Most of today was spent walking a section of the Cheshire Sandstone Ridge high up over Frodsham looking out over the sweep of the Mersey and in the distance the brown square of the Anglican Cathedral and the Radio City Tower of Liverpool.

We had printed the map and directions for the walk from the page on the internet and it was one of those walks where you continually misjudge how far you need to go until you get to the next direction. So along the way there were one or two wrong turnings and retracing our steps. We were consoled by two ladies who were walking in sensible shoes and a good map. For every wrong turn we took they seemed to do another so we kept doubling past each other other.

Back home I made a tub of liquorice ice cream and two dozen meringues ready for lunch tomorrow.

I should mention that the recipe for the liquorice ice cream comes courtesy of The Good Things Cafe and that we are listening to to Gladys Knight & the Pips singing Midnight Train to Georgia.

Weather-wise it has been a strange day. Yesterday afternoon a thin mist would blow in through the trees a few gardens up and I thought it was someone lighting an anti-social fire in the garden. This morning we woke to a thick fog and it hasn’t really gone away as I sit here writing this in the early evening. Every so often the sun has tried to burn through and there has been a flash of blue sky or the white ball of the sun has appeared in the grey its brightness diffused.

But then this afternoon we drove ten miles to the other side of the Wirral to walk from Neston alongside the Dee marshes and there was nothing but blue sky and sun overhead. The marshes seemed to stretch on forever in the light until they came to a sudden end at a bank of low cloud that blanketed off the whole of North Wales.

There were lambs in the field and walking round a corner we came across a group of people crowded around a pinch in the fence. They were there taking pictures of a lamb that had just been been born and had not even had time to struggle to its feet.

Some of us felt a slight pang of guilt over the lamb stuffed with spinach that had been enjoyed last night and in some ways went down even better cold as part of todays lunch. But then we consoled ourselves by thinking on how good it tasted.

Easter morning in Birkenhead and the bacon came from Rosscarbery.

For the last two years and for most of the years previous when we have been in Ahakista Easter lunch has been had at The Good Things Cafe. One year we even walked it there on the back road that runs in a straight line to Durrus a few hundred up from the sea rising up and down as it goes. The walk took longer than expected and we were late for the table and the walk back took even longer. Last year some of walked half the way there, this time we walked along the coast road looking at the damage that had been caused by the storms earlier in the year.

Well we won’t be walking to The Good Things Cafe this year although the menu looks mighty tempting:-

Roast Lamb with Spinach Stuffing, Pink Grapefruit and Rosemary Jelly served with Roast Potatoes

or

A Growers Plate – A Filo of Leeks, Marscapone and Cashel Blue, Beetroot and Carrot Fritters with Dill and Yogurt Sauce and Asparagus in Sea Salad Butter served withSeasonal Vegetables, Roast Potatoes and leaves with a Dressing.

So good in fact that I have decided to try reproduce it at home.

The jelly was made with Ruby Grapefruit from the grocers last night and rather to my surprise has worked. I made it with the juice of three grapefruit which I mixed with some sugar until it seemed to have right balance of sweet and sour, some chopped rosemary was stirred in along with some gelatine. It set overnight.

The lamb has been stuffed with a mixture of spinach, pinenuts and garlic and is now ready for roasting.

I will make the filo tart later this afternoon. Unfortunately Cashel Blue is not readily available in Birkenhead so I will make do with feta and parmesan with asparagus.

But before all that we will need a walk to build up an appetite.