Hello all,

Yesterday was Orthodox Easter and, under normal circumstances, there would have been celebrations with midnight service, families getting together, the obligatory lamb on the spit, coloured eggs being cracked and more food than could ever be consumed. Sadly, this year it was not to be. In our family, we managed to mark the occasion with the 'tsourekia' making and egg colouring, each family in its own home. However, on the day, each family produced one sweet dish, which we then shared by leaving at the doors of the rest of the family. It turned out that we each had four different sweets on the day. Absolutely delicious and we will worry about the weight gain later.

My contribution was a chocolate log which I've been making at Christmas since 1983  but which was a request from my daughter so I made it for Easter. In the topsy turvy world we're living in' who cares!

Chocolate swiss roll with chocolate cream filling and chocolate frosting

When I cleared up around my strelitzia nicolai, a number of leaves had to be discarded, except for one. It had such a delightful curve, it just had to be used for ikebana. It's a very big dried leaf and I struggled to find a container to do it justice. Here's how it went:

Once I settled on the container, I had to find a way to secure the leaf with its long and heavy stem in that container. I came up with using two thick skewers through the curved part of the spine and feeding them into the narrow opening of the container. I had a kenzan inside but that was for the flowers.

The container - 40 cm in diameter

The mechanics

The arrangement with dahlias, amaranthus and alstroemeria psittacina leaves.

I removed the stems of the Japanese anemones whose petals had dropped but had left behind these delightful green little balls. Again, they had to be used in this wall arrangement together with some pink roses.

There was a very tenacious visitor with the stems, that refused to let go when I tried to shake him into the garden. I ended up leaving the stem he was on outside so he could leave at his leisure.

An autumn arrangement - oranges, hydrangeas and maple

Fern and altissimo rose

Rosemary and dahlias

Bye for now,
Emily