Saturday

Horsing Around

Here's this week's entry for Wordless Wednesday (Saturday edition). Photo by Nickers and Ink.



Sometimes a little horsing around
Can help us find our common ground.



Do you love horses? Be sure to check out The Mane Point, a Haven for Horse Lovers.


Passionate about poetry? Click here to visit Linda Ann Nickerson’s poetry and humor blog, Nickers and Ink.

Click here to subscribe to an RSS feed for this writer's helpful Helium content. If you wish, click here for a free subscription to this author's online AC content, so you won't miss a single post!

Add to Technorati Favorites

Wednesday

Save Your Easter Lilies – Gardening Glories, Year After Year

Easter lilies are a perennial favorite! These fragrant flowers, with their pure, white trumpet-shaped blossoms signal the coming of spring and the promise of new life. What a wonderful tradition for Easter decorating and gifts!

How can you extend the life of your Easter lilies, so that you may enjoy their blooming glories for the longest time possible?


Enjoy Your Easter Lilies Indoors.

The Easter lily (lilium longiflorum) originated in Japan. As such, it flourishes in moderate temperatures. Indoors, Easter lilies do best at room temperature, between 60 (F) and 70 (F) degrees.

Easter lilies naturally grow best outdoors during summer months. Actually, the bulbs are forced into blooming indoors for spring celebrations.

Be sure to protect your Easter lily from direct sunlight, as well as excessive heat or cold. Heating vents, appliances (such as toasters, stove tops, laundry machines), working fireplaces, or even open windows may be detrimental to these flowers.

Also, Easter lilies can be quite poisonous to cats. One lily snack may be toxic, causing digestive distress or even kidney failure. Be sure to keep your Easter lilies out of reach, if you have pets!


Water Your Easter Lilies.

An Easter lily does well in moist soil, although it cannot tolerate standing water. If your Easter lily arrived in a foil-covered pot, you will want to remove the foil, so the pot may drain. Water your Easter lily well, and place a saucer under the pot.

Every few days, you can place your Easter lily in a sink or tub to give it a gentle all-over shower. Sprinkle water over the blossoms and foliage to discourage dust. Allow the plant to drain well before removing it to the saucer.

Extend Easter lily Blooming.

Easter lilies will bud and bloom, offering fragrance and beauty for many days. As each blossom fades and wilts, you can pinch it off gently with your fingers.

If you reach inside each flower and pinch off the golden anthers as soon as the blossoms have opened, you can encourage the blooming to last longer. This is also an excellent way to keep the pollen from staining your tablecloths, countertops or other surfaces indoors.

Plant Your Easter Lilies in Your Outdoor Garden.

Once your Easter lily has exhausted all of its blossoms, do not toss the plant! Why not save it for your outdoor garden instead?

Stop watering your Easter lily when it becomes wilted, as the leaves begin to die off. Use a sharp knife or set of plant pruners to cut the main stem, about two inches above the soil. Place the plant in a temperate spot, either indoors or outside (if the final frost has passed).

When spring planting time arrives in your gardening zone, you can plant your Easter lily in your garden bed. Choose a sunny spot with healthy soil and good drainage.

Plant multiple Easter lilies about ten to twelve inches apart, to allow for annual growth and multiplication.

For each plant, dig a hole that exceeds your pot diameter by at least two inches. Loosen surrounding soil. Add sphagnum peat moss and plant fertilizer, if desired.

Remove the pot from your Easter lily plant. Loosen the root system (under your Easter lily) by gently poking and tapping the root base. Place your Easter lily into the ground, with the pot soil even with the garden bed. Add enriched potting soil around it and on top. Water your Easter lily well.

The original stem and foliage will wither and wilt. However, if you wait patiently for several weeks, you will begin to see a new shoot system emerging from the soil.

By midsummer, you can begin watching for your sweet white Easter lilies to bloom and add a bright accent to your summer garden! (In some climates, Easter lilies may take a year or two to become established in the outdoor garden before re-blooming.)

In the fall, after all blooming has finished, you can cut back your wilting Easter lily stems to prepare the plants for wintering. Mound them with mulch, if needed, for cold-weather protection.
 
