Happy Easter !

It's Easter and we are now coming to the end of a long winter. The sun has started to pop out every now and then and because of that everybody is so anxious to put some color back into their daily life. The shops are selling flowers but it's way too early to be buying delicate flowers for the yard right now at still near freezing temps. But who can wait?! Though it's only the 1st of April, I just couldn't hold back. I too have already splurged on flowers and will be buying more just as soon as the shops are open again after the holidays. I know some of you have heard the story before, but for those who haven't and for those of you who need a re-cap.... here it is:

above - now in our living room.

below - from last year.

The Danes decorate sticks for Easter. They grab a bunch of sticks from the garden and put them in a vase. Then they hang small Easter eggs from the ends of the sticks.

The preferred sticks are called, in English, “Harry Lauder's walking stick” also sometimes commonly called “corkscrew hazelnut” and the genus species name is Corylus avellana 'Contorta'. In Danish it’s called Troll Sticks. It belongs to the Betulaceae family which includes Birch trees and Hazelnut trees.

But not everybody has a Troll tree in the backyard. However, one can buy the sticks at the florist or the market. But because they are a low, super slow growing plant – they are very expensive. There are, however, a variety of sticks to choose from at different prices. One of the alternatives are Forsythia and we just happen to have such a plant in our back yard. So from the bush in our yard, I clipped a few sticks, put them in water, hung a few eggs and in a few days the yellow flowers pop open for a very colorful display to help wipe away the winter blues.

Some Danes really get into it. Danes like to decorate for Easter. You can find many store front windows throughout town with special Easter decorations too. It’s a big deal here. After a long boring winter, people get excited to celebrate the turning of the season and the returning of the sun. But why celebrate with bunnies and eggs? My friend Andy asked me, “Bunnies don’t lay eggs, shouldn’t it be an Easter Chicken?” Good question. It’s due to old traditions long before Jesus’ time, I told him. And these 2 links will explain it all.Link 1 Link 2

The year before that, the Easter Bunny brought 2 big giant chocolate Easter Eggs.

Around the block, a neighbor sets out table and chairs to catch the late afternoon sun. Notice the sweet and simple table decoration - sticks and simple plastic eggs.

Down the street a neighbor goes wild.

The tree is loaded with both natural and fun color.

This decoration would make any Easter Bunny very proud.

In English it's called Viburnum farreri, in Danish it is called Kejser bush. It is loaded with small pink flowers in the winter time. They are probably made of plastic but it sure does look like the eggs are made of glass. This is a wonderful sight for winter tired eyes.

This is a Troll tree. Zoom in on the picture and you will see that the sticks are completely twisted and gnarly.

Just down the street is a beauty saloon in a larger apartment complex. Here the shop owner takes pride in her display.

She used the real thing and the single long Troll branch hangs from the ceiling - this is actually the way it's supposed to be while the other variety of sticks are placed in a vase.

The window of the shop is heavily tinted which created a bright reflection. I did my best however to capture the beautiful hand made eggs.

Notice they are covered with fabric which is printed with an Easter motif.

The following 3 photos were taken last year from Terminal 3.
I snapped them on my way to California.

This was a beautiful display of Easter Eggs from the Royal Porcelain Factory. They sell hand painted eggs with either Danish birds or Danish flowers and then there is also the famous blue fluted pattern that they use on their tableware. For some reason the link someimes goes back to the home page. So if you want to see what I am talking about then you must click onto "Dinnerware" and then "blue fluted full lace" . If you are looking at a bunch of blue on white china with strawberry cake and desserts, then you are looking at the right page - beautiful stuff!

The next 4 pictures are from the Royal Copenhagen website.

You can buy the eggs in a box set of 2 or 4.

It's really cute that the eggs lay in a nest inside the box.

This year there is an extra special larger size egg that is painted with the Queens monogram in honor of her 70th birthday which is coming up on April 16. She has a nick name. Can you guess what it is?

It's Daisy.

Hope your Easter is a happy one.

.