Happy Easter, one and all! For those of you who have been getting used to our daily blogs and wondered what happened to Friday and Monday, they are public holidays in the United Kingdom (marking Good Friday and Easter Monday) so that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it. Despite not going to Church, not singing a single hymn, and not being given a chocolate egg the size of a football, it was one of the most Eastery Easters I can remember. The garden up here in Scotland is bursting with lovely daffodils, the trees and bushes seem to have burst into life pretty much overnight, and to top it all, baby ducklings were born, so over the weekend the pond was ablaze with tiny balls of yellow fluff zooming around trying to find frog spawn. The ducks have now trotted off down the field to find the River Tay, but it was wonderful to witness their first few days. And just when I thought Easter couldn’t get any more cheerful, one of the six chickens we bought when lockdown began just laid her first egg. I still can’t tell them apart so I can’t be sure which deserves the credit, but one of them has a certifiably active pair of ovaries, the fruits of which will be fried up first thing in the morning, consumed on toast and washed down with a swig of black coffee. Country life at its very best. 

On the subject of winged beasts, and with apologies to my vegetarian readers, we upheld one of Ellie’s family’s traditions on Easter Day, by having for our lunch not the traditional roast lamb, but turkey instead. And not just turkey, but the titan of all turkeys, who must have spent his whole happy life at the turkey gym, pumping turkey weights. So this week’s meal plan includes pie, curry, sandwiches and ragu, the common denominator in which will be turkey.

To walk of some of this excessive Easter Day meal, Ellie and I did a walk (don’t worry: only one and just a few minutes down the road) up to the top of Dunsinane Hill. Those keen readers amongst you will have clocked that Dunsinane Hill is the site of Macbeth’s castle in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and in fact the key premise of the plot references this very hill and a nearby forest which we can see from our kitchen window: ‘Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him.’ Without giving too much away, things don’t end particularly well for Macbeth, but as Ellie and I sat, panting, on the site of Macbeth's castle on top of Dunsinane hill (he was a real King of Scotland, by the way), the wood stayed firmly where it was and the view was spectacular. 

Back in the world of The King’s Singers, we’re really thrilled that over 700 people around the world have submitted their videos to be part of the Stay At Home Choir. Without having checked with our archivist, I’d put a bit of money on that being the largest choir the group has performed with in recent decades. We pity the poor engineers who are now synchronising and editing c.750 different videos to create ‘And so it goes’, but cannot wait to see how it looks and how it sounds and to share it with the world. I think all six of us also appreciate quite how tough and exposing it is to sit at home, with no accompaniment, and to film yourself singing. It takes real courage, and if you’re reading this having submitted a video, I want you to know that it’s never easy doing that — not for us either — and you have to trust in the people who are putting it all together. In these sorts of things, as in any choir, the whole is so much more than a sum of the parts. So if you’ve done it, be patient for the result, and be proud that you’ve done your bit to be part of such an uplifting project. 

Happy Easter, one and all! For those of you who have been getting used to our daily blogs and wondered what happened to Friday and Monday, they are public holidays in the United Kingdom (marking Good Friday and Easter Monday) so that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it. Despite not going to Church, not singing a single hymn, and not being given a chocolate egg the size of a football, it was one of the most Eastery Easters I can remember. The garden up here in Scotland is bursting with lovely daffodils, the trees and bushes seem to have burst into life pretty much overnight, and to top it all, baby ducklings were born, so over the weekend the pond was ablaze with tiny balls of yellow fluff zooming around trying to find frog spawn. The ducks have now trotted off down the field to find the River Tay, but it was wonderful to witness their first few days. And just when I thought Easter couldn’t get any more cheerful, one of the six chickens we bought when lockdown began just laid her first egg. I still can’t tell them apart so I can’t be sure which deserves the credit, but one of them has a certifiably active pair of ovaries, the fruits of which will be fried up first thing in the morning, consumed on toast and washed down with a swig of black coffee. Country life at its very best. 

