Sunday, April 4, 2021

Pigs in Baskets


The forget-me-nots are blooming once again around the patio and underneath the roses. This particular plant grew of its own accord in the pot that contained last year's daisies and the crown imperial fritillaria; when I realized those other two plants hadn't survived the winter, I moved the forget-me-nots to a smaller pot of their own.


I wasn't sure they'd take to being moved, but they didn't seem to mind at all. Forget-me-nots are very forgiving.

After my post yesterday, I went out and unlocked the roofers' ladder from the pipe at the side of the house. I decided I didn't want to risk someone damaging the pipe in an effort to carry off the ladder. (A thought that several of you apparently had as well, based on your comments!) It's still locked, in accordance with Mrs. Russia's wishes, but only to itself, so that it can't be extended.

So -- it's Easter. I would be much more excited about this fact if a) I were religious, and b) we weren't going to have deep-freezing weather beginning tomorrow. Easter always seemed hugely significant when I was a child, with church and dressing up and a special dinner and of course Easter baskets, which my mom always provided. One year, as a special treat, she included in our baskets little stuffed pigs that were meant to be bath toys, and my brother and I loved those pigs. We named them Bubble and Burble, and we never used them for bathing. We kept them for years. My brother still has his, even though it has lost all its formerly light-blue fabric skin and now lives in a Ziploc bag to keep its innards together.

He sent me that picture a couple of years ago. I suppose poor Bubble looks even worse by now, if he still exists.

The pigs stand out in my memory because generally, Mom was sort of a no-frills parent. When we lost a tooth, for example, we'd put it under our pillow and wait for the tooth fairy -- who sometimes took days to arrive. Mom, no doubt exhausted at the end of her workday, would forget to remove the tooth and slip us a quarter or a dollar, however much we were supposed to get. We'd wake up moneyless in the morning and the tooth would still be somewhere in our bed, dry and crusty and brown, and we'd complain, and mom would joke about our "indolent tooth fairy." We'd try again the next night and eventually she'd remember to make the exchange. The indolent tooth fairy became a family legend.

One year, when I was very small and my parents were still married, I saw my father tiptoe into my room at night with my Easter basket, trying to perpetuate the myth of the Easter Bunny. When he realized I was still awake, he whispered, "Look what I found!" Quick thinking, Dad. Cover those tracks.

Anyway, nowadays Easter is barely on my radar, and as I said, I'm preoccupied with the weather. Today we'll bring in all the geraniums and the cannas and other tender plants that I thought were finally going to be able to live outdoors for the rest of the year. I'm tempted to shelter even some plants that I'd normally leave out, like the lupines, because they have a lot of tender new growth. Everything in the ground will just have to fend for itself.


This was a packet of potato chips that came in my gin-of-the-month club box. (My adult Easter basket!) I was kind of horrified until I remembered that escargot, once you get past the butter and garlic, taste like nothing. And indeed that's the secret of these chips. They taste like butter and garlic, and they contain no snail. I'm not sure how popular they'll be in the marketplace, though.

36 comments:

  1. That crisp flavour could get one's creative juices flowing. "Frog and Fennel", "Baby Rabbit and Dandelion", "Dog Daisy and Nettle" and for pet dogs how about some nice biscuits? "Squirrel and Pigeon" perhaps?

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    1. Yeah, who knows what their other flavors are!

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  2. I wonder what they mean by "snail" and garlic flavoured if snail has no taste and no real snails were harmed in the making of the crisps. I love how your brother has preserved bubble. I don't remember not knowing that my parents were the tooth fairies. We got a nickel! We also got our teeth back. My sister's tooth would be in my mother's jewelry box and my tooth would be in my father's. Even when I was very little I found it funny that my father was my "tooth fairy."

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    1. I think small kids exist in a state of suspended disbelief about the tooth fairy and Santa Claus. They know the story is fishy somehow, but they're willing to go along with it for the loot.

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  3. I remember waking one Christmas Eve and peeping through a cracked opened door at my parents setting up a Scalextric Train Set. I think Easter eggs too one year.

    Childhood cruelty for forgetting the tooth fairy.

    Real escargot tastes like???

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    1. It tastes like butter and garlic, and that's all! I think if they weren't made with butter and garlic they'd taste like pencil erasers.

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  4. Such pretty flowers! I remember getting Easter baskets as a kid but I can't seem to remember how I found out it was my parents hiding them. I can't believe you are about to get another freeze and here we are coping with some scorching heat.

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    1. Crazy spring weather! I wish I were dealing with heat, honestly. Then I wouldn't have to move the plants.

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  5. I like the idea of an Adult, Non-Religious, Easter Basket.
    I think maybe you've started something!

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    1. Right?! Some gin, some tonic, some nibblies -- what's not to love?!

