Did anyone see the full moon the other night?
Gloriously orange here and wrongly called a Hunter's Moon by me until I looked it all up, those come in November, but can it really be that the last full moon before Easter is called an Egg Moon ? If so I like it.
In keeping with my now annual tradition here, and deeply rooted in that memory from childhood where going out to play on Good Friday was not allowed, dovegreyreader will give you all a rest from the constant chatter over the Easter weekend and we'll have ourselves a quiet time and let the pictures do the talking rather than too many words from me.
Maundy Thursday today and HM The Queen's eighty-fifth birthday so celebrations this morning at Westminster Abbey and I still haven't cast on the Queen or done the Archbishop's robes so I have work to do before next Friday when we'll be back in the Abbey for more. And in case you were wondering, no I am not one of the cynical, so yes I will be watching every last frill and flounce of the Royal Wedding and wishing Kate and Wills well.
We'll be home and doing our hot cross bun thing as usual on Good Friday...a local baker opens for a few hours for the sale of freshly baked buns and so we traditionally work our way through a baker's dozen, and if this weather holds up (23 degs in April, never known the like) we'll be eating and living outside.
The summerhouse is open and cleared out and this year has been designated as our gardening base. Half the garden still resembles a building site... because it is,so we're opting for container growing in an effort to thwart the slugs and have spent a very leisurely afternoon sitting out here potting our geraniums and getting some seeds planted, though still a bit wary as plenty of time left for a frost to ruin it all. And we have yet to figure out how to Rusty-proof the cold frame because his dog-trick of the moment is a leap through those railings.
The little orchard is heaving with blossom and we never tire of this sight, often it's late May before we get out here but we have been enjoying it for weeks now. This year's path through is being mowed and the rest will be allowed to grow wild in the hope of attracting butterflies and the odd barn owl (still no sign of a resident in the pole box)
If all this goes to apple we'll be busy in the autumn.
Bookhound will no doubt be playing over by his wood pile of which he is inordinately proud, having spent the last few weeks out with his chain saw gathering in. As you can see he's built himself yet another woodshed (he's got a little village of them out there) and this one will house the little logs that I will need for my new little woodburner.
As always I have a pile of good books to see me through, I've almost finished Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates and have been completely swept away by it so thank you to everyone who suggested I read it. It is still early days with several others so I'm not sure how they will go, but having read the first few chapters of Long Time No See by Dermot Healey I am struck by that same sense of quirkiness and complete enjoyment I had when reading Nicola Barker's Darkmans, so I'm hoping for good things. I have the new Ann Enright The Forgotten Waltz waiting and I'm also about half way through and enjoying The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller, this a read prompted by the arrival of the second in the series, The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton when I haven't even read the first.
A fascinating non-fiction book has also arrived, due for publication in May, House of Exile - War, Love & Literature from Berlin to Los Angeles by Evelyn Juers, the 'dislocated existence of the emigre, a group biography of wartime writers centring on Heinrich and Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Virginia Woolf and many others. I came across some interesting pages on Joseph Roth as I was reading which all had me yearning for a biography of him in English... someone...please, but meanwhile what a wonderful cover this is and on first peek a highly readable book.
So how about you...nice plans for the weekend?? Sunny weather?? A pile of good books?? Will you be watching the nuptials next week ??
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