Friday 6 April 2012

Easter loveliness, eggy goodness, celestial marriage and more

When it comes to decorating your home for Easter, I recommend a lop eared rabbit on the sofa.



Pringles, our lion head bunny who lived in our garden over recent years disappeared a few weeks ago. Craig and I had been talking about how he would most likely not see another winter and that one day he would just disappear. Nothing prepared us for when that actually happened though. The fact that we haven't found him has left us with lots of 'what if's' too. It's difficult as there's been no finality to it although I know in my heart of hearts that I won't see him again.

We visited the sanctuary that took Billy earlier this week and came home with Alfie, and here he is making himself at home in the kitchen. He's currently living in a hutch outside and takes the children for walks around the garden every day on a leash. I hope that once he's familiar in his surrounds he'll be able to free range a little without a leash.



Easter decorations are minimalist round here this year. Low level lurgies, restless nights and the resurgence of anemia have laid me quite low. Try as I might I've not managed my usual seasonal enthusiasm.

Hermione and I visited a craft exhibition and sale with friends a week or two ago. I picked up some bits and bobs for my crafty stash and amongst them were these delightful balsa wood bunnies.






The children decorated hard boiled eggs. The three pink and the one spangly ones are decorated. As you can probably see the others are au natural; I was serious when I said we are minimalist this year!



We had a chilled out morning watching Mr Popper's Penguins with home popped corn.



Since discovering that I can substitute fat in cake recipes with nutty butter there's no stopping me! I decided that it was time the children had a good old dose of selenium so pulled out the brazil butter and whisked up some fairy cakes. I was worried that brazil butter would be dense in comparison to some of the other butters but the cakes still rose fine. I used duck eggs and that always helps boost the lift.



More eggy goodness in the form of ham and cheese flan. Today our girlies laid twenty eggs between them. It's a good job there's a demand for their produce otherwise we'd be living on quiche followed by meringue! Hopefully they'll continue to lay well for most of the summer if we're to break even on the cost of the sand and gravel to make sure their patch doesn't water log. I think we'll also need to save for a new duck house as I don't know how well their existing house will hold up to another winter.



I think I mentioned a while back that I was planning on making yarn eggs? It looked so easy that I thought it would be good to get the children involved too. now, it may be that I just didn't 'get it' but we found it very tricky and the results not at all as I expected. Anyway, I picked out the best and have placed them in one of my favorite bowls.



I have had lots of flowers given to me in the last week - roses and lilies from Craig, tulips from a dear friend and mixed blooms from one of Craig's fellow directors. I love flowers and lilies are one of my favorites.

Lilies alongside pictures of my big man and little man; both captured looking considerably younger than they are now!



Miles' seasonal display.



Hermione's seasonal display.



They were quite industrious with the decorations this afternoon while I sat pondering why I'm feeling so groggy. Oh, to have a wee more bit spring in my step right now!

I'm off to bed with The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff. A friend gave me this book to read a while ago and although i liked the look of it I put off reading it because I'm so used to my Kindle. I tend to read at night when my eyes are tired and really like being able to make the print really big. Anyway, now I have picked it up I'm finding it hard to put down. It's fascinating and really has made me ponder what, if any, place polygamy (or celestial marriage as they called it) has in society.

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