Every year, on Easter Sunday, my family (plus a pile of extras we’ve ‘adopted’ over the years) gathers together to decorate eggs. It’s a noisy, crazy messy day and I love it!

We’ve been doing this for over 45 years now and the collection of blown, decorated eggs now exceeds 1500 eggs. That’s a lot of eggs to store and display!

The eggs represent years of artwork by artists young and old, from a 1 year old’s first egg, done with a lot of help from a patient parent (generally a messy affair involving lots of paint on both child and mum or dad!) through to my father’s eagerly anticipated yearly masterpieces. My brother Stephen seems to look at the world sideways and I’m always keen to see what quirky approach he’ll take.

The collection of eggs – painted, dyed, waxed, mosaic-ed, drilled and who-knows-what-else – has now grown to well over 1,500 eggs. Every year, over the weeks leading up to Easter, the eggs are taken out of their boxes and placed in a myriad of bowls, dishes and trays, as my parent’s house is taken over by an in-house eggshibition.

Hours are spent searching through the eggs (you’re allowed to carefully roll them over, but don’t dare to pick them up!) to find your own eggs, or search for particular ones others have created. Half inspiring, half terrifying (how on earth can I create an egg as good as that one there?!) the variety of designs and techniques is amazing. Somehow though, each year, people still manage to come up with something new!