IMAGE - public domain artwork

Feel free to follow on X. Like this blog?  Check out Practically at Home on Facebook. You are invited to visit my author page on Amazon.com.




Friday

Jelly Bean Gospel - An Easter Rhyme for Kids of All Ages



Jelly Bean Gospel –
An Easter Rhyme for Kids of All Ages

But Jesus called the children to Him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." (Luke 19:16-17)


These little sweets
Are really neat.
You can share God’s Good News
With whomever you meet.

Gold is for God,
Our Maker and King.
He rules over everything.

Black is our sin,
Things we do, think and say,
Which are not God’s way.

Red is Christ’s blood,
Poured out from the cross,
To pay for our loss.

White is your heart,
When you give it to Him
And new life you begin.

Pink is the joy
You know in your soul
When He makes you whole.

Blue is the way
You stand up and say,
Jesus washed my sins away!

Green is for growing
And loving and showing
Your faith, which is glowing.

These little beans
Tell what it means
To live for Jesus
And do as He pleases.
c2007 by Linda Ann Nickerson



Love poetry? Click here to visit Linda Ann Nickerson’s poetry and humor blog, Nickers and Ink.

Tuesday

Easter Bunny Beginnings – Where Did He Come From?

Origins of  the Easter Bunny, the Holiday Hare

Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time. Martin Luther, (1483 – 1546)

 

He’s fluffy, friendly, and oh, so fertile!

 Hippity, hoppity! Here comes the Easter Bunny with his basket of goodies! How did an egg-delivering rabbit come to represent Easter, the resurrection day of the Savior?

 Actually, the entire Easter holiday has its roots in pre-Christian tradition. Early Christians adapted the Jewish Passover and pagan celebrations to mark their highest holiday of faith, in which the Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled by the death and resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Where did Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, begin?

 The ancient Anglo-Saxons worshipped Ostara, a goddess of fertility. During the spring moon, or vernal equinox, tribal members would offer seeds and colored eggs on a fertility altar to please and appease this goddess.

 Christians transformed the word “Ostara” to “Easter” to mark the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection in the springtime. This timing was both historical and logical, as the Last Supper of Christ was actually a celebration of the Passover Seder, which also occurs in the spring.

 

How did Easter eggs become associated with Resurrection Sunday?

 Since early Roman times and before, people have regarded the egg as a symbol of new life. As a sign of Christian rebirth, the egg is ideal. What once appeared to be lifeless has sprung into new life. A bird hatching from an egg has been seen as a type of resurrection, even as Christ stepped out of the sealed tomb of death.

 Incidentally, in Greece, Easter eggs are dyed red, to symbolize the shed blood of Christ. Elsewhere, eggs may be colored in rainbowed hues for festive fun. In the United States and other countries, children participate in indoor or outdoor Easter egg hunts.

 

How did the Easter Bunny traditions begin?

 Rabbits are among the most prolific of all living creatures. They exemplify fertility, as they may produce many offspring at one time. According to Anglo-Saxon mythology, Ostara (again, the fertility goddess) transformed a bird into a bunny, who laid colorful eggs for children. Thus began the tradition of a bunny giving children decorated eggs in the spring.

 In America, Pennsylvania Dutch settlers recounted stories to their children of the “Oschter Haws” (Easter Hare), who visited homes and left colored eggs for well-behaved children. Little boys would leave their caps, and little girls would leave their bonnets, as nests. In time, families began weaving and crafting baskets instead.

 In the 19th century, German confectioners began making Easter bunnies from pastry.

 Today, in the United States, families perpetuate the tradition of the Easter Bunny, who brings treats and trinkets to children. Many other countries have similar traditions.

 As real rabbits begin birthing their many young this spring, one cannot help but consider our great blessings. Aren’t we fortunate that the Easter Bunny drops jelly beans and chocolate eggs, instead of what all those other bunnies leave in our yards?

 

Love poetry? Click here to visit Linda Ann Nickerson’s poetry and humor blog, Nickers and Ink.

Feel free to follow on X. Like this blog?  Check out Practically at Home on Facebook. You are invited to visit my author page on Amazon.com.