It's spring in the garden! The native shadblow, redbud and dogwood trees are blooming, the daffodils are lovely, the violets are decorating the lawn and the birds are jostling for space I have even seen a few bunnies or are they hares? in the neighborhood!
Gardeners find Easter vacation days especially precious: a block of time to finish the spring yard clean up and decide on final plans for this year's garden and landscape projects. This is when we usually shovel a dump truck load or two of mulch, prepare new planting beds, sharpen the mower blades and pull weeds like mad.
This year is a little different at my house. Today we cajoled a passing backhoe into doing some heavy digging for us (what serendipity!) so we are ready to jump ahead to *other* spring projects: Easter Eggs, Hot Cross Buns and Easter Crown Bread, and getting ready for the Easter Bunny .
First we need to decorate some eggs . We don't have any chickens at home so these will be from the grocery store, and the dye probably will be, too. Just in case, though, here are some natural dye concoctions and here are some more natural dye formulations . Looking for reassurance on how to do this? Get your Eggsperience here! Remember, just for once it's okay to double dip.
Next we need an Easter basket ! There are so many kinds of natural material baskets ranging from this exquisite porcupine globe basket to these so-called biomorphic paradigms of containage . Over the years I have experimented with baskets from grape vines and honeysuckle trimmings, but this time we might try a fairly elaborate home-made paper basket , or (more likely) this Easy Easter Basket (ages 2 and up) . If you think you will want to weave a fancy basket for next year, you'd probably better start now: here are some places to help you get started:
Now we need a bunny! Do you remember Peter Rabbit ? It's interesting to think that bunny rabbits figure in myths and fables from around the world . Here is one of my favorites: Tiger and the Big Wind . Many stories in Native American Lore
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