Cheap & cheerful, not Chelsea!

Hello Friends,
It's a month or so since the Chelsea Flower Show, but I've been thinking about it quite a lot. I watch at least some of the TV coverage each year. I don't follow any sport, so it's sort of 'my' seasonal thing before the endless ping, pong, 'come on, Andy' (or whoever it is these days) of Wimbledon. As for footie, I couldn't even tell you when there's any going on, until the St George flags start appearing, of course. 

I always look forward to Chelsea. I've never actually been in person. I suspect the mere fact that it is Part of the Social Calendar & thus a Place to be Seen, plus rumours of £100 tickets puts me off. I enjoy the TV coverage of the plants & gardens, but not the 'celebrity' interviews. Over the years, there have been some fab gardens. I can't hope to reproduce them at home - I just don't have that kind of budget, but I do get ideas & sometimes I see a plant which is new to me, so there are always things to learn. One thing I don't like, is that the whole show garden concept seems very artificial. Most people don't go to the garden centre or nursery & buy in everything at full size & already in flower. The more I thought about it, the more I came to the conclusion that the only personal thing about these show gardens is the design itself. I would truly miss the joy of growing my own plants from seed or giving pride of place to a plant which is special to me, if not to anybody else. My garden is often tangled, in need of deadheading, full of weeds & it was 'designed' (& believe me, that's stretching it....) by me on a piece of A4 scrap paper with a tin of old felt-tips. One of the things that makes our garden special to me is that I have actually bought very few of the plants that are growing in it. This means it will always look like a muddly cottage garden instead of a 'Chelsea' garden, but it is worth it to look at so many of my plants & think about where they came from.........gifts, swaps, cuttings from friends, 'guerilla rescues', home-grown from free packets of seed, not to mention those stray seed heads which 'accidentally' shed a few naughty seeds into my handbag on a day out.

So here's a selection which have made their way to my garden for free......my favourite 4-letter word when it comes to gardening, & very easy to achieve.......otherwise my life would be pretty expensive.

This is a Hebe 'Heartbreaker' in front of a Heucherella 'Solar power'. I promise that this heucherella will be the only plant featured in this blog-post for which I actually parted with hard cash. It was worth it. The acid green sets off pink & purple plants perfectly. The hebe was a birthday gift this year.

More gifts - my nephews gave me this pelagonium at Easter a couple of years ago, the pink verbascum was among a planty birthday gift from my Mum, & the huge-flowered fuchsia from my sister. It looks thoroughly skankrous every winter, then miraculously reappears!

This emerging alium christophii was also a gift - I usually find these don't like the East Midlands soggy winters, but am hoping it will deign to survive - as was the cornflower-blue centaurea, bought for me on a family day out to celebrate my Dad's 70th birthday. It self-seeds easily, so my borders are now dotted with this lovely blue, in memory of a good day.

As soon as fellow gardeners know that you like plants (& I LOVE plants!), then the swaps, cuttings, saved seeds & random potfuls start arriving. Turn nothing away.......it could be something good. I love that I have plants from ex-colleagues & friends I no longer (or only rarely) see. An ex-colleague gave me this huge yellow scabious jobber, which flowers reliably every year at the back of a border, & also this purple aquilegia (she swapped them for a borage & a pink aquilegia, which was a better deal for me than her, as borage carks it at the end of the summer).

When keen gardeners know you are setting up a garden, especially a fair-sized one, as we're lucky to have here, the planty offerings start arriving. I've had some clumps of great stuff from my Mum (very keen plantswoman), including this pink hardy geranium & blue-tinged penstemen.

Similarly, my good friend Helen has provided me with some fab bits & pieces including this lovely purple iris, aquilegia 'William Guinness' (aka 'Magpie') & Poppy 'Tangerine gem', the orange buggers' I can't even get to germinate. When they appear each year, I think of her growing them for me in yoghurt pots on her kitchen windowsill & it's just a whole lot more personal than buying it all in fully grown.                                                           

 Then there's seed swapping.....endless possibilities here. These maroon coloured aquilegias came from seed a friend swapped me - she was fed up with these & wanted some of my pale pink ones. I lost the seed she gave me for several weeks & became convinced I'd accidentally fed it to Steve by using the seed bag to wrap a sandwich! I hadn't, & they still grew for me..........                                                                                                            

........& the bright yellow flash here is a poppy grown from seed from another ex-colleague, given to me when I left some time ago now, but they still pop up to remind me of times past, & I like that. It's what makes a garden personal.                                                                                                          

                                                                                                          

   

                                                                                                    

Don't forget there are often lots of free seed packets around - whether offers, or I've occasionally known garden centres give away surplus or out of date stock, & I never feel shy about asking people for a seed pod or cutting of plants I'd like to grow. My biggest supply of free seed packets comes from my Mum's penchant for buying gardening magazines. They give away more free seed than she can ever possibly grow, so much of it heads north up the A1 to the People & Cats Republic. My fab white foxgloves & huge scarlet poppies were grown from 2 such free packets.    

