Tales of Eostre and a wander in the woods...

'Eostre and the wounded bird'

copyright of Carrie Osborne.

Here is an Easter sketch for you!

I'm sure most of you already know of the tale of the bird Eostre transformed into a hare... and although I know it has no real historical basis and is more of a 'modern' myth as such, I like it and tell it to my children for the sheer pleasure of its story telling ...
In brief...

...Once when spring was late in coming, a young girl found a bird dying in the snow, its wings frozen with winter's frost. She called on Eostre, the Goddess of the Dawn to help and so she came over a rainbow bridge, bringing spring with her robes of sunlight and warmth and melting the snow. Eostre healed the bird but could not make it whole, so to save its life she transformed it into a snow hare. The hare who was once a bird, still laid eggs but of rainbow colours and gave them to Eostre in gratitude...

Eostre is also said to have Hare attendants to carry her lanterns of dawn-light...

In our world, the sun shone long enough today for easter egg hunts in the garden and a winding walk through the woods...

We saw buds on trees, deer slots, ferns clinging to moss clad limbs, sodden badger sets and a fallen silver birch with bark that shone ghost pale in every colour of mother-of-pearl. (But alas my camera just wasn't up to capturing that!)

Happy Easter!