End of April - Whew!

 Well now, Easter is past and spring is trying harder to push through the gloom of winter, but still very little water....  so not a typical Spring at all!

Our Easter had elements of tradition and elements that were new.  It was a good day.  We started off earlier in the week by making decisions with D-i-L about who was going to do what, and where.  This took some managing as they have friends that were going to be alone for the holiday and wanted to do something together to make it special for their kids.  This made the group too big for us to have everyone for a sit-down meal and all-day stay at our house (altogether there would be 7 adults and 5 kids ages 7 and under).  so we decided to do an Egg Hunt here at Grandma & Grandpa's, and add appetizers so that there would be time to make a dinner without the kids getting too hungry.  We also decided against our tradition of hunting the decorated hard-boiled eggs and then making those eggs into deviled eggs for eating... it would take away the time we were trying to make for little hungry people.  So for the first time ever, we bought plastic eggs and filled them with simple candy, enough chocolate pieces for each child to have ONE, and the rest had coins in them.  Eldest Grandson wanted to help fill the eggs, so we did that on Thursday after school.

On Friday I did the house cleaning and we totally cleaned and re-arranged the furniture in the basement because the weather forecast looked too messy and cold for the Egg Hunt to be outdoors.  Saturday was cooking day.  I ended up steaming about 4 dozen eggs just to have enough nicely done to have 4 dozen deviled halves!  I could not get the timing right for a nicely cooked egg! ( I didn't want that icky grey-green ring on the outside of the yoke.)  Egg salad anyone?  I also made my favorite Hot-Crossed Bun recipe (the "crossing" paste did not turn out well) and Jim's favorite potato casserole.  I also made a sheet cake as D-i-L didn't get back to me about dessert.  I wish I had taken a photo of the appetizers!  I had set everything out on our island and it looked really nice!  We had the requisite deviled eggs, bruschetta, shrimp cocktail, pickles and olives, cheese and crackers and of course Animal Crackers for the little appetites ;-)  Big People also got Mimosas or beer - according to preference.

Hot buns, questionable "cross"....
We like ours with dried cranberries and apricots and an apricot glaze over top. 

It turned out to be a "Progessive Dinner" with the Egg Hunt and appetizers at our house, then about 12:30 we all migrated over to DS the Elder's big roomy house for the dinner and hanging out until about 5pm.  It was a lovely day.

Spoils of the Egg Hunt - It only lasted about 5 minutes!

The littlest Egg Hunter, dressed appropriately for a cold day!

Time for chilling out before dinner at DS the Elder's home.

Wine was enjoyed, of course.

Children ready to eat!

Baby Girl with Granny at the end of the day...

And then the days moved on as usual... Cold then slightly less cold.  DH has had a horrible time Coaching the Tennis Team.  The weather has been as bad as the players' abilities...  Windy, cold weather has caused cancelled practices and cancelled or postponed Meets.  Their roller coaster matched the weather.

Gardening has been in slow mode.  The solar shed is full.  I had taken the gutters of peas out to the berry beds on a warmer stretch of weather, and then had to bring them back in!  I had also managed to get the Pelargoniums (not geraniums) out of the basement and potted up, so that took up more space on the window shelf.  Tomatoes have been potted on so they take up  a LOT more space.  All of the brassicas and cold loving plants have been moved to the shelves farther back, which meant that all of the shade cloths and netting that I had stored on the shelves had to moved...  It's a mess in there!

Messy, crowded shed!

One project that DH helped me with was to get this dogwood (?) bush moved. It was smashed up against the fence at the bottom of the garden where it couldn't be seen from the house, and with it's showy red stems, I wanted it somewhere where I could enjoy it during the winter months. Now it shows up nicely in front of the green shed!  I think I will expand the area around it to be a flower garden, possibly try some bulbs around it as well as perennials.

Here are the after and before pictures....

It does show up against the green shed.

Even in a large photo, you can barely see it against the fence. The root was going under the fence and also under the edging stones.  Who put it in such a place?  It might be a 'volunteer' as I don't remember it being there, but this corner bed was such a weed pit that who knew what was there?

Another job that I had been wanting to do was to make sausage.  Our side of pork contained numerous packets of pork chops, of which we eat very little.  I also didn't like the way they were packaged; one center loin cut with another steak cut.  I want them both the same! So I defrosted and opened up 4 or 5 packages and cut out the bone, then using my mom's old grinder (that was probably HER mom's) I made about 3.5 pounds of sausage meat.  I have a recipe for the spices as I had made reduced-fat sausage in the past, using pork loin roast and chicken thighs.  I found that seasoning recipe and mixed it in, then decided to go ahead and make the patties and cook them up, using my griddle.  I ended up with about 19 patties, and got them all bagged and in the freezer.  It took maybe 1.5 hours all together?  Not near as bad as I thought.

Cutting off the bone and grinding.

Seasoned patties ready to fry (find the sample with a bite gone)

Final steps. Freeze and pull out and microwave for a quick breakfast protein.

One big event (to me) on the calendar this month was keeping the grandkids for a couple of days.   DS and D-i-L had planned a trip to California with friends before the pandemic, and it has been delayed these two years.  D-i-L asked her sister to help with the kids over the weekend days, and then I would take over for the week days, considering her sister had to work and the oldest Grandson had to be in school.  So I took over on Suday afternoon and had them through late Tuesday night.  I had kind of been dreading this as my energy level can wane, bit it was fine.  I only had to get the school aged grandson ready early to catch his school bus, then I could take my time getting The Littles to daycare.  The school day was then my own to go home and do whatever needed doing and take a rest... then at the usual time for me to pick up grandson from school, I would get him and continue to daycare to get the littler ones.  This made a much shorter day for them which was nice.  We came to Grandma's for playtime and supper, then I took them to their house for baths and bed.  I don't sleep much when I'm away from home, but it was ok.  We laid out all the things Grandson needed for school the next day including clothes, school bag, and lunch planned. The kids were quite good and it was not a problem at all.  We even had fun!

a 'decent' bathtime photo

Watching migrating ducks on their lake, fighting the wind.

Eldest GS working on his skateboard.
With longer days, they could have a bit of outside playtime before getting ready for bed.
 (And it made them tired, too ;-)

I think my final big project for April will be yesterday's gardening.  I cleared, planted and covered my cabbage bed.  There is no frost in the 10 day forecast, but if needed, I could add a sheet over this bed if I have to. It took me a couple of hours to get all the encroaching grass pulled out, the compost spread, the hoops up, the cabbages planted, and the netting over the top and snugged down.  Now I am sore from all the bending and reaching!

The messy bed

Making progress

Finished! 4 varieties of cabbages, 4-6 plants of each.  

This bed is not full as there is space at either end for rabbit-tolerant plants or flowers.  But for now, I think this is good progress and all I can really do considering the weather.

More next time, I hope!