PAPIER-MACHE EASTER EGGS

Beautiful Easter shoot by Green Wedding Shoes.
See their work Here:

I like papier-mâché and used to have a collection of Easter egg boxes. I've no idea how or why I began to collect them, like so many things I have, they just happened. And then they just disappeared, probably during one of many moves in either a pre clear out, or a mislaid box. I used to give and receive them filled with chocolates, and tied with a ribbon. I don't miss them, but I wish I would have owned a camera and photographed them, and I hope that wherever that they are, they found a good home.



A charming Easter egg box

Papier-mâché boxes and eggs always remind me of both Easter and Alice in Wonderland.  Our cottage is adorned with several Alice vignettes. One of my Grandmothers was named Alice and I was given the name as one of mine too, after her.



Mad March Hare from Graham & Green Here: 
Alice cloth ornament from Alice's Shop in Oxford. Here:

Although the Easter egg boxes are gone, I have a small collection of hand painted papier-mâché boxes from Kashmir in which I keep pieces of jewellery on my dressing table.



This box is quite large and the lid is painted in
an exquisite pattern of  mille fleurs.

I keep another collection in it - Miracle jewellery.

This little papier-mâché rabbit came from a shop in one of the
fairy tale cottages in Carmel by the Sea, 20 years ago.
I love the cat shaped box, adorned with bright flowers.

As March ends you would expect Spring to be in full bloom, but it is not so here. I have seen no Deer in the woods, and few Hares, being mad or not. We have had very high winds (we do live on a hill) and rain with hail. It is a bitter biting wind as if the Snow Queen has grabbed hold of you with icy fingers and a sharp nail has pierced your skin.

 

Kelly McMorris, Snow Queen book cover,
for Stephen Player's Fantasy Illustration class

Published: February 02, 2013
Her website: Here:

 

This weekend is a Bank Holiday in England. The church school behind our cottage is very quiet without the children, and the cats have been playing in the wild woods of the church amongst the daffodils and primroses.  This time of year I like to wander in the gardens of English Country houses and ruined abbeys where you feel as if you may at any moment come upon a Mad Tea Party or you could have your own. Alas, I think that the Easter Bunny may even need to don a long tweed coat and a rain hat prior to bringing children their treats.

 

The Mad Tea Party Alice illustration by John Tenniel.
The March Hare is wearing straw in his ears, a sign of madness!

 

Even in this weather, and whatever that we believe,  this is a time for rejoicing in the life that is beginning all around us, and giving thanks for each day we are here to see it.

 

I think I will wrap up warm and venture out to see if I can find some March Hares and then curl up by the fire with a book and the cats. Oh, and chocolate. That diet will just have to wait for a few more weeks until the sun comes back.

 

I love this painting, but do not know who created it.
Please leave me a comment if you do!

FOLKLORIC ~ The Good Shepherds

Photo, The Mirror Newsgroup

Tonight I cannot write of pretty things. It is too cold.

I've lived in London and in remote countryside and loved both ways of life. Cities - endless shops, easy accessibility to all hour food, well lit in the darkest night.  The English countryside is full of green magic, trees, flowers, hedges, gloriously scented and full of wildlife to enchant and educate us. But in winter snow and rain can cut you off from supplies and make roads impossible to navigate. Electricity, water and heating can fail. Those postcard pretty cottages with roses round the door are often freezing in winter as oil runs out, becomes too expensive and the wood pile exhausted. 



a local cottage

Ice hangs upon thatched cottages like the long icy fingers of The Snow Queen.

During hard times it seems trivial to write of luxury which so many do not have time for nor afford.  Beauty cheers us and lifts our spirits, inspiring us to create and share. Constant deprivation wounds us deeply and we withdraw into ourselves, our homes, reaching for the fire.  Gripped in the frosty embrace of a never ending Winter it is hard to summon Hope, but we must.

Winter remains. The usual promise of Spring is with us, woods carpeted in Snow Drops and Daffodil bloom along roadsides. But the sun does not come to melt the snow. Yet Easter is nearly upon us. Whatever your religious beliefs, it is impossible not to feel the sacred in the change of season from Winter to Spring - if only it would come. The stillness upon the land is beautiful - and deadly.

From deeper countryside than where our little cottage nestles came the heartbreaking news stories of sheep frozen under drifts giving birth to lambs. Desperate shepherds are often unable to save them before the freeze takes them where they lay.

The Good Shepherd by Richard Hook

Reporters listen to farmers whisper the realisation that their life as sheep farmers is over, beaten by nature, low prices for their produce and competition in the supermarkets from foreign lamb that can magically be offered cheaper than home grown.  In the future when we drive through English and Irish countryside empty of sheep and sheep dogs will we understand that those inexpensive meals we cooked helped to cause this wasteland?

When we grow up we look back at children's stories and sometimes think them foolish. But who dares laugh now at The Snow Queen who threw Winter over Narnia?

Whether we believe in Christ or not the Shepherd is a folkloric figure. These simple people have something highly mystical about them. Living so close to nature and facing hardships alone.



Illustration by Walter Crane

 It was impossible to watch the news footage of shepherds rescuing what they could of their herds and not shed a tear. Perhaps our tears will melt the snow and bring Spring to resurrect our joy. But for those who have lived through this and lost what they once knew, innocence is gone.

Innocence 1893 by William Adolphe Bouguereau

This Easter is unlike any other which I have ever known. More than ever we require faith, in something, to help us believe that Spring will come. And helping hands and hearts.  If you are in a cold place, help each other to stay warm. Wherever that you are be amongst friends and remember to share whatever each of us have with those who have not. 

Remember our neighbours, family and friends