Just returned from a lovely day at Kew Gardens, with my wife, eldest daughter and her BF. More precisely, my wife and I went to Kew, arriving in time for opening, and my daugher and her BF finally turned up at (late) lunchtime - just in time to share our picnic. And it was warm enough to sit outside in the sun and eat it, too. Which was nice.

Very crowded by normal Kew standards, but it's a big enough place to absorb the crowds once you get away from the main gates.

We left them there and came home. They'll turn up in their own time...

Here in the UK, we get Good Friday and Easter Monday off as bank holidays. I love the four-day weekend. (It's actually my last one ever - I'm retiring in June.)

The shops were stocking Easter products months ago and are now reducing these to get rid of the stock. I bought a couple of little porcelain baskets and filled them with Lindt mini chocolate eggs, covered them in clear cellophane wrapping and tied this with green and gold curling ribbon, for my young Great GDs. Then I put them with chocolate chicks and a couple of sticker books into an Easter themed gift bag. I have always tried to come up with something different to delight them!

The shops are open in some places on Good Friday where people go for the long weekend also the DIY shops and garden nurseries but no alcohol outlets. There is a great exodus to holiday spots along the coast or others stay home and do renovations or really, really intend to!

Martin, do you have any retirement plans? I was bored stupid with no regular work so have turned to op-shopping and bargain hunting for my extended families for a hobby. I have found some lovely treasures!

Several weeks ago the mother of our choir director sent him this photo which she took in a local store .

Her remark about the candy was " It appears that they are more than Easter friends !

I thought it was hilarious !

A new twist on the saying "lying down with the lamb...."!!

yoyo. I couldn't make out what the recumbent white thing was and wondered if it was meant to represent Christ in the tomb awaiting Resurrection. It wasn't until I read annpan's comment that I realised it was just an Easter bunny fraternizing with a legless lamb.

Martin, I haven't been to Kew for SO LONG that the entrance fee was still in 'old money'. I think it was 3d; surely the cheapest day's entertainment in the capital.

Interestingly to our family, John's ancestors used to live along that part of the Thames and worked 'in the gardens' . . . they still have green fingers.

The poet, Alfred Noyes, wrote a work . . . it's one of those Victorian/Edwardian over-long and of too many verses . . . who's refrain is

Come down to Kew in lilac-time

Come down to Kew in lilac-time

(It isn't far from London!)

And you shall wander hand in hand with

Love in summer's wonderland

Come down to Kew in lilac-time

It isn't far from London.

The shop I work in is in the main CBD shopping mall and we are only closed for two and a half days a year - Good Friday, Christmas Day and until 12noon on Anzac Day. It amazes me that we keep Good Friday so religiously (pun intended) when the US, which is a much more religious country than Australia, doesn't. There is virtually nothing open here on GF. Monday is also a holiday, but some shops will be open and there is always some sport on.

As Ann said, hot cross buns have been on sale here since just after Christmas. I wait until next week and go to the local chocolatier's and buy packets of broken Easter eggs at reduced prices.

We are having a family dinner tomorrow and I have some chocolate for everyone, but it isn't a big thing for our family, more of a chance to get together on a long weekend.

I have been thinking of some more captions for this picture and the one I couldn't resist is "Friends with Baa-nifits "!!

Too funny, Yoyo! And great caption, Ann!

In my area of the US Easter has gotten almost as commercial and secular as Christmas. Some businesses are closed on GF, but not many. Stores have been crammed with giant baskets full of candy and toys for a while.

Some years ago I convinced the board of the church where I worked to give us Easter Monday off. Everyone worked their tails off during Holy Week and it was really nice to get that day off.

I told someone once that when I was a kid our Easter baskets were just an empty basket for collecting Easter eggs during the hunt, and he thought I'd had a pretty deprived childhood by not getting a basket full of candy and stuff.

Donna

I remember Kew being 10p to get in, about thirty years ago; I had a GF who lived in Kew, so that's when I first started going.

Nowadays, it costs - well, I'm not precisely sure; but I do remember that we went last year, and for four people they wanted to charge us over sixty quid. We decided instead to become "Friends of Kew" instead which costs ninety quid for a year for two of us and we can each take a guest. From where I live, it's about 45 minutes drive, or just over an hour by train - just a bit too far to do "on spec" so to speak; but we're trying to go two or three times a year to make it well worth while. Again, it'll be easier once I'm retired.

