Easter colours

Easter-stone chimney: Don't those rocks look like they belong in a basket of coloured eggs? They seem to be permanent rather than seasonal, as I've passed this Dunbar house all winter. Photo by John Denniston.

Every season has its colours, and when the tulip beds begin to turn pink, purple and yellow, I think Easter.

Those were the colours in the egg-dyeing kits that produced the most important aspect of my childhood Easters. For me and my siblings, what was the holiday without: 1) hard-boiling as many white-shelled eggs as we could beg from the hens and our mother? 2) dipping those eggs in glasses of dye until they were just the right shade of pretty, or our patience ran out? 3) transferring images from the kits onto the still-damp eggs (always messy, never successful)? And 4) hiding and hunting those eggs around the house and yard for days, until they cracked and began to smell?

I haven’t dyed Easter eggs for years, let alone hunted them. But Vancouver’s springtime hues still sing of Easter to me. Here are some recent photos showing why:

Camellias with cherry blossoms behind -- oh for an egg these exact shades of pink!

A bed of tulips that reminded me of the old egg-dyeing kits we used as kids.

Cherry blossoms on tree, street and car -- a delicate puff of pink. Photo by John Denniston.

Hyacinths and tulips outside the Kerrisdale Community Centre. Close-up, the combination of pink, salmon and white was very Easter-ish. Photo by John Denniston.

John's version of spring daffodils: a few lonely strands of yellow surrounding a tree stump and a city works cone. Photo by John Denniston.