                                                                                   

                                                  

                                    
Another great source of free plants is, of course, saving your own seed. I always save calendula seed & so the flowers I get are real mixture of yellows, oranges, different shapes & sizes, including some double ones........

                                                                 

.....there's nothing to lose except a little tray of seed compost if your saved seed doesn't germinate. Sometimes, you will find an unexpected invasion of your garden (I mean other than bindweed, brambles & Albert Whiskers' enemies).......a few years ago, I spotted what looked like a stem of honeysuckle poking through the hedge from next door. One careful tug, & since then, we've had an annual show of fab flowers, which are just coming out of bud now..............................

   

........& will bloom for ages. When they're finished, it will almost be time for my annual blackberry crop, acquired in exactly the same slightly nefarious way.

I don't think I'll watch as much Chelsea next year. I do like it for ideas & the clever garden designs, but it just isn't how I (& I suspect most people) garden. A garden is a living thing which grows & evolves with us. It isn't something which is bought in already perfect. The most important ingredient isn't money. I think we are proof that it's possible to create a natural-looking, meaningful garden using time, basic skills & all the many freebies which are out there just waiting to be discovered. For the price of a stamp, a little pinch of flower seed goes a long way, so spread some planty joy to your friends & family...........FREE PLANTS.......now't like 'em!!

Coming up: Veggie garden tour/Tadpole Armageddon/Albert Whiskers' anniversary

Till next time,

C x

Whoo-hoo! Home-made reed diffuser

Hello Friends,
Yes, alright, alright, I know I promised that my next blog-post would be a tour of the veggie garden, but it isn't. Why isn't it? Because I am still way behind & it's most likely going to be at least another week before I feel like showing it off. Herb garden nicely productive though.......

.....so I decided on a little bit of herbal activity to try out an idea I spotted in the Guardian recently, namely instructions on how to make a reed diffuser. This is the sort of 'room fragrance device' often received as a gift. Refills are available, which for me, was all very fine & laudable until, halfway to the counter, I noticed the price. HOW MUCH?? A modest 250ml bottle of the fragrance liquid costs between £11.50 & £14.00........which, litre for litre, is pretty much comparable with a single malt! What exactly is in this elixir? Well, I would imagine it's water, artificial parfum, a dash of preservative industrial-type alcohol & a side-helping of assorted chemicals. I could be wrong, but somehow I doubt it. In lieu of my veggie garden photos being ready to share, & because people have asked me, here are the instructions for making your own reed diffuser using recycled materials & no nasties.

You need an empty glass jar (clean & dry), a few bamboo skewers (the cheapo BBQ variety are fine), essential oil/oils of your choice and vegetable oil........

.....also a handful of fresh herbs & a ribbon or similar if you want to go a bit lah-di-dah fancypants.
OK, so this is such simplicity, even Albert Whiskers could do it (if he wanted to, of course, which he doesn't because the ten minutes it takes would intrude far too drastically into his valuable sleeping & eating time). Stuff the herbs into the glass jar. Cover them with vegetable oil. Add 20 drops of essential oil. Stand the bamboo skewers (we're calling them 'reeds' now, cos we've gone posh) in the oil. Finish with a ribbon bow, or whatever you fancy, or leave it plain if you prefer things minimal......tho' if you fall into the latter camp, you're unlikely to be farting about making one of these.......

The carrier oil does need to be unscented, as you don't want a back note of eau de chip fat. The essential oil can be anything you like - I used lavender. Ditto the fresh herbs. I picked sprigs of lavender leaves, lavender mint & lemon balm. A more floral oil such as neroli or ylang-ylang would work well, as would citrus, such as lime or grapefruit. For winter, I plan to try a green-smelling oil such as juniper with cloves, orange peel & surreptitiously acquired sprigs of pine tree. As with a bought diffuser, remember to turn the reeds regularly to keep the fragrance strong. 

