The little stranger/friend?

Isn't that terrible. I put it on my list of books, can't remember the title and can't find the dam' thing to check. Wasn't that impressed. Not v scary, despite the reviews I'd read. I am not terribly scared of the supernatural.  Reality is much much much scarier.

Spring continues

Serious sunshine for ages now. We have hired a gardener - for the flower garden. I have been known to call it the walled garden in moments of grandiosity, but it's not a walled garden, even though it is surrounded by a wall. He has basically given us 2 new beds so far just by clearing out all the undergrowth that had grown up, so we celebrated by buying a load of plants and trying to start a herbaceous border. Well, bed. The world's shortest herbaceous border. I like nice packed flower beds where you can't see the earth. That means that I even forgive ground elder (nice leaves) - though not couch grass.

I have also planted peas, beans, lettuce, kale, chard AND cleaned out the water butt. So ner ner ner.

I also let the children stay in their pyjamas all day today. I am a BAD MOTHER.

Easter

What a fantastic Easter! The weather was so great. We went over to friends in Rutland and the kids formed a pack and went feral. Then we went on alone to Holland - on the ferry! Overnight! In CABIN!!! and took the kids to Efteling, which is the most wonderful place. We did loads of rides, the sun shone, the kids were fantastic. The hotel had a swimming pool and we had sprinkles for breakfast.

I love Holland. The coffee is just the best, there are bikes everywhere and the sky is so big. We went from Hoek van Holland to Breda past acres of greenhouses with little corners with a couple of sheep or ponies in them.

It always feels like a country that assumes that you are a grown up.

Kids loved it too, loved being abroad, loved being in a hotel, excited about all sorts of little things. And everyone was lovely to them.

Did NOT want to go back to work. Would quite like to quit now and go and do something less stressful. If I didn't love living here so much I would be thinking about changing jobs, I think, but Yer Man has just managed to establish himself, the kids are settled, the house is great, the vegetable patch is good (got my potatoes in...), I'm acquiring friendships. I don't really want to move, I just want work to be a bit more sorted and a bit less frenetic and scary.

buds on trees

I think the quince is going to make it. I have inspected it a couple of times over the last few days and there are definite buds. I am now officially excited.

We opened a new pot of quince jam this weekend. It remains the best of all my preserves. The flavour is just staggeringly gorgeous.

There are teeny tiny leaves on the crab apple, and little buddings on everything else. I found 2 rhubarb crowns in the back that I had forgotten to plant and shoved them in a corner of the veg patch on Saturday. I really need to start some planting, but we don't seem to have had any time...how rubbish is that?

Interviewing at work tomorrow and 2 out of 3 candidates have dropped out. I suppose that doesn't matter if the one remaining is good, but it is disappointing. The staffing issues are just so stressful at the moment.

The kids are so excited about going to Holland. So am I. My brother is going to be working in a sprinkles factory in Rotterdam soon. Apparently sprinkles are BIG in Holland. I was really pleased to hear this because one of my childhood memories is doing a project on Holland at school and having a Dutch breakfast that included bread and butter and sprinkles. Have given it to the kids a couple of times as a treat(!). Felt somehow vindicated when brother got the job. So now am wondering whether sprinkles will feature in the breakfast buffet.

Sausage casserole

I cooked Nigel Slaters sausages and lentils the other day. I used to cook it a lot, but now tend to do Rachel Allen's sausage and bean casserole - partly because it is the easiest thing to cook ever and will last a couple of nights (always a bonus). They are basically the same idea - a bit of sausage and a lot of pulse. I used to cook a lot of Nigel's stuff, and still dip into his kitchen diaries from time to time, but seem to have moved on to Rachel. I think it's because his dishes are usually quick-but-last-minute, and when you have kids you want something (or I want something) you can knock up in advance and then leave sitting in the oven for ages. And then reheat/rehash the next night.

I have also found the best indian chicken recipe ever. And a basic curry base that you can shove in the freezer, whip out and cook meat or vegetables or whatever in. The children are begging for chicken curry every night! And it's so easy! How great is that?

And Mr Hockings is back. Could my gastronomic prospects be any brighter???

We are going to Efteling

 We (or at least, Yer Man, who is not happy on the computer) have just booked our ferry tickets to the Netherlands, where we are going to stay in a hotel with our adorable offspring and visit Efteling. I am very excited.

Went down to Sandymouth on Sunday - officially our favourite beach. The cafe wasn't open, but we had a packet of biscuits to keep us going

1 Skylarks. Up on the cliffs you could hear them singing their hearts out. It's hard to spot them, though, but we did spot
2 A pair of peregrine falcons, one hunched on the cliff top, the other soaring past from time to time. They shriek and chatter. We also saw
3 Fish. And the children managed to catch one with their rockpool dipping kit. We put it back - obviously. Rainbow wasn't quite grasping the concept that stroking a fish is not soothing.

Pilates tonight. Feel tall and stretched. It is the nicest exercise I have ever done.

And I read The very thought of you by Rosie Alison last week. I loved it, though it kept bringing me to tears.

Some springy photos - and a special one for Laura

First of all, here's one for Laura.

I didn't grow this.

All my potatoes were perfectly formed and were eaten long ago.

No leaves yet, but there are catkins. And blue sky.

And daffodils, of course

And adventures.