Multifaceted: Secret Subject Swap

 

 

Welcome a Secret Subject Swap. This month 5 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts. Read through mine and at the bottom you’ll find links to all of today’s other Secret Subject participants.

My subject is: What if April flowers brought May Showers?

It was submitted by: Sarah of the ever-changing identities, whose current incarnation is What TF Sarah. 

 

You can change your name all you like, Sarah, I'll always find you. In a non-threatening, non-creepy way, of course (please don't get an order of protection against me, I'm harmless, I swear).

What isn't harmless, though, is the rain. As spring settles in, water from melting snow adds to the rain and for the last couple of years, this has been a problem for us. The side of the house where my lilac shrubs await the warm sunshine is also where the sump pump from our basement drains. And drains and drains and drains. It's gotten to the point where it's dug a gully resulting in mud puddles in our and our neighbor's back yards. Not pretty. Not good for the lawn either. 

 

We've had to extend the drainage tube all the way into the middle of our back yard, at least stopping the mud from pooling in the neighbor's yard, but not a solution. So if April flowers bring May showers, meaning a deeper canyon in the side yard and a second round of mud puddles, my first thought is "crap!"

Despite crap being my first thought, it's not my final answer. Because, flowers.

 

 

I've spoken before about the flowers I have in my yard and those I plant in pots both on my front porch and my back deck. They've always brought me joy, not just in their symbolizing the end of another long cold winter, but in the gift of the colors of their blooms. In the one year plus of my Covid isolation (I'm still not fully vaccinated) the beauty of spring has become even more meaningful. I've mentioned that the only way I could safely buy plants for my pots last year was to go to an outdoor nursery in the early morning of a pouring rainstorm.

So if the price of having these in my life (and my surroundings) . . . 

 

 

 

. . . is dark and wet and dreary days, even if it's a repeat of the mud slide and all of the required clean up, I'll pay it.

 

It's also because of the rain that I can sit on my back deck between showers, looking out over the green lawn and the woods behind the house . . .

 

 

. . . contemplating the marriage of cupcake flavors . . .

 

Lemon Filled Strawberry Cupcakes

Happy Birthday, Mom ❤

. . . and being treated to sightings of all of the wildlife that emerges after a storm.

 

And as if all of that isn't enough, there's the aftermath of the storms, painted on the skies.

 

And out front, the colors of the night sky serve as a reminder that even if tomorrow brings rain, it will also bring so much more, as long as you remember to look for it.

 

In this time of absolutes in terms of our opinions about each other, I hope that we can all temper our judgement with the lessons taught to us by Mother Nature. Rain has the ability to cause destruction, it also has the capacity to be nurturing, to bring life and beauty. We, like rain, are multifaceted.

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

Wandering Web Designer 

Climaxed 

Part-time Working Hockey Mom 

What TF Sarah

Lemon Filled Strawberry Cupcakes

                                                              ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe


Ingredients: 

1 box (15.25 oz) strawberry cake mix

1 box (3 oz) strawberry jello mix

1 cup milk

1/3 cup oil

3 eggs

1 can (1#) vanilla frosting

1 box (3 oz) lemon pudding mix

2 TBSP Strawberries and Cream liqueur (can substitute milk)

1 TBSP lemon juice

 

OPT: decorating sprinkles and/or sugar pearls

Directions:

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cupcake papers into 18 (for extra large) to 24 (for regular sized) cupcake pan wells.
*Beat the cake mix, jello mix, milk, oil and eggs for 2 minutes. Divide the batter into the cupcake pan. 

*Bake for about 15 minutes for regular sized cupcakes or about 18 minutes for extra large cupcakes, until the centers spring back to the touch. Cool completely.

*Using an apple corer, press down from the center of the top to about 3/4 of the way down into the cupcakes. Twist and gently remove, leaving a hole in each.
*Beat the frosting with the pudding mix, liqueur or milk, and lemon juice for 1 minute. Place into a piping bag. Pipe the frosting into the hole in the cupcakes made by the apple corer. Swirl the remaining frosting onto the tops of the cupcakes. Decorate with sprinkles and/or sugar pearls if desired.