Happy Easter to my Sunday Letter friends!
With Easter comes glorious, much-needed rebirth. After the long year we’ve had, extra hallelujah to that.
Thursday morning arrived with more freezing temperatures. I worried about the tree buds and flower blossoms and tender new growth peeking up from the soil. BUT here in our yard, for the most part, we go with a survival of the fittest mode. Occasionally I have been known to cover plants if there is a rare, unseasonable snowstorm, but usually I let nature take its course.
Everything survived this latest freeze.
I’m so glad. Our clematis plants are wild with buds.
Vintage Easter
I saw these vintage Easter baskets last week. We all had these, didn’t we? You know, just because we know how to re-make everything in shiny impossible plastic, doesn’t mean we should.
I would have bought these vintage baskets, but the originals my sister and I carried still live at home on the farm. I’m pretty sure of it.
Easter memories featuring bruised legs, bad bangs, and all.
Garden Pest
We grow many hosta varieties. When we planted them, we didn’t know deer consider them a fresh, delectable salad. Now, we work all spring and summer to keep the deer away. Some we have relocated to areas deer don’t visit as often (knock-on-wood).
Wouldn’t you know it. This year we have a new hosta pest competing with the deer.
GRACIE.
I caught Gracie nibbling on a just-emerging hosta in the backyard. Y’all, she is always eating, stuffing her mouth with anything she can find. ALWAYS. She had no reaction to the hosta that I could tell, but I’ve learned hostas are mildly toxic to dogs.
Seriously, I have to watch the child every second.
For a list of toxic flowers, shrubs, and houseplants, click HERE. Some on the list were surprising to me. Until Gracie is older and can be trusted, she requires constant supervision. And even then we don’t have eyes in the backs of our heads.
Colomba Cake
What a treat to receive cake in the mail!
Our friends gifted us this colomba cake—considered an Easter food tradition in Italy. Baked and shipped from Eataly’s newest location in Dallas, IT WAS AMAZING. I use past tense, because sadly our cake is long gone, devoured in three days, well before Good Friday even.
This unusual and flavorful cake (more like a sweet bread) is baked in the shape of a dove, flavored with oranges, and topped with almonds and pearl sugar. Now that I know about it, going forward, colomba cake may very well become an Easter tradition for our family too. And I plan to visit Eataly during my next trip to Dallas.
I wish I had a slice now with my coffee.
Are you familiar with this deliciousness?
Arkansas Bluebonnets
Our grape hyacinths are blooming in the backyard—I can see them from the kitchen window. Grape hyacinths are the closest thing we have to Texas bluebonnets.
They aren’t related. Bluebonnets are in the lupine family. Grape hyacinths belong to the lily family.
Here’s a photo of my granddog, Blue, standing in a field of Texas bluebonnets. I took this picture in March 2016.
I suppose you can tell by my mentions of Texas in this Sunday Letter, I am beyond ready to see my daughter and son-in-law in Austin, and our friends in Dallas. Soon, y’all. It has been too, too long!
Things Momma Says:
Before Momma says anything this morning, I’d like to give a huge shout out to the Baylor Men’s Basketball team. There’s nothing like waking up and remembering your team is headed to the NCAA National Championship game. Yay!!!
(NCAA tournament commentary cont’d)
It must take those gals a long time to get ready to play basketball.
Whose heard anything about Houston all year? I haven’t.I think I’ll cheer for the Zags over UCLA. I like the name.
***
Again, Happy Easter (and apologizes for the short Sunday Letter).
I wish you a wonderful day with family (even if that means a Zoom call), good food, and quiet time to reflect on the beauty of this one life we’ve been given on earth.
He.Is.Risen.
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
Happy Easter. I have never heard of the cake you mention. Will have to check it out. My mother was 4th generation Waco resident and had an almost religious affection for bluebonnets. Good luck on a Baylor win!
Thank you! Wow. I didn’t know you had Waco roots.
Happy Easter everyone and Sic ‘em Bears!
Whenever I get back to Mississippi County and the Bat Cave, I’m bringing back our Easter baskets. That cake looked so good; we need to have them every Easter. Let’s all be happy: HE IS RISEN, Hallelujah & Amen!
I like the name Zags, too! What a great game!
That last shot!!
That cake looks amazing,..Until I read about it, I thought it was a cross rather than a dove. Works either way, huh?
Also love your Easter photo…so cute!
Thank you once again for making Sunday mornings even better, with your letters. I appreciate you! Have a lovely Easter on this especially gorgeous day! Blessings! 🐰💐🐰
It could be a cross, I agree! Thank you for your kind words. It was a gorgeous Easter made doubly so because He is risen!
Here I am, playing catch up again! I’m glad the cold snap didn’t hurt your flowers. They’re always so pretty. Ours made it through ok, too. In fact, our peonies are glorious today. Loved, loved the picture of you sitting up there by your Easter basket. Will and I had baskets just like those. Unfortunately, I don’t have them anymore. Timmy likes plants and flowers so I have to watch him, and he’s not even a toddler like Gracie.
I thought of you when Baylor played. What a team.