“Spring is nature's way of saying 'Let's Party”. Robin Williams

We are heating up on happenings! The April Fool's Day storm really did an act that will be remembered for a long time. A number of big trees went down and they will be missed. The weather got some nice temperature increases for the Easter holiday times. There were numbers we have not seen since last year in that department. That made it much easier for the Easter Bunny to get around. Otherwise he/she would have had to have Santa Claus's help to deliver the treats. The winter snow collection is disappearing fast but some of those record holding snow banks are hanging in there. Floods may be coming! To make Easter Sunday 2023 a time to remember, I woke up to no electricity.

We go back in time a bit. I had spent a week with Daughter Nissa out east where the weather was mostly sunny, windy and up to 72 degrees. One enjoyment was viewing the display of stitching creations at Woodlawn, which is owned and run by the National Trust for Historic Places. Nissa has entered display items for 9 years. It is almost hard to believe that humans can create the wide range of stitching that fills the large house at Woodlawn. This was the home of Martha Washington's granddaughter. Her name was ”Nelly” Parke Custis Lewis. A group of devoted stitchers called Nelly's Needlers do a wide variety of fund raisers to help keep the area in public use. Several of Nissa's friends had also entered some eye popping stitching works. If you leave there without being inspired, you did not have your eyes open.

The cherry blossoms were still in place for most parts of the area, along with a number of other blooming trees. It was a sea of white, pink, purple, red and other colors almost everywhere you looked. Being a zone 7 or more, some of the plants that we are lucky to grow to 3 feet in height are in the 6 to 8 foot range out there. They are also at least several weeks ahead of our seasons. Any snow goes away in a few days at the most!

One of Nissa's stitching friends, whose parents are originally from India, invited us and another stitching friend over to her home to have chai tea and treats. Sumira's Mom made a number of traditional Indian foods which we enjoyed, along with the correctly brewed chai tea. Sumira shared some of her fresh cardamon seeds with me in honor of my quest for the perfect hot cross bun. We were all surprised to see Sumira's wedding clothes from her wedding in India. They have very different traditions and the colors, beads and jewels on the clothing is unbelievable. Everything is handmade and all those beads and jewels add up to having to wear some very heavy clothing! This was the first time in many years that Sumira had unpacked her wedding clothes. The clothing has to be folded in a particular manner so that all the additions do not tangle or rub together. We are talking yards and yards of material and thousands of additions, not just a simple wedding dress.

Of course grocery shopping at the ethnic stores was a must on my part. My checked bag and carry on was almost all food! It included 2 loaves of bread and several pounds of Land'O'Lakes high end butter I have never seen in Minnesota. The lobster chips made it home without a damaged chip. The pineapple cookies from Thailand are yummy. Nissa will be mailing me some of the food goodies and fabric items that did not fit in the luggage. Four different kinds of sugar and a variety of ribbon will be coming soon!

It's hard to think that I was at the Dulles airport at 6:30 am and was back in Minneapolis at 8 am. My home greeting was to find out I had no electricity. That is a whole days story with Dakota Electric saying that I had power and they did all they could, to having to round up an electrician to figure out the problem. Good thing the person showed me the main breaker switch because it went out several more times. First thing after I got up Sunday morning, was a trip to the box (did NOT see the Easter Bunny on the way) and found that it was all okay, as this time it was a community outage. Even if more snow, I see spring.  ENJOY