Joyeuses Pâques

Since before I was born, my dad's side of the family has been celebrating Good Friday with a big picnic. Growing up I never missed one - the first one I missed was the year I moved out here. And of course the subsequent ones, but I've kept the tradition going Vancouver style.


And I'm clearly quite pleased about it.







We headed to a park just a few blocks away, gorged on chicken legs, hummus and chocolate and played a bunch of bocce ball (ooh, nice alliteration). Minnie Pearl ran herself ragged with other dogs in the park and could barely walk the next day. All in all, a wonderful day.



Another tradition we had at home was our Easter egg tree, decorated with eggs that were blown out and dyed. I made a few when I first got out here, but they have since disappeared, probably broken in a move. So I made some new ones this year and decided to go the natural route.

The ones above were dyed using pickled beet juice, turmeric and red cabbage. I also did some with blueberries, which were a slightly darker, more indigo blue.







Blowing out 8 eggs could mean a lot of waste - but not if you use it to make a fritatta! I added some tissue paper blossoms to spiff up my branches, and I just could NOT get over the colour that the red cabbage eggs came out. So beautiful! And not at all purple! Nature is great.