Spring arrived almost a month ago, but you would not know that by looking at my flower garden. With the cold spells, and even snow during the end of March and beginning of April, these delicate plants are having a hard time coming to full bloom.
The two unseasonably warm days of over 70 degrees F we recently enjoyed, really had a positive effect on the plants, and helped them open up a little more.
Today I will share a few of my photos I captured of the current blooms.
Easter is such a beautiful holiday, but here in the US, it does not get even close to the vast recognition that Christmas is showered with.
My family and I feel very lucky to be familiar with, and able to practice the Ukrainian Easter traditions. Besides the 40 days of the Great Lent, and the different church services from Holy Thursday through Easter Sunday, there is the traditional Easter Basket Blessing, which takes place at our church on Holy Saturday, or right after the Sunrise Easter Sunday Liturgy in other parishes.
The Easter Basket of special foods (described below) is arranged on Holy Saturday and taken to church, where a special blessing ceremony with prayers and sprinkling with Holy Water, is performed by the parish priest. The blessed food is served on Easter Sunday Brunch, once the fast is broken after the morning Easter Liturgy.
I have been baking Easter Paska for several years now using this favorite recipe my family loves.
Lately, I started to experiment with other recipes just to see how different this bread is from my usual recipe.
The work is the same, but the texture does differ between these recipes, however, they ALL are absolutely delicious.