So there you are. Very easy & with the added satisfaction of not having squandered £14 on a titchy bottle of chemical fragrance. If room fragrance is not your thing, then you have the satisfaction of never having wasted your time making one either. It's a win win.

Here at the People & Cats' Republic, we are still recovering from the post-election blues, but we are feeling stronger this week & proud to be one (well, three) of the 63.1%. Actually, make that two, as Albert Whiskers doesn't have a vote. As a cat-loving past MP of a Nottinghamshire constituency once told me 'if only cats could be enfranchised, my life-long position as MP would be assured'. 
So chins up, friends, & onwards. 'We are many, they are few'...........
Have a good week, all,
C x

Sharing some garden therapy after grim night of the soul....

Hello Friends,
Well, I know that I & so many of my family & friends, were hoping for a very different political result on Thursday - one which brought some kind of progressive left alliance to our increasingly right-wing, insular-feeling country. Yet, in a scenario horribly reminiscent of 1992, we ended up with a Tory majority. I can only hope that the 36.9% who crossed that particular box are looking forward to the draconian austerity cuts which are now coming......because it won't just be those idle shirkers you read about in some or other 'Daily Mail' spewing who will be on the sharp ends of the cuts, it will also be every one of us who wants to live in a country which values those markers of  a civilized society  - a health service which puts people before profit, care for the most vulnerable, decent social housing, police, fire & ambulance services with sufficient numbers of officers to function effectively, properly funded schools with qualified teachers who feel valued, public libraries, the arts & our much-loved country parks. Just 1 day after the election, we are already reading that teaching assistants may disappear from schools. I'm sure parents of children with learning difficulties will be particularly appreciative of that one, Mr Gove. As an active Labour Party member, I know the election post-mortem will surely follow, but today, I needed to rid my head of it, to enjoy some simple pleasures. Decided to take a walk around our garden & share some pictures of calming green loveliness. It was a S-L-O-W walk......a bit like the slow canal trip shown on TV recently..........

.....so try to imagine you are walking around with me & we are not talking about horrible election results at all.

We're on the courtyard here. Why don't I call it a 'patio?' Because it's a dark, dank space where not much thrives (except Steve & the BBQ). This is a climbing hydrangea, which just about manages to stay this side of deceased. I like the green shiny leaves against the brickwork, & it does flower, albeit grudgingly.

Nobody really bothers about witch hazels unless it's their flowering season (winter), but they do fill out with lush lime-hued leaves in spring. The veining & the fact that I never remember to prune it makes it quite a textured tree.....more so in summer, when most years, our leaf-cutter bees arrive to chomp out, roll up & carry away little tubes of leaf for their nests. Love watching them in action.....that really is life in the slow lane as they return countless times, each visit leaving behind a perfect crescent shape in the leaf. 

Remember our Christmas Tree? It can't be too unhappy in its pot, as it's producing fir-cones. Lots of them. These are just the ones I could reach to photograph. I expect the 5'11" half of the relationship will produce some sort of  fancy-pants photographic fir-cone study before long!

It's aquilegia time here at 'Hagstones'. They are a hugely promiscuous plant. Seedlings pop up everywhere, sometimes purple, occasionally white or yellow, but mostly shades of pink.

This one insists on coming up each year in the tiny space between my herb bed & gravel path of the veggie garden & is such a strong vigorous specimen, I don't think I could pull it out if I wanted to.

Another self-seeded one - Years ago, a colleague gave me some seeds from a maroon-coloured aquilegia she was sick of, in return for some seeds from my pink ones. I still find traces of the maroon ancestry each year, like this one with dark red bonnets & white undercarriages. I find so many self-sown aquilegia seedlings in my borders, I should really be potting them up & giving them away to spread the planty love!

The hardy geraniums are just starting to flower. If dead-headed & given the 'Chelsea chop', they'll flower for ages. The one on the right grows like a weed here. If I need to fill any odd spaces, I just break off a piece of root, shove it in the ground, aim a watering can in its general direction & it romps away. Free = Definitely my absolute best kind of plant!

Some general shots of stuff in my borders now. The colour combination of this acid- yellow euphorbia & purple-leaved ligularia happened by accident, but I like it.