On the subject of winged beasts, and with apologies to my vegetarian readers, we upheld one of Ellie’s family’s traditions on Easter Day, by having for our lunch not the traditional roast lamb, but turkey instead. And not just turkey, but the titan of all turkeys, who must have spent his whole happy life at the turkey gym, pumping turkey weights. So this week’s meal plan includes pie, curry, sandwiches and ragu, the common denominator in which will be turkey.

To walk of some of this excessive Easter Day meal, Ellie and I did a walk (don’t worry: only one and just a few minutes down the road) up to the top of Dunsinane Hill. Those keen readers amongst you will have clocked that Dunsinane Hill is the site of Macbeth’s castle in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and in fact the key premise of the plot references this very hill and a nearby forest which we can see from our kitchen window: ‘Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him.’ Without giving too much away, things don’t end particularly well for Macbeth, but as Ellie and I sat, panting, on the site of Macbeth's castle on top of Dunsinane hill (he was a real King of Scotland, by the way), the wood stayed firmly where it was and the view was spectacular. 

Back in the world of The King’s Singers, we’re really thrilled that over 700 people around the world have submitted their videos to be part of the Stay At Home Choir. Without having checked with our archivist, I’d put a bit of money on that being the largest choir the group has performed with in recent decades. We pity the poor engineers who are now synchronising and editing c.750 different videos to create ‘And so it goes’, but cannot wait to see how it looks and how it sounds and to share it with the world. I think all six of us also appreciate quite how tough and exposing it is to sit at home, with no accompaniment, and to film yourself singing. It takes real courage, and if you’re reading this having submitted a video, I want you to know that it’s never easy doing that — not for us either — and you have to trust in the people who are putting it all together. In these sorts of things, as in any choir, the whole is so much more than a sum of the parts. So if you’ve done it, be patient for the result, and be proud that you’ve done your bit to be part of such an uplifting project. 

Happy Easter, one and all! For those of you who have been getting used to our daily blogs and wondered what happened to Friday and Monday, they are public holidays in the United Kingdom (marking Good Friday and Easter Monday) so that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it. Despite not going to Church, not singing a single hymn, and not being given a chocolate egg the size of a football, it was one of the most Eastery Easters I can remember. The garden up here in Scotland is bursting with lovely daffodils, the trees and bushes seem to have burst into life pretty much overnight, and to top it all, baby ducklings were born, so over the weekend the pond was ablaze with tiny balls of yellow fluff zooming around trying to find frog spawn. The ducks have now trotted off down the field to find the River Tay, but it was wonderful to witness their first few days. And just when I thought Easter couldn’t get any more cheerful, one of the six chickens we bought when lockdown began just laid her first egg. I still can’t tell them apart so I can’t be sure which deserves the credit, but one of them has a certifiably active pair of ovaries, the fruits of which will be fried up first thing in the morning, consumed on toast and washed down with a swig of black coffee. Country life at its very best. 

On the subject of winged beasts, and with apologies to my vegetarian readers, we upheld one of Ellie’s family’s traditions on Easter Day, by having for our lunch not the traditional roast lamb, but turkey instead. And not just turkey, but the titan of all turkeys, who must have spent his whole happy life at the turkey gym, pumping turkey weights. So this week’s meal plan includes pie, curry, sandwiches and ragu, the common denominator in which will be turkey.

To walk of some of this excessive Easter Day meal, Ellie and I did a walk (don’t worry: only one and just a few minutes down the road) up to the top of Dunsinane Hill. Those keen readers amongst you will have clocked that Dunsinane Hill is the site of Macbeth’s castle in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and in fact the key premise of the plot references this very hill and a nearby forest which we can see from our kitchen window: ‘Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him.’ Without giving too much away, things don’t end particularly well for Macbeth, but as Ellie and I sat, panting, on the site of Macbeth's castle on top of Dunsinane hill (he was a real King of Scotland, by the way), the wood stayed firmly where it was and the view was spectacular. 

