A Spring Day

Van Gogh Spring Ordhards

Spring is finally upon us, in a manner of speaking, i.e., calendar-wise.  The weather has been fairly dull and dark, with the occasional ray of sun peeking through the misty, moisty gloom. On Sunday morning, buckets of rain hurtled down from the heavens, drenching everyone as they walked from here to very nearby there.  The vesting room in the Cathedral basement was flooded, and we had to paddle about to get our Sunday morning treats.  Later, in the afternoon, when the Schola ladies arrived, the water was inches deep, and the Schola burst into song – “Wade in the Water,” as that was what we had to do to get to our cassocks. 

Despite the dull weather, there are many glittering signs of Spring. The cherry trees are in blossom, the primroses are peeking up to greet us with their sunny faces, tulips and daffodils are basking in the occasional glint of sun.  The choir is singing Lenten music, and gearing up for Holy Week.  But the most cheering sign of spring is …….

A few years ago I was talking about my penchant for Peeps with some of my colleagues at work.  “Eeewwww!” they all said in unison, making faces of disgust. “Peeps are revolting!”  I was, of course, offended, but “chacon a son gout.”  However, a day later, another friend brought me a little Easter basket.  It had quite a few Peeps in it.  I was delighted, but as quick as a blink, my co-workers had gobbled up all of my Peeps.  This led me to believe that some must consider Peep-love to be a secret low vice - one which much be kept strictly secret - closet Peep eaters they were.  Rebecca, understanding my springtime needs, got me this new Peep bunny incarnation.  

Another sure sign of spring is Cadbury's Eggs.  Possibly better than Peeps, but one can't comfortably eat quite as many of them.  I had been resisting purchasing one, but Rachael surprised me with this little gift!  Yum.

A Mysterious Day

A few days ago, I was preparing an impromptu dinner for some friends who were in a hurry to get from here to there and didn’t have time to eat.  As I scuttled around, trying quickly to come up with a decent meal from a pantry (and fridge) almost totally bereft of food, I went to grab my sponge, which I had used just moments before…… and it was not there! It frequently is not there, but usually surfaces within a few minutes – twenty at the very most.  The guests arrived, and I still had not found it.  The dinner was eaten, the guests rushed off to their engagement, the dishes were washed (using the new sponge pictured), and still my sponge did not emerge.  Very mysterious.  It was simply gone!  And even more mysterious, it is still gone. 

My mother, like me, was a loser of things. Once on a shopping day, she purchased, among other things, a new pair of shoes.  She was quite pleased with her acquisitions, but did not tell us about them, because her shoes were a bit of an issue at our house.  She had well over a hundred pairs, and the rest of us felt that she did not need more.  (Rachael, who is so like my mother in many ways, seems to have inherited the shoe-love gene.)  Anyway, a week or so later, my Mutti began to get unpleasant whiffs of something amiss in her closet.  She let her nose direct her to the offender, and there, among the shoeboxes, was a packet of formerly frozen chicken, now bloody and stinky.  Yow!  She checked the freezer, and yes, there were her  new shoes.  My mother always liked a good joke, even if she was the victim, and confessed to the shoe purchase and her subsequent absent-mindedness.

Could something like this have happened to my sponge?  I was sure I hadn’t really left the kitchen in the time between its last use and its disappearance.  I checked the freezer, the vegetable bins, the garbage, and the food compost, but no yellow sponge peeked out of hiding.  The mystery remains!