In a perfect world, the photo shoot for my Easter blog post would find me, Your Roving Reporter, tripping down the perimeter path, clutching onto a brightly colored, beribboned wicker basket and doling out treats to my furry and feathered friends along the way. It would be a picture-perfect morning, the sun high in the sky and a gentle breeze. The birds, all atwitter in the budding trees, would be awaiting seeds and peanuts, while an abundance of squirrels would be scampering over to gather near my feet, or under the Safe Haven Tree, to discover what Easter delights I had for them. Aah – it would be a scene reminiscent of Snow White and I’d return home with a treasure trove of shots to spin into a fun Easter post.
Alas, it is NOT a perfect world and Mother Nature repeatedly messed with me by intruding into my planned idyllic setting and weekend photo-taking project, so instead, I was forced to execute a Plan B i.e. a quick-n-dirty plop of naked-looking nuts onto a muddy surface beneath a still-bare Weeping Mulberry tree. Instead of any fanfare, I’d just take a few photos at the house and be done with it.
It was on one such gray and gloomy morn when I stood in the kitchen, having dumped a two-pound bag of walnuts into a rather blah-looking wicker basket. I took a photo, but instantly knew the brown walnuts, sitting in a brown basket wasn’t very photogenic.
I should have planned better I guess if I would be foregoing the annual whimsical Easter Day blog post. Truthfully, the squirrels wouldn’t give a whit about presentation – they’d bury or gobble up those walnuts and perhaps, if I was lucky, I’d come away with a half-dozen shots of them investigating the booty in the basket, or holding a walnut between their front paws. I mused that Parker likely would moan and groan about not seeing any peanuts and begin nosing around my feet, begging for a treat that better suited his fancy. I conceded that in the past when I decorated the Nutter Butter cookies to look like Easter eggs, they were a hit and I got some cute shots, even if I nearly lost the tip of my finger, after stabbing it with the scissors while wrangling the icing tube lid.
Perhaps a little decoration would add some pizzazz to the at-home shot, so I ran downstairs to my holiday supplies cabinet and returned a moment later. Well, that was a wee bit better. I took another photo.
Close encounters of the Easter Bunny kind.
As I stood there, lost in thought, suddenly I felt a presence behind me, hot breath stirring a tendril of hair that had escaped my messy bun. I whirled around and there he was, towering way above me, the tips of his furry ears grazing the kitchen ceiling. I was gobsmacked to have a face-to-face encounter with the Easter Bunny! “Quick Linda – take his picture!” I told myself.
In this moment of madness, I forgot my manners. After all, what does one say or do when confronted by the Easter Bunny? What I mean is, um … is there a protocol for such a meeting? Do I shake his hand, er … paw? How do I address him?
Confounded by the encounter, I admit all I did was stare at this imposing figure, clad only in a bright-yellow vest adorned with Easter eggs, his face seemingly a permanent expression of merriment. I heard a low chuckle, so whew – Mr. Bunny was merely amused and not insulted by my open mouth and dazed expression in that momentary lapse of good manners. I quickly righted that faux pas, regained my composure and hurriedly extended my hand and stammered “whoa – you startled me, but good morning Mr. Bunny – pleased to meet you.”
He responded in kind, offered his paw and uttered “great to see you again Linda” then added “please … I don’t go for all that formality calling me Mr. Bunny. I just go by “E” these days and that would be “E” for “Eggstra Special” – know what I mean jellybean?”
I nodded my head and decided I was not going to burst this bunny’s bubble and tell him the moniker “E” was usually associated with Elvis. This was not the time, nor place, to be splitting hairs, er … hares over it.
“Okay, well E it is then.”
“You’re probably wondering why I’m here Linda?”
“Why yes, the thought crossed my mind E, so do tell.”
E gestured toward the basket, waving a paw in a dismissive manner and said “Linda, I think you laid an egg with this Easter basket. It’s quite lame looking.”
I said I agreed with him, but as Easter was on the horizon, there was no time to prepare more goodies, so I promised that “next year I will do better!”
E told me he was going to work some magic and suggested I take some pictures as the squirrels’ Easter goodies morphed into something special. This sounded fun so I said “ready when you are E!”
“Watch closely Linda.” I watched the blah basket of walnuts morph into a festive basket of walnuts.
This looks much better doesn’t it?” he asked.
