Spring has sprung!

My poor little blog has been sadly neglected lately and I have had stern texts from my mother telling me to remedy the situation. She is probably concerned (and with good reason) that a lack of posting tells of a poor, Gollum like creature huddling on the sofa behind a wall fashioned out of takeaway cartons and Easter Egg boxes.

Such is not the case, although it could also be said that the water is being well and truly trod at the moment. Actually, my weight has been drifting downwards but that is more to do with the fact that I have had a period of not taking an awful lot of interest in food in general. I feel a bit like I’ve been hibernating, waiting for Spring. I’m desperately in need of a good dose of sunshine and some general de-cobwebbing. I’ve been doing a lot of quiet contemplation and am feeling generally calm and fairly happy but the trouble with too much of that is one tends to start to sink into a bit of a rut especially when one spends quite a lot of time on their own.

So, let’s make this a generally positive post – a “Things wot I like at the moment” post and see if a bit of optimism and sunshine can perk up my somewhat overgrown corner of the blogosphere.

TWIL #1 – my new(ish) Jo Malone scent in lime, basil and mandarin which I have been spritzing on with abandon. It’s one of the loveliest things I have ever had the privilege of smelling.

TWIL #2 – a polish that makes my nails look like a starry night sky (as an aside, are those fingers or sausages? Answers on a postcard…)
TWIL #3 – seven Easter eggs in place of one!
TWIL #4 – this incredibly simple but utterly delectable recipe for a slow cooked lamb shoulder on boulangere potatoes. I served this up for lunch on Easter Sunday and it was scrumptious and, after an initial bit of prep which you can do at your kitchen table while listening to the Archers, just looks after itself.

TWIL #5 – it’s sadly finished now, but I became mildly addicted to a little BBC2 programme called Country Show Cookoff, which involved celebrity chefs driving a van around the country and submitting entries to country shows. It was glorious – beautiful scenery of the kind that makes you want to start humming Jerusalem, huge cheffy egos being knocked down to size by gimlet eyed WI stalwarts…bliss. There may be a few episodes left on iPlayer – go and put a pinny on and watch them!

And so my darlings, what's new with you...?