Easter Sunday in the UK

The clocks changed last night and we had an hour less sleep although that didn't seem to make any difference to us or the cats - in fact we were all up earlier than we would have been had they not changed!  With some time before Mum and Dad came for Easter Sunday lunch (UK Easter) I busied myself in the kitchen and John took the opportunity to do a bit more grouting with the help of Chivers who wanted to drink the dirty grout water.

He was then helped by Boris who also wanted to drink the dirty grout water.  What is it with the cats and dirty water?  We provide them with lots of bowls of fresh clean drinking water in the house and in the garden but they always seem to prefer manky green dirty water that has been hanging around complete with dead snails and slugs.

The garden is beginning to look really lovely - I am pleased that a couple of the ranunculas I planted last year have survived and are flowering although I don't expect that big black bug is doing this one any good.   I am also pleased to report that the cerinthe that Elaine gave me last year has self-seeded in places I have no idea how it got to but I am pleased because it is such a beautiful coloured plant with glaucous green succulent leaves and bluey-pinky-purple flashes of colour where the little flowers appear.  I shall try and collect the seed this year and try and plant it where I would like it to come up next year.

I thought it would be nice to have some fresh flowers on the dining table and so I picked a load from the garden - mainly osteospurmums but there are a few narcissi flowering by the olive tree and some lavender with particularly long stems!!

We were going to stretch our lunch out like we do on Christmas Day so intended that we have our starter then a break to play a game of cards, then our main course followed by a film (The Lady in the Van) and then rounded of with our pudding.

I only laid the table for our starter and put the remainder of the cutlery in a jar in readiness - the jar looked a bit boring so I got out my buttons and string and prettied it up a bit!!!

We had a lovely afternoon, although it was sunny it was with a cold wind and indoors it was a bit cool so John had the gas fire lit and mum and dad sat next to it to get full benefit.  Today our three courses were as follows:  Starter - Individual Yorkshire puddings filled with bacon, onion and chicken livers cooked in a brandy, mustard and cream sauce with a rocket garnish.  Main Course:  slow cooked minted lamb in a red wine gravy infused with carrots, leeks and turnips.  Crispy roast potatoes (not quite up to Klaus's standard) hot coleslaw (carrot, leek and cabbage sauted in butter and black pepper and finished with a dash of cream) and garden peas.  Pudding - Baileys Bread and Butter Pudding.  And, if I do say so myself, it was pretty darn good!!!

The film was excellent - Maggie Smith is indeed a National Treasure and her performance was brilliant.  I had wanted to get this for our Christmas film but it was too new so I was glad I managed to get it for today.  It was lovely and warm in the house and I was full of lovely food so I will admit to nodding off a couple of times.  The cats appreciated the fire being on - Chivers and Boris cuddled up like Ying and Yang holding on to one another's feet!!!

A good day all round I think.