For many of course Easter is a Holiday season, but its also a far older traditional celebration time: Today it’s vernal Equinox – The sun will be directly over the equator and the day and night are equally long – all over the world! Thousands of years back, among Scandinavian Vikings it was marking the beginning of spring.
To me Easter time is first of all a significant change in season: spring is in the air – nature is waking up from hibernation. I’ll show you some signs from the Oslo area in Norway and by this also a bit of our fauna. The idea for this post actually started last weekend, when our little friend was visiting and we had an Easter rehearsal: Painting the eggs:
So then we took the eggs with us outdoors to hunt for spring flowers. Here is what we found (click the pics to enlarge):
Scilla. In front you can also spot wild strawberry leafs.
Snow Bells – I so much remember these were the first flowers in my parents garden – so stubborn and often survived a late snow fall.
Crocus often pop up on our lawn even before the grass is getting green.
Iris – actually one of my favourites, due to the orchid look
Narcissus pseudonarcissus or Wild daffodil – also called Easter lilly in Norway.
My regular readers knows the combination of spring and eggs is special and brings up memories for wild life fun (okay: outdoors then!) in our family. Soon it’s the traditional Easter Bunny Eggs Hunt (click to check my post from last year!). So stay tuned, but in the mean time let me ask you a question:
What kind of Spring Flowers pop up in the spring in your neighbourhood? Post some pictures and I’ll update this posts with a link to yours!
Equinox 
easter 
egg 
hunt 
flower 
spring
Nice shots :)
Still lots of snow up here in the north so no spring flowers yet.
RennyBA
Thanks – actually I envy you having snow this winter – we’ve had too little!
How lovely that your young friend was able to visit with you! She looks so sweet and as if she is having a wonderful time!
Spring? I do not know. It is snowing again as I write!
RennyBA
I guess you have seen some of my post with her visiting earlier – she’s so cute.
It seams like all of you living around the lakes has got a lot of snow this year – you should have sent some over earlier in the season!
You keep the spirit of Easter going Renny and what a lovely sight, I’ve enjoyed this :D
RennyBA
I do, because I love this prosperously season and glad you liked it too :D
Fantastic shots, Renny! The colours are so vivid! And spring has definitely started to lay its blooms all over Oslo!
RennyBA
Thanks Mark – hope you’ll have a great Easter break in Oslo then!
Lovely! I could have joined Odd in Fredrikstad now and have a lovely Easter with his family but then again I can do it next year! Hehehhe
RennyBA
Hope you’ll have a good Easter Holiday anyway and of course that you can celebrate together with Odd in Norway next year!
This post is over my – how to express in English –
Dear readers of RennyBA, we sat here together, and Renny, what did he say, excuse me for a couple of minutes, yeah, that’s was he said.
I did know nothing – we talked and had a wonderful Quiz, and suddenly he sais: Tor, you must comment my last post.
– your last post, have you done a post while we have sitting here?
Renny, you are like a magician: Spring is here;))
Great post
RennyBA
Great to have a live reporter sitting right beside me while I’m blogging :lol:
The quiz – did we had that ?!?
Thanks for your compliments and for the visit here in our vacation home in Sweden;))
Only my daffodils and other narcissus, and a few hardy grape hyacinths are blooming here, Renny. Although, my red bud tree is about to burst into bloom, my flowering quince is blooming and the cherry and other fruit trees are just beginning to blossom. I hope we don’t lose them all in a late freeze!
Happy Spring, and Happy Easter Renny! :-)
Love and hugs,
Diane
RennyBA
Well, its a good start over at your place too then, I would say!
Wish you a good one too!
Bunches of hugs back from me and Diane :-)
Blogg hoppa från Chase..
Oh.. i am sure you have also noticed that two weeks ago..some flowers staryed growing… sign of early spring as I thought.. but… yesterday and today it snowed! ahaaayyyy… Anyway, snow or not i am gonna hunt my easter egg..
HAPPY EASTER to you and your family,
kiss, Fendi
RennyBA
Thanks for hopping hover then – always great to welcome new readers!
Yea, the weather shifts a lot these days – hope you’ll have a great Easter Egg hunt anyway!
Wishing you a great one too!
Hey!
Gotcha! N congrats for getting all those blogging awards. There’s definitely a lot of honesty in whatever u r doing coz otherwise, u wldn’t have got all those awards. And honesty demands a lot of time, patience, dedication and hard work. Keep up the networking! N blogging!
Z
RennyBA
Glad you found me Zahid and thanks for your compliments.
Yea it takes some efforts and time, but even if it’s just a hobby, It’s worth it when you get all this recognitions. So I’ll keep up – with networking too of course!
Renny – Beautiful photos of the eggs in nature. We too have made colored eggs and will celebrate early with our egg hunt tomorrow.
In Maine where I grew up we have similar wild strawberry plants. The berries are tiny, but very sweet. Thanks for sharing spring in Norway.
RennyBA
Thanks Hexe, I know since you’ve been here, you like to see a touch of Norwegian nature :-)
Same size and taste of the wild strawberry here – just wonderful!
wow! you’ve got flowers blooming already and we don’t even have any little green shoots poking up through the grass yet!
when they do arrive we get crocus first. some people around here have what we call snow drops, which look like shorter versions of your snowbells and they come out early too. when i was much further south in GA early this month i saw daffodils blooming too.
RennyBA
So we are ahead of you – normally I think its verse versa. Keep us posted!
