Easter Ice Cream Cake, EPP Starry Hexagons, Thoughts For These Times

 After several dark, damp cold morning walks, today the sun is shining and we are promised it will get to 13C. I'm mostly wearing my spring jacket these days. And I, being the tick magnet that I am, have begun spraying my waders with bug spray...it's supposed to help repel them. The trails are snow and ice free...cue the choir...hallelujah!  And the Trout Lilies are already sending up tiny green shoots down on the big trail. The frogs are croaking and the birds are singing. Which of the 43 types of striped sparrows that are here in Ontario would this one be, I wonder??

At Not Afraid of Color folks are talking about where they write their blog posts. I'm always to be found here in my easy chair...a Swedish garden chair hand me down from Tony's parents in my corner of the living area. I have an Acer lap top to write on, as the name suggests, in my lap. It rests on one of those bean bag trays. This is where my little piles of "stuff" magically appear and grow around me, routinely requiring a clean out. What about you? Do you have a favourite spot where you write your blogs? 

Indoors I've been following Lori at Humble Quilts who has been sharing Cheddar quilts. So many beautiful quilts in different patterns all featuring gorgeous cheddars. Like looking at sunshine but also happily reminds me of autumn and pumpkins too.  Her Part 2 is HERE.

Cheddar must be a thing just now as the March catalogue of Connecting Threads ran an indigo and cheddar feature. What a great combination! And my, look at these wonderful quilts!

In not nearly as dramatic a showing...I've steadily added to my EPP Starry Hexagons project. I'm using the reds for the RSC April's colour. Here's how many I've stitched so far this month. I've diamond bits readied for a couple more which I should be able to sneak in before the end of the month.

We had a ham dinner for Easter with the usual foods...scalloped potatoes, carrots, etc. I did make an effort with the corn. I bought corn on the cob and cut off the niblets and fried them a bit in a pan. They were surprisingly sweet which made me wonder if they are shooting sugar into everything these days. I also tried one different dish. Prosciutto wrapped asparagus...roasted in the oven and served with a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar. Here is the site where I got the idea.

 It was fun to make an Easter ice cream cake. And I remembered to take it out of the freezer when I started dishing up supper so I could get a knife through it by the time dessert rolled around.

 I used a couple crushed Cadbury chocolate eggs in the layers and because it was for company, I used Haagen-Dazs ice cream. Everyone enjoyed it. 

Easter means spring to me and I feel so fortunate to be able to watch up close this very definite time of rebirth in the natural world. I know a lot of you are worried about big and some not so big picture things, and you have a right to be for sure, but we have to carry on doing what we do best. Being kind and caring, finding little joys in our day to day activities. 

**Spoiler Alert**  We finished Season 5 of Fargo last night. The last episode has the heroine, Dorothy, talking to Old Munch, one of the bad guys, who has come to her house to do harm. These two characters have both suffered abuse and Old Munch has entered a family scene where they are just getting supper on the table. Old Munch is stymied by how they are treating him...like he is a guest... pull out a chair for him, fix a plate of food for him. Meanwhile Dorothy is talking to him and what she basically says is we don't have to be like that anymore, that's the past...what is the answer a confused Old Munch asks...I'm paraphrasing here...forgiveness, love, kindness- they are always the answer says Dorothy. I thought it was brilliant. I cried buckets. 

Hope you are not crying- other than in a good way and having a great week!

Happy to link with The Inquiring Quilter, My Quilt Infatuation, Alycia Quilts, So Scrappy, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework and It's a Small Town Life.