Clocks Change

This morning we had safely negotiated the hour's less sleep and actually got up feeling refreshed - we must have slept well because I had missed my normal early morning text from mum and then the second telling me she was going for a walk and then, in a bit of a panic, she text John because she thought there was an issue - no issue we had just slept in later than usual!!

There is great excitement in my half of the Wiseman household because several years ago (maybe 5 as Dad has been gone for 3 years) Dad saw a magnolia plant being advertised in Lidl and he was determined to buy me one.  

For anyone who knew Dad and his background this will come as no surprise because his past was heavily linked with the Caerhays Estate in Cornwall which are renowned for their collection of Magnolia, Camelia and Rhododendron.  In fact, my dad's family lived in a tied cottage in East Portholland which belonged to the Williams family (of Caerhays) and my gran was their seamstress and Dad's cousin Philip was the head gardener there.  

Anyway for years this poor plant has struggled with the wind and the sun in my garden and then last year I moved it to a new shaded position on the decking outside the kitchen where we eat if we are going to eat outside.  A few weeks ago I pruned it a little back to buds that looked healthy and then today I noticed that one of the 'buds' was not for a leaf but for a flower and it looks like it is going to be a beautiful deep pink.  I have no paperwork on this plant save that it came from Lidl but it is deciduous and small and has a pink flower and if you look on tintyweb it could be Magnolia Caerhays Surprise - how fabulous and apt would that be?

The garden is looking absolutely fantabulous - all sorts of plants are springing into life along with the Magnolia and I do think that my wild orchid has survived in the garden - I just need for it to grow a little more so I can get a photograph of it and ID it.  The anemone are putting on a lovely show and all the flowers give us optimism for the months to come - fingers crossed!

We were taking lunch down to Mum today and sharing it with her lovely friend Lilian.  I had chosen to do a Lamb Tagine which was being served with jewelled rice.  I had chosen this because Lilian has friends who have (or as it now turns out - had) a restaurant on the Tombs of the Kings road called The Marrakesh which served Moroccan food.  Sadly as a result of the lockdown and a greedy landlord it will not be reopening which is a shame as we had agreed that we would all go there together.  Anyway Lilian really seemed to enjoy my take on the food and even took a Red Cross Food Parcel back with her.

Mum had bought some creme brulee from Lidl for our pud and I pimped them up with some ginger biscuit crumb, raspberries and a leaf of mint from the garden and they were a success - just enough to finish off the meal.

We had a quick coffee sat in the lounge together before John and I had to make our way back home to keep within the time limit.  Hopefully by this time next week texting and three hour allowances will be a thing of the past - we can certainly hope so.

Anyway a lovely day and we got home to three ravenous cats, a one day international cricket match which England lost but only by 7 runs and a grand prix which Lewis Hamilton won but only after an exciting battle.

Another week over and we are now at the end of March - a quarter of the way through 2021 - let's hope we will get a positive announcement next week so that we can start to build our new 'normal'.