QI told me a while ago that spring travels north in the UK at about 2mph so the further north you are the longer you will have to wait for the bluebells.
I'm reminded of when we had to come back to Blighty for a family funeral one February, and a friend in Canada wanted to know if the daffodils were out. We reported back that they were past in the South of England, almost past in Edinburgh, in full bloom in the Highlands and just coming out in Orkney.
I'll add a vote for grape hyacinths - my in-laws had them in their garden, and I always thought they were really pretty.
Have escaped from the office until Tuesday; Olympic level snoozage will ensue tomorrow.
Supper was a lamb steak with veggies, and I think a HCB or two is now called for.
Just back from Maundy Thursday Mass which again was slightly on the chaotic side, seems no-one had agreed who was having their foot washed so lots of faffing about until a few people agreed. Nice to have some incense though.
The English/Welsh bluebells were out a week ago in South Wales (just a few in the more sheltered spots). I usually take a photo on my phone to check if they’re exceptionally early, but apparently not - it was the same date three years ago.
The Spanish bluebells in my front garden bloomed about a week before that, I think.
I had friends round this afternoon and we sat in the sunny extension at the back of the house, admiring the garden. It looks at its best just now, with blossom beginning to come out and various shrubs in flower and thanks to my son’s efforts yesterday, looking generally tidy. I might give the lawn its second cut tomorrow or Saturday. ( Should one do gardening on Good Friday? Probably not).
A bonus of having guests round is that my house is clean and tidy.
The English/Welsh bluebells were out a week ago in South Wales (just a few in the more sheltered spots). I usually take a photo on my phone to check if they’re exceptionally early, but apparently not - it was the same date three years ago.
The Spanish bluebells in my front garden bloomed about a week before that, I think.
We live on the fringe of Newport and we have bluebells too. Lots of spring colours can be seen which is very cheering.
The woods I am thinking of, between Caerphilly and Cardiff, are well known for their bluebells but currently have more celandines and wood anemones. I’ve also seen a lot of primroses this year.
Our Spanish bluebells are nowhere near out here in the rather chilly East Midlands, and have spotted no English ones in any of the woods I've walked through recently that claim to have them. We have celandine on the patch of land at the end of our road and the primroses in my garden are doing well. They always remind me of my late mother-in-law. She used to squeak with excitement when she spotted them on verges when we were out in the car. Some of them in our garden come from her lovely woodland garden.
Today I'm off to the Walk of Witness in town. There is usually quite a good attendance, though no two weather apps agree as to whether we're going to be rained on or not.
No rain here yet, so the service in the market place proceeded as usual, if a bit windy, but not too chilly.
It was a bit too long for me, five hymns, several readings and reflections, led entirely by the Methodists. Two or three Anglicans attended but nobody “ official”.
Both churches had an all-age service at 11, with more reflective services this afternoon. I shall continue listening to Bach’s St Matthew Passion at home.
The woods I am thinking of, between Caerphilly and Cardiff, are well known for their bluebells but currently have more celandines and wood anemones. I’ve also seen a lot of primroses this year.
Our Good Friday service in the market place was well attended with people from quite a few of the denominations in town. It had quite an evangelical slant but the worship band were good so I enjoyed the songs. The local Quakers opened their Meeting House which is just off the Market Square serving coffee and hot cross buns. I called in to say hello to my husband who was doing some work on the roof, had some coffee and a nice chat so it felt like a very ecumenical morning.
The daffodils are almost all out here. This mornings Walk of Witness ended in a spot full of them.
As there isn't a petrol station in our village, we planned to get petrol on the way home from the Walk of Witness in Nearest Town. Our usual garage had no petrol! We doubled back and went to another garage, where we had to queue up to fill up.
I have found tins of spam and a 2kg bag of lentils in my kitchen. Neither of us like tinned spam, and our usual 500g bag of lentils usually lasts weeks. Every time there is the threat of shortages (Y2000, Brexit, Covid etc), the North East Man thinks the same thought. There might be shortages. When there are shortages, people have to eat food they don't like. There is no food we don't like in our cupboards, so we are unprepared! I must go out and buy food I don't like!
