EASTER

THE DOG STOLE THE SAUSAGE FROM THE EASTER BASKET AFTER IT WAS BLESSED

We often got our Easter Baskets blessed on Easter Saturday, not at the parish we belonged to, which didn't offer this, but another parish a few miles away.  Inside each basket there were home baked breads and rolls, and other items that were intended for our Easter Day lunch, things like boiled eggs, celery, salt, butter, meats like ham, and - of course - for the children, Chocolate Easter bunnies, jelly beans, and marshmallow chicks.  We rarely got candy so these were really special. 

All these would be laid upon a bed of artificial cellophane grass, most often green, but sometimes pink or yellow, and an old cloth doily would be placed over the top of the precious basket.  We would go into the church and arrange our baskets an the kneeler along the communion rail.  (As I write this I wonder if all my readers will know what I mean.  In our churches it was common to separate the altar area with a metal rail. These days in many churches people stand in line for Holy Communion and do not kneel.)  We would expose the contents of the basket to the upcoming rain of Holy Water by folding the doily aside.  Then go to sit in the pews to listen to a brief  but sincere Easter prayer lead by the priest and the blessing.

One year my mother's picnic sized hamper included a large sausage.
That year one of the priests at this parish had a pet - a large dog.

As the parishioners settled back into a moment of fervent prayer, the priest's dog came down the center isle of the church.  Before anyone could imagine what he might be up to, the dog snatched the large sausage and ran out of the church with it.  Smart dog!

The serious Easter prayer was punctuated by the wild suppression of laughter, as everyone attempted to avoid laughing out loud or running out of the church after the dog - who was long gone.  Their shoulders shook in glee.

My mom took it well.

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CROWNED RABBIT IMAGE FROM RUSSIA

EASTER EGGS - HUNGARIAN STYLE

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SPRING - PLANS FOR A GARDEN - YOU TOO CAN MAKE SEED BALLS and PROVIDE BUTTERFLY and BEE FRIENDLY FLOWERS

MY GARDEN is starting to spout,

 including some plants that made it through the winter

that were only doing so so last year, including

YELLOW CALENDULA, PALE PINK PERFUMED SNAPDRAGONS, RED GERANIUM,

a single SUNFLOWER, and, the secret of whatever seeds I put into a SEED BALLS.

Since I posted on the heat wave, we finally got hit by a few rain showers locally. We will still attempt to conserve water. 

I attended a SEED BALL MAKING WORKSHOPS for ADULTS at a local LIBRARY here in Southern California a couple weeks ago.  The idea is to make these seed studded clay balls, then drop these them here, there, and everywhere there is a need for plants that butterflies and bees love .  (Try not to waste them by planting them where gardeners wack down anything they don't recognize as a weed!  But consider old graveyards, along certain road sides or crossings, between buildings... places were there is some land where they can grow as nature allows.)

You need to buy water based modeling clay such as the Crayola Air Dry Clay brand, which is the dough kids use to make little sculptures and comes in quart sized plastic buckets.  It turns out that this clay, water based, can harden but also resoften in the rain, or when you water it and the ball provides a good seed sprouting environment. 

You will also need some peat moss and some seeds.  We used Calfornia poppy seeds as well as a package of bird and butterfly mix.

Take about a quarter cup of this clay, roll it around into a ball, then flatten it like a pancake.  Sprinkle a generous amount of peat moss on it, and then a few seeds.  Roll this again into a ball, and roll the ball in more peat moss.  Viola!  You have a seed ball.

One thing California and Hungary have in common is POPPIES.  Our native poppies, a brilliant gold color, are our state flower, and one of the reasons that California is called The Golden State.   (The other reason is that by summer much of the once-green landscape is covered with golden dried out vegetation.)  We had some rain, finally, and the desert, including various succulents and cactus,  should be blooming brilliantly very soon. 

I made eight balls in fifteen minutes.  You do not need to dig deep to plant these balls.  Just a little scoop out or simply place them on furrowed ground.  Four of them I planted along an old abandoned rail road track that has a path past it.  So far, I have not seen anything sprouting when I walk past this area, but you never know.  Because of the rains there are the native California mustard plant (short, unlike the Spanish mustard the Spanish explorers are responsible for, as they claimed the country for Spain by throwing their own mustard seeds), as well as native wild geranium (rarely do these survive long enough to bloom out due to all those wackers!), mint, and a number of small yellow flowered and purple flowered ground covers that seem to hibernate for years just waiting for enough rain to sprout.

The four balls I left in a bag to be planted later all sprouted in the bag and have been transferred into a large pot.  I cannot wait for one or all of them to grow into beautiful plants that I can try to identify!

I found this link that will explain more about seed balls PERMA CULTURE - ANCIENT METHOD OF NO TILL AGRICULTURE