Nope, no Easter eggs up here.  We checked yesterday, when Jem crawled up onto the roof of our shed to put a webcam up by the stork's nest.  For years the storks had their nest on an unattainable old electricity pylon, and we had no chance of seeing what was going on up there.  We would only know there were chicks, and how many there were, after they started popping their heads up over the edge of the nest.  But after last year's midsummer tragedy (for a recount look here) the storks have a new home in an architecturally designed and built nest on the end of our shed roof.   We were a bit worried that they wouldn't return to this man-made home this year, but as we drove into the yard this weekend, we all breathed a sigh of relief to see two familiar silhouettes up on the nest.  So we thought we would push our luck and put a webcam up there too.  This year we will be able to see how the eggs hatch, how hatchlings are fed, how they grow and learn to fly.  Assuming that all of those things happen, of course. 

It was so wonderful to be in the country over Easter.  We hadn't been since Christmas, and it was amazing to see the difference between the snow-covered wonderland we saw last time and the green pre-summer gloriousness of this visit.  Nature turned it on for us, with bright sun and temps above 20 degrees, which is unusual for this time of year.  So family arrived and we spent 4 days doing the usual:  eating, drinking, hanging out, digging up garden beds and pushing seeds under the earth.  Highlights were the egg hunt, of course, which Mikus seemed concerned about the night before - perhaps because I told him that the Easter bunny only visits well behaved children.  That's right, isn't it?  But he had nothing to worry about, because the bunny hopped around Kugures on Sunday, merrily tossing chokkies left and right.  We painted eggs the Latvian way (you can read about this process here and here), and for the first time this year played the traditional Latvian egg rolling game.  Kinda like bowls, except using a bit of old pipe as a ramp and coloured eggs as bowls.  Of course.  

Main thing for me is that the kids had a great time.  Both of them with chocolate stained faces and muddy bare feet, and begging not to leave the country this afternoon.  Another thing is that I spent some time this weekend in quiet Easter meditations: humble gratefulness for the sun, budding trees and new life that springtime brings after 6 months of darkness and cold.  Always a keen near-religious experience.  I suspect that others also feel the same - the storks above and us humans down below.