On the trail.

See those pink lines in the right lane? Our city has thirteen designated Dogwood Trails, which are open every April. One of them runs through our neighborhood. It also happens to run along one of our frequent walking routes.

Around the corner from us, one family has put in a labyrinth marked by stones which they keep open to the public. When we go by, we often take a few minutes to walk it. I really love that feeling of quietly centering down.

On our last visit, we were surprised to find our cat already there. Hodr got up from her perch on a nearby chair and walked with us. In her own way, of course, cutting straight through to the middle to demand attention.

The trails are timed to be open when the dogwood trees are in full bloom, and there is hardly a house on the trail that doesn't have at least one of the white- or pink-flowered trees.

The same goes for azaleas. I love the great variety of colors of azaleas.

This house has a wonderful mural painted on their shed. It's an actual door, but it looks like fairies might live there.

The pink guiding lines have arrows to keep drivers on the trail. When I first moved in a few years ago, I had trouble finding my way around the neighborhood because there is nothing remotely grid-like about it. The streets wind around and two roads can be parallel for a bit and then twist to become perpendicular and cross each other. It helped me to have the arrows to guide me back to my house.

Hey, what a cute Little Free Library right on the Dogwood Trail!

Our neighborhood trail is this year's featured trail. That means we've had even more April traffic than usual. Fortunately people are driving very slowly because they are busy looking at all the houses and yards.

We live in the sort of neighborhood where people play basketball, walk, ride their bikes, and hang out in the street chatting with each other. It really is a remarkably friendly place.

Most people who live along the trails take gardening/landscaping seriously. It helps that we have a landscape architect on the block who is always happy to field questions and give advice.

And many people I've talked with in the neighborhood are interested in gardening in a way that doesn't harm the earth, so you don't see a lot of people employing chemicals.

It's a joy to drive home down my street under the dappled shade of the big trees.

And hey, look at that cute little house on the trail... okay, that's mine. I felt a little badly that my yard is covered in straw while the clover is growing but it doesn't seem to stop all the cars and church buses from slowing down and taking pictures. My yard is more of a summer yard than a spring one, though. In a couple of months everything will be full and lush.

But spring is still the perfect time for sitting on the deck and having dinner. We grilled swordfish with tarragon butter and zucchini with balsamic vinegar. From the deck, all you can see is green all around. I love walking the trail but it's also good to be home.

Easter weekend.

With an unexpected Friday free, we decided to use the excuse to step out in the shoes we bought in Italy and go downtown for an Irish whiskey on a rooftop bar.

The weather was perfect all weekend long, and we stayed until it was starting to grow dark, and then had a glass of wine and some pita bread with crawdad dip at an outdoor cafe on the square.

We had he younger daughter only for the day on Saturday, so we went to the Botanical Gardens for the annual Earthfest. I used to take my kids to it when it was held at the World's Fair Park, including one memorable day when my younger son, then 9, took a Segway for a wild spin that had the Segway rep yelling and waving his arms as he chased him down. I still laugh when I think about that.

No Segways on loan today, but we did stop at some of the booths, including one that had monarch butterflies. We got to feel how their little hooked feet grasp your skin when they walk on it.

And the monarch caterpillars, who leave a little trail of silk on your hand. I was happy to be able to say that I already had all the monarch-friendly plants they were offering in my bee/butterfly gardens.

There was a free kid's environmental craft section and the younger daughter made paper from scraps, tie-dyed a handkerchief with water run-off from a bituminous coal mine, and dug in the compost to uncover red wriggler worms in a vermiculture set-up. Our favorite was the applesauce and taffy samples from an Appalachian exhibit.

We had a picnic under a shaded pavilion and watched the crowds The poor guy in the plastic bag tree looked miserably hot. Given the choice, I'd have gone with the ridiculous mushroom costume.

After lunch we sat and listened to this guitar and banjo duo for a while.

Then a quick look at the peonies in their gardens before heading home for ice cream in our own backyard.

After we'd taken the daughter back to her mother's house, we grilled swordfish steaks in tarrgon butter and yellow squash and zucchini in balsamic vinegar and had that with salads and white wine on the back deck. I didn't want to ever go inside.

Easter morning we had a small brunch on the sunporch before my husband headed off the work. And me? Well, I headed out to the yard to get my hands in the dirt again, of course.

Good Friday musings.

I've been completely preoccupied with yard work lately and have been spending every possible minute of these amazingly warm sunny days with my hands in the dirt instead of on my computer keyboard. So, until early next week when there is rain in the forecast, a few thoughts:
1) Why do radio DJs insist on saying, in a very upbeat way, "Happy Good Friday!" It's "good" as in holy, and meant to commemorate the torture and death of Jesus. I'm not part of the church any more, but I still find that misplaced cheer a little grating.

This flyer was up at my office building. Assuming they are saying the real reason for Easter is the resurrection of Christ, why celebrate it with an eggfest? Do they not understand the eggs (and the Easter bunny) are Pagan fertility symbols? Personally, I like that aspect of Easter as a spring merging of two very different religious traditions, but I suspect this church would not if they stopped for ten seconds to think about it.

3) Whether your celebration is a religious observance of the risen Lord, a spiritual reveling in the cycle of death and rebirth manifested in the warming soil and plants erupting into bloom all around you, or a purely secular focus on chocolate bunnies and marshmallow peeps, Silver Jesus and I wish you a very lovely Easter weekend!

Miscellany

I've been a little pre-occupied with yard work lately and will take some pictures of blooming plants this weekend. In the meantime, some recent random photos from my phone:

Quite by chance, the younger daughter was sick with the flu on Friday, March 17th, and elected to stay at her mom's house for the night. We made an impromptu decision to get fish and chips downtown to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. We realized as we were sitting there that we've been at that very restaurant the last three St. Patrick's Days (last year with the younger son along) and decided that clearly this needs to be our tradition.

On the way to my office one morning, I stopped at a gas station and saw that next to me was a truck with one burial vault on its bed and another on a trailer behind it. Nothing much to say about that except it's a little creepy.

I saw this sticker on the back of an SUV and for the life of me couldn't decide whether the weird yellow hair on the elephant was a sign of admiration or was meant to mock Trump.

A neighbor asked me to be a sub in her bunco group. That's new for me, but she said if I could roll dice and count to six while drinking cocktails, I'd be fine. As instructed, I showed up with $5 and was handed a bourbon slush when I walked in.  The protocol in that group was that I had to choose beads from a bag and wear them and that whenever I got a bunco (three of a kind in whatever number we were trying for), I had to wear this ridiculous crown until the next bunco was scored. We stopped mid-way for a dinner and dessert break. In the end, I won $10 and had some silly fun in the process.

And lastly, in spite of the fish and chips on St. Patrick's Day and the brownies topped with two kinds of ice cream at the bunco party, we've actually made a serious effort to cut way back on carbs and processed foods. In particular, we're eating lots of fish, chicken, and veggies and have leafy greens with dinner every single night. Dessert, when we have it, is usually a single chocolate truffle. I found this modified version of the USDA's ChooseMyPlate image and thought it was as sensible and succinct a guideline as I could hope to find.