Thursday, March 10, 2011

30 days of Ostara; Day 20



Some Easter baking at Joy of Baking. I have to say the chocolates surrounded by the yellows, creams and whites of lemon cakes, coconut cake, white butter cake, pavlova and cheesecake screams Ostara! Couldn't be better...
I'm going to celebrate my birthday about a month after Ostara, and that's the Christian Easter weekend, so I'll be having an Ostara brunch/tea thingy... my only problem is "who will eat all of that?" :-D
It's a Finnish tradition to serve seven kinds of coffee breads, but I have always found it very difficult to limit myself... I will have a chocolate cake, but I think I'll have a marzipan cover with daffodils. I want to make some sugar cookies and bébes, and pashka, and pavlova with yellow fruits, like peaches and passion fruit... and some other things :-D
Like macarons and huge lemon swirl meringues... I don't know what's with me and meringue right now. I'm dreaming of everything meringue. Lemon meringue pie. Sorbet. Perhaps it's the Ostara :-D
And egg pie... I just love egg pie. (Or custard pie, as it's also called.)
Also, there should be some buns. Perhaps I'll make Hot Cross Buns...


When I read "The Story of the Trapp Family Singers" I fell in love with the Easter traditions Maria described. That year (I was about 12) I made a bunch of decorated boughs and on Palm Sunday I walked around our estate and left one bough to each field and forest. I blessed the area waving my "wand" to each direction and asking health and prosperity from Goddess.
It was a very good year, everything we did in the grounds succeeded, and even though it was a rainy summer, we managed to make hay at the exact right week, when it wasn't raining, so we got dry, good quality hay for our sheep that year, when everyone else was swearing over the wet hay... If I remember correctly, we could even sell a bit of the hay in the Spring.
My mother believes firmly that it was because of my little blessing trip, and she still asks if I could do it again.


Here's a list of bird seeds. It's essential to keep feeding the birds at Springtime, because the insects aren't here yet, but the winter seeds have been eaten.

Sharing nest material with wild birds
You can put there pretty much anything - all the strings, yarns and threads that are left over from your crafts, clippings of hair from both human and animals, the hair that's in combs and brushes.

Spring grooming cuts down pet shedding


Very easy origami rooster basket

Make a kusudama ball for Easter

Rose kissing ball

No comments: