The Promise of Easter

OK, maybe we should start with when and how I conjured up my beautiful idea for an alternative Easter surprise. I was driving out to the valley to find a dwarf Kaffir lime tree so that I could have Kaffir lime leaves for recipes because they are impossible to find otherwise. So already you have a pure example of the odd lengths I'll go to for a variety of reasons.

A while ago I promised Skye a Koi pond, but living on a hillside, I really couldn't find the right place for it. But still a promise is a promise, and I realized that I could actually place the Koi pond in the front of the house and it would serve as a security measure as well as fulfilling my promise to Skye. And Koi are colorful, like swimming Easter eggs, how cool would that be. But it only gets more complicated, convoluted and nutty from there.




Not so keen on the bushes, never have been and a pond in front of the window would make it more difficult to intrude, or at least there goes the theory.




Oops pipes, no room for the Koi pond.

I had already purchased a prefab pond, but I thought I might be able to find one the could fit. I didn't which then landed me with to Koi ponds and no where for them to go. So I started some creative thinking, intent to fulfill my Easter dream.



I could put it in the garden. There's room there, sort of.

Now at this point I've already dug up in front of the house. It's Saturday and I'm in charge of getting Easter stuff and then making a challenging Easter egg hunt, and make it less candy-charged than in previous years, for all our sakes.

So on Saturday after some ridiculous digging and re planning, etc, I find myself heading into Hollywood and then through the Valley and then to the Westside, to try and find a stone bridge for the new location of the Koi pond. Needless to say I was running out of time.





Said bridge. How I will get it out of my car and then down the spiral stair case.....? Oh I'll just do it.

I realized that I really wouldn't be able to have the pond up and running, so I bought "stand-in" koi, you know, basically Koi coupons for when the pond is ready.




This is where I was at the night before Easter. It turned out to be more complicated than planned. Doesn't it always?!!




Wow! That's pretty pathetic.

Luckily, I did really well with the Easter hiding and baskets.




See, she could car less about the Koi pond and my fractured promises. No, really, she looked at the mess around my "great idea" as just another home improvement project of Dad's. It's relation to Easter never stuck, even after the plastic fish and explanations, although she was very sweet about the whole matter.




Later that day after I succeeded in setting in the pond the Koi didn't look much better. In fact they looked dead.

I didn't actually get it right the first time and had to empty out the pool and re-dig an re-level the dang thing. Which turned out to be a huge pain, one of many.




Cici could've cared less.




But there was still the mater of the front.

I needed to shift the position of the sculpture or at least I felt I needed to. In the process, I managed to drop it on its side and then determined it would be easier to deal with the sculpture as to pieces rather than one. It was a good idea, in spite of the other sorts of problems.

I wrestled with it for hours and was eventually quite happy with the final outcome.





Much better I think. I will be adding a little green with some Elven Thyme around the sculptures.

The back project is actually coming along well. But we had a lot going on obviously. Real quick, way too quick, but I'm falling asleep(really).

Went to the Haynes rocking church for a late afternoon Easter service and then an amazing Thai dinner in Thai town of all places.

Must go, sleep in eyes.