In vain have I said that stocking up is fine, but please stock up on food we like! The tinned spam and lentils tell me that once again the NE Man is stocking up on "food we don't like" because that is the "correct" food for times of potential shortage.
Maybe the lack of petrol is more due to everyone filling up anticipating price rises?
I'm glad our car is electric. I've very much enjoyed not having to go to the petrol station since we got it - even more so now!
I used to be prepared like a good girl guide. I had a wardrobe given over to stocking up and had a great system going. It stood me in good stead during Covid.
But in this tiny cottage, there's no space for a spare wardrobe. So I'll just keep giving more of the garden over to growing food, and consider getting some chickens!
We had a lovely time here with Nenlet1, son-in-law and the GrandNenling yesterday and it was great showing them the new house and seeing the GrandNenling playing here . I'm grateful for the good weather yesterday which meant we could use the garden; it's wet and windy here today.
Yesterday we also took delivery of some furniture for our kitchen/family room, which we're very pleased with and it's helped to make the place feel a bit more like ours.
Today is all about sorting and unpacking - Mr Nen has completely reorganised his new study (the way he had initially set it up didn't work for him at all) and I'm unpacking my books. They've been in boxes for a month and I felt a bit emotional when I opened the first box as it felt like meeting up with old friends. I'm also downsizing my collection as I unpack. The new study is bigger but I don't want it to feel as crammed as my previous one did - much as I loved that one.
We're going to take a break from it all soon and meet up with some friends online over a glass of wine.
Originally posted by Boogie: Maybe the lack of petrol is more due to everyone filling up anticipating price rises?
Definitely. We were filling up because there isn't a petrol station in our village, so we fill up if we are in the Nearest Town and passing the petrol station anyway. Nearest Town has three petrol stations.
Tesco ran out yesterday, were resupplied quickly but the new petrol is more than it was yesterday (now £1.56 a litre). We bought at a different garage at £1.54 this morning. So a lot of people were presumably queueing to get the "cheap" £1.54 while it was still available.
Tesco said yesterday that it's not a supply problem, it's an increased demand problem - people topping up faster than they would normally.
It's a Bank Holiday Weekend.
People always stock up on BH w/e, in case they unexpectedly have to cater for three times their usual number, or that there will be nothing left in the shops when they next open. Milk, bread, petrol, toilet rolls, all the basics that everyone uses.
Seems that the country can't come to terms with the fact that it isn't the nineteen-fifties any more. Nor that supermarkets all over the place are not closing for the entire weekend
Today is a Bank Holiday in Scotland but, unlike England, Monday isn't. So I don't think the "Bank Holiday Weekend" has as much impact here, because it's not really a long weekend.
There was a shower or two this afternoon, but it waited until the minute I went over the road to get the obligatory F&C before the heavens properly opened; by the time I was coming back, it was coming down in stair-rods.
Cloudy, mild and windy again in Arkland the Grey, making me feel quite tired in an odd kind of way IYSWIM.
I visited Tess Coe yesterday (busy, but not too bad), and may need to go to the village Co-Op tomorrow. Tess Coe are closed on Sunday, so no doubt will be full on Saturday, with hordes of the frantic buying crates of loo rolls, containers of bread, gallons of milk etc. etc. - all that bread and milk leads to incontinence...
I know what you mean @Bishops Finger. We called at LIDL yesterday for bread and milk having bought fuel earlier. Sainsbury delivery tomorrow- just hope we can hold out until then!
Cloudy, mild and windy yet again in Arkland the Grey, making me feel quite tired and droopy, just as it did yesterday.
At least there is BEER - I managed a quick visit to the village Co-Op this morning. However, I completely forgot to buy any Bread though I have enough for a couple of days, and a packet of Cream Crackers in stock to help out as well.
