Easter days are planned for family gatherings, Easter egg hunts and spring walks. The holiday itself is to celebrate the end of Lent, whether you’ve given up certain luxuries and are looking forward to indulging in them again or maybe you’re just excited to have several days dedicated to gardening. With a long weekend ahead we’ve found some great spring activities for you to try.
Daffodil WreathForget the Christmas wreaths and make room for this year’s spring wreath made of sunny daffodils and early blossoms. An inventive way to brighten up your front door. Thanks to Country Living you can easily make one, to find out how, click on the image.
Take a look at your local National Trust park and see what exciting activities they have got on, choose from Easter egg hunts, crafty family fun and Easter adventures.
We’re looking forward to the Easter egg hunt at Mottisfont in Hampshire, an impressive Abbey with a stunning walled rose garden and a blossoming landscape. After partnering with Cadbury, this National Trust estate have created a delicious Easter Egg hunt where all the family can enjoy themselves. Make the most of their beautiful riverside gardens and grand country house, bound to impress with its elegant stone and charming features. We especially appreciate Mottisfont for its inspiration of our National Trust Mottisfont greenhouse. Its design is to reflect the ambiance of the Abbey garden, suitable for smaller garden environments and to provide seasonal growers with ample growing space.
Maybe you’re tempted to get out in your own garden this weekend. Easter is around the time for a spring clean, with an Alitex clean and care service you can ensure your greenhouse is in tip-top condition. Perhaps with the cleaning service booked you’re looking into some new accessories, with heating and blinds in mind you can get your greenhouse off to a strong start. Whilst the garden is in the early stages there are many seeds you can begin to plant, why not get the fruit and vegetables settled in and you’ll see progress over the next few months.
I love to browse the shops for some Easter treats, especially when discovering new hot cross bun flavours and colourful chocolate nests. Although this year I started by baking some flowerpot muffins. These mini terracotta plant pots, 7cm x 6cm, can be found in most gardening centres or a local farm shop. See the recipe below;
Ingredients
120g Butter, softened
150g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs, beaten
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
150g Self-raising Flour
25g Cocoa Powder
1 tbsp Milk
For the topping:
50g Icing Sugar
15g Cocoa Powder
1 tbsp Water
Rice Paper Daisies to decorate
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C and grease the flowerpots, then line with muffin cases.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Add the rest of the ingredients, lightly stirring after each addition.
- Fill the pots 3/4 full. Be careful not to overfill, they will rise!
- Bake for 15-18 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
- Whilst they cool mix the icing sugar and cocoa powder together, adding a little water at a time until a paste is formed.
- Drizzle onto each muffin and decorate with the daisies. I also used some green sugar sand but feel free to experiment!
Why not try these over this weekend and let us know how you get on! You can tweet us your photos @Alitex or find us on Facebook.
