April Fools'Day, the urchin and some onions

The other day, I decided to give the urchin a bath. The first thing to do in these cases is to check your insurance coverage and make sure everything is paid up handsomely. It's not that this is a dangerous process. Well, not exactly. Many times, things go off without a hitch. Since urchins are heavenly (angelic) creatures, it should be noted that they do not wash well; and in the second instance, they do not photograph well while damp or wet as stray rivulets of light are often entangled producing diffusely turbid likenesses.

Sometimes an urchin will squeak. This is normal and should not cause undue concern. Luckily, the bather was squeak-less this time, giving the impression of a well planned operation.

Onions, on the other hand, are a blithe proposition. Just plant the seeds and wait. These were sown in late October. They were thinned out and replanted in several plots. One plot, which had a good deal of peat moss mixed in the soil, produced the liveliest onions.

April Fools' Day remembrance

The children of Quebec cutout the broad outline of a fish from paper and arm it with double-sided tape. Surreptitiously, these sly, chimerical paper-fish are pressed on an unsuspecting victim's back. The children eventually chortle and the deed is exposed. Then, in a sort of piscatorial paroxysm , they shout - Poisson d'Avril (a French expression meaning April's Fish).