A Gloriously Sunny Easter

We had the most glorious, sunny Easter this year. No doubt it was partially due to the late date of Easter this year but I am sure that luck also played a part! Stephen and I drove up to spend the weekend with our friends in Bolton (near Manchester)

On the Saturday morning, we helped our host to hand-make some boerewors.  Boerewors is a famous South African beef sausage and an absolute necessity on any braai (a South African barbeque).  It is translated as ‘farmer’s sausage’.  This was the first time I have ever seen sausage being handmade and I very helpfully turned the food processor on and off.  (Can you believe it? I was actually asked to take a photo on this occasion; it makes a difference to how my photographer is usually considered!)

The weather was just incredible yesterday and it was wonderful to just sit and bake in the sun all day.  Of course, I have an impossible mix of olive / peaches-and-cream skin and after going slightly red, I now have no tan whatsoever.  Stephen did most of the cooking and was bushed when we drove back to London last night.

The boerewors is cooked in one big coil over the cooling coals.  This is very important and it is not like a standard barbeque where you cook it over open flame.

We had such a lovely mix of nations yesterday.  Our hosts are Croatian Catholic / Greek Orthodox and were happy that for once, the Orthodox and Catholic Easters fell on the same day.  In the rest of the group, there was a Pole, two Jews, two Londoners, two South Africans and of course, our host’s son who speaks neither Greek nor Croatian and is definitely an English lad.

The other sausages in the photo above were also handmade and were spicy Croatian pork sausages that were delicious.  We also cooked a whole leg of lamb on the barbeque and gammon, salmon and prawns were served as starters.  It was an excellent meal and our host is a cook extraordinaire.

I haven’t experienced such glorious weather in England in a long time and especially up north in Bolton!  I hope this is an indication of the summer to come but I don’t tend to complain when it rains.  I guess it is because I come from Africa where rain represents life, abundance and fecundity.

Many people took to the skies too yesterday and we enjoyed watching the vapour trails.  All to soon, the sun was setting and the day was done.  We decided to travel back down to London last night so that I could catch up on my blogging studying today.

How was Easter in your part of the world or did you celebrate Pesach this week?