Impressed, I said “wait, what! How’d you do that E?”
“Magic Linda – I have magical powers. I’m here with you in the kitchen, right? You didn’t let me in the house did you? I can be all over the world at one time, delivering Easter goodies to all the children, like Santa. Only for my gig, it’s not like I have a slew of elves helping me. I do it all myself. Just me – E. So, I can do even more with these walnuts if you’d like me to Linda.”
“Um – yes, of course Mr. Bunny, I mean E” I babbled.
“Well, I’m going to wave my hand and use a little magic dust and turn these wrinkled walnuts into pretty Easter eggs and add a festive flair to this basket while I’m at it. I know you are dubious – you may even think this is some hare-brained idea, but ….” A few flourishes of a paw and he stepped back to admire his handiwork, then asked “now what do you think Linda?”
I gushed and told him “great – I love it E! The squirrels will be soooooo delighted, except for Parker as he’ll bug me for some peanuts, regardless of how nice these walnut eggs are.”
“Oh, YOU are not going to be giving this basket of goodies to your little furry friends Linda – that’s MY job and I won’t have it any other way.”
“Oh – okay, got it E.” I’m sure my crestfallen face was evident, so in a timid voice I hinted “boy I wish I could see their faces E.”
“I’ll send you some pictures if you’d like Linda – no worries. I have my own website, including a bunch of photos I scammed from your blog about the City’s Easter Egg Hunt a few years ago and I have an e-mail address, so look for a message from me okay?”
Hmm – interesting. I let that comment about those scammed photos slide, then inquired politely “so, will you be hopping down the bunny trail to give out these magical eggs to my furry friends E?” I could feel a blog post narrative was already bubbling around in my brain.
“Oh no Linda – that’s the OTHER bunny who does the hopping down the trail – Peter Cottontail. Believe me, he’s no Hunny Bunny!” I detected E’s agitation and quickly sought to change the subject, to no avail because before he continued, he shook a paw at me and said“clearly Linda, you have your rabbits reversed. That is Peter Cottontail’s gig and if he catches me, bopping or hopping down the trail, he’ll sue me for infringing on his trademark event. He shows up everywhere I show up, lurking about, checking me out. One Easter, I was feeling pretty spry, forgot myself and started hopping down a path and he caught me. As you can see, he sued the pants off of me. Yep, Ol’ Peter is a lurker. I will give these pretty eggs to your squirrelly friends and take pictures of them from behind a tree. I always have my smartphone on me, tucked into my vest.”
Wow, what a lot of info to mull over. I told E “I will go to another park this morning so I don’t interfere, okay?”
“Good idea and Linda, I’ve left you an Easter treat as well, but I know you’ll wait until after Lent to enjoy it.”
“What treat – where E?” I asked.
He told me to turn around, which I did and found this.
“How did you know I eat dark chocolate E?” I inquired.
He bent down close and one ear flopped sideways giving him an even more comical look and, in a low voice, he said “I know more than you think, so fess up Linda – do you nibble on the ears or the butt of your chocolate rabbit first?”
“The ears first E always!” I replied with a giggle.
“Ouch!!! Linda, you have my heart!” Then poof … he vanished into thin air.
I shook my head as if to clear my brain of cobwebs as I wondered aloud “did I imagine this conversation?” Nope, the basket of walnuts was gone with a chocolate bunny in its stead. I put on my coat and hat and headed out shortly thereafter to clear my head – they were good thoughts, but confusing thoughts nonetheless.
When I was online later, I ventured over to E’s website. It was interesting. (And yes those were my photos from my April 9, 2017 post.)
And then I checked my e-mail – sure enough, as promised, there was a zip file from E.
There were photos of my furry friends posing with their Easter eggs.
E even included a picture of Peter Cottontail lurking in the corner. Whatta guy!!!
Hope this post brought some cheer for your Easter Sunday. For a little more merriment, please click here.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Ha Ha – what an imagination. Perhaps you should turn this post into a children’s book. Have a nice Easter my friend. Glad you got to see E!
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Thank you Peggy … I thought I’d do something different this Easter instead of my usual type of post. Meeting E was a hoot! Happy Easter back at you!
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Happy Easter, Linda! Loved your delightful story and the sweet e-card! 💐🐇🌸🐤🌷
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Thank you Barbara – Happy Easter. Glad you liked my fun Easter Bunny story and e-card.
