Easter is upon us

Today is my last day at work before 4 whole days of unadulterated Easter weekend, you have no idea how happy this makes me (well you might have some idea, very, very happy indeed). I have big plans for this weekend including a complete overhall of the garden and a bit of a spring clean of the house. Having said that I think the main priority may in fact be having a little rest (I started to go down with the horrible coldy flu thing earlier on in the week but seem to have managed to shake it off). Witchcat wasn’t very well last week either, having got in a cat fight last Friday (she has a great big scar on the top of her head and looks like some feral kitty) but I’ve been bathing it (much to her disgust, like most cats she hates water) and it seems a little better. We also have a most distinguished house guest residing with us for a week, my violin tutor’s budgie Guy (likes - classic FM and singing to himself, dislikes - strong sunlight and finding his food bowl empty). I’ve never had a bird before so am very excited by Guy’s presence in the house (Mabel isn’t that keen, having the unusual cat reaction of being scared of him, but I’m sure she’ll come round).
Tomorrow Nicola is coming round and we are watching girlie films and baking (I got some really fantastic muffin tins in heart shapes from John Lewis and some alphabet cutters from the cool delicatessen we have in Abingdon). Also it will be my second proper attempt at Simnel cake (I have a feeling I tried it in London but it ended up quite dry with a mountain of marzipan it didn’t need). Saturday might well be a trip to our favourite garden centre and antique shop and Easter Sunday I’m going for a roast round at Trish’s. Monday is time for another assault on the hall and mowing the lawn/weeding for England (mental note to self must sort Rhubarb out this evening, there is some ready to pull already (I don’t think we are in the rhubarb triangle in Oxford?)) and the rest is trying to go to seed.

Finally I feel I can’t end this post without making some reference to something which was included in one of my mum’s parcels of cuttings (we cut out and send each other anything which we think might be interesting). It concerns the resurrection of a treasure hunt first started by a children’s book called Masquerade Wiki page here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_(book). The story of the book relates to the moon (a man) who falls in love with the sun (a woman) and asks a hare to deliver a precious jewel to her. The author hid a 22 carat gold hare which could be found with clues from the book. Although the person who found the hare cheated (which I don’t think was the original intention of the author) the riddle was finally de-coded by two teachers (much better). This year however the treasure hunt theme has been resurrected by gardens in the Cotswolds and instead of a golden hare this year’s prize is a silver charm bracelet (much more useful). Full details can be found here http://www.tewkesburyadmag.co.uk/news/cotswolds/4255790.Treasure_hunt_for___700_silver_charm/ I don’t think I’ll be able to hunt for the charm bracelet myself (I actually already have a charm bracelet made up with a charm a year from my birthdays) but it’s a lovely story. Happy Easter everyone.