Monday 10th April 2023

‘Because the tomb is empty, our hearts are full.’ Thus Welby of Canterbury from the pulpit yesterday morning. We saw at Canterbury Cath in September 2021. He shut the little wooden gate to his Archbishoply Throne area himself. The Gay Mother now has a radio service, the actual being too early for her. She did take Good Friday real church though and gave a bunch of daffs from her garden for the Church Easter flowers. Easter Saturday Church decorating is not on her schedule any more.

Easter Saturday is always a great day, when at tea at last cake can be served and chocolate eaten in the sure and certain knowledge that the Lord will arise again.

I did not do a Classic Easter cake this year. It has orange juice in the Vic sponge and in the icing. The crucial aspect is the crystalized violet decoration. One year, Aunt Lavinia said, ‘Why not have real violets?’ And we did.

The Gay Mother has gawn off lamb. For weeks I’ve been racking: how do you have lamb at Easter which you must have and not have it? It was like that time the Laird of Usk wrote to the papers to ask how you have a fish course for people who don’t eat fish. In the end we managed a Navarin Printaner with the youngest Spring lamb and sparkling vegetables.

The full heart of Easter, full of hope is also accompanied by dread. Hope and dread are yoked. Particularly in the garden: what if the plants don’t grow? What if the seeds don’t germinate? Will there be enough to fill the borders and ring the changes? What if, like last year, it’s a wretched, cold season and no annuals grow? What if some plants smother others?

Spring Blessing: a Navarin Printaner for Easter Day