Although I usually am totally on top of decorating for any season or holiday, I somehow completely spaced this year about Easter and it wasn't until I started to prep some food yesterday for today I realized I hadn't put a single flower, ribbon or Easter-egg out!

And although this was quickly remedied by diving under the bed, grabbing the bag marked 'Easter' and hanging some odds and ends from the slides and in the boughs I picked from some flowering shrubs (Amelanchier/Service berry) that are growing outside the RV, it was still kind weird not having them up already for a week or so ..



I stole some branches of the pretty Japanese ornamental Cherry tree that's growing behind the barn as well.
I always think flowers are a big part of this (for me at least) pagan holiday, heralding spring and symbolizing rebirth and new beginnings!

                                          

Of course there were eggs for breakfast (if only I could get those soft-boiled eggs down though! Why is it so hard to get them right?) accompanied by fresh croissants, ambrosia and Martinelli's:

We'd planned to go for a walk to the Basket Slough if the weather cooperated and it did so after breakfast we packed some coffee and pastries and of we went.

It was actually a perfect day, not too hot, not too cold, dry and mostly sunny!
We'd been to the Slough before but this time we were interested in hiking the area that was previously closed (to protect wintering wildlife).

This trail loops you around two lakes and marshy areas:

Halfway the loop it skirts the forestry area of the southern trail for a while:

Throughout the park you'll find some crude benches, perfect for a cup of coffee to enjoy the peace and quiet of this beautiful reserve.

Spring definitely seems late this year, even here there weren't too many flowers around but we found a few Oregon Irises, western Buttercups and a few others I couldn't identify.
(I should have brought my phone on which I installed a handy-dandy 'plant-finder' but of course I didn't ..)

Besides lots of Coots, Grebes and some Mallards we didn't encounter any wildlife other than this Woolly Bear caterpillar, who interestingly enough had a lot of grey hairs growing in the black, something I had not seen before:

But all through the walk we (well, James, I should say since this was beyond what my deaf ears could register) could hear the honking of geese but it wasn't until we were on the last part of the hike that we came across the source of all the ruckus ... Canadian geese .. lots of them!

And in case you wouldn't see them, these are the footprints they leave behind in the muddy fields:

Back home we made short work of a platter with deviled eggs, cheese and crackers and some nuts and fruit. Hiking makes hungry you know .. 

                                                             

And after a relaxing afternoon of R&R and some putzing around the RV this was followed by ham and an overnight salad and another piece of lemon meringue.
Holidays are as much about food as about flowers!

         

I didn't bake this myself, I'm not so good with meringues and such and Marie (Callender) is just very hard to beat!

All in all, a pretty traditional and nice and relaxed Easter as usual.
In my home country of Holland there will be a second Easter-day tomorrow (yeah, I don't know who came up with that one) but no such thing on this side of the pond so we'll be back to business as usual I guess.

Here's a few pictures of the Hummingbird, who decided to come back after disappearing for a year!
Or maybe it's a different one of course ..

                                                            

It looks like these are either two different varieties or maybe a male and female of the same but I haven't quite figured out what breed they are.
The one on the bottom left might be a Black-chinned and the one on the top right a female Anna's but I'm not sure.

I'll keep my eye on them this coming week to see if I can get a better idea of what's what.

 Last but not least, I finished that insanely difficult cat&book lovers puzzle!
Took me 7 weeks,  I kid-ye-not!

Yes, I did it! Yahoo!