Snoozing on the Catio.

Ignore the detritus that has accumulated on the catio. Focus instead on how cute the cats look sleeping in the sun.

And how cute they look when they wake up because I took their picture.

Date night. Walk to St. Johns Cinema & Pub

Matt and I took a long walk from our house to St. Johns.  It was a nice evening for such a walk.

I'm ruing the day I didn't grab a picture of this building before they renovated it.  It was covered in that 70s white rock.  Here, they have stripped the white rock, and replaced part of the exterior with plain pine boards.  Are plain pine boards destined to be the white rock of this era?  Stay tuned.

 

The sun started disappearing as we approached downtown St. Johns.

Inside the pub, Matt shows off his passport.  This was the first time I'd just come to this building for the restaurant.  Usually I'm here for the movie theater.

Not what it looks like (and a progress update).

I have never successfully grown carrots.  I've grown carrot (1) but not really multiples.  This year I'm trying something Steve Solomon recommended.  I boiled two cups of water, mixed in three tablespoons of cornstarch and put the whole thing in the fridge until it turned into a gel.  Then I let it sit around for a few days on the counter while I didn't garden. The sitting around part isn't proscribed by Mr. Solomon.

But today I mixed in some carrot seeds, cut down a plastic bag to make poor man's cake decorator bag and walked the whole thing out to the furrows I'd made. I then cut off the tip of the plastic bag--and, come to think about it, I think the scissors are still out there--and squeezed a line of gel/seeds into the furrow.  This was covered with regular dirt.

The idea, I think, is to suspend the carrot seeds in liquid until they can get a good start in the world.  Hopefully it works.  I love a good home-grown carrot.

This is my index card where I kept track of my gardening.  As you can see, I did not get 15 minutes in every day (but Wednesday) since the beginning of February, but I did keep getting back on the horse.  

I plan to continue this plan.

Telephone Pictionary

Our game for our Easter celebration was Telephone Pictionary, suggested by the very smart Rachel.

In Telephone Pictionary, there is a stack of index cards.  The first person writes a sentence or phrase on the first one.  They pass the stack to the second person.  The second person reads the sentence, puts the sentence on the bottom of the stack and draws a picture the sentence.  They pass the stack to the third person who looks at the picture, puts it on the bottom and then writes a sentence about the picture.  The pile is passed the the fourth person who continues with another drawing and so on until the stack has made its rounds.  This was a very fun game because it allowed for maximum amusement with minimal attention.  We played several rounds. 

Jim started, Aunt Carol drew.

Ron wrote, Kelly drew.

I wrote, Chris drew.

Aunt Pat wrote.  We then looked at everything and laughed.

Aunt Carol began, Ron drew.

Kelly wrote, I drew.

Chris wrote, Aunt Pat drew.

Jim wrote.  Then we discussed how things had gotten so off track.

Ron wrote, Kelly drew.

I wrote, Chris drew.

Aunt Pat wrote, not so confidently, Jim drew.

Aunt Carol wrote.  More laughter.

Kelly wrote, I drew.

Chris wrote, Aunt Pat drew.

Jim wrote, Aunt Carol drew.

Ron wrote.

Matt arrived so there was another round with me starting us off with the periodic table of the elements. It was quite fun.

The Easter Spread.

Here we see delicious ham, Greek salad, potatoes Anna, asparagus salad, carrot salad, spanokipita, hard boiled eggs and roasted asparagus.  It was delicious.

A few of the things the Easter Bunny brought this year.

The traditional egg hunt was had.

New fun thing for kitties.

The Thermo-Kitty Mat by K&H Pet Products is a pad with a heating element in it.  When the cat lays down on the pad, heat radiates from the heating element.  When the cat leaves, the heating element ceases to heat.  It's rather nifty.  The cats are big fans, as Sentinel can attest here.