#i just know its a lot of bunnies chicks and eggs and gift baskets… i think

[catboyidia]

silly vaguely easter-y asgzc thoughts:

- genesis has the idea to have him and cloud dress up in those “bunny” costumes (idk what their specifically called but i think everyone knows the ones im talking about) for the others, except genesis has to help cloud out and hype him up because clouds too nervous about letting anyone see him in it. after genesis reassures cloud, they have a mini photoshoot so they can give the pics to their respective boyfriends, and genesis greatly helps cloud’s self esteem the entire time

- they all plan on getting each other little gifts and easter baskets but then they actually all just end up bullying cloud instead and they all get cloud nothing but chocobo themed items

- zack convinces everybody to wear bunny ears, except for poor cloud… he coerces cloud into dressing up as a chocobo chick

- zack makes himself sick off of peeps (the “candy”(?)) meaning he’s also bouncing off the walls hyper all day

- genesis is in charge of hiding eggs for an egg hunt… genesis is an asshole… no one finds a single egg because they are in the most ridiculous places…

- they try to dye eggs… it goes about as (un)well as one would expect:

- zack gets the egg dye absolutely everywhere and on everything

- zack rubs off on cloud so they’re both rainbow colored by the end of the day

- sephiroth keeps accidentally breaking the eggs and ends up needing a lot of help from angeal and genesis

- zack also slips and slides in the aftermath of sephiroth’s broken eggs, causing him to also become covered in eggs… maybe the real dyed eggs were the scrambled ones covering zack’s already dye covered body along the way

- genesis is in a perpetual state of frustration because his eggs aren’t coming out the exact perfect way he wants them too

- angeal makes his eggs very simple and very pretty, but they end up more extravagant than he was going for, so much so that it makes genesis jealous, but its a very “happy accidents” kind of thing

[awkwardbsd]

Hii I love your blog and i love bungou stray dogs Would you recommend a couple of animes

OH BOI! I’VE WANTED AN ASK LIKE THIS FOR A WHILE!

While I recommend some more than others, I enjoyed all of these anime. I mostly copied and pasted another list that I made, but there we go! Have fun!

Feel Good Stuff – Some stuff that leaves you feeling good about stuff. Whether the majority of the series or film is lighthearted or it’s just laidback, both will be included here.

Tokyo Godfathers: one of my favourite anime movies and far more light-hearted than Koe no Katachi (warning though for slurs used in this movie towards transwomen – she’s still the best character in the movie and the movie makes a point to let her know that she’s the best human on this very planet because Hana is a treasure)

Gin no Saji: If you’ve watched Fullmetal Alchemist, it has the same creator except it’s slice-of-life on a farm. I found it to be touching because it squares in on student experiences and connections. Also has sage advice.

Barakamon: Has children actually voiced by children. I watched it during a really important period of time for me. It centres and hits points that a lot of artists have.

Kimi to Boku: I can’t remember why I enjoyed this anime. I just know that I did for some reason. It was really simple.

The Boy and the Beast: I have mixed thoughts about this movie, but at the end of the day, I really enjoyed it.

Zombieland Saga: I just find it nice to find an idol anime that doesn’t focus on the whole “the girls all have to be cute”. One is a biker chick, one is indicated to be a former prostitute, one is a verified transgirl.

Those Movies That Have to be Mentioned – I’m legally obligated to mention these.

Anthem of the Heart: sounds like a crack premise (“girl gets cursed by an egg to never speak again after seeing her dad cheat with another woman in a love hotel like a castle”) but ends up being really good.

Your Name: practically everyone has watched that.

Koe no Katachi: A lot of people have watched this already. I always recommend it, but it’s very emotionally heavy and deals with suicide, bullying, and disability. It’s ending can make you cry from happiness though.

Wolf Children: Well, only if you’re okay with crying (at least on the inside)

Hotarubi no Mori e: It’s only 40 minutes. Probably won’t make people cry, but yeah, I can’t say that much.

Shounen – crack open one of these, and the boys and girls are sure to come

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood: I’m legally obligated to mention this. it was one of my first anime (after Magi) and it was amazing.

