Eastertime Lakeside

Easter weekend was spent joyfully with grandparents at the lake fishing and boating and loving the outdoors and sunshine.

 Hippo mama and baby

 Daddy hippo

 Crocodile on bank

Mighty fish eagles

 

On the boat with Grandpa

 

 Happy Birthday to Grandma!

A little bit of Easter

April - Easter and birthdays and spring days

Our Easter tree

Easter clay pots with daffodils

Jediah's 2nd birthday.

Leo celebrated his 7th birthday!

He requested a chocolate cake with cherries.

Leeches caught in the stream.

Easter memories in pictures

Our Easter tree with blown eggs painted by the boys, Ojos di Dios, and wet felted butterflies hanging from the branches.

Our little beeswax egg shaped candles set in real egg shells.  Can't remember where I saw this idea but goodness, it is fun and a great idea. 

The magic Easter bird left deep red eggs hidden in the grass out alongside the hedgerow.

Chocolate chicken.

 

The boys and I (and dog!) searching amongst the trees for Easter eggs left by the Easter hare.

Discovered treasure!

Whitsun

A beautiful Sunday in the sun.
Watching house martins dip and dive.
Clear blue skies.
Loving daisies reaching up to the sun.


"Spirit in rushing wind and air,
In sunlight, cloud and rainbow fair,
Spirit in flame and snow white flower,
Oh come to us with mighty power."

- W. Doncaster (Summer, Wynstones)

Outside - Easter Monday

This day, we usually make homemade pasta but this Easter we haven't done much cooking and baking. We spent most of the day gardening and playing in the garden. Denise, we will be planting up some of your seeds soon and at some point I will post a pic of our boys planting those shared seeds - such a beautiful idea of yours!

I am turning more within now, waiting for my precious new babe. See the rainbow we saw this weekend. My babe will soon be coming from the angels, over the rainbow to join us... I will be taking a break from the computer, spending these last days with my boys outside and won't be posting more until babe comes earthside..My babes tend to feel warm and cosy within and take their time deciding to leave!! And being of African heritage, this one is waiting for a warm, sunny day, I imagine!

Outside - Easter Sunday

Well, can you believe how magical this is! Mark took the boys off for a walk while I hid some Easter treasures and treats around the garden for our Easter treasure hunt. We had told the boys to look out for the Easter hare as they walked and lo and behold they saw two beautiful, swift brown hares darting across the fields. (We don't often see them. The last time must have been around February and luckily last Easter too but I think it was on Easter Monday.)



They must have been on their way back to their homes after delivering Easter eggs in our garden! Needless to say, the boys were delighted - we all were! Hares are fascinating, mythical-type creatures. (I just love the story about how the hare was chosen by Jesus to carry His message to the world at Easter, found in Wynstone's 'Spring' book and I think it is in 'Festivals, Family and Food' also.) We strolled home and lots of little treasures were to be found!



We spent the rest of the day with family. A beautiful, warm day!

Outside - Holy Saturday

More strolls about. We do lots more besides in case you wonder, but this is our favourite past-time! We learn, exercise our bodies, connect with each other and with our earth - totally strengthening!


We stopped to watch the pig manure being scattered. This is an organic farm. There are organic pigs and organic cereals. The pigs rotate around the fields. They roam about and root up the roots of the weeds. Once they have worked over a field the field is cleared, the pigs moved on, and the pig compost scattered over the field and ploughed in. The pig manure is really good for the soil and the benefits of having the pigs on the fields, rooting and manuring apparently benefits the soil for around 8 years! The organic cereal crops are then sown - mostly oats and wheat and there are high yields from these crops. The boys call this machinery, 'the hippo', as hippos have a tendency to scatter their manure in this way!


Here's Noah and his round Mama watching. He's going to miss that round, warm baby tummy!


We passed by the mama pigs and babies. Here's two sweet babies.


Played on the hay bales..


Then stopped to love some daffodils. It started to rain and how refreshing and invigorating to walk home in the gentle rain.

Outside - Good Friday

What we loved outside over Easter.
Good Friday.
An invigorating long three hour ramble about.


These two were travelling to Babylon.


The woods are so wild and no-one goes there but us. The wild as the woods boys.


Bracket fungi.


First bumblebee we have spotted. We greeted and chatted to that bumblebee like meeting up with an old friend.


Not so easy to spot - white wild violets.

Easter crafts

Ojos de Dios we weaved up last week using our handspun wool. Sol spent a long time weaving up the big one and heis so proud of it. The yellow is dyed with nettles, orange with beetroot and the green and lilac with food dye.



I have been using up my stash of that same wool to knit up woollen baby nappy wraps. I have made such a huge stash of these. I used the Ottobre pattern which is so, so easy. Same pattern I used with your beautiful wool, Suzanne. This babe will have one cosy little bottom.



Easter tree. Denise, can you see the special mama on her nest. Noah adores her! The boys made little Easter clay bowls, (I helped Noah and Leo with theirs) and they painted them to hold little treasures. They really love modelling with clay.



Sweet little Easter garden the boys made. They planted cress in egg shells and added clay characters. Sol chose to make an Easter hare, Leo made an orange Brer Rabbit and at Noah's request I made him a mama hen and babies and he painted them. There were little chocolate eggs scattered about their garden on Easter morning and the cress has grown beautifully now. They really enjoyed creating this little garden.

Easter

On Good Friday, we set up a Easter tree with all our decorated eggs.  We made bread dough shapes.  Ate most of them and hung a person, a cockerel and a sun shape on our branch.    The story - "Cock a doodle doo" crows the cockerel, 'Wake up man!!, Wake up!!  The sun (Son) has arisen!!

On Holy Saturday, we baked and baked - hot cross buns and Colomba di Pasqua, the traditional Italian Easter bread.

and played with gooey goo (cornflower, water, food colouring)

On Easter Sunday, we left out some lettuce and carrots for the Easter hare.  He collected these and left Easter treats hidden in the garden.  What excitement and what a lot of chocolate eating! Although little Noah prefers unwrapping the chocolate to eating it.   The magical Easter bird also left several magical eggs (secretly prepared- deep red onion skin dyed chicken eggs).  

Then grandparents and aunt and uncle joined us for a family meal and fun for the rest of the day.

Today, Easter Monday, was handmade pasta making with Daddy.  In our family, traditionally the men usually make the pasta from family recipes passed along from Mark's Italian grandmother, Marcella.

Rolling out.

Hanging on the line to dry.

Cut and ready to cook.

Delicious with amatriciana sauce, sweet basil and parmesan.

And a long, happy Spring walk in the late afternoon.  

The hedgerows are in blossom.

Sol found an old tyre just perfect to serve as a seat in his secret den so it was father's duty to carry it home on the end of a stick..

The bluebells are just starting to peek out.....

On the way home we saw two brown hares sprinting across the field - magical and perfect.

Festivals, family, food and fun outdoors = happy days!