Passion Sunday in the Long Lent

It is Sunday and "Spring Forward" in Britain, so we are now five hours ahead of Toronto and New York again. It is also Passion Sunday according to the traditional calendar, so B.A. swathed our principal crucifix with my purple shawl.

We participated in the Warrington FSSP  Sunday Mass as well as we could, and I have an essential oil diffuser, so that was our incense. We are also fortunate in that we have Holy Water.  You can see Fr. de Malleray onscreen in the photo to the left. 

Worm photo.

Yesterday B.A. printed out a Spiritual Act of Communion, and today he put it in a frame. At present I am having problems importing some of my photos from my phone, but I'll post a picture of that too when I can. 

I ran about beforehand getting ready for Mass, as I was out in the garden fighting the dandelions and communing with the worms. I have had a request for worm photos, so here is the one my computer wants you to see.  Mr. Worm looks like a stick here, but you can see him trying to hid under a leaf.  

Local swans self-distancing.

Yesterday I got a good strip of lawn free of dandelions, and then B.A. and I went for a long walk, keeping well clear of our neighbours and an eye out for the Law. We saw a hooded crow and a number of water birds as we walked along a river to the Firth of Forth.  

Edinburgh or elephant?

It was not very warm, I must say. But I derived some amusement from seeing a family I had never seen before striding down our street, presumably out getting their one government-mandated walk. I wondered if this was as new a habit to them as it is to us. Hitherto B.A. and I didn't take a daily walk together, either. He walked to work and back, and I walked to the bus stop on my way to the gym. 

The highlight of my day was teaching my homeschoolers. The days of six paragraph research essays are suspended until they have access to libraries again, I'm afraid. Last week I gave them a brief lesson on news articles and asked them to produce news articles about incidents at home. When they appeared separately in my "In" box, I was delighted. One was roughly "Boy Makes Mothering Sunday Cake for Mom" and the other "Boy Makes Catapult that Fails." Somehow my genius pupils managed to convey quite a lot about their daily life in about 100 words. Perhaps this is why they adamantly rejected the idea of having a family newspaper. At any rate, I assigned them more newspaper articles and an adventure story each. They seemed up for the challenge of adventure stories although I fear my cake-making boy student is determined to kill his hero. 

Meanwhile B.A. risked illness and death by going to the other newsagent's on our street to buy Doritos and cheddar. I have been following recipes from my old Moosewood Restaurant cookbook, as they are both highly nutritious and suitable for Lent. Yesterday's dinner was Black Bean Chilaquile, which features two layers of crushed tortilla chips, two layers of salsa, two layers of cheddar cheese, black beans, tomatoes, sweet corn, spinach, onions and lime juice. It is quite delicious, and here is another photo: 

Delicious!

We watched The Post starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, and it was nothing at all like working for an online newspaper, at least not for me. I cannot imagine being full of chagrin because Church Militant got the latest Saddest News in the World before we did. Of course we don't gather in a living-room when its all hands on deck. The Post was definitely a period piece, and a very good one. I loved the scenes in the typesetting room, as it gave me a clue as to what my grandfather's workplace might have been like. I even liked the feminist-y bits because I have been told that "a woman preaching is like a dog walking on its hind legs" (a line which appears in the film) approximately  100000000000000 times since I moved to Edinburgh. 

Before bed, I chatted with my mum and dad over Skype. This is also a new daily habit. Happily they almost never go outside but unhappily this means they don't have much to report. One of my sisters left them some groceries the other day, and that definitely counted as news: "Woman Leaves Parents Groceries, Chats through Door."  

I have thought of something for my mum to do, and that is to make hospital masks for B.A. and me, ASAP, as he is scheduled to go to the hospital in a week and a half for his six-month brain scan. The assignment, should she choose to accept it, is to make B.A. and me hospital masks and then package them for one of my siblings to take to the Post Office. I found handy instructions online, but unfortunately I don't have any interfacing.