My Hero Academia: Yeah... I had to mention this too.

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic: It was my first anime. It has a lot of shonen crap, but it’s also dialogue-heavy.

Seishun Buta Yarou: Drew in fanbois for the “plot” (bunny girl - what else can I say) and made people stay for the actual plot. It ended up being really quirky and funny. It was like the Monogatari series (which I tried and didn’t like) but better and more “legal”

Yakusoku no Neverland: If you’ve watched Chicken Run, imagine that with people. It’s a farm that farms children so they try to run.

Kimetsu no Yaiba: Shonen Jump doesn’t have that many misses.

Noragami: The gags resonated with 14-year-old me

Assassination Classroom: Underdeveloped cast? Yeah, but it was still a really good Shonen Jump adaptation. 

Comedy – The stuff that’s not quite conventionally “shounen or shoujo” but still tries to make you laugh, no matter how hard they try or how hit-and-miss they are

Mob Psycho 100: The second season is amazing. I found it to be a really good solid show.

Hinamatsuri: If you like Mob Psycho or if you just like the idea of an adult adopting a kid and teaching them stuff along with the kid teaching them, this is the one for you. I was laughing and crying (from tears of laughter) at this.

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun: I can’t label this a romance because the romance doesn’t go anywhere. We start at square one and we finish at square one, but the stuff that happens in the meantime makes it all worth it.

Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou / Nichijou: Hit-and-miss, but there are a lot of iconic moments here.

Hataraku Saibou: I think this fits the best here. It’s just a good solid anime about cells in your body.

Shoujo/Romance – In case you need some fluff to fill the dark times; cheese levels vary.

Fruits Basket: Shoujo at its best.

Kono Oto Tomare: I don’t know how this got produced by Shonen Jump SQ because it’s like a cliche shoujo that would make even shoujo manga readers throw up flowers

Toradora: It’s a hit-and-miss for people just because the main character is a tsundere (played by the queen of tsundere herself)

Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi: this ended up being a guilty pleasure for me – not quite a direct romance but direct enough

Haikara-san go Tooru: Technically a movie and only has the first part, but the manga is from mid-70s is a shining example of the feminist boom in Japan after WWII

Gamers!: This was best explained by a comment I read somewhere going “I love this anime, but it makes me want to bang my head on a wall repeatedly”. Misunderstandings: The Anime. Everyone has a hard time.

Kaguya-sama: It was a huge hit in the 2019 Winter season of anime and for good reason. It’s getting a new season coming up too.

Wotakoi: Two adults falling in love. It’s funny and a little bit niche and directed towards otaku.

Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo: Technically a shounen, it was a harem anime that ended up being pretty good? I was so side-tracked by the idea of that, especially since I found the premise mildly interesting. The manga gets extra points for being really cute with that last chapter. I mean, it has boobs, ass, and a lot of kissing, but the female mangaka was taught by the creator of Fairy Tail so it’s really runs in their roots.

Shigatsu no Kimi no Uso: Ultimately included this one in romance, but many would say this belongs in the next category.

Akagami no Shirayuki-hime: This is so heavy on cheese that I had to pause at times and go “what am I doing? Is this how I die? How will my family react to me watching this?” (the last question is one I ask of myself often)

Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun: A lot of people who’ve watched BSD like this anime. Tumblr loves this anime. 

The Horror! The Horror! Some Dark Stuff That Belongs in a Cauldron, and those onion-cutting ninjas. – Honestly, it’s not my favourite genre, but some of these ended up being among my favourite anime?

Death Parade: It wasn’t in the genre I usually watch (no comedy at all), yet I was moved every time? That last figure skating scene was *Canadian-French Accent* C’est Magnifique.

Shinsekai Yori: I watched this anime feeling SOOOOO UNEASY. Nothing was even happening that was “scary”. It was just the mere ideas behind it as the eerie world-building led me to go “WAHHHHH” over my computer. It’s one of the best anime I’ve watched, but I can’t recommend it to everyone.

