Today was most definitely a Spring day; warm, sunny and with a breeze that has nearly stopped at this time of day/evening.
The biggest news for the diary is that Vespers for the double feast of “Raising of Lazarus” leading into the “Entry into Jerusalem”, was celebrated this evening. As always, the icon was decorated and then photographed and the photo has been forwarded to Archbishop Lazar for posting. The service went fairly smoothly but was a bit longer due to the extra verses which were read, rather than chanted.
In the kitchen department, today being a festive day, I tried making oatmeal with cranberry jelly and dried fruit. This time, I boiled the water and then poured it into a bowl of oats which was stirred vigorously, slowly adding the jelled cranberry and chopped dried fruits. To be honest, it turned out much better than I had expected and was a wonderful treat for the feast day. Someone had given to us a huge box of Tetley Tea so that was the pinnacle of the meal, brewed with a slice of orange.
I almost forgot, I am still working on the sewing machine but still have not mastered it, and shall continue to pursue mastery of “man over machine”.
It has been possible to also paint a few Pascha eggs which are lined up in the window and drying. These were painted using acrylic paints which are wonderful for this kind of thing. The traditional eggs done with various kinds of dyes are nice but for an amateur such as myself, acrylics are perfect. Not only are acrylics readily available but they are easy to use, have vivid colours and do not create a mess. As much as possible, I try to use traditional designs from folk art or designs that have been used by other egg artists. Hopefully there are other people painting eggs and it will be fun to see what they have created.
