Easter was a soggy affair this year .. it really rained all .. day .. long!
Apparently the weather did a 180 on the forecasters who initially predicted a beautiful sunny day but had to completely change their tune when a storm front unexpectedly came down from Canada.

Well .. there was nuttin' to do about it, so we made ourselves cozy inside and caught up on a lot of reading and, in James case, studying ..
I'd decorated a little, as always, and had raided the garden for some cheerful daffodils:

                                            

I also hung some of my Mardi Gras beads (in appropriate Easter colors) and a few budding willow branches near the front door ..

                                                   

We're not religious and Easter is more of a pagan 'welcome back to Spring' event for us.
I always struggle a little when people greet me on the day with 'Happy Easter, he is risen'.
I know the appropriate come-back is 'he is risen indeed' but usually only wish them a 'Happy Easter' in return although something like 'cool' or 'good for him' have come to mind.
I'm always a little miffed that people just assume you're a believer.
A recent post of Ms Moon has made the situation even more difficult since I might not be able to keep a straight face next time!

These memes made me chuckle as well ..

            

                                

Off course we had some good stuff to eat (any excuse right?). There were Eggs Benedict, with crab and avocado, for breakfast ..

And I baked this Raspberry Ricotta cake with almonds for coffee-time ..

    
        

Delicious with some raspberry sauce and whipped cream!

Devilled (Deviled?) eggs for lunch ..

                                              
After which we really needed some exercise so we braved the rain and went for a short walk through the neighborhood.
We often play golf on Easter but since you needed a row-boat to get from one tee to the next we postponed it to a day when the sun will be out .. yeah, wishful thinking.

No Easter bunnies to be seen but we came across this deer family. There were actually four of them but you can only see a glimpse of the two on the left behind the tree ..

         

                          

They were a little wet around the edges but the rain didn't seem to bother them much. There's enough grass for them at the moment, it's growing like crazy!

This gorgeous Star Magnolia on the left is pretty much in full bloom and the flowering Quince on the right is just starting:                             

Since exercise makes hungry it didn't take too long before we sat down for our Easter dinner of 'overnight' salad and roasted lamb loin chops ..

I forgot to take a picture of the strawberry shortcake for dessert but that might have been overkill .. ha, ha, ha ..😂

Can you believe we went through almost 2 dozen of eggs (I've got two left)!
Well, ... I guess when you use 4 in the eggs Benedict, 3 in the cake, 3 in the salad and 12 (!) in the deviled eggs ..
It's good we have a fresh eggs source right down the street from us!

Last but not least, for some utter Easter cuteness here's a pic of the peeps I saw at the Wilco farm-store this week:

I so wish I could have my own chick(en)s!