Please, please – no chocolate this year, I beg.
Yet with Easter come and gone, the remains of two fat eggs sit enticingly on the sideboard.
The dark truffle filled creation came from the chief. The silky smarty-covered white one was from the MacNaughties. What an imagination those doggies have!
Most of it has gone, of course. And what is left will no doubt be demolished in the coming days.
Your sweetness is my weakness
Because somehow, chocolate has become a bit of a weakness. Once I could take it or leave it. But now…
You know the saying, ‘build it and they will come.’ In this case, it is ‘buy it and she will eat it…’
And I was doing so well! Trying yet again to lose that half stone.
To be able to fit into that purple dress. The one I bought some years ago. The outfit that was in the sale. The one I just had to have – and vowed to get into…
Of course, I blame it on the chocolate. Although my addiction seems to pale when compared with others.
Research tells me that the Swiss eat the most chocolate in the world. Although the Chinese are catching up fast.
The UK apparently lies seventh in the table of cocoa and sugar shame. And here in Scotland, we must surely take our share of responsibility for that.
Because the Scots are notoriously sweet-toothed. Indeed, a neighbour who works in a supermarket tells me that syrupy puddings and sugary snacks sell much better north of the border than they do in England.
Spring has sprung
But enough of sweetie facts and figures. As I write, it is the most glorious spring day. The bulbs are in full flower. The sun is out, and I am off to prune the shrubs in the lower bed.
As I pull on wellies, the littlest dog senses an outing – and today he is in luck.
Bennie the naughty Norfolk is allowed to tag along, and, for once, he is being trusted to behave.
In the early days my energetic terrier would have had to be tied to a stake outside. Otherwise, he might wander off – and with lambs in the fields…
Today, though, my dog is a little older and, hopefully, a wee bit wiser.
Bennie meets his match
Bennie puddles about in a patch of water. He is fascinated, watching the ripples, and pawing at rising bubbles.
I, meanwhile, am cutting and chopping. Who would have thought there would be so much growth in a year?
It is peaceful and companionable. Then comes a scream and a yelp. Bennie rushes from the stream and hides shaking behind me.
I walk to the water to investigate. And see a large toad hopping from stone to stone.
I do not know who got the biggest fright, but it appears my rufty-tufty terrier is not so brave after all…
Were he human I could give him some chocolate to sooth. Then that would never do. It is one of the worst things for dogs…
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