01 April 2009

Hoppity hoppity hop

We are adoring Melbourne in the autumn. Hot, sunny, still days and crisp nights that require doonas. Why can't it be autumn all year?
And autumn means Easter. And Easter means eating and family and football and getting the woolly jumpers out of the trunk and holidays.

Here is some Easter reading from Onion childhoods. Except for the first one, these books are not strictly about Easter - but they are about bunnies.

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes. (1939)
Oh, the well trained little bunnies! Oh, the mother bunny recognised for her talents and her true heart over all those flash jackrabbits!





The Runaway Bunny (1942)
'If you run away, I'll run after you.'
So reassuring for a small person. Oh, the illustration with the baby bunny's ears being sails and the mother bunny blowing him home!


Mr Rabbit and the Lovely Present (1977)
'The sun is yellow,' said Mr Rabbit
'But I can't give her the sun,' said the little girl, 'though I would if I could.'



The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902)
'You may go into the fields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr McGregor's garden. Your father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs McGregor. Now run along and don't get into mischief. I am going out.'




Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit (circa 1881)
'Drown me! Roast me! Hang me! Do whatever you please,' said Brer Rabbit. 'Only please, Brer Fox, please don't throw me into the briar patch.'
The cover is the 2006 Puffin Classic edition

Watership Down (1972)
'Rabbits need dignity and above all the will to accept their fate.'








Look at the dates of publication on those books. Bunnies - scourge of the Australian countryside - are out of fashion now, as well they might be.
Now we are all about the Bilby.
Although, the Easter Bilby still delivers eggs, which is just as odd as a bunny delivering eggs.

Anyway, all this is by way of a very long lead-up to this important question:
Does anyone know where an Onion can buy a dark-chocolate bilby??!! We have hunted high; we have hunted low - but the dark-chocolate bilby is in hiding.


5 comments:

Penni Russon said...

Well, so they say:
http://www.beautyandlace.com.au/pinkladychocolate.html

When I was a kid I always wondered why there was lots of Christmas books and hardly any Easter books. Of course later I realised that cute baby Jesus makes for a good kids book. Large hairy dead Jesus, not so much, even with the happy ending. We have a lovely Kevin Henkes Easter book (part of a boxed set) called Owen's Marshmallow Chick

Favourite Easter scene in a movie: the end of Steel Magnolias, when Daryl Hanna's character goes into labour at the Easter picnic.

Alexandra said...

I think Lindt does a dark chocolate one, which you can get at Myer or David Jones?

Natalie Hatch said...

I thought Daryl Lea did dark chocolate bilbies, but I haven't found one yet. Sorry, no idea.

The Alien Onions said...

Lindt does bilbies??!!!! This is excellent news. I thought they would be too Swiss. We have discovered today that they also do carrots. Very cute.

I think I might swing by Haighs and check out their selection of Easter goodness.

Penni - Maybe Haigh's will come through with a chocolate large hairy dead Jesus.(or not)

Penni Russon said...

You have to make sure you get the right Biblies, some of them generate income for the kill all the rabbits mob and some don't (just soes you know, we want to kill the rabbits)