I finally had one too many problems with that laptop, a Dell, if you must know, and I ultimately had the hard drive taken out and put into a case to work as an external hard drive. I've had this old desktop sitting around since we moved here but could never figure out how to get it to hook up to the wireless connection. After almost bursting into tears from frustration a few nights ago, I managed to solve the problem, and now, I'm back! Rather than attempt a thorough, well-thought out post, I'm just going to empty my camera onto the screen with a little bit of captioning.
Sunday was our third annual backyard Easter egg hunt with our good friends:
I love watching kids hunt for eggs. All four of them walked by this one at least four times each, and I couldn't help laughing:
Here are this year's eggs. All of them, except for the two "cheating" ones with tissue paper dye, were colored with homemade plant dyes. We've had mixed results over the years, with this year's eggs being the least striking in color. We tried to go with just the primary colors this year--purple cabbage for the blue, turmeric for the yellow, and raspberries for the red. The red, as happens every year, was more of a brown. Apparently what we need to make a true red is something called madder root, a plant I know nothing about but have 51 weeks to find before next Easter.
This, my friends, is brilliant, to my mama eyes at least. The chicks and their friends made a fire with sticks and chalk to cook their pretend Easter dinner. I love it.
Expect me back in a few minutes with more, assuming this computer will cooperate.
7 comments:
J, Westmount recycles computers and other electronics. If your computer is not already in the garbage, take it to their hazardous waste depot right by the park.
E, I should have clarified. I did actually recycle it (by leaving it with the computer guy who has everything picked up once a month for recycling,) but I'm really not confident that all this stuff is actually recycled. Maybe it is, and I'm just cynical!
I think I noticed some seeds for sale for a Hopi red dye plant (it may have been amaranth) at the Coop Maison Verte.
I love the chalk and stick fire =)
Jane--this is very exciting news indeed because we actually have an amaranth plant in the backyard! Now we are planning to save the flowers, but I'm going to do some research on it, and I'll still peek at those seeds. I had no idea you could use that for red dye.
OK I just looked, and it appears that we don't have the same variety because ours has green leaves, and that one has red leaves. What I'm reading is that the dye is actually made from the leaves, not the flowers. Maybe we will get some seeds then.
In Poland, we use peeled beets. The eggs do come out pink though, but it is quite dark pink. Also, onion skins make a lovely shiny brown colour.
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