Mousou Dairinin: It’s Satoshi Kon but sane. You actually get a conclusive ending. It has a surprisingly current message behind it though. It’s like Satoshi Kon continues to influence.

Perfect Blue: Now to the less sane Satoshi Kon work that confused me. Western movies literally copied one of the scenes from this movie.

No. 6: I can’t list this anywhere else, but it was the first anime to depict a really, really, really sweet gay relationship. Even though it was a complete fail adaptation-wise, it also gave Hosoya (voice actor) inspiration to keep going. It’s a gift.

Anohana: *ahem* I was recommended the anime by someone I’m no longer close with, but the memories that I had watching this and the message was probably the closest an anime has brought me to actually crying in a non-depressive fashion.

Gakkougurashi: Cute girls doing cute things with zombies that are about to eat them and destroy them all.

Erased: Okay, compared to other great series that I’ve yet to watch (Steins;Gate and Monster), it’s probably trash, but I remember really enjoying it when I first watched it.

[natsspammityspamspamham]

Random List of Anime Recommendation:

This is mostly directed for @caratheillustrious but I figured posting it wouldn’t really be that much of a problem anyway. I’ll divide these up into categories in terms of mood.

Feel Good Stuff – Some stuff that leaves you feeling good about stuff. Whether the majority of the series or film is lighthearted or it’s just laidback, both will be included here.

Tokyo Godfathers: one of my favourite anime movies and far more light-hearted than Koe no Katachi (warning though for slurs used in this movie towards transwomen – she’s still the best character in the movie and the movie makes a point to let her know that she’s the best human on this very planet because Hana is a treasure)

Gin no Saji: If you've watched Fullmetal Alchemist, it has the same creator except it's slice-of-life on a farm. I found it to be touching because it squares in on student experiences and connections. Also has sage advice.

Barakamon: Has children actually voiced by children. I watched it during a really important period of time for me. It centres and hits points that a lot of artists have.

Kimi to Boku: I can't remember why I enjoyed this anime. I just know that I did for some reason. It was really simple.

The Boy and the Beast: I have mixed thoughts about this movie, but at the end of the day, I really enjoyed it.

Zombieland Saga: I just find it nice to find an idol anime that doesn’t focus on the whole “the girls all have to be cute”. One is a biker chick, one is indicated to be a former prostitute, one is a verified transgirl.

Those Movies That Have to be Mentioned – I’m legally obligated to mention these.

Anthem of the Heart: sounds like a crack premise ("girl gets cursed by an egg to never speak again after seeing her dad cheat with another woman in a love hotel like a castle") but ends up being really good.

Your Name: practically everyone has watched that.

Koe no Katachi: A lot of people have watched this already. I always recommend it, but it's very emotionally heavy and deals with suicide, bullying, and disability. It's ending can make you cry from happiness though.

Wolf Children: Well, only if you're okay with crying (at least on the inside)

Hotarubi no Mori e: It's only 40 minutes. Probably won’t make people cry, but yeah, I can’t say that much.

Shounen – crack open one of these, and the boys and girls are sure to come

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic: It was my first anime. It has a lot of shonen crap, but it's also dialogue-heavy.

Seishun Buta Yarou: Drew in fanbois for the "plot" (bunny girl - what else can I say) and made people stay for the actual plot. It ended up being really quirky and funny. It was like the Monogatari series (which I tried and didn't like) but better and more "legal"

Yakusoku no Neverland: If you've watched Chicken Run, imagine that with people. It's a farm that farms children so they try to run.

Kimetsu no Yaiba: Shonen Jump doesn't have that many misses.

Noragami: The gags resonated with 14-year-old me

Assassination Classroom: Underdeveloped cast? Yeah, but it was still a really good Shonen Jump adaptation.

SKET Dance: The romance is too... canonly ambiguous for me to really put this under “romance”, it’s a comedy but can be serious, so I decided to put it under here. It’s quickly become one of my favourites. 

Comedy – The stuff that’s not quite conventionally “shounen or shoujo” but still tries to make you laugh, no matter how hard they try or how hit-and-miss they are

Mob Psycho 100: The second season is amazing. I found it to be a really good solid show.