A carefully nurtured lammium - yes, I know it looks like a nettle, but it's actually a lovely domesticated member of the nettle family I bought at Cragside when we were up in Northumbria one year. It was a proper fussy sod about where it wanted to be planted & spent the first few years trying its utmost to cark it, but has now decided to do the decent thing & earn its keep. The bright blue petals in the background are dyer's alkanet - a native wildflower which looks fab in borders this time but reproduces like mad. It has deep thick taproots. Husbands generally break spades when called upon to dig them out. 

Pleased with the clematis over our arch this year. Mum knows this variety as 'Mile-a-minute' because it is a really speedy grower & virtually indestructable. This is our second one (!). The first defied its nickname, withered & met an untimely end on the compost heap.

This poppy is 'Tangerine Gem' or 'Those Orange Buggers'. I sowed 3 packs of these seeds in successive years & not a single one germinated. When I was given another pack of seed, I gave it to my very green-fingered friend, Helen, saying, 'See if you can get these to do anything'. A few months later, she appeared with some plants for me & said it was 'those orange buggers you gave me'. The orange buggers are now thriving perennials & if deadheaded & not too icy, will still be flowering as late as November.

One of the last bluebells in the wild area under our apple tree, which is now coming into blossom.

Oooh, & look what I've spotted, another freebie - a self-sown hellebore, the native 'stinking' variety.....

......I know it looks a bit like a plant of much more.......er.......recreational use, but it really isn't!

And walking back towards the house, the blossom on the ornamental cherry is looking good.....

......and the under plantings change regularly with the seasons......

........so that's a slow leisurely walk around our garden. It did me good to commune with lots of green stuff after Thursday's long dark night of the soul .......& when I got inside, I found the ever-entertaining Albert Whiskers just starting to wake himself up in case there might have been any danger of his dinner appearing (there wasn't!)

I'm not happy about Thursday.How could I be? 63.1% of people who voted did not want this result. But one thing I do know. The Tories are mostly defeated not by other parties, but by themselves. They have some intensely difficult & emotive stuff to deal with surrounding the Scots & Europe. They also have a whole lot of rabidly right-wing back benchers (remember John Major referring to his particular cohort of these lovelies as 'the bastards'?) who will surely be planning a resurgence of their game-play now that they are no longer in coalition. I fear life will sadly worsen for the poorest & most vulnerable in our society & we must all help them fight their corner when we can. However, I have absolutely no doubt that the Tories will be the architects of their own downfall, so bring it on!

Peace.....& every respect to the people of Scotland who were brave enough to vote for change.
Yours until next time,
C x 

Sorrel Soup

Hi Friends,
Well, it's a quick post from me this week, as it's Thursday already & my job list for the week is only about half done due to one thing & another. I thought I'd share my sorrel soup recipe with you, as it's that time of year when sorrel leaves are so bright green & lush, it's a shame to waste them.

I bought this sorrel plant as a job lot of herbs - one of those 4 for £5 type of offers - years ago. Sorrel is very easy to grow & doesn't seem to have any special requirements. It is perennial, so it dies down in the winter & grows back again ready to use in early Spring. It's so useful, I don't know why more gardeners don't grow it. I use the baby leaves raw in salads (they are like a lemony-flavoured spinach), it's good in quiches, frittata, as curry greens, & for many recipes as a substitute for spinach. Sorrel grows wild too, so if you are hot on plant recognition, you can forage it for free. I do a small amount of foraging, but I never risk eating anything I'm not 100% confident I've identified correctly. I used to gather field mushrooms, but have stopped since the Big Hairy Half of the Relationship informed me, "I trust you with my life, Babe, but I'm not eating any mushroom YOU'VE picked'! (Hmmm!)

If you find a little corner of your garden for a sorrel plant, it will soon fill out sufficiently for you to divide it up & give starter plants to friends. If you're one of those non-gardeners who could even kill bindweed, then this is a good plant. In that very cold winter of a few years ago, we experienced overnight temperatures down to -16 degrees here, but the sorrel still popped straight back up in springtime.

So, my soup recipe, which is what I most often make with our home grown sorrel. It doesn't require any weird ingredients.

Sorrel Soup

1 quite large onion, chopped.

1 smallish potato, chopped.

1 tbsp olive oil

1 bunch of fresh sorrel leaves - you want a generous handful - shredded.