We have almost the same fauna and climate you know and these spring flowers I think is kind of universal for the northern hemisphere.
yes.. we seldom find good blog within our taste as millions of blogs in there..Once again thanks for dropping by.. if like we can exchange links. to my Fendi blog.
Nway, is it still snowing in there..? IT snowed here lastnight but it’s gone today ..last night was -1 here and it snowed but in today we have plus 7! so stange.. :)
I live in Malmö,
hugs, Fendi
RennyBA
Your welcome and I do agree.
There are still snow up north, in the inland and the mountains.
Snow is kind of seldom in Malmö I guess. We are in Mariestad right now and it was snowing a couple of days ago, but hardly any left.
This reminds me to my childhood in Switzerland when I have found the selfpainted easter eggs hidden away between the same flowers we had in the garden.
Very nice post!
RennyBA
Thanks for sharing your family traditions from Europe – glad I could take you down the memory lane.
We’ve had daisy’s all over our planter since about mid February. They’re beautiful too. Have a great spring and Easter too. :)
RennyBA
We have daisy’s in Norway too, but they bloom later (normally in the end of May). Thanks for the visit and greetings :)
Painting eggs looks like fun! Though it’s a tradition here, I’ve never done it :(
I can’t think of any flowers that we’ll see popping up in my ‘hood. But in May/June, our landscapers will be planting impatients on our property (I live in a condo complex).
RennyBA
Boil some eggs with a half onion. You will get a nice Easter collar.
The first flowers maybe dandelions, they sneak in everywhere.
Pretty pics and flowers. I have to dye Easter eggs with my kids tomorrow night or Saturday. Have a Happy Easter and Spring.
RennyBA
Thanks – hope you’ll all have a fun and exciting hunt!
Wishing you the same.
is that you daughter? that little girl look so cute while painting the eggs :)
RennyBA
Nope, she’s just a regular guest and yes, she is cute :)
Happy Easter to you and wife!
RennyBA
Thanks for the visit and greetings – wish you all a good one too!
Hi! Thanks for your message! The Holy Week is one of the most celebrated occasion in my country. Not necessarily celebrated but “observed”. I mean the life and passion of our Lord Jesus. Today, my whole family just stayed at home. Watch The Ten Commandments and the Passion of the Christ (DVD).
There are a lot of activities during the Holy Week that have been a part of Filipino (people of the Philippines) since I came into this world. It differs from one place to another, depending on the culture…
Catholics for instance commemorate it by staging the passion of Christ, including the “nailing” to the cross.
I am a renewed Christian and unfortunately, we don’t believe in those practices.
Please visit my other site. It features my personal movie collections from as early as the 1900’s. Your favourites must already be at my movieracks. Visit them at http://movieracks.blogspot.com/
Thank you!
RennyBA
Hi Ramil – great to see you – always nice to welcome new readers!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and family tradition about the season – it enriches the subject on this post theme and I love to read about it.
Thanks also for the invitation to your movie collection – I’ll be right over.
RennyBA
I get the warmth feeling of your heart. I added your name as friend by mistake and wow the Easter Blessings I received. Thanks a lot
I will be following your track to learn more about how to make money online.
Once agai thank you
Sione V Fatai
New Zealand
Oh, Renny ~ these pictures are SO beautiful! It brings back such nice memories of Easter egg hunting when I was growing up. My father used to put them in the craziest places (under the couch cushions, etc.)!
I apologize for not visiting here as much as I’d like. Work has been cranking busy, and I’ve also been apartment hunting with my husband.
I wish you and your family a wonderful Easter. MAY your weekend be full of happiness and love. XXOO :)
RennyBA
Thanks for the compliment Lisa – glad I could bring you back on your memory lane and thanks for sharing some of your family secrets.
You don’t have to apologize – I know how it is with a busy schedule – you are one of my most trustful readers.
Thanks for your greetings – wishing you the same XXOO :)
Oh, childhood memories… I had so much fun looking for eggs in my grand-parents’ backyard when I was a kid! People don’t do it in Canada though. Too big or…. too cold? At least, the eggs wouldn’t melt! :lol:
Happy Easter, easy on the chocolate ;-)
Spring is not in the air here at all! We’re facing the prospect of snow for Easter — it feels more like Christmas.
Your little friend did great job with eggs! Now we have daffodil here and anemone. I went to the gardening shop last week with my pupils where they planted Capucine. I stay tuned to tuesday! I’m so curious to see your Easter Bunny Eggs Hunt!
Happy Easter! Don’t make like me who eat tooooo much chocolate!
These are so nice to see! Too bad we can’t yet! We have snow cover still and quite cold weather still with -12 at night and still mostly below freezing in the day. At least we’ve had some bright sunny days but I’m afraid people will be hiding the eggs indoors! I heard you just got a dump of snow though…..too little too late, eh?!!!
Enjoy Easter and all the great food and company.
The easter eggs hidden in the garden brings back nice childhood memories… :) i enjoyed looking at them on your site now :) thanks! Happy easter to you!!
RennyBA
Glad I could take you down the memory lane then and hope you’ll get back to see the Easter Egg hunt!
Hope you’ve had a good one too!
Do most people paint their eggs there? Here in the US we have Easter Egg dye kits but I love the way you’ve painted your eggs and wonder why I’ve never thought of that before ,lol…next year we’re painting them!
RennyBA
I wouldn’t say most people, but the one with children I guess.
Glad I could learn you a new way – keep us posted next year!
cool picsxx