Eastering

On Saturday, we celebrated Easter with the family tradition of Eastering.  My grandfather originally created this as a way for family members to all come together, to enjoy the arrival of Spring by getting outside for a hike and a potluck with hot dogs and marsh mellows cooked over a camp fire.  The Easter bunny was also invited.  He/She filled the children's basket will all types of treats and then the sneaky bunny hid them (mine was often up a tree).  As children we were allowed to invite friends to go Eastering with us, and as we have grown older,  the  cousin's families have gotten so big that each now holds their own Eastering outing at which friends with their families are invited.

Saturday was a perfect day, with good food, a warm hike and for the boys- baskets filled with toys and treats.

I hope that your Easter was lovely filled with family traditions.

Primrose Lane with butterflies

 My Mother's Garden is filled with primroses and butterflies.  She has planted a primrose lane.  The butterflies - Swallowtails, Mourning Cloaks, and skippers as well as honey and bumble bees are abundant throughout the garden. 

Violets

"Violets, sir?" from a play my sister performed in college.  I picked a volet from the garden to share with my mother, as I have often done since I was a child.  As a child my father would bring home violet bouquets.  What a lovely scent to have a violet bouquet in a vase on you bedside table.  It is amazing how a small purple violet can remind you of so many memories.   May the scent of sun warmed violets perfume your spring breeze and bring with it memories.

The Apicot Tree

For me, the apricot tree is the first herald of spring; and not just due to the childhood verse " popcorn popping on the apricot tree (although I do sing it each spring.  The blossoms of the apricot tree appear with the warming days of spring, and the renewal of memories.

On the mountain road to Brigham city, orchards are filled with trimmed and squared trees.  This process allows for the fruit to develop to its best potential.  My favorite trees are older trees most often found in gardens or on property lines.  They have grown with gnarled and twisted trunks sculpted by wind and weather.  Their untrimmed branches brush the sky.

Recently,  our Utah weather included rain, hail, slush, and large lazy snowflakes, and yes this was all in one day.  As the weather cleared, and the sun came out;  I walked in a friend's garden.  Her apricot tree old and gnarled was at the back of the yard near the property line.  It's branches covered in bloom framed our mountain, Ben Lomond.  Standing under its branches, I was surrounded by a storm of falling petals.

The blossoms of the apricot tree heralds the renewal of spring and memories.