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  6. My middle daughter left a letter for the tooth fairy once, demanding her tooth back because she felt she didn't get enough money for it. Makes me laugh now, she hasn't really changed. She's still fierce.

    I remember one year as a child, I must have been six or seven, driving around in the dark with my parents, they were trying to find easter eggs for the next morning. Strange the things we remember.

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    1. Ha! That's funny! Demanding a refund from the tooth fairy!

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  7. So- vegan snail chips? Nice.
    Hard to believe you're going to get freezing weather. How very, very odd.
    The "indolent tooth fairy" made me laugh.

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    1. I'm not sure they're actually vegan, but at least there are no snails involved.

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  8. I have never eaten escargot, and someday, I'll probably be somewhere where I can try one, but the chips gave me a little shiver anyway. I try to avoid them, but if I do find myself in a grocery store where these are an option, I'd probably opt for something else. Sadly, my youngest daughter had an indolent tooth fairy as well.

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    1. Escargot always seems to me like food we'd eat if we had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE. Starvation food, basically.

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  9. I love reading your Easter memories. Very sweet.
    Seeing that snail & garlic chip bag reminded me of something that happened here the other day. My step-daughter and the grandkids were visiting. We were all out in the front yard garden, all masked up, pulling weeds and spreading bark mulch. The youngest son Silas is a year and four months old. He was out there wandering around and peeking and poking at everything. I looked over at him and he was chewing on something. I yelled to his mom that Silas seemed to have something in his mouth. She went over to him, opened his mouth and found the snail he had just pulled from the garden. Ah, fresh escargot we all said. He did not get to finish eating it.

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    1. Ha! Did the poor snail survive?!

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    2. Steve-- I really don't know, but I have a feeling it did not.

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  10. I've tried to get forget-me-nots established several times to no avail. they grow here, supposed to reseed freely but they never come back for me. I'm with you on Easter, not religious (educated myself right out of that). I remember it being a big deal as a child...easter egg dying and hunts, easter baskets, easter dresses for church but at some point all that stopped and Easter was a no show at our house. probably about the time we got the beach house and that's where we spent every Easter. and those chips may just taste like butter and garlic but bad marketing if you ask me. though I have eaten escargot and the little snails which are a big deal in Portugal.

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    1. Our forget-me-nots reseed like crazy, although this year we don't have as many as we have in the past. I had some snails in Barcelona that I didn't like at all -- and of course I got a huge platter of them so had to plow through. Not my favorite meal!

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  11. Happy Easter, childhood memories can be sweet. I love the indolent tooth fairy! I don't think I did very well creating Easter memories for my kids.

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    1. I bet your kids would disagree! Besides, our holiday memories are calibrated to our own families -- what seems meager to people outside the family often seems just fine within it, because it's what we expect. Know what I mean?

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  12. I wonder today if Easter is celebrated with these customs. I'm not sure if they have those early morning church services. You have a lot of memories of Easter celebrations. I', more than 80 years old and I suddenly thought, "What does the word Easter mean?" Guess who'll be googling after this comment?

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    1. According to Google: "The naming of the celebration as "Easter" seems to go back to the name of a pre-Christian goddess in England, Eostre, who was celebrated at beginning of spring."

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  13. Love that first photo of your forget-me-nots - the color is so vibrant. We were very religious when I was little and did all of the Holy Week and Easter ceremonies and celebrations. Now I don't believe any of it anymore so Easter Sunday is a regular day for me (with ham and some jellybeans, tho!).

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    1. I think even decades ago, a lot of our religious celebrations were actually more cultural than religious. Probably a lot of people were skeptical of the literal story of Easter, but celebrated anyway with eggs and baskets and going to church.

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  14. They probably put the snail on there as an attention getter. Or are the chips chewy like escargots? (ugh) Sorry about the return of the winter weather. I'm STILL waiting for tulips here. We're expecting sun early in the week, so perhaps a few will open up.

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    1. Ha! No, the chips are not chewy. It's not appealing marketing, though, is it?

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    2. If you like snails, it is. And if you don't, you're curious about them and want to try them. When I was in Scotland, there were haggis flavored chips and I wanted to try some, but wasn't brave enough. I regret that now!

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  15. Never fail, avail yourself of snail. I mean, it's protein.

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  16. I think I'd try those potato chips just out of curiosity, but yeah, they do not sound appetizing! Our cold weather is finally gone for a while. It was in the 30s this morning when I was getting ready for our outdoor church service. I wore a blazer & packed a blanket. And then by church time it was already in the 60s - we were hot! Ha!

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    1. That's kind of how it's been here -- chilly nights but comfortable days. Starting today, though, we'll be in the 40s during the day. Ugh.

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  17. I've never eaten escargots, so didn't know they have no taste. I can't imagine buying chips that are snail flavored. Definitely wouldn't go over with the public. It turned chilly here, too, after some 90 degree days.

    Love,
    Janie

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