After Easter, still reveling in spring

The lone Dutch iris-PL

 

                 Once again, the celebration of Lent, Holy Week and Easter has passed. And our part of the earth is abloom with plant life and with little girls and boys in new, bright frocks. Worshippers took flowers to adorn the empty crosses in their churches that went from stark black to rainbow bright.

                Now, women can wear white shoes, slacks and skirts—but only until Labor Day, you understand. Fellows can pull out their white kid shoes or wingtips and their straw hats. Teens can—where allowed—wear sleeveless shirts and shorts, and collegians can wear…. whatever they can get by with, uh, whatever they want to.

                I always require a pretty good reason to really, really deep-clean the house—either company, Christmas, or upholstery made dull by cats sleeping thereon. Noticing that the sofa pillows were dingy compared to the skirt below, I determined to wash those suckers before my company came last Saturday.

                I’d washed the velvet-looking throw pillows earlier, and after drying, the stuffing went back in OK, and they zipped up fine. But, oh, the lint trap on the dryer!

                While the four much-larger seat covers—two from the sofa and two from the matching loveseat—were washing and drying, I vacuumed the space underneath them. How they got full of tiny pellets of who-knows-what is anyone’s guess. But how could an advertisement—still in the envelope and meant to be delivered between such-and-such a date in 2007—get down in the side?

                The next step took sheer grit and determination: how to get the slabs of foam--sided with eiderdown-like material--back into the coverings. Not looking to bend if possible, I took one pillow and cover at a time out to the porch swing.

                Because I had unzipped, then stripped the covers down like I used to do my toddler children’s wet bathing suits, I figured they’d go back on the same way, except backwards. With one arm/hand inside to guide the cover, and the other one outside to pull up the fabric, and with lots of repetitive motions, the task got done. Zipped up and everything. Proud, proud person I was, especially when—upon placing the pillows where they belonged--they actually matched the skirts of the two pieces.

                Without any badgering from me, the cats have not deigned to sit upon the clean seats. On the back, yes. I cover the seats at night, though, just in case.

                Back to company, BFF Dot drove down from Beebe Saturday morning for the day. We vowed earlier to try to spend at least some time together each month, and this was the day. I had soup made, and cheese dip, but no dessert.

                I’d clipped a “Pumpkin cheese cake” recipe from the April issue of Arkansas Living because I had every ingredient needed. So I cooked it!

                “1 Graham cracker pie crust. FILLING: 1 1/2 packages of cream cheese (12 oz.), softened.

1/2 cup sugar; 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice; 1 cup pure pumpkin; 1 egg. DIRECTIONS: Beat cream cheese, sugar and spice on medium speed. Stir in pumpkin, add egg and mix until blended. Pour into crust and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Cool and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.” Yummy!