Common Dog-violets

Chris and I returned home at 2.30 am after an exhilarating and exhausting nine days discovering the flora and fauna of Malta. Our days were so packed that there was no time to blip, but I will eventually fill in the gaps.

After a scant four hours of sleep I was keen to get out and see how spring had progressed in my absence. Pete and I went for a walk round Old Sulehay Forest, where there were sheets of wood anemone in flower, four species of violet blooming and several clumps of the strange parasitic toothwort, nestled at the bases of hazel coppice stools. The hawthorns are now covered with a definite fuzz of spring green and many of the other trees are about to burst into leaf. In the garden, the flowering cherry is in full bloom, a good fortnight earlier than usual

I had intended to have an afternoon sleep, but there was too much to chat about with the remainder of the family. Alex and Ben cooked me a special Mother's Day meal of African goat stew followed by a lemon cake with raspberries and white chocolate ganache. This seemed to cause a lot of hilarity in the kitchen, and at one point I did wonder whether the meal would be edible, but I shouldn't have worried. It was delicious, as usual!