I tried, truly, to think about rebirth and Easter and all that, but none of it was even half as satisfying as making a big batch of marzipan and then making edible robin eggs and a dark chocolate nest. Especially with YFU helping out.


I hope that tomorrow the weather will be a bit better, and I'll have gotten a good night's sleep (I was up until 4am Friday night/Saturday morning and then up again at 8 to go to the office.) and be able to go for a walk and enjoy the flowering trees, as well as the end of tax season: my April 15th work is essentially finished. I'm looking forward to my own annual renaissance.


Happy Easter, everyone.