Greetings Creekers!
It’s Easter weekend, a chocolaty holiday and I was wondering how that happened. Easter was originally a religious holiday that celebrated the end of Lent and the resurrection but it mated over time with various pagan spring celebrations. One was from Germany where the goddess of fertility, Ostara (Easter), had a hare named Ostar Haws who delivered coloured eggs to children. When people fasted for Lent, eggs were forbidden and so Good Friday was celebrated with eggs. Easter celebrates spring, rebirth and fertility. Fertility = eggs and what animal best symbolizes fertility? Rabbits!! Then, in the late 1800s, the British and Germans developed hollow molds, a chocolate solution that worked and started making hollow eggs filled with candies. Then I guess they moved on to rabbits. In the early 1900s, chocolate became more affordable and voila! Soon Easter = chocolate. This a convoluted version and I haven’t even got to the hot cross buns and egg hunts and then there are those Ukrainian eggs. Look it up! Anyway, it explains why, at my part-time job, I have been selling nothing but masses of chocolate. Hollow eggs and filled eggs, tiny and large, bunnies, chicks and even squirrels (??). A lot of them are destined for Easter Egg hunts, so I thought I would find and list them but there are way too many. However, if you go to calendars at coastculture.com or coastreporter.net/local-event and find a place to take your kids for an egg hunt. All the local cideries seem to be participating so there’s a good combo, although I am having a hard time making a connection.
For lots of people it’s a four-day weekend. A four-day weekend=guests and you might need to get them out of the house. You won’t have any trouble because there is lots going on, up and down the Coast. Too much for me to list but just go to that event calendar at coastculture.com and you will be all set.
There is one event in particular that I would like to mention. If you had kids in the ‘80s and early ‘90s you will remember that it was the era of children’s musicians. There were dozens of them including Fred Penner, Charlotte Diamond, Rick Scott, Raffi, etc. and they performed live in addition to TV shows. It was a wonderful time and I am happy my children got to have that experience. Because we lived here, they also got to experience Graham Walker. Graham is a local drummer in multiple bands, an organizer of Slow Sundays, and you will find him most places there is live music happening. What some of you may not know is that Graham is also a children’s performer and his CDs (oops, cassettes!) were among our family’s favourites. He combines the nonsensical lyrics that little kids love with catchy, upbeat music and we would dance around the house to “Cats Night Out” and “Priscilla Pig Loves Flowers.” Graham always used good musicians and so the music was something parents could enjoy too. This Sunday he will performing with the Barn Cats at the Gibsons Public Library from 11 a.m. to noon. The Barn Cats are local Creek musicians Kaiya Nielsen on double bass and accordion and Heidi Kurz on violin and harp. This concert is a great opportunity for your young kids and grandchildren to see and hear live music performed just for them. It doesn’t happen so much anymore.
Let’s talk about the Wednesday market or did you even know about it? It’s a small indoor market at the Hall that seems to fly under the radar of most people. You can buy eggs, little bunches of lovely fresh greens, Roberts Creek Honey, homemade fudge and soaps and among other things, croissants and pain au chocolate that rival any I have had in France. If you are looking for an apron, shopping bags and other beautifully made and inexpensive cotton items be sure to drop by. As things warm up, more people will show up with stuff from their gardens and the market will get larger and move outside but in the meantime, those indoor, year-round vendors need our support.
As mentioned last week, the Diabetes Canada drop off bin is going to be removed. In the meantime, it has been emptied for the last time and the drop off chute has been disabled, so no more donations are being accepted. That means that all the boxes and bags of items people have left outside the bin will need to be dealt with. If you left something there thinking it would be picked up, could you remove it and take to the thrift store? It would be greatly appreciated.
I will not be writing a column for the next three weeks so I would like to remind everyone about Earth Day coming up on April 21. Event Coordinator for the Xwesam-Roberts Creek Community Association (XRCCA), Diana, needs your help! Contact her at [email protected] or go to volunteersignup.org/DPJ4E.
Have a lovely Easter and don’t be a fool on Monday!