I think I have all I need ( but not surplus that would only go to waste) for today, tomorrow and Monday breakfast, plus supplies to take with me and enough in the fridge/ freezer for when I get home until I shop again, probably next Saturday morning.
It’s hard to know what clothes to pack for temperatures ranging from 5 to potentially 17 degrees next week.
A nice mooch round the market today. We went to buy some wild garlic hummus from a stall where we bought wild garlic pesto last week and then bumped into a friend who recommended the rye bread from the Polish stall. After a coffee in one of our favourite cafes we came home via a new fantasy bookshop. Its the second time I've been in and it has been packed both times. I'm looking forward to visiting on a quiet day when I can avail myself of one of the easy chairs and see if there are any books I fancy buying.
I'm waiting in for a parcel which should have been delivered on Thursday. It is due in the next 15 minutes and I hope it turns up as we're away next week.
Our dog walk this morning was interrupted as the field was full of cows, so we went down the drove road instead. That's just a track with hedges either side, no cars. We saw a gorgeous white horse looking over one of the hedges. Ted was fascinated by it. I enjoyed looking at all the new growth in the rhynes (ditches).
We have just had a very pleasant lunch with our son. He brought it from the local farm shop. Now I'm sitting down for a coffee, he's gone off to visit friends. Mr. Boogs is cleaning and re-painting the front wall outside.
This afternoon I'm planting seedlings into new pots to put on the window sill to grow on a bit before they go into the mini greenhouse for hardening off.
Slow roasted lamb shank for evening meal. In Lancashire it's called Lamb Henry, but no one around here seems to have heard of that.
We had one of our neighbours over for coffee this morning - I'd got talking to her over her garden fence when out for a walk last week. Then Mr Nen went for a run and I had a video catchup with Nenlet2 and gave him a virtual tour of the house. Otherwise it is all about unboxing and sorting here, on this windy grey Wiltshire day.
Windy, but sunny this afternoon. My parcel, a new linen jacket turned up about a minute late, but I'm very pleased with it. I'm hoping it'll make a variety of outfits look just a bit smarter this summer.
We went and bought a new pot for our lemon tree, potted it up. It now looks a lot better, and I hope it's going to start growing again soon. We also planted out the camellia my son gave me for Mothering Sunday. I hope its OK as I hadn't realised how dry it was.
Not sure what we'll do with the rest of the day. I did suggest last night heading to the Anglican Easter vigil, but I'm not sure my husband is that keen.
Definitely layers @Boogie. I need to include a cardigan, as it is easy to slip on /off and can be hung on the back of a chair in the hotel restaurant to keep my place. On my last hotel trip my breakfast ( juice, toast ) was cleared away whilst I was fetching hot food from the buffet: I had no cardigan to mark my place as we were in a heatwave.
Apart from walking into town to collect my prescription and buy stamps before the price increase, I haven’t been out. There was nowhere I felt like going on my own. I forgot that I had intended to mow the back lawn. Too late now, so it will wait another week. It is a bit breezy now but worse is forecast, though probably it won’t be too bad here.
Church is a group service tomorrow then my youngest grandson is dropping in at teatime.
After a somewhat fraught choir practice (why does Rev'd Rosie insist on programming crap music for the most important Sunday of the church's year?), I had a wander round the Artisans' Market and got some garlic and tomatoes, then to the health shop to get red peppers and eggs.
By that time it was limbering up to rain, so I hurried home and had a spot of brunch and a snooze.
I've now turned the tomatoes, peppers and garlic (along with some toasted almonds) into a Romesco sauce, some of which I had for supper with pasta, and the rest I've frozen in single portions for future use.
How Goddessish is that?
I may not be around until later tomorrow, as I'm scuttling off after church to meet some of the family for lunch, possibly followed by coffee at my sister's.
Happy Easter to all, and I hope the crap music doesn't imping too much on the joy of Easter @piglet. I realised at 7.30 I could still get to the Easter Vigil at my church, but I'd had two glasses of wine by then so I thought better of it.
