Easter messages come from unexpected places

They put items at the end of aisles in supermarkets and in stores to catch the "impulse shopper". I've often been the willing participant in this little marketing ploy when pushing the trolley around and something that I know I don't really need but can probably afford anyway catches my eye and gets added to the pile.

Yesterday we were buying some necessities in B&Q for the never-ending kitchen renovation project when Herself spotted a box of those solar recharging garden lamps. Several of the neighbours have them and they look cute after dark among the flowers. Of course, as we don't have any flowers, we thought they might look nice among the unkempt patches of lawn.

There were ten of them, so I put some along the path in parallel rows, then dotted them over to the right curving about by the shed.

"Put one by my mother's plant."

The last one I stuck into the ground by the budding shrub. Then the waiting game began. They wouldn't light until after the sun had gone in. They would spend the day charging up their batteries using a tiny solar panel in the top of the lamp. It was a semi-overcast kind of day.

"Don't be disappointed if they don't all light," I said. "They might need a good stretch of sunshine to charge up properly."

As the afternoon wore on, we took turns in looking out. Then around 7.00pm, one small glimmer began, a tiny star starting to shine.

In an hour, the whole lot were glimmering. As the light cleared out of the sky, they shone brighter, until the garden was aglow with ten bright candles of light. As we looked and wondered, I noticed I'd laid them out quite by accident in one big question-mark shape, its "dot" the single lamp below the budding plant.

A fitting image for Easter this year: Small lights in the darkness bringing happiness and joy. And one big question mark.

Maybe tonight I'll arrange them into a big smiley face...