Annpan - do I have any plans?

Ann,

Somebunny has a smile on his face...it looks like his ears blew right off his head !

At least the squirrel had the decency to turn his back on the whole debacle !

Charleston is not labeled "The Holy City" for no reason! There are so very many old churches downtown, where I live, all chiming their bells on the hour and half hour. People here seem to be very religious, more so than other places in the US where I have lived. During the season of lent, there have been many extra concerts and cantatas, and choral performances to put one in a religious frame of mind. I hasten to add, I'm writing of Protestant services, not just Catholic or Orthodox.

For Palm Sunday, there was a parade in the city. I'm told there were donkeys, among other participants. This week, there were "Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and even Saturday church services, with the finale, tomorrow.

Today, downtown there was an Easter Parade, with floats, Hat Ladies, etc. I've heard it is quite impressive. I did not go, as rain threatened.

The tradition in the South now seems to be to eat an Easter ham. (When I was a girl, it was Easter lamb). Many of the businesses are closed on Good Friday, so that folk can attend church services. I've not encountered "Easter Monday" closures yet, however.

I was thinking today that I will send my extended family a Facebook message (we have a family group on FB) and tell them I wish the big kids were still the little kids and we were planning to hide Easter eggs in Granny's yard tomorrow. Nostalgic thinking!

My daughter invited us to a pre-Easter supper Friday night. Grandson and his newly minted fiancee are home from their different colleges, and he is invited to Easter dinner at her parents on Sunday, so this was our get-together (the six of us). Daughter had ham, deviled eggs, sweet potato casserole, rolls, and iced tea. I contributed asparagus, microwave "fried" apples (surprisingly good), and Strawberries & Cream Cake which is a concoction of condensed milk, lemon juice and grated peel, sliced strawberries, and whipped cream in a lining of ladyfingers. Tomorrow, we are invited back to her house after church for leftovers and a chocolate chess pie because my dessert is all gone.

Our church had a midday Good Friday service with communion and will have a sunrise service tomorrow morning (that we don't plan to attend) and the regular morning service. My company began to give us Good Friday as a holiday starting around the end of the 70s and now many businesses do that, but the shopping centers are all booming.

I had some Easter candy, but it seems to have disappeared. Daughter still does a grown-up-style Easter basket for grandson in which Lindt chocolate figures abundantly.

Martin, that is a very classy ax! My son headed a rock group some years ago, playing guitar and singing and a couple of his children have taken it up.

We gave him a golden wood guitar for his 50th birthday and he played a small set for his guests, some didn't know about his musical past and were very surprised!

Enjoy the retirement...

Martin, I got so carried away with Easter candy and food above that I failed to congratulate you on your retirement. Trust me, there will be lots more time to read.

Vee, I had my annual hot cross bun and a cappuccino at my favorite bakery on Thursday.

Martin there's no rocker like an old rocker (thinking the Stones in Cuba),

You may find the only way to get any more reading time is to get back on the Tube each day, preferably after the morning rush hour so you have more elbow room and no one can set you to do endless jobs you have been putting off.

Carolyn, I love to read of your various 'holiday menus'. Sweet potatoes are not common/available in this neck of the woods, though asparagus will soon be in the shops (it has a very short season) and strawberries, other than those 'flown in' wont be ready until late June. And as you know iced tea is never served in the UK.

We had roast Welsh leg of lamb with the last of the carrots from our garden, greens, roast potatoes etc. D-in-Law brought a dessert containing white chocolate, sponge and berries. John had also made a rhubarb 'fool'.

Small granddaughter received a gift made by our younger son (not the brightest penny in the piggy bank as he has Downs S) of a plastic cup cunningly disguised as a 'nest' with green tissue-paper grass and half a dozen mini-eggs sitting there-in. She is still young enough to be very happy to receive simple gifts and the giver was very proud that she enjoyed it. ;-)

Thank you all for your good wishes. I'm very much looking forward to it.

I like the suggestion of getting back onto the tube to read. That's where I do most of my reading now. And of course, as I am now officially an old fart, I get free tube travel too.