300 ml vegetable stock (I use Marigold powder or Aldi veggie stock cubes which are great in soups)

300ml semi-skimmed milk

Salt & freshly ground black pepper 

Heat olive oil in a pan, add the onion & cook gently until softened, but not browned. Add the potato, sorrel, stock, milk & salt/pepper to taste. Bring pan to the boil, then reduce to a simmer. Put the lid on & let it cook gently together for about 20 mins. The contents will look rather curdled at this stage because of cooking the milk, but don't worry, this is normal. Take pan off the heat to cool a little, then blend it until smooth with a stick blender (or put in liquidiser goblet...... if you like washing these up). Taste the blended soup for seasoning & add a little more salt & pepper if needed. Reheat gently before serving.

If you want to go a bit la-di-dah fancypants, then add a swirl of cream to the top of each bowl.

This soup freezes really well, so just divvy it up into portions & that's a few free lunches & pack-ups to enjoy in weeks to come. It's a very velvety soup, & quite delicately flavoured, so it makes a good 'starter' for anyone who wants to look a bit cheffy.

I find these quantities make about 3 portions, but it depends on size of appetite like everything else. For recipes which state 'Serves 4', I mentally add 'Or my husband!'

I made my last batch of sorrel soup about 2 weeks ago. The sorrel has already completely grown back ready for cutting again, so it's a nice productive little plant to cultivate.

For those of you who I know like a regular update on Albert Whiskers.....well, he's been busy testing a brand of cat biscuits this week. Burgess Cat Biscuits with salmon, chicken & chicken & duck. He thought they were worth waiting for..........

.....& threw himself into this task with his usual food-related vigour. After snarfing all three bags (just to make sure), he has declared them all most definitely fit for purpose. Burgess Pet Foods seems to be a UK company too, so I'll look into that, as may want to support a small British company more than a huge multi-national. Albert Whiskers won't care, as the only ethics that matter to him are the ethics of his hungry tummy.

Have a good week all,

Will soon be ready to share a little tour of our veggie garden to show how it's getting on for the new season.

Cheers,

C x

Rhubarb cake & yet more rhubarby loveliness......

Hello Friends,
Isn't it fab to see a bit of sunshine after what feels like 4 months of sort of indeterminate grey. I feel we need a theme tune this week, so who remembers this? Surely one of the best theme tunes ever, & most appropriate today when I'm going to be boring you all with rhubarb! 

On Easter Sunday, I lifted the forcing crock & harvested our crop of lovely pink rhubarb, the first significant food from our garden this year. When people leave their jobs, they generally like some kind of commemorative or personal gift, but practical to the end, I decided that a forcing crock was what was missing from my life. This year, it was sending signals that it was more than ready.........

After a winter of pretty much bare soil, the pink stems & bright lime leaves are always a welcome burst of colour.

Surprisingly, there was sufficient to make a few different things. I started by trying a new recipe from the Waitrose 'Spring Harvest 2015' booklet. 

These are free booklets, & are nice enough to collect & give as a gift if you know someone who loves cooking......if I didn't live near enough to a Waitrose to pick them up for myself, it's the kind of little gift I'd be happy to receive, tied up with a bit of arty-farty raffia, of course, with a couple of new pound shop wooden spoons. Anyway, back to the all-important life-giving subject of cake. I used 400g of my rhubarb in Rhubarb & Custard Traybake. 

What can I say? Oh my days, it was fab! I've made other rhubarb cakes, but this was different & special. First, the rhubarb had to be lightly caramelized in a hot oven.

The cake mixture is a sponge, made infinitely more interesting through the addition of ground almonds, custard powder & about a cupful of Waitrose Seriously Creamy Madagascan Vanilla Custard (no, definitely NOT the stuff you had slung in the general direction of your jam roly-poly at school in the 70s!). The cake mix is smoothed into a lined tray, then deep craters are made with the back of a tablespoon, which are then filled with the remaining custard. This seems counter intuitive, as it seemed to me, as an experienced home baker, that the cake mix would be too wet to cook through properly. If you try this recipe, don't worry, just follow the instructions & make the custard craters.....

When all the custard has been applied, add the rhubarb and bake. The custard sets a bit, but still retains a lush squidge on cooling. 

All it requires now is a sprinkle of sugar before devouring a piece with a really decent cup of coffee. Not sure if you like it a lot or love it immensely? Best have another piece. Seriously, this is the best rhubarb cake I've ever made.....or eaten. It's not difficult to make & it offers the deep therapeutic qualities of the cake that is just the right balance of squidge & crumb, sweet & tangy. Go on, bake one, you know you want to! 

