I've been meaning to update the weblog with some news or a letter, but inspiration or motivation seems difficult to muster these days. I found an email I sent to Tilly after Easter and decided to use it as a letter to all -- with some modifications.
Easter --
We spent Easter in Winston-Salem with the Vanns. We celebrated Easter and Grandma's birthday. On Saturday morning we got up rather early, much to Sean's despair I think, to get going on this trip. I knew I would be in the driver's seat and I just wanted to get going before it got too busy. So at just after 8am, the car packed up with goodies, we stopped first for some flowers at the grocery store, than for some gas, and then we were on the road. Butterflies under strict control I merged without any difficulty -- onto a thankfully un-brutal interstate -- and off we were. I did just fine, even managing to exit Hwy 77 and switch to Hwy 40 -- another merge without panicking.
We ended up having a really really nice time. Visited with Grandma et all, than I went to Target with Jenny, Diane and Ellen (Sean's aunties), a nice diversion, while Sean went for a spin and to check on the truck he has up there (TCW work stuff). Dinner was good: Cream-cheese stuffed celery, olives, roast lamb, barbequed pork, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, warm rolls etc. Dessert however was tres beau. Sean is still rhapsodizing about the cheesecake I made. It was good but personally I think next time I will try and find a substitute for the graham cracker crust and there is something about Tante Hulda's cheesecake that is just different but better -- more baked or something. I wish I could find that recipe. I had pureed strawberries to serve with it and covered the dents made by the tin-foil with some fancy fanned-out slice of strawberries. Clara, Sean's cousin, had brought a lemon meringue pie, chocolate chess pie (kind of like a baked chocolate custard) and a coconut topped cake (sort of a banana cake like version). I had a slice of cheesecake and the coconut cake which was very very yummy. I did not have room to try the pies.
Afterwards Grandma opened gifts -- candles had been put on the coconut cake and we sang happy birthday to a quietly-delighted lady. She kept handing her cards to people "Read this, whose it from?" while I quietly giggled to myself.
Sunday morning we stopped by for breakfast. Jenny had put the cinnamon rolls I baked into the oven to warm and they were pretty darn yummy dripping with buttercream icing brought to schmeer on them. A good visit overall -- it was nice to spend a holiday with noisy family people. Almost like home. And lastly, even though it was cloudy, I drove us home. We figured if it started to rain I could pull into a rest area and Sean could take over. Again the highways, especially the first one, were very quiet and I drove us from Jenny's door to our parking lot without stopping. The drive was just under 2 hours and most of it was at the posted speed limit of 70mph -- that's about 110 km per hour. I "plan" to go get that driver's license thingy before the onset of summer.
After the Easter weekend it's been back to the Farmer's market. So far so good. The market itself has still been fairly quiet, but we only need a couple of sales to make our day.
We are planning to make it up to Roanoke for a quick weekend trip next week and then May -- and the first of the Blowing Rock Art shows -- is around the corner. It looks like the summer is going to be very busy. I am already planning a spa day in October after the last show as a reward to myself (from Sean) for my good-wifely-support.
I'm sure Sean will be writing soon about the studio-lighting course he is taking. It's like a kid let loose in a toy store......
Just in case you missed it earlier the photographs from Easter are on the website.