Easter Weekend

The weather this Easter weekend, April 2 to 4th was incredible. Temperature records were broken all over Ontario as the thermometer soared to 25 degrees Celsius in some areas. In Whitby, where I spent a few days visiting with my boys and their families, the sun shone brightly while the grandchildren played in the back yard. Usually the normal temperature for this time of year is a high of 8 Celsius so we were a good 17 degrees higher.

I played hooky from work on Thursday and headed down to Whitby for a family Easter celebration. I had some quiet quality bonding time with Molly, my 1 year old grand dogger – she’s the golden I looked after last May. She is a delightful pup. We went for a little car ride and a walk, and then spent the early evening sitting in the back yard watching the sun set. On Thursday evening, my son Geoff and I watched the movie, Harry Brown, starring Michael Caine. Although it was slightly uncomfortable to watch some of the scenes, it was a well done, thought provoking video. Two thumbs up, as they say. I got some knitting time in while we were watching it so that is always a bonus.

On Good Friday, Geoff wanted to make hot dogs for lunch, but we didn’t have enough hot dog rolls. As pretty much every store is closed on Good Friday in Ontario, except for some convenience stores and pharmacies, Jackie and I set out on the hot dog roll hunt. Shoppers Drug Mart now sells food so we figured we’d go to the one in Ajax. They had every kind of roll except hot dog rolls. But they had a really nice gardening book, so I got that and we left. (They should rename Shoppers Drug Mart Shoppers Emporium or One Stop Shoppers or something like that.) Oddly enough, the Dollarama next door was open, and sometimes they sell rolls, so we went in. Didn’t get any rolls, but we did get some fun stuff.

I used to live about 10 kilometres from Ajax, and I knew that the store Mr Knits and I called the Bayshore Inn would be open and have the rolls. So we continued driving west and sure enough the Bayshore was open, had fresh rolls and sesame snacks. In all we probably drove over 40 kilometres, and spent about $80 on other things when originally we went out for were a package of hot dog rolls. All on a day when virtually all the shops are closed! Not bad, if I don’t say so myself.

We celebrated our Easter on Good Friday with a lovely ham dinner. Mmmm mmm good. It is my granddaughter Evelyn’s 4th birthday on April 8th, so we had a little family party for her. To keep the kids busy, and to get them into the birthday frame of mind, we had them decorate crowns. Elizabeth, my 8 year old granddaughter, and Robbie, my 4 year old grandson, sat down and busily decorated their crowns with jewels, stickers and decals. And the crowns never left their heads for the rest of the day. Evelyn, the birthday girl declined the crown making, and played grocery shopping instead.

When it was time for the cake, it turned out we had two to choose from. While the kids were playing, my sons, daughter in law and I were discussing which cake to serve. One cake was round with yellow roses, the other was a cute Easter bunny cake. We thought we knew which cake they would want...we were wrong. They all wanted the cake with the yellow roses.

As Ben and Deb were getting ready to take their two little girls home, someone mentioned the Peanut Butter Jelly song, and since I am the self proclaimed queen of Google and the Knitting Universe if you remember, we found the YouTube video and played it for the kids. They loved it. What a joy it was watching these three little sweeties having so much fun together.

It was back to work for me on Saturday morning; my mini vacation was over. But not quite yet. I stopped at a few garden centres on the way back, and picked up some pink hydrangeas and tulips, purple hyacinths and yellow daffodils to decorate the flower boxes at the store. But I needed, and I mean I needed pussy willows. And after a quick phone call to my friend Lynn, she directed me to the pussy willow centre of Addington Highlands. You must bear in mind I was wearing dressy leather boots with 3 inch heels (what was I thinking?) and I was scrambling up and down the granite rocks along the ditches. And almost every car that went by stopped and asked if I needed help. I’m pretty sure they meant help with my car, not gathering the pussy willows as when I explained I was pussy willow gathering, they left. How nice it was to know that if I was stranded on the Flinton Road, help would be available. Back at the shop, the boxes and planters were filled with my spring flowers and the result was very satisfying. They turned out exactly as I had pictured them...and that doesn’t happen very often.

Aren’t they pretty? Now if you are worried about the weather changing, and frost posing a danger, I did make allowances for that. The two big hydrangeas were left in their pots so they can be lifted out of the box and brought inside, the two pots on either side of the door can be easily moved inside too. The weather forecast for the next two weeks is quite favourable, so I am not too worried about it.

And that, my lovelies, was my wonderful Easter weekend.

Note: I have edited this post as I have blogged about Sunday and Monday’s events with Emma – who has almost recovered from her macadamia nut misadventure. Thank you to everyone who has asked about her.