Hinamatsuri: If you like Mob Psycho or if you just like the idea of an adult adopting a kid and teaching them stuff along with the kid teaching them, this is the one for you. I was laughing and crying (from tears of laughter) at this.

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun: I can’t label this a romance because the romance doesn’t go anywhere. We start at square one and we finish at square one, but the stuff that happens in the meantime makes it all worth it.

Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou / Nichijou: Hit-and-miss, but there are a lot of iconic moments here.

Hataraku Saibou: I think this fits the best here. It’s just a good solid anime about cells in your body.

Shoujo/Romance – In case you need some fluff to fill the dark times; cheese levels vary.

Fruits Basket: Shoujo at its best.

Kono Oto Tomare: I don't know how this got produced by Shonen Jump SQ because it's like a cliche shoujo that would make even shoujo manga readers throw up flowers

Toradora: It's a hit-and-miss for people just because the main character is a tsundere (played by the queen of tsundere herself)

Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi: this ended up being a guilty pleasure for me – not quite a direct romance but direct enough

Haikara-san go Tooru: Technically a movie and only has the first part, but the manga is from mid-70s is a shining example of the feminist boom in Japan after WWII

Gamers!: This was best explained by a comment I read somewhere going “I love this anime, but it makes me want to bang my head on a wall repeatedly”. Misunderstandings: The Anime. Everyone has a hard time.

Kaguya-sama: It was a huge hit in the 2019 Winter season of anime and for good reason. It’s getting a new season coming up too.

Wotakoi: Two adults falling in love. It’s funny and a little bit niche and directed towards otaku.

Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo: Technically a shounen, it was a harem anime that ended up being pretty good? I was so side-tracked by the idea of that, especially since I found the premise mildly interesting. The manga gets extra points for being really cute with that last chapter. I mean, it has boobs, ass, and a lot of kissing, but the female mangaka was taught by the creator of Fairy Tail so it’s really runs in their roots.

Shigatsu no Kimi no Uso: Ultimately included this one in romance, but many would say this belongs in the next category.

Akagami no Shirayuki-hime: This is so heavy on cheese that I had to pause at times and go “what am I doing? Is this how I die? How will my family react to me watching this?” (the last question is one I ask of myself often)

Hamefura: Have you ever wished for a harem with GUYS and GALS?! Have you ever wished for a bisexual harem with a protagonist is dumb, and literally everyone but her knows it?! Look no further!

Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo.: I found this to be a very empowering anime. It tackles the sexuality of women, and it does it in a very... unique package.

The Horror! The Horror! Some Dark Stuff That Belongs in a Cauldron, and those onion-cutting ninjas. – Honestly, it’s not my favourite genre, but some of these ended up being among my favourite anime?

Death Parade: It wasn't in the genre I usually watch (no comedy at all), yet I was moved every time? That last figure skating scene was *Canadian-French Accent* C’est Magnifique.

Shinsekai Yori: I watched this anime feeling SOOOOO UNEASY. Nothing was even happening that was “scary”. It was just the mere ideas behind it as the eerie world-building led me to go “WAHHHHH” over my computer. It’s one of the best anime I’ve watched, but I can’t recommend it to everyone.

Mousou Dairinin: It’s Satoshi Kon but sane. You actually get a conclusive ending. It has a surprisingly current message behind it though. It’s like Satoshi Kon continues to influence.

Perfect Blue: Now to the less sane Satoshi Kon work that confused me. Western movies literally copied one of the scenes from this movie. 

No. 6: I can’t list this anywhere else, but it was the first anime to depict a really, really, really sweet gay relationship. Even though it was a complete fail adaptation-wise, it also gave Hosoya (voice actor) inspiration to keep going. It’s a gift. 

Anohana: *ahem* I was recommended the anime by someone I’m no longer close with, but the memories that I had watching this and the message was probably the closest an anime has brought me to actually crying in a non-depressive fashion. 

Gakkougurashi: Cute girls doing cute things with zombies that are about to eat them and destroy them all.

Erased: Okay, compared to other great series that I’ve yet to watch (Steins;Gate and Monster), it’s probably trash, but I remember really enjoying it when I first watched it.

