Easter fun

I didn't have very high expectations of Easter this year. It was due to be sandwiched between a week having our parking area landscaped at home, and a trip to see family and friends up north. Both obviously were cancelled and I was struggling with the disappointment and the feeling that Easter would just be a none-event.

However, I sort of got my creative mojo back (briefly!!).

On Good Friday I made palm crosses from some of the Cornish palm fronds in my garden. (That took some dredging through memory banks of elderly ladies at church whizzing them up on Palm Sunday). I was rather pleased with them and wished I'd thought of it earlier so I could have sent them to relatives that might have liked them. 

I also started baking a chocolate simnel cake from the Sainsbury's magazine, recipe here. It is a great recipe and I would bake it again... with a deeper tin and cutting the baking time by 15 minutes! My cake exploded out of the tin, sploodged down the side and then started to burn. With a bit of sneaky trimming the cake was saved but I did wonder at this stage whether it was worth making the marzipan and icing. I'm so glad I did though - when it was  finished it not only looked the part, it even tasted good!

Saturday also saw me trying my first Easter wreath.

I rustled up an old Christmas wreath base (there are about 5 in my shed as I struggle with single use plastic - here was a chance to reuse!!) and covered it in moss, tying it on with twine. 

The moss came from our lawn - our lawn is 60% moss, 15% clover, 15% daisies and 10% grass, so we have an abundant supply. I was accompanied by a Blackbird (whose nest building need was obviously greater than mine) and a Robin who I suspect was just nosey.

Then a collection of greenery and flowers was picked, added and ta-dah a wreath appeared! I used a skewer/stick to make holes for some of the more tender stems as they weren't strong enough to push through the moss.

I added some foiled eggs and bunnies and put a candle in the centre and it has graced the table all week (even the choccy bits have survived - very unlike the post-teens to miss chocolate)

Globetrotting twin and I enjoyed putting together an Easter tree too - another first for us. 

Crocheted flowers, pearlescent bells (from way back when I was designing my very first M+S Christmas - 2003 maybe?), bows and felt eggs all dredged up from the stash that is the spare bedroom cupboard!

So the Easter weekend was the most productive I've been since the start of this lockdown, though I have to say I've rather stalled again now. I think it's something to do with a deadline - an 'it's now or never' sort of thing. When time is limitless then why do it now?

Anyway - I plan to try and set myself some deadlines to get things moving, but perhaps not today. Today it is raining on and off, which the garden is loving and the family not so much. We are talking about a walk but the rain isn't encouraging however stir crazy we feel.

I took this photo on Easter Sunday night after a jolly roast dinner and far too much chocolate with the family. It looked so cosy, peaceful and still with the Easter candle burning brightly.

So I wish you and your families light and love this Easter (even if it is rather after the event) and I hope you are finding moments of peace and quiet in your days.

xx💙💙💙xx

Spring time walk

Walks are keeping us sane!

We love to walk in times of no lockdown but usually head to the coast or to 'somewhere more interesting'. These days with no driving to walks allowed we are rediscovering or even discovering for the first time our local walks and there are quite a few.

It may be that these walks get less interesting the longer we are restricted to them, but as spring is doing it's thing so far they have been pretty different each time.

And things have definitely moved from early spring to full on Spring in Cornwall this week.

Suddenly the primroses are vying with other contenders:

Wild Lunaria Annua, or Honesty, which gives us lovely papery 'moon pennies' in the autumn...

yellow Deadnettle with its beautifully marked leaves...

the first signs of Cowparsley...

and the frothiest Blackthorn blossom (flowers before it has leaves), the sloe harvest should be good this year!

Forget-me-nots are showing their faces...

 fur bobs and catkins...

and the brightest, freshest green of the Hawthorn or May (gets leaves before it flowers - although the buds are all ready!!)

And swathes and swathes of Wild Garlic, or Ramsons as it's known here in Cornwall.

So in the true lockdown, foraging spirit I pick a load and decided to make some Wild Garlic pesto.

I picked a good handful of the newest leaves and flowers and whizzed them up with parmesan, pine nuts, lemon juice and oil and hey pesto (see what I did there?😏)...

delicious fresh tasting pesto! I based mine on a BBC Good Food recipe here although I'm not sure it needed the extra garlic clove - it was quite strong enough. Probably good that we're not mingling too much with others at the moment! 

Anyway it was an easy supper and something new and given that there appears to be a huge amount of food being consumed at the moment it's good to have something healthy. Did I mention that food is keeping us occupied? Walks for sanity, food for everything else - we may have to be rolled out on our walks soon given that globetrotting eldest now has a lockdown baking roster!!😋

Not quite sure what I'm doing with my legs here - but from my family (together at last) to your family I send the best of wishes and hope you are safe and well. Hopefully your good days are, if not outweighing your difficult days, at least balancing them out. 

It is a difficult time for all and it would be wrong to pretend that we are all cheery and happy all the time. There are frustrations, irritations and deep anxieties, but I saw a quote from Terry Waite, who spent 1776 days (that's over 4 years) in a room on his own blindfolded. He said:

Keep your own dignity - get out of your PJs!

Form a structure for the day

Be grateful for what you have - shelter, home, possessions

Read and be creative

Change your mindset,

You're not stuck at home,

You're Safe at home

So I am trying (but not always succeeding) to change my mindset. I'm also massively grateful that we are lucky enough to be together and have a garden and quiet lanes in which to walk, and I'm trying hard not to judge others. We are all getting through this the best way we can. 

That said please don't come to Cornwall for Easter - we'd love to see you soon just not right now.

x💚💚💚💚x