My husband has the start of a cold, and I can feel that I might have one brewing too. I'm trying to ignore it as we're off on holiday early Tuesday morning.
We are off on hols also, and the weather forecast has had us bemused. It showed rain every day, quite normal for April, but now it's sunny every day. We'll take it.
Happy Easter everyone. After church, we went out for a rather untraditional Easter meal of cheeseburger and fries. The Easter lamb will be cooked tomorrow when there's more time. This afternoon Captain Pyjamas hunted Easter eggs in the garden while we sat about in the sun and did not much.
We've had proper April showers today. I managed to get to and from Mass without getting wet. My husband who went to Meeting slightly earlier and came back before me too, got rather wet in both directions.
Church was packed, we had three people received into full communion which was lovely, and they were all in their twenties. I know there has been a lot of talk that the rise in church membership among young people isn't really happening, but it seems to be a real thing in our neck of the woods.
The rest of the day has been devoted to snoozing and trying to finish a book before we go on holiday so I can get onto the one I've been saving up to enjoy while we're away. I now need to go and get the dinner on. We're having baked potatoes, home-made coleslaw and vegan sausages.
The service didn't go too badly, all things considered, and the church was decently full. I snuck off before the last hymn, as I had to get to Kirkliston where my nephew was giving me a lift to lunch with some of the family (which was lovely).
The weather, however, was the embodiment of Bob Hope's observation that "if you don't like the British weather, just wait for a bit". It went from glorious sunshine to blizzards and back again several times in the course of just a few hours - you certainly couldn't accuse it of being boring!
Laundry now needs to be transferred from washing machine to dryer, which I hope to accomplish during a sunny bit.
Our second Sunday morning visit to the local church for the Easter morning communion service where people were very welcoming and the flower arrangements were gorgeous.
This afternoon we went over to Nenlet1's house for an early supper with her, son-in-law, the GrandNenling and The Other Grandparents. This all worked really well - the little one was on great form and the meal (roast beef, which I never cook myself) was delicious.
Slightly unusual service this morning, starting with the choir having to process in at an inconvenient moment as the visiting priest did not come to the choir vestry.
I cooked a lamb steak for lunch having turned down an invitation from my son-in-law as the steak needed using, before I go away tomorrow. Then later my son issued a belated invitation to join them at 6.30pm, which I also declined, as it arrived when my adult grandchildren were here. They left just in time for me to enjoy Choral Evensong on Radio 3 at 6pm, which I understand is going to be its new time from now on.
The church car park was almost full when we arrived, 1/2hr ahead of the service, and the church was jam-packed by the time we got started, with extra chairs brought in.
A couple of the deacons had to watch the service on the screen in the creche (no babies in there, thankfully). Only the 'Carols by Candlelight' service has had a congregation that big in the time we've been here.
Presumably there were lot of visiting families, as there were plenty of extra children. This caused some anxiety for the Sunday School organiser, in case there were not enough Easter eggs to go round.
I don't know how that was resolved, but as there were no crying children after the service, presumably no-one was left out.
Then off to Elder Son & family for lunch, and the distribution of chocolate in various guises.
Home in time for tea, which we didn't really need. I had a hot cross bun with cheddar cheese & mango chutney.
We still have an unopened pack of HCBs, sent as part of a Cornish Easter hamper by Younger Son& family, and an HCB&butter pudding, made yesterday as we had a surplus, but not started. I think the unopened pack will have to go in the freezer.
We will be just about ready to eat another one by March 26th next year.
If you aren't sure which thread @Doublethink is referring to, its the recent plankings one. It would be good to have a wide ranging discussion on this issue.
A nice sunny day here and after some deliberation we've decided to go off on a Ramblers walk. My husband has come down with a cold, not ideal when we're off on holiday tomorrow and the debate was whether he'd feel better or worse if we went out. Talking of holidays the weather is shaping up to be worse in Portugal than here, which again isn't ideal.
The daffodils are almost all out here. This mornings Walk of Witness ended in a spot full of them.
