Happy Easter?

Why do people say “Happy Easter” like it’s Christmas? It’s about the death of a man by very painful and horrific means. How can this be a happy occasion? Even if you believe that he was the son of some awful, vengeful god with odd ideas about parenting, then, surely, one should be grateful rather than pleased.

Well, I was grateful because, of all the shops in Farnham to be closed, Starbucks wasn’t one of them. So, I left Mirinda at home and went up for my usual latte and to type up my blog post. Which, of course, is the ONLY reason I go to Starbucks.

I feel like I spent the rest of the day engaged in cooking. (Well, apart from a trip up to the dump with a lot of crap from one of the sheds.) Being Easter meant I had to make my usual simnel cake. This takes about half an hour to prepare, four hours to cook and another hour to decorate and finish. By the time it had finished, I had half an hour before I had to start cooking dinner. Because of this, I missed out on a lovely walk across Hankley (Mirinda took the girls late in the day).

While only half an hour, it was time enough to take a few photos in the garden.

Firstly, there’s the magnolia which bloomed a bit later this year than previously…

Finally, the magnolia blooms

…the office daffs which are slowly giving way to the tulips…

Full of daffs

…the first of which have opened in the Old Nettle Bed.

The first tulips

I also thought I’d post a photo of the box and lavender placement, prior to my planting them in the week.

The box and the lavender, waiting

The simnel cake was finally finished (complete with marzipan toasting) and, naturally, I photographed it as it cooled.

The Cult of the Pixie

Rather than the 12 or 13 balls of marzipan which represent the apostles, I decided to go all profane this year. I wrote “Cult of Pixie” in marzipan and included a few marzipan Easter eggs. (I’m going to post about the Cult of Pixie soon.)

Mirinda returned from Hankley and insisted that we needed to try the simnel cake while it was still warm. She was right, it tasted very nice. Mind you, it still tasted great, almost cold, after dinner.

And the roast this week was pork with green butter.