A thing about Easter eggs by KimB

I remember the fun of making colored eggs. Mom would get all the paraphernalia out and would hard boil a dozen eggs. There was a wire egg holder and different glasses to hold the various colors. A mysterious wax colorless crayon was often employed to make interesting designs on the eggs. I remember the smell of vinegar too. I think it was used to activate the colors but it may have had another use .. like making deviled eggs at the same time.

My brother and I would crowd around Mom as she supervised the dunking and re-dunking of eggs. My brother was able to put the eggs in the wire dipper and dunk them himself but Mom did the dunking for me. She would dunk as I directed into each color, rotating the eggs so the colors overlapped.

I never associated the colored eggs with anything other than a mysterious milk chocolate bunny in a pretty carton showed up around the same time.

Sometimes we would go to the Museum of Science to watch the baby chicks hatch in their giant display incubator. It was always near the front lobby and was always a first stop whenever we went to that museum.

Other times we would have a picnic in the gardens there. We would find a shady spot and Mom would lay out a blanket on the grass and we would have a grand time eating the surprises she packed for us. When my brother got a bit older, he started playing musical instruments and he would bring a banjo or guitar to the park and we spent the warm spring afternoon singing folks songs. We had no problems singing the same song over and over until we got it "just right".

As I got older sometimes our picnic would be at Griffith Park. There were huge trees and the 3 of us would fan out to sketch them. We each had a sketch book and selection of pencils and off we would go, but not too far, to sketch the trees and limbs. While we were sketching Mom would get the briquette hibachi grill heating up. ¹

When the grill was hot, Mom would cook pancakes with warm syrup and scrambled eggs with toast on the grill. Then we would show off our drawings. Full of food we would all take a nap on the blankets she brought and spread out on the grass under the trees.

One of my friends is making colored eggs with her grandchildren. I remarked about all the different styles of colored eggs that mark this part of the year: Easter.

When I lived in Silicon Valley, friend would to bring me one of the special eggs from the Eastern Orthodox Church in San Francisco. She explained that no one really had time to make the intricate designs and so special decorated wrappers were placed around the egg instead.

There are the fabulous Fabergé eggs. ² 50 Imperial Easter Eggs were commissioned for the Tsar and his family of which 43 still exist. Another 15 sets of eggs were commissioned from Fabergé workshop. In all 65 eggs were created and 57 survive.


The Gatchina Palace Imperial Easter Egg ³

The Gatchina Palace Imperial Egg Opened ³

I remember making a papier-mâché Easter egg. It those ancient times, we had Art Class in school. I remember we all got a balloon and the teacher puffed all of them up for us. Then we layered news print strips dredged in a flour and water paste over the balloon. Once the paper wrapper had dried, the teacher popped the balloon, leaving an empty shell that resembled an egg. The remaining weeks were devoted to painting the interior and exterior of the shell. Lastly, we made colored grass by shredding colored paper and placed this inside the painted egg. I don't really remember what it was we put inside but I remember we put something inside on the colored grass and then the teacher sealed the opening with clear cellophane as a window.

Thinking of all the different ways egg shells get decorated, I checked in at my favorite deli and asked if they had the "decals" for the eggs. They explained they don't use decals but have pre-printed sleeves with various images that you separate and put over the egg. Then you immerse the egg in hot water. Modern meets Ancient.



Shrink Wrapped Easter Eggs⁴

References

1. The traditional Japanese hibachi is a heating device and not usually used for cooking. In English, however, "hibachi" often refers to small cooking grills typically made of aluminum or cast iron, with the latter generally being of a higher quality. Owing to their small size, hibachi grills are popular as a form of portable barbecue. They resemble traditional, Japanese, charcoal-heated cooking utensils called shichirin.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibachi
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shichirin
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazier
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briquette
   
   
2. The House of Fabergé made 65 easter eggs. 50 of these were Imperial Eggs created for the Russian Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II. Virtually all were manufactured under the supervision of Peter Carl Fabergé between 1885 and 1917.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabergé egg
   
   
3. The Gatchina Palace egg is a jewelled, enameled Easter egg made under the supervision of the Russian jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé in 1901, for Nicholas II of Russia. Nicholas II presented it to his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, at Easter in 1901. The egg opens to reveal a surprise miniature gold replica of the palace at Gatchina.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatchina Palace (Fabergé egg)
   
   
4. Cut out one of the selections from the Easter Egg Decoration Sleeve. Slip this over the hard boiled egg. Dip in very hot water. The plastic sleeve will shrink wrap about the egg in a few seconds.

Project Updates

Knitting:
The afghan with a Saxon Braid is looking good. I have to pay close attention to each of the 24 stitch sequences of each of the 16 row repeats, but as I progress, its getting easier. I had to backtrack so many times due to errors, that now I just take a deep breath and concentrate on counting. I have everyone trained not to chat with me while I'm working on this blue afghan. Usually I can chat and gossip when knitting, but this project requires my full attention.

Gardening:
The Kentucky Wonder beans and cucumber plantlets are now big enough to start climbing the strings attached to the top of the wooden fence. The hibiscus plant called Confederate Rose is still in the planter pot from the garden center. We haven't decided just where to plant it. It will be a focal point with its showy flowers and we don't know if we want it in the front of the house so those passing on the street can enjoy seeing it, or if we want it in the back yard to admire while we sit poolside.

Current Reading:
I'm reading a copy of the 9th printing of ISBN 0-8165-0401-6 LC#73-101103 Recollection of a Warm Springs Apache. James Kaywaykla, a Warm Spring Apache, tells the history of the Mescalero Apaches during his childhood and the warpath years of 1800s to 1886 when they were shipped to Florida. The story is about the lives of the women and children and the great chiefs as they fought to keep their freedom from confines of reservations.