As there isn't a petrol station in our village, we planned to get petrol on the way home from the Walk of Witness in Nearest Town. Our usual garage had no petrol! We doubled back and went to another garage, where we had to queue up to fill up.
I have found tins of spam and a 2kg bag of lentils in my kitchen. Neither of us like tinned spam, and our usual 500g bag of lentils usually lasts weeks. Every time there is the threat of shortages (Y2000, Brexit, Covid etc), the North East Man thinks the same thought. There might be shortages. When there are shortages, people have to eat food they don't like. There is no food we don't like in our cupboards, so we are unprepared! I must go out and buy food I don't like!
In vain have I said that stocking up is fine, but please stock up on food we like! The tinned spam and lentils tell me that once again the NE Man is stocking up on "food we don't like" because that is the "correct" food for times of potential shortage.
Shocked to realise I too am a North East Man! At the back of my kitchen cupboard, ignored for months now, are large jars of pearl barley, brown rice, powdered milk, split peas, bran flakes, lentils, cans of baked beans which I never eat, plus packets of dehydrated vegetables dating back at least three years. This in a country with abundant affordable fresh vegetables and dairy. My partner used to throw out many of my hoarded dried necessities because we never ate the stuff in those quantities. I'll go out and buy small packets of lentils rather than broach the jars at the back of the shelf because the stored goods are only for emergencies.
Yes, I think my cupboards are also victims of that tendency, which is rather mortifying. I mean, I'm a British male in his 50s with autistic tendencies, so it's not a total shock that I have some of his tendencies, but still, it's rather mortifying.
If there's an emergency that requires significant stockpiling, most Parisians are going to be in big trouble. Our apartments and kitchens are just too small for storing a load of stuff just in case. My in-laws, OTOH, could withstand a lengthy siege quite comfortably, so I guess we'll have to try to escape there. (Inherited WW2 trauma, FWIW, and many older French people are the same. They are the children of a generation who remembered literally not knowing where their next meal was coming from.)
We have a beautiful Spring day. We went to the DIY shop earlier to buy seeds, and after eating husband en rouge's Pascal lamb (a day late because more convenient) we shall go and plant them in the garden.
We have just got back from a lovely weekend in Norwich where we ate great food and visited the castle, cathedral, museum, etc.
Mr Heavenly also found a South Asian Art Centre which turned out to be a mix of Anglo-Indian museum and a carpet shop. We were looking for a traditional wool hall runner as Mr Heavenly is about to lay laminate there to replace the carpet; we now have a rather nice rich porcelain blue one from Kazakhstan. (Almost all the others were red, the preferred Kazakh colour). We might visit again for cotton bed linen and rug when we do our room up.
I spent Saturday at a big family gathering in Dorset and Sunday morning in Salisbury Cathedral. It was otherwise closed for sightseeing but one could argue that an Easter Day service near the front is the best way to see a church.
The train journey north again had a cancellation and a delay, which was less uplifting.
It's a glorious Spring day here (despite being a bank holiday): perfect for an amble down to Tessie's to replenish fridge, freezer and larder (and, most importantly, wine rack).
Not sure what supper will be: probably some pasta concoction.
It's a glorious day here too, after a very chilly start, and I've been in the garden most of the afternoon. I find it restorative out there, something I didn't think I'd ever feel about gardening. This is because the previous owner of the house has given me a good start so anything I do improves it, rather than constant weed-fighting, and I can make nice plans; also, it is the one place where there is not boxes and chaos so I am not constantly thinking, "That's something else I must sort."
While I was out there, my neighbour from two doors down called in to invite me out for a drive and a walk around one of the nearby towns later in the week so that's really nice and she gave me a bit of advice about some of the things I've left to grow in the flowerbeds as I don't know whether they're weeds or not (it turns out some of them are).
Pasta for us this evening too. Having discovered a tasty quick recipe (pasta and a tin of tuna mixed with green pesto, topped with grated cheese and served with whatever vegetable needs using in the fridge) I dish it up around twice a week. It will be washed down with a sauvignon blanc and followed by Easter chocolate. Once that's all eaten up we really need to take ourselves in hand as the last few months have been very stressful and wine and chocolate every evening have been keeping us going ...
Our walk today was really great, just us and the the person leading the walk exploring some of the green spaces in our city to the east. Only bugger is I've left my sun glasses somewhere, not ideal when we're off on holiday tomorrow.
I've now more or less packed, after spending ages dithering about which shoes to take.
It sounds like you've made a good move @nenya, friendly neighbours are a real bonus.
Comments
I'm reminded of when we had to come back to Blighty for a family funeral one February, and a friend in Canada wanted to know if the daffodils were out. We reported back that they were past in the South of England, almost past in Edinburgh, in full bloom in the Highlands and just coming out in Orkney.
I'll add a vote for grape hyacinths - my in-laws had them in their garden, and I always thought they were really pretty.
Have escaped from the office until Tuesday; Olympic level snoozage will ensue tomorrow.
Supper was a lamb steak with veggies, and I think a HCB or two is now called for.
The Spanish bluebells in my front garden bloomed about a week before that, I think.
A bonus of having guests round is that my house is clean and tidy.
We live on the fringe of Newport and we have bluebells too. Lots of spring colours can be seen which is very cheering.
Today I'm off to the Walk of Witness in town. There is usually quite a good attendance, though no two weather apps agree as to whether we're going to be rained on or not.
* sitting up in bed messing about on Facebook and the Ship
It was a bit too long for me, five hymns, several readings and reflections, led entirely by the Methodists. Two or three Anglicans attended but nobody “ official”.
Both churches had an all-age service at 11, with more reflective services this afternoon. I shall continue listening to Bach’s St Matthew Passion at home.
I haven't been up there recently.
As there isn't a petrol station in our village, we planned to get petrol on the way home from the Walk of Witness in Nearest Town. Our usual garage had no petrol! We doubled back and went to another garage, where we had to queue up to fill up.
I have found tins of spam and a 2kg bag of lentils in my kitchen. Neither of us like tinned spam, and our usual 500g bag of lentils usually lasts weeks. Every time there is the threat of shortages (Y2000, Brexit, Covid etc), the North East Man thinks the same thought. There might be shortages. When there are shortages, people have to eat food they don't like. There is no food we don't like in our cupboards, so we are unprepared! I must go out and buy food I don't like!
In vain have I said that stocking up is fine, but please stock up on food we like! The tinned spam and lentils tell me that once again the NE Man is stocking up on "food we don't like" because that is the "correct" food for times of potential shortage.
I'm glad our car is electric. I've very much enjoyed not having to go to the petrol station since we got it - even more so now!
I used to be prepared like a good girl guide. I had a wardrobe given over to stocking up and had a great system going. It stood me in good stead during Covid.
But in this tiny cottage, there's no space for a spare wardrobe. So I'll just keep giving more of the garden over to growing food, and consider getting some chickens!
Yesterday we also took delivery of some furniture for our kitchen/family room, which we're very pleased with and it's helped to make the place feel a bit more like ours.
Today is all about sorting and unpacking - Mr Nen has completely reorganised his new study (the way he had initially set it up didn't work for him at all) and I'm unpacking my books. They've been in boxes for a month and I felt a bit emotional when I opened the first box as it felt like meeting up with old friends. I'm also downsizing my collection as I unpack. The new study is bigger but I don't want it to feel as crammed as my previous one did - much as I loved that one.
We're going to take a break from it all soon and meet up with some friends online over a glass of wine.
Maybe the lack of petrol is more due to everyone filling up anticipating price rises?
Definitely. We were filling up because there isn't a petrol station in our village, so we fill up if we are in the Nearest Town and passing the petrol station anyway. Nearest Town has three petrol stations.
Tesco ran out yesterday, were resupplied quickly but the new petrol is more than it was yesterday (now £1.56 a litre). We bought at a different garage at £1.54 this morning. So a lot of people were presumably queueing to get the "cheap" £1.54 while it was still available.
Tesco said yesterday that it's not a supply problem, it's an increased demand problem - people topping up faster than they would normally.
People always stock up on BH w/e, in case they unexpectedly have to cater for three times their usual number, or that there will be nothing left in the shops when they next open. Milk, bread, petrol, toilet rolls, all the basics that everyone uses.
Seems that the country can't come to terms with the fact that it isn't the nineteen-fifties any more. Nor that supermarkets all over the place are not closing for the entire weekend
I visited Tess Coe yesterday (busy, but not too bad), and may need to go to the village Co-Op tomorrow. Tess Coe are closed on Sunday, so no doubt will be full on Saturday, with hordes of the frantic buying crates of loo rolls, containers of bread, gallons of milk etc. etc. - all that bread and milk leads to incontinence...
At least there is BEER - I managed a quick visit to the village Co-Op this morning. However, I completely forgot to buy any Bread
It’s hard to know what clothes to pack for temperatures ranging from 5 to potentially 17 degrees next week.
I'm waiting in for a parcel which should have been delivered on Thursday. It is due in the next 15 minutes and I hope it turns up as we're away next week.
Our dog walk this morning was interrupted as the field was full of cows, so we went down the drove road instead. That's just a track with hedges either side, no cars. We saw a gorgeous white horse looking over one of the hedges. Ted was fascinated by it. I enjoyed looking at all the new growth in the rhynes (ditches).
We have just had a very pleasant lunch with our son. He brought it from the local farm shop. Now I'm sitting down for a coffee, he's gone off to visit friends. Mr. Boogs is cleaning and re-painting the front wall outside.
This afternoon I'm planting seedlings into new pots to put on the window sill to grow on a bit before they go into the mini greenhouse for hardening off.
Slow roasted lamb shank for evening meal. In Lancashire it's called Lamb Henry, but no one around here seems to have heard of that.
We went and bought a new pot for our lemon tree, potted it up. It now looks a lot better, and I hope it's going to start growing again soon. We also planted out the camellia my son gave me for Mothering Sunday. I hope its OK as I hadn't realised how dry it was.
Not sure what we'll do with the rest of the day. I did suggest last night heading to the Anglican Easter vigil, but I'm not sure my husband is that keen.
Apart from walking into town to collect my prescription and buy stamps before the price increase, I haven’t been out. There was nowhere I felt like going on my own. I forgot that I had intended to mow the back lawn. Too late now, so it will wait another week. It is a bit breezy now but worse is forecast, though probably it won’t be too bad here.
Church is a group service tomorrow then my youngest grandson is dropping in at teatime.
By that time it was limbering up to rain, so I hurried home and had a spot of brunch and a snooze.
I've now turned the tomatoes, peppers and garlic (along with some toasted almonds) into a Romesco sauce, some of which I had for supper with pasta, and the rest I've frozen in single portions for future use.
How Goddessish is that?
I may not be around until later tomorrow, as I'm scuttling off after church to meet some of the family for lunch, possibly followed by coffee at my sister's.
Happy Easter when it comes, everyone! 🙂
My husband has the start of a cold, and I can feel that I might have one brewing too. I'm trying to ignore it as we're off on holiday early Tuesday morning.
Church was packed, we had three people received into full communion which was lovely, and they were all in their twenties. I know there has been a lot of talk that the rise in church membership among young people isn't really happening, but it seems to be a real thing in our neck of the woods.
The rest of the day has been devoted to snoozing and trying to finish a book before we go on holiday so I can get onto the one I've been saving up to enjoy while we're away. I now need to go and get the dinner on. We're having baked potatoes, home-made coleslaw and vegan sausages.
The weather, however, was the embodiment of Bob Hope's observation that "if you don't like the British weather, just wait for a bit". It went from glorious sunshine to blizzards and back again several times in the course of just a few hours - you certainly couldn't accuse it of being boring!
Laundry now needs to be transferred from washing machine to dryer, which I hope to accomplish during a sunny bit.
