If you found the above rather tedious, have a laugh at our grand-daughter encountering her first rusk.

Wanting to be back in the house for Easter, we arrived there the Sunday before, aiming to use the week to get lots of gardening done (including shopping for pond plants) and a fair amount of other jobs houses tend to demand from time to time. But Easter day was the highlight.

After our first Sunday morning in our church since the start of the pandemic, we all shared a fabulous Easter dinner, though the Yorkshire puddings rebelled quite effectively even before the gravy was poured over them.

Looking into the oven a while after they'd been put in, they could be seen growing sideways, way beyond the dimensions of the tins they were in.

 

When they were fully cooked, they were removed from the oven....

...and put on display for us all to see.

None of us had ever seen anything like it. Grace has made a lot of Yorkshire puddings over the years, but she couldn't have made them like that if she'd tried! Nonetheless, they were, of course, completely edible and very tasty - and all eaten.

We came back to Kantara the next day. We'd seen warnings that the motorways would be jam packed because of holiday traffic, but the M1 was so good that I knocked a full fifteen minutes off my usual time. We needed to be back because a guy was coming to fit a new loo, the old one having developed an unfixable flushing problem. He's here now, fitting it as I type. After that, he'll drain, flush and refill the engine cooling system. And after that we'll take Kantara out for a spin, possibly staying out overnight.

Good grief! When was the last time we did that??

(7 hours later) Well, the "spin" is right out of the question now. The engineer fitted the toilet quickly and without problems, but the coolant change was another matter entirely. He's only just left, having had problems getting the engine to heat up as it should after the coolant job had been done. He's consulting with others in the business, and bringing one of them tomorrow, to get his input. We think we have a solution (two thermostats have been put in the wrong way round) but we'll wait and see. Until then, there's no going anywhere.

If you found the above rather tedious, have a laugh at our grand-daughter encountering her first rusk.

The weekend at Berkhamsted

It rained throughout Friday night and into the morning. The canal rose about eight inches, pulling hard on our moorings and listing us towards the bank. At least it proved the firmness of the pins in the very wet ground! The towing path and grass verge were sodden, and muddily puddled. There was one small child with Dad in the playground when I went out to slacken the ropes.

Later in the day, when the rain had eased off, we went for a walk around the town, exploring the ancient backstreets, the huge parish Church of St Peter, the amazing chemist shop from a bygone age. Foolishly, we missed the castle ruin.

Sunday was wet, too. Berkhamsted is less than half an hour's drive from St Albans, and we'd arranged for Steve to drive out to pick us up and take us to the house. Naomi prepared a wonderful Easter Day lunch.

Eddie's dad, Brian, and sister Hannah (from Said the Maiden) joined us, and it was a lovely family occasion. We were back in Kantara by 8:00.

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz!

On Friday of last week we went back to St Albans to spend the Easter weekend with the kids. It was great to catch up with them again. They're all so busy that there's loads to talk about. Jess's gigs with Said the Maiden on tour with Dave Swarbrick,

Steve's production and engineering of the Maiden's new album, "A Curious Tale", and his three weeks of work installing a sound system at Sheffield Cathedral with DM Installations,

and Naomi's brilliant work on the garden,

and the Food Smiles community agriculture project she's spearheading, launched officially today

We had Easter Day lunch together at The Plough at Sleapshyde, which does the best traditional roasts I've had outside of home, and would have gone for a walk after, had the weather not been inclement.

We returned to Kantara on Monday, bringing with us a number of bits and pieces we'd forgotten back in March. The weather's very variable, but we're itching to get out on the cut next month. We'd go now if we didn't have other responsibilities, but there are things to be done here, so we're not bored yet!