O Brother Chicken, Sister Chick--Egg-static Spring!

 

O Brother Chicken! Sister Chick!

 O gracious me! O my!
This broken Eggshell was my home!
I see it with my eye!
However did I get inside? Or how did I get out?
And must my life be evermore, an atmosphere of doubt?

Can no one tell? Can no one solve, this mystery of Eggs?
Or why we chirp and flap our wings,—or why we've all two legs?
And since we cannot understand,—
May it not seem to me,
That we were merely born by chance,
Egg-nostics for to be?

--- Edward Lear (1812–88)

 

Alice and Joanie B. have been busy laying eggs - it's that time of year - Spring brings more sunshine, more sunshine means more eggs. The eggs are piling up faster then Laurenjoan can eat 'em.

Joanie B: Wraawwk! There goes another one into the nest box.

Alice: Move over Joanie B. It's my turn to use the nest box.
There were two nest boxes in the coop, but only one was used by both hens. The other box just didn't have the proper cozy feel for laying an egg....so there was always a scramble and a shuffle going on inside the old roost.

Joanie B: AwwwK - I' m egg-static - it's Spring - time for Peter Cottontail to hop down the bunny trail!

Alice: Time to put on our bonnets and fill our baskets with Easter eggs - pink, blue, yellow, green, purple...hey -- my eggs are just speckled brown - I wonder where colored eggs come from??

Joanie B: Peter Cottontail, of course - like the song says:

Here comes Peter Cottontail
Hoppin' down the bunny trail
Hippity hoppin', Easter's on its way....

...He's got jelly beans for Tommy
Colored eggs for sister Sue
There's an orchid for your mommy
And an Easter bonnet too

Notes from Laurenjoan: Jelly Beans and Things

Spring has sprung and with it comes all things jelly bean, chocolate bunny and colored eggs galore. Alice and Joanie B. know where their eggs come from, but as for Peter Cottontail - it's all folklore...as Holiday Symbols and Customs (e-book) states on page 215:

Where do Easter eggs come from? According to German folklore, the Easter Bunny lays the eggs and hides them in the garden, although other creatures have also been given credit for the laying of Easter eggs. In France, children are told that the Easter eggs are dropped by the church bells on their way back from Rome.

You can find more, just take a look at the ebook Holiday Symbols and Customs (e-book), available on the SCCLD Online Resources page under Cultures and Communities.

And, if you're hankering to hear the Peter Cottontail song, you can find the classic Gene Autry version (and more) for free as a member of the SCCLD Library on Freegal Music.

As for Edward Lear, the poet of nonsense verse, you can find O Brother Chicken! Sister Chick! and many more poems on The Columbia Grangers's World of Poetry, another database available to SCCLD members.

Of course, there are always books and cds - like these:

The Golden Egg Book	Minerva Louise and the Colorful Eggs
Nonsense!	Peter Cottontail
Holidays and Special times	The Owl and the Pussycat

 

 

Happy Spring, Everyone!

 

P.S. - The SCCLD Libraries will be closed on Sunday, March 31, 2013 (Easter Sunday) and on Monday, April 1, 2013 (in observance of Cesar Chavez Day).

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Chicks and egg photo sources -

http://www.squidoo.com/hatching-chicken-eggs-chicks-

http://www.tradeco-belgium.com/hatching-eggs-and-day-old-chicks.html

"Here Comes Peter Cottontail" is a popular Easter song composed in 1950 by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins.