Easter Science

Natural Dye Easter Eggs

On Easter morning, I threw together some jars of natural dyes for hard-boiled eggs. If I'd planned ahead, I would have done it the night before and stocked up on some white eggs, instead of brown. I used cranberry juice, purple cabbage, and turmeric. I got ideas from here and here.

Next time, I think I need to scrub off the eggs before dyeing though, since the dye seems very prone to rubbing off. I think the colours would have come out much better on white eggs. The dark ones are actually a forest green sort of colour, but would probably be a bright blue on white eggs.

This was so much fun that I may have to do more kitchen science experiments before next year.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Sea stripes in spring

After finishing the Spring Cloud blanket I had lots of little leftovers, so I started crocheting a simple striped cushion cover. I have to admit that I was seriously tempted to start another blanket right away, but I resisted (for the moment).


Sea stripes

We had about 2 weeks of "winter" here in Amsterdam, with snow and canals that actually froze over, but now it's definitely spring. I saw these lovely crocuses covering a hillside on Sunday.


Field of Crocuses

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Spring in Amsterdam

It's definitely spring now, with lots of sunny, warm days, and pretty flowers. Most recently, I've spotted a pink hyacinth, a daffodil, and some snowdrops in bloom. I took a walk in the Vondelpark the other day and took these pictures...


Spring in the Vondelpark
Spring view in the Vondelpark.


Carpet of Crocuses
A glorious carpet of purple crocuses under this tree.


Forsythia in bloom
A bright yellow forsythia in bloom.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

A walk in the park

leaning tree

I took a walk in the park today and these are some of the things I saw.


texgtured mossy roots

I don't think I can properly express how much I love spring in February.


tiny bobbly yellow flowers

After years of finding February and March incredibly dreary with that never-ending-winter feeling, I can promise you that I'm not taking the weather in Amsterdam for granted!


draped tree

At my current rather waddling pace, I enjoyed spotting all the different textures in the park.


ropey trees

There's no showy flowers yet to steal one's attention from the subtler details.


spiky seedheads

It was a beautiful day.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

A visit to Keukenhof gardens

Tulips and Blossom trees

My parents visited us in Amsterdam at the start of April and we went out to the famous Keukenhof gardens to look at the flowers. The spring has been a bit late this year, so the tulips were not all out, but there were blossom trees and hyacinths and some tulips.


Tulips in the greenhouse

In the greenhouses, there was a massive and stunning collection of different tulip varieties.


Tulips in the greenhouse

It's a bit of trip out to the gardens since you need to take a bus to the airport and then catch a special shuttle bus to the gardens. From Amsterdam, it will take you about an hour to get there.


Tulip

However, it's really worth doing at least once since tulips are such a symbol of the Dutch culture. There's even a windmill at the gardens, though it's no longer functional.


Windmill at Keukenhof

I highly recommend visiting during the week. We went on a Tuesday, and while there were lots of people, it was not unpleasantly busy. All the rest of my pictures from the gardens are here. It's probably one of my most colourful sets of pictures ever.


Tulips and Daffodils

I was a bit pokey about uploading all the pictures because my parents' visit was unexpectedly extended due to the volcano eruption in Iceland. We tried to take full advantage of the extra few days and it was nice to have a chance to do the things we hadn't had time to do before. We went to the farmer's market, some thrift shops and a flea market, and cooked some delicious meals at home. We even had a little trip to IKEA since we needed extra bedding and towels.


Photographs by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

All the world seems in tune...

Purple crocuses

I love Spring. I think it's probably from living on the West Coast as a small child (which is also the source of my love of rocky beaches, mossy and damp forests, and the ocean). Spring is supposed to start in February. But after the age of 6, I've spent most of my Springs in places where Spring dawdles in around mid-April or early May. And then it's usually around for about 20 seconds before it decides to be Summer. Montreal was like that. We had glorious long Autumns, but fleeting Springs.


White and Yellow crocuses

So I am absolutely savouring every moment of the long and glorious Spring in Amsterdam. Several weeks ago I started seeing crocuses and snowdrops and this past weekend I saw some daffodils. It's also been Spring-y inside lately with some hyacinths. If you're wanting a bit of Spring and it's not what's outside your window, treat yourself to some beautiful flowers!


Vase of Hyacinths

Or just draw some. I drew on the envelope of a letter I sent recently. Email is very convenient, but the tangibility of a real letter is always a treat. My Mom, in particular, has been spoiling me with lots of little postcards (some of them seen propped against the mirror in the photo above). Whenever I think of how fun it is to get Real Mail, I always think I should send more of it. Perhaps visiting exotic new places will encourage me to follow through!


Envelope Embellishment

Flowers to beckon Spring

office flowers
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Spring doesn't really show up properly in Montreal until mid-April. We get teased by March with a few nice days here and there, but there's always another snowstorm and chilly day up its sleeve. March is also usually filled with dirty humps of melting snow ... not at all reminiscent of the the velvety soft white it once was. To hold me over until Spring, I buy myself flowers from this little corner shop near the post office. It's not a fancy florist's, but their flowers are reasonably priced and they must be fresh as they always last well. Daisies are one of my most common choices as they're $6.99 for a huge bunch, and they'll last for 3 weeks. This week I splurged on 2 bouquets... a mixed bouquet of purply-pink daisies and a bouquet of some mystery spiky white flowers (I love the texture, no idea what they are).


march house flowers
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

So all this is from $15 worth of flowers ... 2 large vases (one in living room, one in kitchen), 3 small vases on the coffee table, 1 small vase in the office/guest room, and 1 small vase on my sewing desk. If you're feeling impatient for spring, treat yourself to some flowers... even the cheap ones will cheer you up!


studio flowers
Originally uploaded by allisongryski