Spring has sprung

It was a lovely Easter Sunday in my neck of the woods.  

For several weeks, I had planned to make Cliff take me to RC's Chicken in Martin City for an Easter buffet they were putting on.  It's a long drive to Martin City.  We usually only go there on the way home from the Adrian tractor show or swap meet, and this year we didn't go to the swap meet:  I felt I was owed my usual detour through Martin City.  It isn't really "on the way home" from Adrian, but that's as close as we get to the wonderful food in Martin City.  They have a great barbecue, an unbelievable steak house, and RC's... all in one town almost on the Kansas border.  

The closer we got to Easter, the less I wanted to go for a drive that was going to take an hour and a half.  Nobody in the family had mentioned Easter at all except for the grandson, who was spending that time in Georgia at his dad's place.  Maybe everybody had plans of their own.  I knew my son-in-law would be pretty much laid up at home after having both knees replaced at once.  So I told Cliff I'd decided I'd fix some small Easter meal for the two of us, and bought a half-ham.  I love having leftover ham in the freezer in small amounts for making ham salad, beans, split pea soup, and other goodies that require ham.

On Good Friday, I decided if I'm going to all the trouble of cooking, I might as well see what the local relatives had planned.  Apparently we had all been planning nothing for Easter!  I figured it was as easy to make a larger amount of food and maybe add a dessert or two to the mix, as for me to cook for the two of us.  One granddaughter was working, but we had the oldest granddaughter and her mom, my daughter and her husband who made it just fine using his walker to get to the house,  Granddaughter Monica and her guy, Gerald, and Heather, who did not go to Georgia with Arick.  I told them all not to bring anything, that I had plenty.  It wasn't a huge crowd, but it was a nice family day around here.  I made FAR too much food for nine people.  I don't cook for large groups that much any more, and I've forgotten how to do a good estimate of how much food we need.  I forgot to mention great-granddaughter Amara was here, but she's only a year old, so I didn't need to count her into the mix of how many to cook for. 

However, I'm having a blast eating pie for breakfast every morning and heating up mashed potatoes and noodles for dinner, with some Old Settler's Beans on the side.  I've already frozen the ham, and after we eat at noon, I'll be freezing what's left of the Old Settler's beans for another day.  

Yesterday I set out a couple of tomato plants and trimmed a peach tree.  It's been nice weather for such things.  So far the late freezes we've had didn't affect the peach trees or the plum tree, but there isn't much fruit on the apricot tree; you are lucky if you get one crop of apricots every three years, because those trees bloom earlier than other fruit trees.  

I'm still reading, of course.  I recently finished a book about the Carter Family, "Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone".  It's a fascinating book about some very unique people.  I'm just starting "The Friend" by Sigrid Nunez.  "Dry, allusive and charming... the comedy here writes itself."  The New York Times.  "A moving story of love, friendship, grief, healing, and the magical bond between a woman and her dog."  It's almost guaranteed I'll love this book; it has humor, and a Great Dane.  It's bound to be good.  Here's what I have on hold.  I got halfway through American Prison, but I was also reading other books, so I had to put it on hold again.  If I'd stick to one book, I'd get through any book in plenty of time, but I'm always reading another at the same time.  They allow three weeks to read a book, and it should be easy to get through them.  Apparently books are like potato chips to me:  I can't have just one!  There's one more book that doesn't show in the screenshot...  "Neon Prey", a Lucas Davenport book.

 Cliff likes to keep a book going for times he's on the recumbent bike.  If the book catches his fancy, he'll read it for an hour or two at a time after he's done with the bike.  He makes me pick out his library books, so I'm gradually figuring out what sort of book he likes.  The next-to-the-last time he asked me to choose a book for him," I got him "All the Ugly and Wonderful Things"; he read it for a half-hour on the stationary bike, then informed me he didn't like it because it was too sad.  It's a good thing he stopped when he did, because it gets worse!  

In a pinch, Cliff will read one of my John Sanford books, but they really aren't his favorite.  He says he can figure out who the culprit is by the time the book is half over.  Like me, he prefers Virgil Flowers to Lucas Davenport because Virgil is funny.  One thing I've been surprised to learn is that Cliff would rather read a book about something that really happened (history, biography) other than fiction.  So I'm keeping that in mind these days.  This last book I chose for him was one I once had on hold for myself at the library; when I finally got it, I had about four books to read at once.  I did a quick read of the first chapter, thought it bored me, and returned it.  However, I have read the reviews, so I knew it had to be a good book.  It's old enough now that it is available most of the time without putting it on hold; it was a true story, and I was pretty sure it was something Cliff would like.  He's behind me on the bike right now, reading it as I type.  He likes it a lot.  The book is "The Boys in the Boat".  

OK, I guess that's the news for today.  I've feeling dandy, so rather than do something useful, I'm going to take the dogs for a walk in the pasture pretty soon.

Have a wonderful day.