Juanita Farnsley stands with her Easter egg tree in front of her Bowling Green home Tuesday afternoon. Farnsley decorates her house for the Easter season every year. Photo by Clinton Lewis

Giant lollipops line the front and sides of Juanita Farnsleys home, which sits in the midst of flowering dogwood trees and lavender crepe myrtles at 10th Street and Nutwood Street in Bowling Green. A pink dogwood is covered in colorful Easter eggs that hang from strings tied to branches. A large poster proclaiming Christ is Risen! hangs on the front door, trimmed with garlands of ivy and tiny spring flowers. I love Easter, the 77-year-old Farnsley said. Even Farnsleys dog, Cajun, gets into the spirit of things as he sits under the egg tree wearing a scarf decorated with an Easter egg print. Farnsleys love of Easter dates back to her childhood. While growing up in Louisiana, she said she grew to love the Catholic church and the holiday that celebrates Christs resurrection. Im always on church. … she said My daddy was always in church on Sunday. A photo of Farnsley in her first communion dress and a lacy white veil adorns a wall in her tiny bedroom. Crucifixes dot other walls in the home and intermingle with Easter bunnies and baskets placed throughout the house. Thats what I do because I love my church, she said. Farnsley also does it because she loves her children and grandchildren, some of whom will travel from out of state to visit her this Easter weekend. Im going to fix em dinner, she said as she arranged Easter decorations on her dining room table Tuesday. While Farnsleys decorations and love for Easter are elaborate, shes not the only one decorating for the holiday in Bowling Green. Dot Owens lawn on Sherwood Drive says Easter, thanks to colorful giant eggs that fill a wooden wheel barrow and also spill out onto her lawn. Im a nut, Owens said of decorating for holidays. Christmas, Easter, Halloween those are my biggies. Owens says her grandchildren, who often visit from Tennessee, love the fuss, but she decorates whether family visits or not. I just like to decorate, she said. It makes me feel good. Thats why after Easter, Owens will replace the eggs in the wheelbarrow with springtime flowers. Its always cheerful, she said. Farnsley feels the same way about the flowers she works in nearly every day from springtime to fall. Oh, I love my pink ones, she said of her dogwoods in her thick Creole accent. Ive got beausible flowers on that right there, she said of a crepe myrtle in her lawn, while waving to a neighbor. Farnsley said her mothers love for making things beautiful when Farnsley was a child rubbed off on her and keeps her thinking happy thoughts as she decorates from season to season. Me mother, shed sew like a beausible embroidery. … Farnsley said. My mother used to have the best birthday parties for everyone … homemade ice cream and cake. … Mama was good of us and love of us.