Back in the world of The King’s Singers, we’re really thrilled that over 700 people around the world have submitted their videos to be part of the Stay At Home Choir. Without having checked with our archivist, I’d put a bit of money on that being the largest choir the group has performed with in recent decades. We pity the poor engineers who are now synchronising and editing c.750 different videos to create ‘And so it goes’, but cannot wait to see how it looks and how it sounds and to share it with the world. I think all six of us also appreciate quite how tough and exposing it is to sit at home, with no accompaniment, and to film yourself singing. It takes real courage, and if you’re reading this having submitted a video, I want you to know that it’s never easy doing that — not for us either — and you have to trust in the people who are putting it all together. In these sorts of things, as in any choir, the whole is so much more than a sum of the parts. So if you’ve done it, be patient for the result, and be proud that you’ve done your bit to be part of such an uplifting project. 

Happy Easter, one and all! For those of you who have been getting used to our daily blogs and wondered what happened to Friday and Monday, they are public holidays in the United Kingdom (marking Good Friday and Easter Monday) so that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it. Despite not going to Church, not singing a single hymn, and not being given a chocolate egg the size of a football, it was one of the most Eastery Easters I can remember. The garden up here in Scotland is bursting with lovely daffodils, the trees and bushes seem to have burst into life pretty much overnight, and to top it all, baby ducklings were born, so over the weekend the pond was ablaze with tiny balls of yellow fluff zooming around trying to find frog spawn. The ducks have now trotted off down the field to find the River Tay, but it was wonderful to witness their first few days. And just when I thought Easter couldn’t get any more cheerful, one of the six chickens we bought when lockdown began just laid her first egg. I still can’t tell them apart so I can’t be sure which deserves the credit, but one of them has a certifiably active pair of ovaries, the fruits of which will be fried up first thing in the morning, consumed on toast and washed down with a swig of black coffee. Country life at its very best. 

On the subject of winged beasts, and with apologies to my vegetarian readers, we upheld one of Ellie’s family’s traditions on Easter Day, by having for our lunch not the traditional roast lamb, but turkey instead. And not just turkey, but the titan of all turkeys, who must have spent his whole happy life at the turkey gym, pumping turkey weights. So this week’s meal plan includes pie, curry, sandwiches and ragu, the common denominator in which will be turkey.

To walk of some of this excessive Easter Day meal, Ellie and I did a walk (don’t worry: only one and just a few minutes down the road) up to the top of Dunsinane Hill. Those keen readers amongst you will have clocked that Dunsinane Hill is the site of Macbeth’s castle in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and in fact the key premise of the plot references this very hill and a nearby forest which we can see from our kitchen window: ‘Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him.’ Without giving too much away, things don’t end particularly well for Macbeth, but as Ellie and I sat, panting, on the site of Macbeth's castle on top of Dunsinane hill (he was a real King of Scotland, by the way), the wood stayed firmly where it was and the view was spectacular. 

Back in the world of The King’s Singers, we’re really thrilled that over 700 people around the world have submitted their videos to be part of the Stay At Home Choir. Without having checked with our archivist, I’d put a bit of money on that being the largest choir the group has performed with in recent decades. We pity the poor engineers who are now synchronising and editing c.750 different videos to create ‘And so it goes’, but cannot wait to see how it looks and how it sounds and to share it with the world. I think all six of us also appreciate quite how tough and exposing it is to sit at home, with no accompaniment, and to film yourself singing. It takes real courage, and if you’re reading this having submitted a video, I want you to know that it’s never easy doing that — not for us either — and you have to trust in the people who are putting it all together. In these sorts of things, as in any choir, the whole is so much more than a sum of the parts. So if you’ve done it, be patient for the result, and be proud that you’ve done your bit to be part of such an uplifting project.