Happy Easter!

easter

I had a draft of this post ready for publishing when I heard the tragic news from Brussels. Christian world has been targeted once again. My heart goes out to all the people of Belgium, and the families of the victims. The Evil wants to destroy everything that is good in this world with word and weapon. You can use religious or philosophical, or even scientific terms to give a name to that evil. It exists, and it is feeding on fear and its derivatives.

Fear not!

This set of Easter Eggs is dyed and ready for painting. Two pairs of little hands took care of that, and did a splendid job. When I was young, we used to dye eggs with onion skins. The skins were collected all over the winter.  “Don’t throw out the onion skins!” I heard this phrase often enough to always remember of Easter. When the time came, the skins were placed in a huge saucepan, and the eggs carefully arranged so that each egg was well covered. There was always a smaller saucepan for ‘special’ eggs. My mother tied different flowers and leaves to these eggs to create patterns. When she got older and lost her creativity, she only used the flowers and leaves from her Geranium plants.  Here is a link to a blog that will give you a good idea of the process.

Easter has a nostalgic feel to me. It even has a fragrance – my aunt who stayed with us every winter, always baked a special cake with rum and raisins. All the house smelled divine. I also remember some chocolate eggs and bunnies in shiny foil, but they didn’t taste great, and were mostly used as toys first. We would also receive postcards from our distant relatives – pictures of fluffy bunnies and cute lamb.

Some ‘old style’ pictures seem appropriate for the memory flood.

lamb

Another aunt always came over for Easter. She has never been married and never had children. Every summer she would take me home with her for a couple of weeks, and staying in her house in the dunes is another bright memory of my childhood.  We exchanged letters since I learned to write until her death in 2000. In this photograph, we are holding wild anemones. We would walk about a mile into the woods, to a special place, a blue lake of flowers. Our Easter dinner table was always decorated with wild anemones  – they are in bloom from March to the end of April.

Our house is on the left, and the lake is on the right, down the hill.

anemones

These photographs from my 2013 project were taken in the place very similar to the one where I used to spend summer breaks with my aunt. All these houses were built in the beginning of the 20th century. Some of the beautiful summer houses are restored and with certain investments turned into great modern homes.

home home home home home home

What is memory without music!

One of my beloved pieces of music is a chorale prelude Ich ruf zu dir Herr Jesu Christ by J.S Bach. There are many brilliant interpretations, both for organ and piano, but I want to share the one of a Russian pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva. A slow tempo (almost one minute slower than any other interpretation, for such a short piece of music!) has an expressive and poignant effect.  Every note breathes and lives.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUSK68yi-fw&w=560&h=315%5D

And this one is a truly magnificent piece of music. 2500 individually submitted videos of singers are combined with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in the virtual performance of “Hallelujah” from Handel’s Messiah. Among the submitters are Donny Osmond,  Alex Boye, Tiffany Alvord, Madilyn Paige, Maddie Wilson, Firefly, and various vocal ensembles. The finished video premiered on March 12 this year.

Nestle and Cadbury have  removed the word ‘Easter’  from their chocolate eggs. I don’t know about Nestle, but Cadbury have removed something else from their Cremes, because they don’t taste right anymore.  Here you can learn how to make your own Easter Chocolate Eggs 🙂                                    

inesemjphotography  Happy Easter! Love and hope to all!

121 comments

  3. Happy Easter to you Inese. This is such a lovely post; beautiful images and music, and words of sadness and joy. The Hallelujah project is magnificent! All the best, Su

  4. What a nice post. I’m partial to older homes and I thank you for feasting my eyes. The first video I absolutely loved as I like piano as well. A what wonderful and delightful memories surrounding Easter for you. A nice tribute also for those fallen in Brussels. I light candles for them.

    1. Thank you so much for reading and listening! You can also listen to the other interpretations on Youtube – Bach wrote the piece for the organ.

  5. Inese, One of the loveliest and most intimate posts you have written. Thank you for sharing their piece of your life and the Hallelujah is the perfect gift to leave your readers.

    1. Thank you so much, Bernadette! I write about my childhood now and then 🙂 I think it was the most peaceful and beautiful part of my life. I should make a Childhood tag for all those blogs.
      Isn’t the Hallelujah project amazing? I believe in humans! 🙂

  8. So much to comment on here. I love the photo of the little ones coloring eggs, such a wonderful tradition. The photos of the old summer homes look almost vintage – I have similar memories of places like that from when I was a kid. They carry the memories of vacations and adventures. And finally, thanks for the Hallelujah Chorus. That piece always sends a thrill up my spine even though I’m not religious. Happy Easter, Inese.

    1. Thank you so much! This Hallelujah project is amazing. 2500 thousand voices! I have read some comments from the participants – what a wonderful feeling of unity! I love choirs, and I have a friend who has his own choir. Unity has always fascinated me.
      These old houses were used as summer residences in the beginning of the 20th century. I will write about that city some other day. I spent 2 months there in 2013.
      Have a Happy Easter you too!

    1. Thank you so much, Teagan! Hope you have listened to the choir – I have done it many times 🙂 I wish all people were united for doing something good.

  14. So beautiful pictures! And the history vey interesting Inese. Happy Easter to you too. Thank you too for your visit to my blog. You are so nice! God bless you.

  16. Ms inese, wonderful, with beautiful homes … reading this post I kept wandering to Summers at my Grandfather’s farm in South Western Tennessee … oh the memories. Thank you for such an inspirational post that warms this Old Guy’s heart …

    1. Thank you so much for stopping by! Childhood memories are the best. Look forward to reading a new story about the summers at the farm 🙂

  19. This is quite a treat for me. I enjoyed the photos and the two pieces of music tremendously. And I agree with your sentiments on Brussels…

Comments are closed.