On The Verge Of Easter Morning...And Oh Goodie, A Story!

...and I have the trademark multicolor fingertips, made moreso by the Paas company doing an awesome job of CRUSHING the green dye tablet and packaging that sonofabitch in with the others anyway. Yay, green dye on ALL the tablets! Let's play, 'What The Hell IS The REAL Color?' by striping your damp fingertips with the dye tablet! It's fun, and allows you to practice your under-your-breath cussing!

But anyway, eggs are dyed. Even the one that got forgotten somehow in the 'purple' dye vat for an hour but came out a truly awesome color. Like Radioactive Purple Death. Also just for added fun, a HUGE Hummingbird Moth (the white-striped kind) buzzed in through the open sliding glass door like a freakin' B-52, cruising at eye level around the kitchen and circling perilously close to the dye cups. He finally settled in an angry buzz-fest next to the coffee maker and was quickly escorted out the front door, in hopes that he would not make an encore appearance. In a final act of defiance he pooped on J., who was less than enchanted and did not take kindly to my suggestion that maybe it was good luck...maybe?

Now we just await dawn to hide the eggs.

Every Easter I'm reminded of the year that Anthracite, our crow that we raised from a fallen nestling and released (he hung around, making our yard his headquarters, he's here still and is Nadine's father) carefully watched the family Easter Bunny hide eggs early one Easter morning...

After his mission, EB reenters house, grinning. "Done!"

I'm making coffee. "Great. She isn't up yet though, hope they don't get wet or anything..." The child actually sleeps for another half hour, then on rising is too taken with exploring her Easter basket to think of anything else. Meanwhile EB and I relax with our fuzzy slippers and coffee as a lazy half hour goes by. I've got the front curtains open and it's a beautiful, bright, sunny, glorious day. True to form, I see Anthracite and his mate & offspring zipping around the neighborhood, busy with their little crow things...

I nod in his direction. "Wow, they're really happy this morning."

EB glances up from watching the child. "Yeah, And when I was out back earlier he was around, sitting up on the garage and just watching me." He says offhandedly, going back to fondly watching his child.

I continue to gaze outside. Anthi now has something blue. Looks like a food wrapper, I think to myself as I watch him carefully tuck it under a leaf on the front lawn and then fly away (crows love to hide food). Then...horrified realization dawns on me and I get a sick feeling. "He was WATCHING YOU?!" I turn to EB, but he hasn't caught on yet.

But he's quick. He leaps to his feet. "Yeah, HE WAS!"

We both rush out into the back yard, where we startle Anthi's mate and 2 of his kids, who ALL fly off with pretty Easter eggs in their beaks. ARRGGHHH!!!

Final score: Crows 12, kid 12. The blue thing Anthi hid proved to be part of a blue egg. We got to watch crows fly around clutching and merrily feasting on eggs for the rest of the morning...I think we started something in the neighborhood. We have since learned to break open an Easter egg or two and toss them on the sidewalk out FRONT if Anthracite is around, THEN hide eggs while he is busy with those. Tithe the crows, as it were.

Oh, and have the egg hunt pretty much immediately thereafter.