Rare as hen's teeth

Today was one of those seemingly rare things, a sunny and warm Easter Bank Holiday.  I always equate bank holidays with watching old black and white films whilst the rain pours all day outside.  Today after a non-descript Easter weekend weather wise, it was sunny, warm and clear for most of the day.

The flowering currant is now resplendent with its pink flowers.  Looking from one end of the garden to the other, you can see the pink of the currant next to the warm yellow of the forsythia.

The weeds or wild flowers are growing apace as well.  We now have speedwell growing in our lawn.  Luckily our garden isn't manicured and perfect, we rather like wild flowers unless they choke everything else!

For some reason we also have chives growing in a shady corner of the lawn as well.  Which makes a change from moss I guess.  It was wonderful to spend hours outside, looking at everything growing and listening to the birds singing.  The last week has been very busy at our local church and preparing for various social occasions at home.  I even helped our flower ladies with a few displays.

I'm sure most people would think me crazy, but when it comes to Easter, I do like to make an effort decorating the house with flowers.  And eggs and chicks!

I also enjoy making a simnel cake with home made marzipan.  This year's simnel cake went particularly well I think.  It was very tasty.

I do hope you have all had a good Easter weekend.  I would love to hear how you celebrated.

The language of flowers

There are lots of books that tell us about the meaning of flowers.  The Victorians were fascinated by the subject and hundreds of books were published about it.  A white rose means purity and innocence and a red rose means love.  The new tulips which now grow in our garden mean 'declaration of love' and our alliums mean 'prosperity'.

Even Shakespeare's plays were used, rue was said to indicate regret - this is from Ophelia's mad ravings in Hamlet:

 There's fennel for you, and columbines:

there's rue for you; and here's some for me:

we may call it herb-grace o' Sundays:

O you must wear your rue with a difference

Rosemary is said to symbolise remembrance, the tradition of this is probably far older than Shakespeare's time  'There's rosemary, that's for remembrance.'  

We are lucky in England in that many of the flowers that grow wild have wonderful names that describe their traditions and meaning.  My favourite of these if Forget-Me-Not, a dainty and beautiful flower that we grow here at Hazel Cottage.  This year we even have some growing wild in our lawn!

So many flowers are named after Mary, the mother of Jesus.  The Madonna Lily of course, but there are scores of flowers and shrubs named in her honour, usually starting with 'Our Lady'.  Lady's Mantle still bears her name, but in medieval times clematis was the Virgin’s Bower and lavender was Our Lady’s Drying Plant.  In the fourteenth century the poet Dante called Mary "the Rose, in which the divine Word became flesh."  So of  course the rose is also her symbol.  Even the humble marigold - or Mary's Gold as it once was, is named after her.

Lilies at our local church at Easter

I tried to bring in a good number of flowers into the house for Easter.  This year I was blessed with a larger number of flowers as Easter was quite late. In addition to the daffodils we bought, I added forget-me-nots, grape hyacinth, pansies, chive flowers and flowering currants.

 

If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Terri Guillemets

Easter weekend and the missing simnel cakes

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter, when I thought about my post I had to add in a picture of a lamb.  This one belongs to my sister in law.  It was being taken for a walk a few weeks ago.

A year ago the spring bulbs were out in our garden and looking resplendant in the spring warmth.

This year they are still tightly in bud and despite the increased daylight hours, nothing is warm for very long and they remain closed.   We've read that this has been the coldest Easter weekend for some years, and I must agree as I sit here typing with a blanket on my knees!   I was very pleased to help our church flower ladies this Easter and am really quite proud of my first major display.

I don't know whether its the cold weather, but we've seen some different birds in the garden lately - a pair of wrens flitting around our herb pots near to the back door, and a small group of chaffinches feeding at the end of the garden with the blackbirds.  Mr C has taken a few pictures which I hope to post soon.

We did a lot of cooking over Easter, and instead of my usual large simnel cake I did mini simnel cakes.  I would have taken pictures but they were so lovely most of them have been eaten! I did take a picture of our Easter tree though

I must also continue with my patchwork cushion... 

Supposing him to be the gardener...

It was a rather busy Easter weekend with seemingly little time spent at Hazel Cottage.  I spent most of Good Friday at choir practice for a performance of Maunder's Olivet to Calvary in the evening, and we visited family and friends on Easter Sunday.  We did manage to fit in a lovely walk on the sunday and came across these beautiful flowers along the roadside.

 

We also saw a little egret wading in a local creek, although he was too far away for my camera to cope well.  We had some excitement the other week when we spotted three goldfinches in the hazel tree in one go!

Easter Monday brought April rain that was much needed, but kept us indoors all day.  This did mean that I finally had time to start my patchwork cushion.  If it works out, I will post a picture...