And that ends my TED Talk. 

[knitcrate]

Easter Themed Knitted Gifts

With Easter just around the corner, you might be thinking of enhancing your home decor with some Easter-themed items. Or maybe you're thinking about brightening up someone's Easter basket with a special toy for next year. Fortunately, there are lots of great options for knitted Easter-themed gifts.

Rabbit, by Susan B. Anderson

One of the first things I think of related to Easter is bunnies. And when I think of toy knitting, I immediately think of Susan B. Anderson. Susan has designed a lot of bunny patterns. Not only are her patterns fun to knit, they produce wonderful finished objects. One of my favorite bunny patterns is called "Rabbit." This cute bunny is knitted in worsted weight yarn, and has the unique property of having a body that is stuffed with a tennis ball! The tennis ball provides a perfect solid body for the toy, and actually gives the bunny a little bounce when it is dropped. I knitted this for my now 5-year-old daughter when she was a baby, and she still loves playing it.

Mini Bunny Loves, by Susan B. Anderson

Another great bunny pattern from Susan is "Mini-Bunny Loves." This is a pattern for fingering weight yarn (grab your leftover sock yarn!) and is knit seamlessly from the bottom to the ears, and then the feet are picked up and knitted separately. Stuffed with Poly-Fil, you finish the pattern off with a cute pompom and a sweet embroidered face, and the bunny is ready for some snuggles.

Mini Sock Yarn Bunny, by Susan B. Anderson

The other bunny toy I've knitted is Susan's "Mini Sock Yarn Bunny." It's also knitted with fingering yarn and is bit more detailed than the Mini-Bunny Loves: an embroidered face and safety eyes gives it a lot of character. The bunny is knit seamlessly -- all of the appendages are picked up directly on the body and knitted in place. This bunny is a perfect Easter basket companion. If you want to knit a larger version, be sure to check out its older sibling: the "Opal Sock Yarn Bunny."

While my experience with bunny knitting is limited to Susan's patterns, there are over 1,000 bunny patterns in the "toys and hobbies" category on Ravelry, so you can browse through all the options and find the perfect bunny for your Easter knitting.

Primrose Lamb, by Alan Dart

If I'm not thinking about Susan B. Anderson when I think of knitted toys, I'm thinking of Alan Dart. I was looking through Alan's patterns and found his really cute "Chick & Egg" pattern -- it's two half eggshells, with a chick that fits inside of it. Alan also includes a great tip for using hair spray to help everything hold its shape after you finish knitting. Alan's "Primrose Lamb" and "Little Bo Sheep" patterns would also fit right at home in an Easter basket.

Easter Eggs, by Emily Kintigh

Finally, let's talk about Easter eggs. A search for "Easter Egg" in the "Toys and Hobbies" category on Ravelry returns almost 100 results. I was particularly stuck by the "Easter Eggs" pattern by Emily Kintigh. This free pattern uses worsted weight yarn and includes instructions for either solid or striped eggs. It would also be a great pattern to customize with simple fair isle motifs. A pattern like this offers endless opportunities. Since it will knit up quickly, you can easily make a basket full of eggs. They would also be perfect for indoor egg hunts. Another fun -- and quick -- egg pattern is "Easter Eggs" by Cheryl Beckerich. These lacy eggs are knitted in DK or worsted weight yarn, and "stuffed" with a 3.5 inch plastic Easter egg. It's a great way to add some character to your plastic egg collection, and they also knit up very quickly.

With thousands of bunny, chick, lamb, and egg patterns out there, I've barely scratched the surface on great knitted toys for Easter gifts, but I've definitely given you a good starting point. Have you done any special Easter knitting in the past? Are you planning to cast on something this year? Let me know in the comments -- I'd love to see what you put on your needles for Easter.

Keep on knitting for the ones you love!

Greg Cohoon has been knitting since 2012, when his daughter, who was born prematurely, received a few preemie hats while she was in the NICU. He is KnittingDaddy on Ravelry, Instagram, and Twitter and is the host of the Unraveling Podcast. Greg lives in Greensboro, North Carolina and has a special fondness for baseball, bacon, and blueberries.