But at the moment, the guitar is my major project. It's not for rock, though...it's a jazz guitar. I'm starting more-or-less from scratch.

In a perfect world, after a few years, I'll be able to play like this. In my dreams...

We had ham and roasted sweet potatoes for Easter dinner. Tom's daughter and her boyfriend came over and joined us, and after dinner we watched a DVD of The Big Short (excellent, BTW). That is about as low key as you can get for this holiday. My kids are grown so there are no baskets to prepare, and we don't attend church, so there are years when I actually don't notice which day is actually Easter. Too bad, really. I loved it when I was a child, though mostly for the candy and the new outfit of church clothes.

Martin - You get free tube travel at a "certain age?" How cool is that? I love the advantages of getting older.

I retired last May (loving it) and turned 65 in December. So far, the financial advantages I've discovered in the U.S. are 50-cent "senior coffee" at McDonalds (quite a good deal), and a much-reduced membership cost at our city's Activities and Recreation Center where there's an indoor track, pool, top-notch exercise equipment and a variety of classes. I need to explore more discounts.

Some major cities in the USA offer free riding on buses for people over 65, or sharply discounted fares. I believe you need a special card from the transport authority.

Martin, I take it that visitors to England don't get the free tube rides? So far, they have taken my money to purchase Oyster cards. One age-related travel advantage so far is that I no longer have to take off my shoes when I go through airport security. And in 2014 when I last visited GB, reduced-price entrance tickets said Concessions instead of OAPs.

We seniors do very well in Australia. We are regarded as pioneers in helping build the country and are reaping the benefits! Lots of perks and I get a booklet that tells me where I can get discounts at shops etc. I always ask if I can get a senior discount in any case as not all are listed.

I find the free travel on buses, trains and ferries in the non-peak periods and all day at weekends and Public Holidays so handy for getting about and we get an annual free return travel voucher to anywhere in my State.

I also get an annual cash handout from the State Government paid into my bank account along with the Federal Government age pension as well as reduced rates on the telephone and electrical bills.

Almost worth being old!

I'm very late to the party, but wanted to add my congratulations, Martin, on your upcoming retirement. Enjoy it!

For Easter we hosted a small family dinner and I made up Easter baskets for the "kids" -- son, daughter and her boyfriend -- age range 16 to 25. My feeling is you're never too old for chocolate, and they agreed :)

Carolyn, good luck with finding just a bottom fitted sheet. I ordered what I thought was a full set of top, fitted bottom and pillow cases, only to find there wasn't a top sheet included. I hadn't read the full print!

I don't even need the standard size pillow cases as I prefer to centre myself on a double bed with one king sized pillow. You just have to take them anyway!

Carolyn. you'll have to come over to England and visit Marks and Spencer (M&S).

I just ordered 4 fitted bottom sheets on line as they do the 'deeper' variety that fit the thicker style of mattress. At least their quality is reliable. I still moan to anyone who will listen about various sheets I have bought in the past that have not been 'cut straight'; folding them neatly corner-to-corner is impossible. And why is such a simple-to-make item SO expensive? Answer: because they have a captive buyers market.

M&S sheets

Vee, we can order M&S goods and have them sent to Australia. Our closest branch otherwise is in Hong Kong, I believe!

Particularly handy for expats with money in the UK when the exchange rate is poor.

I did find single sheets on line through Amazon for $22.50. It is 300 thread count Egyptial cotton, so I hope it is nice. I suppose they offer everything, even a used sheet for $14.49. I turned that bargain down!

Vee, the only thing I have from M&S is a blouse made of very pretty fabric in a very pretty pale aqua color. I treasure it.

I have a queen sized bed, which is apparently not a standard English bed size, so no M&S for me. L.L. Bean makes lovely crisp cotton percale sheets that I love, so I buy mine from them. Not cheap, but they wear well. I am loyal since they were my refuge when everyone else offered only sateen sheets, which I dislike.

Rosefolly, when I lived in the UK, a king size there was a queen size elsewhere so M&S sheets might fit. Check the measurements!

Anyway, you are apparently able to get ones you like. I don't like sateen sheets either. This year I tried pure linen which were good in the very hot climate here. They do take some wearing in though from the original stiff feel to the proper softness.