Hello First name / there
Easter weekend was upon us, we had our first social with friends in a garden, another with family singing Happy Birthday and of course the annual Easter Egg Hunt. The temperature had plummeted after our day on the beach but as memory serves Easter is often a chilly affair, the sun shone for parts of the day, as layers came on, then off. It didn’t matter too much we were wrapped up in the novelty of being with our favourite people. On Sunday itself I decided it was too nice to stay indoors and make a roast dinner, I was in the garden, my favourite way to spend a day.
On Monday my Facebook memories popped up, there was Livvy beaming, about six years old, looking gorgeous and cute in bunny ears and carrying a huge basket of chocolate eggs. We had spent Easter in Devon, and it stayed dry and sunny. We’ve been lucky enough for the past 5-6 years to go away around now with the family, our last trip together was Rome, which was magical, all the kids, their partners and baby Banshee.
Travelling and holidays have been the things that I’ve forced myself to put to the back of my mind, so many of us look forward to getting away, yet it’s too tricky to plan right now, crossing my fingers I hope to return to Devon during the summer but anything further afield, will have to wait.
There is a silver lining to this, it means the garden can get my full attention, the building work I mentioned a few weeks ago, is fully underway, I can’t wait to give it the final touches and it’s a great excuse to buy some new plants, (I never need much of excuse, it’s a weakness of mine) I’ve seen some giant olive trees, just one would have a fantastic impact. I’ve never bought an established tree before, I like to nurture seedlings and watch them grow, but there is something very exciting for me about having a fully formed tree suddenly in the garden.
Cooking has been in the background this week, since Christmas I’ve been wanting to write about how lockdown has affected those working in hospitality. I found out some people have not been merely doing jigsaws (guilty as charged) but who normally work in hospitality and have been forced into furlough, to close down or reinvent their business.
It’s been an inspiring week; learning about their challenges, but also how they have put positive spins on such difficult circumstances. Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing their stories with you. The first is my old boss (who’s much younger than me!!) and mentor John Lawson. He is currently in Bali practising yoga, learning about healing and Ayurvedic medicine and diet. If you need to be whisked to a different place this is the read for you!
I did manage to cook a little of course, and from my vegetable box this week was a beautiful bulb of fennel. I made a pasta dish that is simple to do and can be on its own or would work beautifully with chicken, fish or pork.