This afternoon we went over to Nenlet1's house for an early supper with her, son-in-law, the GrandNenling and The Other Grandparents. This all worked really well - the little one was on great form and the meal (roast beef, which I never cook myself) was delicious.
I cooked a lamb steak for lunch having turned down an invitation from my son-in-law as the steak needed using, before I go away tomorrow. Then later my son issued a belated invitation to join them at 6.30pm, which I also declined, as it arrived when my adult grandchildren were here. They left just in time for me to enjoy Choral Evensong on Radio 3 at 6pm, which I understand is going to be its new time from now on.
A couple of the deacons had to watch the service on the screen in the creche (no babies in there, thankfully). Only the 'Carols by Candlelight' service has had a congregation that big in the time we've been here.
Presumably there were lot of visiting families, as there were plenty of extra children. This caused some anxiety for the Sunday School organiser, in case there were not enough Easter eggs to go round.
I don't know how that was resolved, but as there were no crying children after the service, presumably no-one was left out.
Then off to Elder Son & family for lunch, and the distribution of chocolate in various guises.
Home in time for tea, which we didn't really need. I had a hot cross bun with cheddar cheese & mango chutney.
We still have an unopened pack of HCBs, sent as part of a Cornish Easter hamper by Younger Son& family, and an HCB&butter pudding, made yesterday as we had a surplus, but not started. I think the unopened pack will have to go in the freezer.
We will be just about ready to eat another one by March 26th next year.
A nice sunny day here and after some deliberation we've decided to go off on a Ramblers walk. My husband has come down with a cold, not ideal when we're off on holiday tomorrow and the debate was whether he'd feel better or worse if we went out. Talking of holidays the weather is shaping up to be worse in Portugal than here, which again isn't ideal.
Shocked to realise I too am a North East Man! At the back of my kitchen cupboard, ignored for months now, are large jars of pearl barley, brown rice, powdered milk, split peas, bran flakes, lentils, cans of baked beans which I never eat, plus packets of dehydrated vegetables dating back at least three years. This in a country with abundant affordable fresh vegetables and dairy. My partner used to throw out many of my hoarded dried necessities because we never ate the stuff in those quantities. I'll go out and buy small packets of lentils rather than broach the jars at the back of the shelf because the stored goods are only for emergencies.
Light-bulb moment.
I can no longer keep surplus cans, flour etc as our cottage is far too small. Cupboard space is at a premium.
We have a beautiful Spring day. We went to the DIY shop earlier to buy seeds, and after eating husband en rouge's Pascal lamb (a day late because more convenient) we shall go and plant them in the garden.
Mr Heavenly also found a South Asian Art Centre which turned out to be a mix of Anglo-Indian museum and a carpet shop. We were looking for a traditional wool hall runner as Mr Heavenly is about to lay laminate there to replace the carpet; we now have a rather nice rich porcelain blue one from Kazakhstan. (Almost all the others were red, the preferred Kazakh colour). We might visit again for cotton bed linen and rug when we do our room up.
The train journey north again had a cancellation and a delay, which was less uplifting.
Not sure what supper will be: probably some pasta concoction.
While I was out there, my neighbour from two doors down called in to invite me out for a drive and a walk around one of the nearby towns later in the week so that's really nice and she gave me a bit of advice about some of the things I've left to grow in the flowerbeds as I don't know whether they're weeds or not (it turns out some of them are).
Pasta for us this evening too. Having discovered a tasty quick recipe (pasta and a tin of tuna mixed with green pesto, topped with grated cheese and served with whatever vegetable needs using in the fridge) I dish it up around twice a week. It will be washed down with a sauvignon blanc and followed by Easter chocolate. Once that's all eaten up we really need to take ourselves in hand as the last few months have been very stressful and wine and chocolate every evening have been keeping us going
I've now more or less packed, after spending ages dithering about which shoes to take.
It sounds like you've made a good move @nenya, friendly neighbours are a real bonus.