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lol Love it! What a cute story and the pics of the squirrels with their Easter treats, so adorable. Happy Easter Linda!!
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Glad you liked it Susan. I thought I’d do something different this year! Happy Easter!
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Happy Easter Linda! Glad you got a visit from “E”.
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Thanks Kate – back at you. Yes, “E” was quite the character!
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Wonderful story, Linda! Was “E” a mashup of real memories or a figment of a revved-up imagination? Wait, don’t answer that – I prefer to remain on the fence between reality and fantasy (especially since today is Easter). As Peggy says, there’s a children’s book somewhere along the bunny trail here.
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Thanks Dave – I thought I’d try something different for Easter this year and um, it is the latter, a revved-up imagination. If I stir the memory pot I cannot remember any interactions with the Easter Bunny growing up. Mom emptied out her small brown wicker sewing basket and placed chenille chicks on the perimeter and treats inside. I wasn’t allowed to have candy, but I did have a chocolate Easter bunny, no jelly beans though. Hope you enjoyed your chocolate today. I think it would be fun to create a children’s book with my little buddy Parker – I sure have enough pictures of him to do so. 🙂
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Happy Easter Linda! 🌷🐇🐣🪺
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Thank you Sabine – same to you!
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Happy Easter, Linda! xoxo
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Thank you Pam – same to you!!
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Wow, Linda that was very imaginative! Loved it! And I second or third the kids book. It must have taken you a long time to pull that post together. Did someone really scam your photos?
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Thank you Joni – the weather kind of forced me into doing this. I need to do my holiday “shoot” a week or so before it posts to get the narrative, pictures, etc. done and the weather just was not cooperative. I originally planned to take the basket of walnuts to the Park and suddenly the Easter Bunny appeared, but I didn’t know how I could finagle that. I took the home pics in the hall so there would be no background so the pictures looked a little off color. It did take me quite a few hours to put it together, but it was fun doing it. No, just “E” scammed the photos. I actually did a post back in 2017 after going to the Easter egg hunt our City puts on every year. I scammed my own pictures from that post to create the Easter Bunny’s website to make it look like HE scammed my pics. This was the post and my only followers in those days were Marge and Ann Marie:
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We’ve had several inches of wet snow today – not fun – good thing it wasn’t on the grass yesterday as no one would have found any eggs!
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You’re right – it would have been difficult for sure! We got two inches (per the next city over that posts as they are larger). It was still there this morning, but gone now – raining again. We are getting to the 70s by the weekend – probably you as well?
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Yes, it will be a big jump up. I’ll probably be complaining about the heat then!
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Me too, though I swear every year I will not complain after the bad Winter.
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Sounds like a tall (bunny) tail I mean tale. LOL! So much fun to read. Happy Easter!
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Glad you enjoyed it Ruth – I wish I would have thought of that tail/tale line!! Happy Easter!
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Happy Easter, Linda. Glad you had some help with your Easter post from your bunny buddy. (I always eat the ears first too!)
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Back at you Laurie! Yes, my bunny buddy was instrumental in getting treats delivered this year to my furry friends. The ears are the way to go. I am used to the very dark chocolate (92% or higher) on my chocolate-for-heart-health-regimen and I was surprised how sweet that Dove dark chocolate was!
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Marvelous! That was a lot of fun, Linda! I feel for you. The quirks of taking good photos … I liked you approach to fix it. Eggcelent choice. Happy Easter!
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Thank you Jeanine – it was fun to put together. My thanks to the Easter Bunny for his help. You were pleased to see zero bird pictures here. 🙂
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Well done! As long as he didn’t leave life-sized rabbit pellets on your kitchen floor, all would be well. 🙂
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Thank you JP – yes, lucky for me (and him), no pellets were left on the kitchen floor. That would have been the last “Strange Encounter of the Bunny Kind” in this house!
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lol so adorable!! 😀
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Glad you liked it Ari – I figured I’d give everyone a little smile for Easter. 🙂
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An A+ for imagination and creativity! A fun post and photos. 🙂
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Thank you Rebecca! I thought I’d do something different this year and give everyone a smile. 🙂
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Impressive imagination, Linda! What a delightful Easter tail/tale! You’re so creative. Happy Belated Easter to you. If I could grant you one Easter wish, it’d be for a warm and sunny day so you could deliver the treats to your furry friends!