[swordwhale]

Stardate: 2020.04.12

  It is, according to the traditions of my Lutheran ancestors, Easter Morning. That’s the river I grew up on, with new Easter outfits in pastel colors (I loathe pastels), big baskets of chocolate (the Gift of the Goddess), Lutheran voices lifted in a kind of solemn dirge, and Sunday services about resurrection and redemption and Life reinventing itself in the form of a guy named Jesus. He had some things to teach humans, a lot of it seems to have been misinterpreted or forgotten. But that’s a discussion for another time.

I’ve paddled, sailed and swum many other rivers since. They all lead to the sea.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Fyrdraca under sail on the 6 day voyage

Sae Hrafn under full sail

when you need a smaller boat

This year, we are in the midst of the latest Plague. Anybody remember the Spanish Flu of 1918? The Black Plague of the Middle Ages? The Serum Run of 1925? I knew a lady who survived the Polio epidemic. And met folks suffering through aids. Humans survived all those, enough of us to explode our population again and wreak some more havoc on our ecosystem.

We”ll probably survive it again, hopefully a bit wiser.

Meanwhile, the birds are singing, my cat is in the window singing the ek-ek-ek song at the birbs, the forsythias and daffodowndillies are doing their yellow fireworks, and some fifty foot tall thing is flowering… cough…snort….sneeze. The grass is green enough the ponies are ignoring the hay stuffed into slow feed hay bags and chomping off the quarter inch of new green they can get their teeth on.

My paddocks are set up for ponies, who cannot be on lush grass without foundering or colicking. They are annoyed. But healthy. I heard spring peepers over my friend’s phone (peeper frogs love swamps, I don’t have any, I do have tree frogs). The hawks and owls are busy trying to catch new spring bunnies.

Shuri

Toothless on the banks of the Sassafras River MD

Nightcrawler and Shuri

chickory

Bunnies. I got bunnies. Lots of bunnies. The Eastern Cottontail is native, but the Easter Bunny apparently came here with my German ancestors, in the 1700s. They had a tradition of an egg laying hare called Osterhase or Oster Haws. Kids made nests in which the bunny could lay its colored eggs.

The origin of the Easter Bunny as symbol of spring (and hence, Easter) lies far in the pre-Christian past of Europe. “One theory is that the symbol of the rabbit stems from pagan tradition, specifically the festival of Eostre…a goddess of fertility whose animal symbol was a bunny. Rabbits, known for their energetic breeding, have traditionally symbolized fertility.”

In Christian tradition, Easter is about resurrection. The rabbit “resurrects” its life by reproducing yet more rabbits… the base of the food chain… thus giving life to all in the spring. In PA, Great Horned Owls are sitting on the nest while it is still cold and snowy. The young owls hit the ground at the same time the first new rabbits are emerging, ensuring better survival.

A hare and a rabbit are two different things. Related, but different. As different as sheep and goats. They are both mammals (class) of the order Lagomorpha of the family Leporidae. You can remember the taxonomy, without King Philip, by repeating Krabby Patties Cook On Fry Grills Spongebob. Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.

There is also: Kangaroos Paddling Canoes On Fairly Gentle Streams.

After the Fried bit (Leporidae) hares and rabbits diverge into different genuses and species. The main bits to know are: rabbits (like pet rabbits and the Eastern Cottontails in my yard) are born blind and naked in a nest or burrow… the Eastern Cottontail is unique in its use of a shallow bowl rather than an underground burrow… has short ears, is compact and cuddly (don’t, they die easily of shock), social. Hares are longer, leggier, have bigger ears, and do not burrow. Their “leverets” pretty much hit the ground running, like a foal: born with all their fur and ready to go. “Hare-brained” and “mad as a March hare” refer to the hare’s lightning quick reflexes and speed… necessary for a prey item living in the open. The western jackrabbit is a hare. It’s so large that it gave rise to its own myth, the jackalope: “around here the hares are so big they mate with antelope”.

