We booked the ferry to Dublin a couple of weeks ago and this morning we booked a table at The Good Things Cafe for Easter Sunday lunch. In two weeks time we will just about be on the way and some of us are looking forward to it. Kids are worried about being bored and separated from internet access for more than 24 hours. It’ll be good for them.

In the garden the tadpoles are about to hatch. They are a dark mass on the surface of the pond and as each of them struggles against their thin wall of jelly to get out the water seethes with their movement as if it is about to boil up.

Elsewhere I looked out anxiously over the veg plot to see how the onions were doing. I planted the seeds at least four weeks ago and I was worried there was no sign of life. Then I spotted a thin green shoot no more than an inch long pushing through the soil and having spotted one I saw the rest, four neat rows of them, my first onions.

For the first time for a long time I made a tomato soup for lunch. The tomatoes came from the veg shop on Oxton Road. They had a large bag going for 50p and a couple of punnets of cherry tomatoes for 69p each.

There wasn’t much time to make it. Onions, celery and garlic were cooked in hot olive oil until soft. I added a chopped aubergine and let that go soft as well. For heft I put in some chopped chilli and a tablespoon of ground black cumin. Then in went the tomatoes – the larger ones cut in half. They stayed on a good heat with the occasional  stir until the tomatoes had turned to a mush.

It all then went through a mouli and into another pan to heat up. We ate it with pesto and good bread.