Photo Diary: Project 365, week 17, 2025

 Easter and mocks, that's the sum of our week. 

Last Sunday was a special day. This year, despite different calendars, both Catholic and Orthodox churches celebrated Easter on the same day, April 20th.

I sent off my guys to the church service, while cooking our Easter meal. We were supposed to have guests at 1pm, in the morning I got a message, asking if we could move it to 2pm, and later even to 3pm, at which point I said, OK, let's have an early dinner instead, as my guys were already hungry. It's good I waited to put half a leg of lamb in the oven until I was sure about the times. I also cooked a gammon in lemon marmalade glaze the evening before, and made a batch of potato blini in the morning.

It's our favourite starter, when we entertain for Christmas, New Year's eve or Easter. Every time I think, I should change and do something different, but then, since we all enjoy it so much, I end up making blini. I also cured a piece of salmon in sea salt, sugar, spices, juniper berries and gin.

Our guests brought the most delicious brownie, which we had with ice cream, and we were so full that nobody wanted a Colomba cake. I opened it on Monday instead. Colomba means "a dove" in Italian, and the cake is shaped like a dove (supposedly).

Easter weekend is a special time for me, as I enjoy listening to Classic FM Hall of Fame. It takes four days of countdown to find out which classic music pieces win. None of my votes did particularly well, as all were below 50.

But, but, but... there was a big surprise... Typically the first and second places go to Lark Ascending and Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto no.2 (to be honest, I'd love to see something completely different at the top). This year The Armed Man by Karl Jenkins has been voted to no.2, so Lark Ascending has indeed descended. 

I know, it's the news which only matter if you listen to ClassicFM, and my guys couldn't understand my agitation, but I was all agog. 

I listened to the little radio in the kitchen and to the Global Player on my phone, and enjoyed every moment of it. 

The Dubai chocolate saga continues. I saw on Insta that M&S has released a new chocolate bar, named The Big Daddy Pistachio. In comparison to the other bars, it's properly chunky. There is a big layer of pistachio filling, almost like halva in texture, and a layer of caramel, all covered in chocolate.

I didn't like the caramel, as it makes it way too sweet, but Eddie said he actually prefered it to the Lindt variety. It costs £8.50, still pricey, but a better value per weight.

Have you seen it in the shops near you?

One of the ink drawings I did a few days ago, with a lovely quote about friendship.

More food pics, apologies for the food-heavy content this week, it's all I seemed to be taking photos of.

As Eddie's been sitting his mocks this week, I tried to support his brain function with sandwiches of salmon caviar. It is rich in Omega 3, vitamins and proteins, and tastes lovely too.

When we were in Paris two weeks earlier, we had ordered some blini with salmon caviar. I told my husband, just don't mention Caviar, or they will bring you the stuff for 150 euros, say Salmon eggs. :)

I talk to my Mum every day. In the past I used Skype, and called her on her landline. Being a Luddite by nature, she categorically refuses to update her antique  mobile phone, which can only send texts and receive phone calls. Since Skype is closing down its business in May for good, I asked my brother to help us, asking whether he could get her some easy smartphone so we can continue talking daily.

He got her an Alexa, and now my Mum is super happy that she can actually see me. 

Every time she sits down to talk to me, her cat runs to monopolise the space, as if she is jealous. The cat was rescued by my niece years ago, when she was a street kitten, and chased by dogs. My niece brought her to my Mum and begged her to let her stay. The cat stayed, and despite being a stray, has very fussy eating habits, as if she were a pedigree cat. Mum grumbles about her, but they are happy in each other's company.

This is a collage of several screenshots of Mum and the cat (not the best quality). 

I took a picture of our garden, as my friend asked me to show her what is in bloom right now.

Whacky whacky is this week's theme of Penandinkchallenge, and one of the prompts was a baby dragon in a teacup. For some reason, I read it as a baby dinosaur, and sketched a little stegosaurus in a cup, only realising I got the wrong animal when I was doing a post on Insta. 

Eddie needed a dental appointment, and afterwards my husband took him to the shoe shop to get a new pair (his school shoes looked a bit Victorian-urchin style), and then they had a cold drink to celebrate surviving a week of mocks. Three more to go this week.

And how was your week?

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