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Thank you Shelley! I have to have these whimsical tales in here every so often so I can keep the word “whimsy” in my blog title. 🙂 It was fun to put together. I sure hope we get some warm and sunny days soon. We had a couple of inches of snow today, though it is only on the grass thankfully.
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You’re welcome. You took whimsy to a extra fun level this Easter!
Maybe next post you can have a serious conversation with Old Man Winter or Jack Frost and tell them they’ve overstayed their welcome?!
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That sounds like a plan Shelley. We got two inches of snow which has now melted and it’s raining (again). This weather sure is nuts, but at least we will be in the 70s by the weekend (which makes no sense at all), but I’ll take it!
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Our weatherman said, “We’ll hit 70s on Saturday, but don’t get too excited, we’ll be back down in the 40s-50s the days after that.” Ugh!
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Every Wednesday at 4:15 p.m., we have a feature called “Weather Wednesdays” on my radio station. The co-anchors discuss future outlooks or weather oddities and today the meteorologist said we could put away the snowblowers and probably the snow shovels, but we may get another few inches of snow next week and he was “warning us” not to think the warm temps are here to stay. I think you have shown Accuweather clips before – our guy is Accuweather, based in PA where they are having worse weather than we are!
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I think “accu” is a stretch! 🤣😂🤣
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Agreed!
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Very clever! Great story and photos… I especially enjoyed the ones of your furry friends and their eggs.
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Thanks Janis – this was fun to put together. Now I know why you like doing your short stories. Yes, I found a site where I could upload my squirrel photos and drag an Easter egg into the picture, so that was easier than pleading with them to pose with a plastic egg. 🙂
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Plus, you’d have to pay extra modeling fees (in nuts).
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Indeed! If I miss being there one day, I am nearly mauled when I step onto the trail. 🙂
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“The ears first E always!” I knew you were a civilized person. That’s how all the best people eat their chocolate bunnies. Hope your Easter was a good one.
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Thank you Ally – I think it is more civilized too! I was surprised how sweet that dark chocolate was. I only eat the very dark chocolate which is somewhat bitter – this tasted very sweet, but still good. It was a quiet Easter – went to the Botanical Gardens to see their flowers in case Monday’s snow zapped them and walked around that park Hope your Easter was enjoyable.
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Nice one! The bunny egg in the basket makes it much more festive. But your squirrel pals wouldn’t give a hoot about presentation…they want the goods, not the package. Great egg additions to the squirrel photos. Hope you had a wonderful Easter!
Sorry I’ve been MIA for a while. Been kind of nuts (lol) with Easter festivities, MRI, and museum outing (where anxiety was high to take the kids out to crowded places), and now I’m physically recovering from all the activities.
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You have a lot going on – did you and the kids get to have Easter week off from school? My Easter was quiet but nice. Went up to the Botanical Gardens at Heritage Park to see their Spring flowers before the snow zapped them yesterday. We had two inches of snow Monday, but the northern counties got six inches of snow. Crazy weather as we’re in the 70s this weekend!
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We didn’t officially take the week off, but some days we took off for Elliot’s 11th bday (Ellis insisted that no work be done on their bdays) and MRI trip. It took me a day to recover from all that hoopla and we had Easter fellowship with out church friends. We saw the whole group as families in more than 2 years.
Now that school year is coming to an end, we’re catching up finishing projects, and looking forward to summer vacation! Officially, we have 5 more weeks of school. Shows you where my head is. 🙂 This week we have homeschooling meeting, orthodontist appt, homeschooling physical ed. assessment for Elliot, Ellis’ cardiology appointment. Another busy week approaching!!
Glad you had a nice Easter!!
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You do have a busy week ahead. Happy belated birthday Elliot and is Eliot getting braces on his teeth? They make it much easier now than when I had them and I had them as an adult. I would be excited to get to Summer vacation too.
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What a lucky bunch of squirrels and other furry friends. I’m glad that E helped you out!
I’m a feet first kinda gal. I’ve always left the head for last and I find myself wondering if that makes me some kind of chocolate easter bunny serial killer…
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Ha ha – well at least if you down that bunny feet first, you know it can’t get away from you! [Hope you are feeling better Zazzy – I am behind here but scrolled thru and saw you were not feeling well.]
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