NEW LISTING: Beaver Dam in Frick Park

You have to see this "cozy" property to appreciate its charm! 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 8 sq ft. Ranch-style open-concept floor plan is perfect for entertaining. Set back off the path, so you won't even notice the traffic on Forbes Avenue during the 6 months of the year that the trees are green. Pretty dam good location! Zoned for Squirrel Hill schools. Only serious offers with pre-approval letter in hand, please.

Editor's Note: This stick-hut reminded me of a house style we've seen in which the front door opens onto the staircase, which leads straight upstairs, directly into the bathroom, with the toilet front and center. So you could greet your guests from the throne!

Happy Easter 2021!

Dear Husband gave me permission to rouse him if I woke up before dawn on Easter morning. My internal clock went off promptly at 6:30am, so I nudged him awake. By the time we were dressed, the sky was already well lit, 10 minutes before official sunrise. Nevertheless, we had the streets and Frick Park mostly to ourselves for a hike.

An hour and 15 minutes later, we came home ready for breakfast. While the sticky buns baked in the oven, we "dueled" with the hard-boiled eggs we had dyed Saturday night and enjoyed one of the pears that--miraculously--was already ripe.

After sticky buns, it was time to clean house before Zoom church. It was a lovely service, punctuated by a "music video" DH put together of him playing the Widor Toccata with shots of the beautiful sanctuary stained glass windows. (Make sure your sound is on when you click the link!)

We had a vaccinated friend and his 7-year-old daughter over for dinner. The highlight of the weekend was probably preparing for and conducting a 34-plastic-egg hunt in our house, complete with the reading of the jokes and bits of philosophy tucked in the eggs with the jelly beans. For instance, "Q. What do you call 10 rabbits walking backwards? A. A receding hare line." Yuck yuck yuck!

Dinner was ham we baked with spinach salad and beer bread from our guest. Dessert was a pink-frosted carrot cake that our youngest table partner proclaimed was "the best" she had ever had--and she should know, because her family loves carrot cake. It was delicious, although next time I think I would increase the oven temperature by maybe 5 degrees to see if I could get rid of the touch of sogginess at the center.

After-dinner entertainment was ukelele music and singing, including "Auld Lang Syne," "Over the Rainbow," and the Disney/Pixar hit "I Lava You."

We hope you had a safe and blessed Easter. He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Holy Week 2021 (2 of 2)

The first labyrinth I walked this Lent was in a communal lot in Wilkinsburg. The second labyrinth was in the parking lot of Third Presbyterian Church. The third and final labyrinth is located is hidden on the campus of Chatham University.

Somebody in my Sunday School mentioned it one morning. The university's website has very little information, but with persistence, I was able to locate it on Google Maps. There is also a YouTube video. It is dedicated to Jessica G. Davant (1962-2006), sponsored by her family, and designed by Matthew "Brody" Little, a Chatham graduate student. At 60-feet wide, it is larger than the famous labyrinth on the floor of the cathedral in Chartres, but it shares the same four-leaf clover design.

After I helped Dear Husband capture clips for his Easter organ video on a gorgeous spring afternoon, we hiked up Murray Hill Avenue, kibbitzing about the big, fancy houses. Although the shady, rolling campus is not designed for walkers, we managed to find the labyrinth atop a small hillock across from Berry Hall.

We removed our shoes--this was holy ground--and walked the path, one after the other. Occasionally we moved in synch on parallel paths, but mostly we moved in different directions, apart yet together on this journey. I gave up the burden of house-hunting and instead prayed the Apostle's Creed. I considered the relatively minor yet repeated suffering of tiny bits of wood or gravel under my bare feet. I watched the flowers dance in the sunlight and listened to the birds and to the wind in the trees. I thought about the discipline of walking back out the long way after having walked in the long way, about "stealing" an hour of work to be "no earthly good," and yet connecting with and enjoying the earth this way was heavenly.