So that was the fate of some of my pink rhubarb. The rest of it was turned into compote, a rhubarb, apple & ginger cake and a batch of rhubarb & cinnamon muffins. 

The muffins, which have now have a layer of lemon icing, are in the freezer waiting for a picnic opportunity. While the Big Hairy One & I are known for picnicking in all weathers, including 4 inches of snow, it's always great to be able to sprawl out in the sunshine so as to be able to combine a bit of serious communing with nature..........& cake.

For fans of Albert Whiskers, I am pleased to report that after a slow start, he has really taken to his cardboard claw sharpening pad. He hasn't stropped his claws on the rug for over a week. I still think that the catnip is the main pull, as he can enjoy inhaling it from his paws all evening. It's a result, though. Not often that there is helpful behaviour to report where Albert Whiskers is concerned.

Hope you are all enjoying the sunshine......& if I've tempted you to make a Rhubarb & Custard Traybake, I do hope you enjoy it.
Until next time,
C x

Happy Easter Wishes x

Hello Friends,
Spring is here at last! In our garden here at the People & Cats Republic, everything is busy germinating, bursting into bud, tweeting, buzzing & pecking people's prize purple & white stripy primulas to shreds with naughty vandal beaks.

The 'Ice Follies' daffodils are looking fab & I must have bought mine on the day the bulb counting machine had a melt-down, as my sack of 30 bulbs actually contained 45, enough to plant an extra couple of pots. 'Ice Follies' are a tall strong variety, with very pale lemon yellow petals & frilly darker centres. 

Over the last week, they have put up with all-day rain, gales, hail, not to mention the ever-present delinquent sparrow army & sporadic cat spats, & they are still standing tall, so I can recommend them for anyone wanting a good show this time next year.

I always like to make an Easter Tree, an easy sustainable project, as I just cut a few twiggy branches from the garden, arrange them in a vase & decorate with a motley assortment of spring decorations I've made or collected over the years. 

Some are looking a little the worse for wear. This poor chick moults off a load more feathers each year & will soon be bald, but we have an Equality of Opportunity Policy here at 'Hagstones', so bald mange-suffering poultry are as welcome on our tree now as the legless robin with the staved-in head is at Yule.

It wouldn't be Easter without baking, so this year, I made a big iced sponge to take along to yesterday's family fuddle. Even as a very keen baker, it was the first time I'd made a Genoese sponge. I can remember we had to know the difference between a Genoese & a whisked or Victoria sponge for O-level cookery........yes, we really learned to cooked back then........we didn't spend a whole term farting about with designing a sandwich & a marketing plan for its packaging.........cookery was a life skill, & one of the most useful, money-saving & creative things I learned at school. Anyway, I'd noted the general paling & twitchiness of 'Great British Bake-off' contestants when twigging that the recipe they'd been given involved a Genoese. Decided to give it a go on the basis that if it collapsed in a tragic heap of crumbs, I'd easily be able to knock up my quick bomb-proof chocolate cake. It turned out to be pretty straightforward, just a case of being organised & having the melted butter ready to drizzle in down the sides of the bowl. (Admittedly, I made mine without the gimlet eyes of Mr Hollywood roving over my batter, & with nothing more distracting than the continued attempts of Albert Whiskers to get into the fridge). I split it into 3 layers & filled it with home made plum jam & vanilla butter cream. I was pleased with the result. Everyone enjoyed it & wanted some to take home, so it was all eaten (just in case anyone was thinking of accidentally calling by for a spare slice........).

So, it's Easter. The Wheel of the Year is turning & everywhere I look in the garden, I see a task which needs doing. I'll try to catch up with some of those this week. Whatever you are doing today, I hope you had chocolate for breakfast. I have to hold my sticky hand up in admittance that I had both breakfast AND chocolate for breakfast, but that's kind of the law at Easter. 

So whether you are celebrating the welcome return of the Spring, as we do, the resurrection of your god, a pleasant weekend away from work spending time with your families & friends, or a mixture of all of the above, we three at the People & Cats Republic would like to wish you all a Very Happy Easter filled with all the promise of springtide. I would like to extend special wishes to all those people in essential services who have to work over the holiday weekend, often for wages which do not reflect the value of the work. Our country would grind to a halt without them & they deserve our thanks.

Till next time, when I shall mostly be boring you with rhubarb, but all being well, there should be an interesting cake......
Cheers,
C x