Tulips and Eggs and Lambs, Oh, My!

Tulips and eggs and lambs, Oh, My!     That means that we've feasted on Shrove Tuesday pancakes and that Ash Wednesday has come and gone and we've gotten out our Lenten/Easter decorations.

The tulips -- which come to the market in early to mid February -- we buy a bouquet every Saturday and keep them in this blue and white vase on this end table in the living room.

We are at the mercy of the store as to the colors of tulips available.    If there is a wide variety, I prefer the orange ones but if there aren't any orange ones, we'll take whatever they have -- even pink ones!

On the morning of Ash Wednesday, we get our branches (we really like pussy willows) and put them in our favorite blue and white ginger jar on the dining room table.    Our beloved blue and white bowl goes under the sideboard for the six weeks of Lent!

Then out comes the egg carton which is filled with our precious German Easter eggs.    Twenty years ago, we took a Lenten trip to Germany and were enamored by the Easter egg trees we saw at each bed and breakfast we stayed at.     I had to bring some home and so we went to the German equivalent of Woolworths and for 1DM each we bought 12 hand painted hen's eggs.    

And for the past twenty years we've had our own Easter egg tree.    We are purists about our tree.   Only those 12 eggs go on it even though we've been gifted with eggs from friends.     For they are special eggs.

We've had some accidents over the past twenty years . . .

A crack and a hole . . .

And this one has lost it's bottom!    But we still put all 12 eggs on the tree every year.    It's tradition!

And like those bed an breakfasts we stayed at in Germany, our Easter egg tree has always been in the dining room as well -- usually on the dining room table.     It's part of Linderhof (for we had just been here 3 years when we made that trip) and part of our Easter.  

And our newest decoration . . .

These lovely French lamb molds.     Newer -- we've had them for four years and I love them on the breakfast room table.    Usually a bouquet of flowers is in a pitcher between the molds but we've been late forcing our paperwhites this year and so paperwhites are on the table!

When I said "newer" -- that is to us!!!    They are old old molds used to bake Easter cakes in France.

We think they're great Easter decorations and love the patina on these molds!

And they are perfect on the breakfast room table -- the only place we've put them after we got them.   For each table really needs a seasonal centerpiece and these lambs are perfect for the breakfast room!

It is Tuesday and I'm sharing my Easter tables with Marty at A Stroll Thru Life for Tabletop Tuesday.