School dinners

Last week I went on a training course. It's a standing joke at work that we judge the quality of a course by the quality of the lunch provided. Lately though, with all the funding cuts, there have been no lunches, so how excited were we when we discovered that on this occasion we were going to get fed?! However, imagine our disappointment when on approaching the 'restaurant' we realised that we weren't getting a nice buffet lunch, but what smelled suspiciously like school dinners.... and to my horror I realised that the two options for our cooked lunch were cottage pie or cheese and brocolli quiche. I can't stand potatoes, haven't eaten them in any form since I was about two (I know, I'm very odd), and I remain traumatised by the mere sight of quiche or flan from when I was at primary school.
What were your school dinners like? I have vivid memories of being on last sitting for lunch (which meant you had no choice of what to eat, you had what was left) and being fed cold cheese flan that tasted of vomit (hence my ongoing hatred of quiche and flan), cold soggy chips (don't eat potatoes, so don't like chips) and cold mushy peas...vile. If you were lucky, there may have been a semi-edible dessert left which was most often served with a bizarrely coloured custard (why did they serve it green or pink?). I also remember a teacher sittting with us, pratically forcing us to eat what was on our plates and not letting us leave the table until we did. It was awful. Needless to say, once I went to high school, I took a packed lunch...soggy Ryvitas and cheese were so much more appetising.
I'm back for the second part of my training course this week. Should I brave the dinner options or just take my own sandwiches? You never know, we might get green custard.

Is Spring finally here?

All the signs would suggest so. The first daffodil has come into flower in the garden, buds on the trees are starting to break, frogspawn has appeared in the pond and the sun is shining. I had a lovely walk across the fields with Barney this afternoon (thankfully I did not have to extract a semi-disembowelled rabbit from his jaws today) and watched as five buzzards soared around overhead. I wish I had had my camera with me. Back in the garden the birds were singing and I caught this robin chirping away in the trees.

A couple more photos....

.... and a few more here.