Whirligig

 

Brendon Grimshaw was an English editor working for some of the largest newspapers in East Africa. He visited the Seychelles (an Indian Ocean archipelago) on holiday in 1962, and fell in love with the place. Brendon quit his job and bought a 24-acre islet called Moyenne Island for £8,000. Most of us dream of living in luxury on a tropical island, but Moyenne at the time was uninhabited and inhospitable; choked with weeds and overrun with rats. Brendon recruited a Seychelle local, Rene Antoine Lafortune, to help with improvements. Together they cleared brush, planted thousands of trees and built three miles of nature trails. They reintroduced the Aldabra giant tortoise to the area. Brendon welcomed tourists to his island. He fed them at his restaurant, Jolly Roger. He collected  €12 apiece to help fund his conservation work. Today Moyenne Island is the world’s smallest national park, home to a wide variety of plants and birds, and 120 giant tortoises.

Egg Basket

 

My favorite movies to watch at this time of year are Ben-Hur (1959) and The Ten Commandments (1956). There are a few other Easter classics that are a bit harder to find, but totally worth the effort: The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), The Robe (1953) and Easter Parade (1948). If you’re just looking for a movie with a rabbit in it, you might try: Peter Rabbit (2018), Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), Zootopia (2016), or Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Miss Potter (2006) isn’t really an Easter movie, but Beatrix Potter’s art and stories always remind me of this time of year. If you’re trying not to binge on the kids’ chocolate bunnies, you should probably avoid Alfred Molina’s performance in Chocolat (2000). Steel Magnolias (1989) may not seem like an Easter movie, but trust me – it is. And if you’re looking for something COMPLETELY different, I’ll recommend Cookie’s Fortune (1999).

One Dozen Log Cabins

 When Jesse James was born there in 1847, Missouri was a slave state. But by the time the Civil War began, Missouri had joined the Union cause. Jesse and his brother Frank became pro-Confederate guerrillas. After the war, they robbed banks, stagecoaches and trains across the Midwest. They enjoyed a sort of notoriety and sympathy, despite the violence of their crimes. Books and movies paint the “James Boys” as wild-west Robin Hoods, but there’s no evidence they ever shared their ill-gotten booty. Eventually a very large reward was offered for both brothers. In April, 1882, Jesse was living under an assumed name with two trusted friends. He was cleaning a dusty picture frame on the wall when one of them shot him from behind. Frank, on the other hand, died at the ripe old age of 72. My point? There’s such a thing as being too tidy. Dusting and cleaning might not shorten your life, but why risk it?

Six Pin Drop Pines

 

Slow Cooker Wisconsin Cauliflower

 

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons flour

3 cups milk

1 head cauliflower, broken into florets

1 quart low-sodium chicken broth

2 cups shredded cheddar

1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon EACH cayenne pepper, curry powder and white pepper

 

Gently sauté onions in butter, stirring constantly, until onions become clear and tender. Whisk in flour. When mixture becomes smooth and bubbly, whisk in milk and bring to a boil. Add to slow cooker with cauliflower, broth and seasoning. Cover and cook on low at least 3 to 4 hours. At this point you can mash the cauliflower with a potato masher, or run through the soup with an immersion blender until smooth. Add cheese and stir until melted. Serve hot with fresh parsley, hot sauce or extra cheddar as a garnish.

Spools

 

“The Lord knows you. When you’re serving your mission, you will have experiences that will help you come to know Him better. You will grow spiritually in serving Him. In His name, you will be sent on errands to help others.” – M. Russell Ballard

“The gospel of Jesus Christ has never been needed more than it is today. Contention violates everything the Savior stood for and taught. As followers of Jesus Christ, we plead with leaders of nations to find peaceful resolutions to their differences.” - Russell M. Nelson

“King Benjamin, who understood as well as any mortal what it meant to be a man of strength and courage, makes it clear that to be like a child is not to be childish. It is to be like the Savior, who prayed for the strength to be able to do His Father’s will and atone for the sins of all His Father’s children and then did it.” – Henry B. Eyring

Four Pin Drop Pines

 

There are several things I miss about living in England, but British appliances aren’t among them. We had a dishwasher that dissolved (not melted, dissolved) rubber spatulas. I’ve no idea why. One pair of John’s jeans overwhelmed our little washer. Anything bigger went to the laundromat. The dryer didn’t have a dryer vent. It didn’t need one. Instead of blowing clothes dry, it cooked them. They’d come out really hot, and still damp. For some reason the blender heated everything it pureed; great for soups, but not for smoothies. With a little creativity, I could almost fit a week’s worth of groceries in our under-the-counter fridge. But I had to be on hands and knees to get anything in or out. My favorite appliance was the toaster. It made excellent toast. Then, without warning, it would launch the finished product several feet into the air. The five-second rule doesn’t count when you have a three-second dog.

Windblown Block

 

If you believed the Earth was flat – if you were convinced that absolutely everyone since Pythagoras was wrong – how would you go about proving it? On Saturday, February 20, 2020, “Mad” Mike Hughes launched himself in a homemade rocket over the desert near Barstow, California in an attempt to prove his theory. This was actually Mike’s second attempt. In March of the previous year, he’d reached an altitude of 1,870 feet before deploying parachutes and landing hard. This time he hoped to achieve 5,000 feet. Instead, the rocket crashed shortly after takeoff, killing its flat-earther pilot. I’m scratching my head over this: that a man smart enough to build rockets in his backyard was dumb enough to strap himself into them. Twice. You’ll see a lot of stories on the Internet today that are nothing short of hogwash. I can’t tell you if this one is funny, bizarre or just plain sad. But it’s the unvarnished truth.