Painted Eggs

Happy Ostara!

Happy Ostara/Ostern/Easter! :)

Had a lovely couple of days. On Friday my neighbours invited me over to learn how to paint eggs, German-style:

Hard-boil your eggs.

Prop bent spoons in jam jar of sand. Fill with bee's
wax and light a candle underneath to melt it.

Once the wax is fully melted, dab onto the egg
using sticks with pins driven into them.

Pots of egg dye, heated and cooled. Start with the lighter
colours and work towards the darker colours.

Add more wax decorations in between.

My attempts. Polished to shine with bacon rind.

Lots of pretty eggs :)

Before and after.

Best of the batch - by Lisa.

Don't recommend quail's eggs as they are a bit too delicate and break when you scrape or melt off the wax afterwards.

Wonderful way to pass the afternoon. Then hide them in the garden for an Easter egg hunt :)

If you're very careful you can blow the chicken eggs out by making a pin-prick in the top and the bottom and pressing your lips with gusto against one end. If you widen one of the holes and rinse it through with water, you can then fill the egg with melted chocolate and pop it in the fridge to solidify.

My neighbours are great. They own the horses outside my window. They also incubate geese each year. This year only one of the entire batch hatched! They've named him Timmie, and he's adorable.

Timmie

Their eldest daughter's boyfriend also has a very cool classic Beetle :) Want.

Went over today for goose lunch. Not one of Timmie's relatives, I hasten to add! All in all, an excellent Easter. Loved learning how to do the eggs. Mum used to bring me to Germany for Easter when I was a kid because she has friends here - the chocolate and the atmosphere are always fantastic. Big in a way that it isn't back home.

Also took turns playing the piano, and my neighbours sang grace before supper - really beautiful harmony even though I didn't fully understand what was being said. We finished by all holding hands and saying 'bon appetit'. It was lovely. They've invited me to a large country home on Wednesday where Lisa's dad works as a coachman, taking horse and trap rides around the grounds. I'm really excited :)