What DO Facebook and Google know?

[Editor's Post]

The HOT news of the moment is the "surprise!" discovery of what "private" corporations store about us. It's not "new news" its just that someone "woke up" and looked.

Such "looking" has been done in the past but has been swept away quickly. This time there is a bit of momentum and more people are "looking". It's a bit like discovering your Credit Score and checking in to make sure nothing is too horribly wrong.

The following 2 articles are pretty good and one has an excellent description of how to check what's out there. What is worth remembering is that this is just a portion of the data held by Facebook and Google. Similar data is held by every company you have ever dealt with on-line or who has a computerized interface. Corporations used to purge old information but these days, they rarely purge because even after you're dead, the data helps them target people around you and your surviving family and friends. This goes forever.

There is an aspect of the data that is "stagnant" and another that is "active". Letting "active data" become "stagnant" is about all you can hope for. The way to do this is:

• Remove unused or unnecessary stuff from your computer and phones
• Don't use or download stuff you don't need
• Drop all links to "cloud" storage or apps that "auto sync" to multiple devices
• Take a few hours to be bored and click on every option in your phone from Top to Bottom and verify the setting is what you want or are willing to tolerate. This exercise has to be repeated on every device and every time there is an update.
• Learn to turn on/off the DATA option on the phone/device
• Learn to turn on/off the WIFI option on the phone/device
• Clean out and delete old information

If you have a device that is already setup in good order with a reduced footprint, know that every time you use it it is logging data by the nano second. It isn't that you should not use such a device but rather that you be in control of the device and mindful of what is actually happening.

Beyond the settings, there is an enormous industry in the background that accumulates data from all sorts of other "public" or "permitted" or "open" systems. Anything that is Public Record is harvested. There is little or nothing you can do about these sources.

Control what you can.

Reveal what you want.

Protect those around you.

KimB Editor


References

1. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/28/beware-the-smart-toaster-18-tips-for-surviving-the-surveillance-age
2. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/28/all-the-data-facebook-google-has-on-you-privacy

Fine Time Art 57 by Marion 2018

Fine Time Art 57 by Marion 2018

Fine Time Art 56 by Marion 2018

Fine Time Art 56 by Marion 2018

Danny Boy

Danny Boy ¹

Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summers gone, and all the flowers are dying
'tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.

But come ye back when summers in the meadow
Or when the valleys hushed and white with snow
'tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so.

And if you come when all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
You'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me

And I shall hear tho' soft you tread above me
And all my dreams will warm and sweeter be
If you'll not fail to tell me that you love me
I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me

References

1. "Danny Boy" is a ballad set to an ancient Irish melody. The words were written by English lawyer, songwriter and entertainer Frederic Edward Weatherly (1848-1929) in 1910 and usually set to the Irish tune of the "Londonderry Air".

Gardening update

I'm just amazed at how  quickly the Kentucky Bean seeds sprouted!  We just planted them 4 or 5 days ago.  We have a long row of beans sprouts at the bottom of the fence and soon the plants will start to climb the strings we've attached to the top of the fence railing. 

We have strings on the fence for cucumber seeds which have sprouted too.  I'm looking forward to picking fresh green beans and cucumbers while standing up- no stoop labor here!  The flower seeds have also sprouted and we've used blooming bed plants in the same planter circles so we have color long before summer gets here. 

I hope my son is able to get a Confederate Rose plant at the garden center.  It isn't a rose, but a type of Hibiscus with beautiful flowers that are white in the morning, pink at noon and red in the late evening, changing color all in one day.  The plant is from China and was brought to this country in the 1600's. 

We still have seed packets to plant.  I'll post updates on our gardening projects, but I think some packets may be put aside for 'another time'.....We are getting a good workout with all this labor.  we're not used to it.  Sooner or later, someone is going to say, "enough is enough!"

Fine Time Art 55 by Marion 2018

Fine Time Art 55 by Marion 2018

Gardens

There must be something in our genes that coax us to plant something when the winter days of ice and snow leave and March winds announce that Spring is on its way. Today my son went shopping for garden supplies. I suggested we try growing Kentucky Wonder Beans along a portion of the wooden fence that encloses the back yard. I had been successful in growing some many years ago when we lived in one of the student apartments in Stanford Village.

Our apartment was the only one that had a large, screened in porch. I strung string from the ground to the top of the porch and planted Kentucky Wonder Beans, which vine. It wasn't long before I could pick fresh green beans to cook for dinner. Not only did we have fresh garden produce, the vines shaded the porch so that we had another room when the weather was nice.

We have seed packets of cucumbers and flowers. If all the packets get planted, we will have a long row of sunflowers along the back yard fence and sprinklings of marigolds and other colorful flowers in the various planters in the patio.

At this point, all we are doing is looking at the pictures on the front of the seed packets. Perhaps our greedy imaginations of thriving colors will come to naught. Its a lot of hard work to accomplish what we have in mind and who knows---as some famous people have been heard to say, "We'll see".

I'll post updates.

Fine Time Art 54 by Marion 2018

Fine Time Art 54 by Marion 2018

a poem

A Foggy Morning


A cloud came down
and touched the earth,
surrounding all with a
misty shroud- a
foggy shield of vapors
hugged the ground.
Warming rays of
sun came piercing thru
to let the fleeting haze
reveal, a thousand
sparkling gems of
glistening dew.

Marion
March 2018