Last Week in Lent

Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Driven by the Spirit

"And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness." Mark 1:12

After Jesus was baptized, he directly went into the wilderness where he was tempted for 40 days (called the Lenten season) where he prayed constantly.  As we near the end of the Lenten season and await Easter Sunday, our church had a beautiful Palm Sunday service yesterday.  It is always one of my favorites services during the year, with palms waved high above and palm crosses worn by parishioners.

Next we celebrate Maundy Thursday with communion.  An excellent article entitled "Living into the Banquet Feast" can be found here and is definitely worth the time to read.

Now we also await Good Friday, and three days of contemplation commemorating the time before Jesus' resurrection.

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Thanks to Floss for hosting A Pause in Lent again this year.

Easter Terrarium

Do you want to get your hands into dirt, but your evening temperatures are still too cool to allow seedlings to germinate?  That was my thought.  So I looked into planting indoors with small terrarium plants that could be tended indoors.  At our local nursery I found green Irish moss and a wee little plant called "goldfish" because when it blooms, it supposedly looks like a goldfish.  Go figure.

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The above picture shows a bloom from the goldfish plant and below is a close-up of its foliage:

 

I so hope I can keep it alive until it at least blooms!  Armed with irish moss, also available at nurseries, I planted a terrarium using some other ferns, other dried moss, two small plants culled from existing house plants, along with various glass stones and two crosses symbolizing the Easter season.

 

Thinking I should add some mushrooms, I got out my Fimo clay (after two years, it was still easy to work with) and made some little 'rooms with a toothpick inside each for ease in sticking them into the terrarium dirt.

Looking at Sara Midda's mushrooms as examples, here was the process.

Forming the mushroom shapes with white clay:

Baking the figures in rice to ensure the tops would not be mashed.

Painting the figures to resemble mushrooms.

A wedding present from 1990 was used as a topper for the terrarium.  Yes, it is a glass cake cover and a very heavy one at that.  There will be no mushroom escape from this device!  A 9 inch cake pan was the base of the terrarium, painted green with acrylic paint.  Then I found a mirror with a turquoise frame, about 10 inches round.  That is the holder and base of the entire terrarium.

Here it is uncovered.

It was lots of fun to make.

To read more about how to consruct the layers of a terrarium, this post from March 2008 describes the process in detail.  Who knows, I might make a few more!

Chicken Curry from the Hairy Bikers

BBC2 runs "Mums Know Best" and features the Hairy Bikers on many episodes.  Sadly, in the US, we are unable to access that programming.  But you can keep up with the Bikers on print media.  And they have at least a dozen excellent cookbooks, one featuring curries.  This is their website: HairyBikers

The hub and I made one of the favored recipes for chicken curry.  The recipe can be found here.

The spices make the dish perfecto!  (add salt and pepper, of course)

 

Served over rice, it was very tasty.  This will be a repeat.

 

Next on the menu docket is chicken tikka masala, one of my favorite Indian dishes.  You can find the recipe here for an easier version.  And if you really want authentic, a naan recipe can be found here.

 



(Source: Food Network)