Spring Greenery

     Friday and Saturday this week were the State Swimming Championships.  They were held at Mount Hood Community College, in the same pool were we have the City Championships in the summer.  At this time of year though, the pool is kept under a giant canvas bubble, sixty feet high and held up by air pressure.  On Friday, while walking into the bubble's airlock, a teammate suggested to me that it was such a nice day that we didn't need the bubble.
     Saturday had it's fair share of nice weather too, but with intermittent downpours and rainbows.  I figured it was a nice enough day to break out the grill, despite consistent clouds.  We made lamb chops,  with a cucumber salad, and grilled some asparagus on the side.

     While Dad spiced the lamb chops, I peeled, sliced, and squeezed water from a half dozen cucumbers, and tossed them with salt, fresh mint and lemon juice.  With the grill ready, we went outside, crouched around the fire and watched the meat sizzle, the fire flare up.  Our fronts, facing the fire, were warm, our backs cold against the weather.
     The lamb chops and asparagus were both done after only a few minutes, at which point it was time to run inside and dish up the food.

     The lamb chops were excellent, even if it was a little tough to get the meat off the bone.  Served on a bed of the cucumber salad, the lamb chops felt like spring.  The bed, cucumber salad, was fresh, and salty.  It tasted like it belonged later in the year, in the early summer.  It was a spring meal, green and fresh and promising, yet it is early enough in the year that that promise was of the days to come, warm and sunny and fresh and green.