My eldest son returned safe and sound (and a little sunburned) from his school ski trip on Saturday, full of the thrill of the whole experience tempered only slightly by the 20-hour coach trip back. It is absolutely lovely to have him home.

I spent the rest of the day in the kitchen cooking food for the weekend while David cracked on with the wildflower ‘meadow’ preparation. To be honest, I was glad to have the excuse of cooking ahead for holiday feasts, rather than weeding on my hands and knees, and I happily busied myself with making meals and treats (including chocolate meringues – a basic 4-egg whites meringue recipe, fold in 75g chopped dark chocolate with 2 tsp cocoa powder, spoon onto trays lined with parchment and bake for 40 mins at 140 degrees C – can’t recommend these highly enough!).

We spent yesterday at my parents’ house with my brother and his family and today they all came to ours. Our slow progress in the garden was inspected by all and encouraging noises made. Many of the seeds have germinated in the greenhouse (yippee) but there’s still no sign of the tomatoes. I think I’ll bring them inside to see if  that will help. My brother’s are apparently 15mm high already…

My 9-year-old nephew, a complete poppet who fizzes with ideas and enthusiasm, had us all playing parts in a film. He was the young James Bond and the film involved lots of Nerf gun action and my eldest channelling his Russian mafia alter-ego. I was kindly given the part of ‘Mrs Moneypenny’ and tried to keep a straight face while delivering my one line. I don’t think I’ve missed my vocation!