PICTURE OF THE DAY

Lydia in her Easter dress.

DAILY RAMBLING

A bit groggy this morning. Damn cat. Beautiful evening, gauze-wrapped moon reflected quivering in pond, has given way to damp morning, with actual rain falling, each drop chipping away at the remaining snow and ice. Again, beautiful. Yesterday fantastic break from winter, blazingly sunny and warm enough to go out with only a light jacket. Too soon to expect that sort of thing all the time, but awfully nice that we got it. Rain does spoil tentative plan to visit Tower Hill Botanical Garden today. Always a bit annoying to get rain during a visit. Shall have to think of something indoors to do.

I'm starting to wonder already if this exercise is doing what it's supposed to. Is my inner editor taking charge too soon? Putting words out in public encourages filtering, not always a good thing. I found myself wondering yesterday if one can be a very private person and write at all. There is a great deal that I do not consider appropriate for exposure to complete strangers. I will continue working on it, of course--this is probably the best thing I have done for myself and my craft in years--and almost certainly continue doubting myself, because that's just one of the things that I do. I think I need a cup of tea.

Lydia slept through the night again so I really think we're on to something here, and I feel a little bit smug about having made it to this point without engaging in any of the more or less draconian measures one reads about in parenting manuals. Lydia really is a remarkably easy baby; I know I can't take any real credit for her personality, and we do worry a bit that if we have another child we're going to be in for a shock, but it's just amazing and very pleasant that she seems to eventually get things sorted out on her own.

Easter dinner went very well. I spent pretty much the whole day in the kitchen, as I tend to on major holidays. The scones for breakfast, and I decided that we should have focaccia as sandwich bread at lunch (piled high with veggie goodness like red cabbage, sprouts, red onion, tomatoes, and a bit of blue cheese, and some cucumber would probably have gone very well but I didn't pick any up). Hosting a vegetarian does wonders for our standard of eating. The paella came together very nicely, though I'm still uncertain about the paprika, which rather overpowered the dish I think. Maybe my Hungarian stuff was stronger than what they tested the recipe with. It's a little funny in retrospect how surprisingly alien I found the Arborio rice, compared to the long-grain and basmati we usually eat. These round, sticky grains, their starch gluing the entire dish together into a splendidly colorful mess, seemed like something other than rice altogether.

And the cake, much to my pleasure, turned out very well. I wimped out and didn't cut the three layers in half--they looked so slim and fragile--but just used raspberry jam and frosting as the two inner layers. Mom frosted the outside for me; she's had a lot more practice over the years, despite her claims to having neglected the art. Whenever I frost a cake I end up with frosting all over myself and the immediate vicinity, and crumbs all in the frosting. The touch of raspberry syrup was delightful, and the frosting was sweet without making your teeth ache (this was the first time I have ever made frosting from scratch--normally I make cakes that don't need to be frosted, and if they do I buy the canned stuff out of some strange belief that it's just too much trouble to make it myself; I think that belief has now been dispelled). Liqueur would probably be even better; next time. And next time I'll slice the layers properly, too.

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