When I was a kid, every store had chicks, dyed in bright colors, to sell individually as pets. The ones that survived chickhood (several of mine did not, ugh) grew up to be chickens, a useful birb, but often ended up at a relative’s farm, or on the table.

Nowadays Tractor Supply has a rule that you have to buy a certain number. No chicks as pets. You must be a real farmer. Good rule, chickens aren’t that hard to raise, but you do need to have a clue. And dyeing them was never a good idea. My cousin just got some…

Cous: “I’ll take 20…”

TSC Guy: “ if you take all 40 I’ll give you a price break”…

They now have 40 chicks. Most will make it to egg laying status. The excess roosters will become fried chicken. That’s the thing. You often buy them in lots, unsexed. You have no idea if hens or roosters. Roosters do not lay eggs. The point here is egg layers. Poor roosters. I remember my Grandpa’s farm, it was terrifying to go “out back” because of the mean roosters. Even my friend with her own farm carried a big stick to do kung fu blocks on exuberant Foghorn Leghorns. Roosters are, however, one of the most gorgeous birds on the planet. The colors and flowing feathers rival any parrot or bird of paradise. Hei Hei, in Disney’s Moana, represented on of the finer aspects of the chicken: its portability. Even the Polynesians, the most fantastic navigators and explorers the planet has ever seen, carried chickens across the vast reaches of the Pacific Ocean.

Eggs… I adore eggs. My relatives made red beet eggs: red beets, vinegar, sugar, some cooking. The result is a brilliant purpley red egg, red all the way to the yolk, with a sharp, sweet flavor. I modified the recipe for simplicity: red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar, a can of beets with juice, pour into quart mason jar, drop in hard boiled eggs. In 3 days perfect eggs.

There are also Church Lady Eggs. In March, Church Ladies from all over bake chocolate and peanut butter or chocolate and coconut eggs. They are usually the size of a real chicken egg, and far better than commercially made chocolate. Despite the Plague, local stores, like Ace Hardware, had boxes of them!

  Meanwhile, the night before Easter, all through the barnyard, not a creature was stirring, not even a…

wait, is that a late evening bunbun?

A small quick bit of shadowy motion, darting out from under the hay shed, to where Goliath had dribbled some of his feed. Nibble nibble, dart, duck…

The motion was not lagomorphic. It was not bun bunish. It was low and flowy.

Oh hey, there’s my Rat.

The Rat had left calling cards on the hay bales in the shed weeks back. Living under my hay, shed, fine. We are out here, not in the house, the feed bins are secured and made of metal. Pooping on my hay bales is Not Cool though, so I bought a rat sized trap. I never deployed it.

Now Le Rat is zooming around on Easter Eve, cleaning up Golli’s leftovers. I had pet rats in the past, they are smart, social, interesting critters. They have a complicated history with humans. They carried Plague fleas. They raided food stores. They became food. In the wild, they are an important part of the ecosystem like all creatures. I have round bale now. Less opportunity for pooping upon.

Do I set my trap?

Do I end a life that’s just trying to thrive?

Is it doing me harm?

I watched Rat trundle in and out from under the shed and snatch bits of Golli’s leftovers, cleaning up the mess. A small life just making its way like the rest of us.

Carry on little fur beast.

Let this be a new start for all of us.

The Power of Hope: DO this at home…

At the UU online service this am, Matt did a neat science experiment. A sunken carrot in a glass of water. It sinks. Add “hope”… a teaspoon of salt. Stir. It rises slightly then sinks.

Add more salt. Rise… sink… but slower.

Add more hope/salt.

A bit more. Stir. The carrot slowly rises… and floats.

Hope floats.

The Easter Rat, Church Lady Eggs and other wonders Stardate: 2020.04.12 It is, according to the traditions of my Lutheran ancestors, Easter Morning. That's the river I grew up on, with new Easter outfits in pastel colors (I loathe pastels), big baskets of chocolate (the Gift of the Goddess), Lutheran voices lifted in a kind of solemn dirge, and Sunday services about resurrection and redemption and Life reinventing itself in the form of a guy named Jesus.