We've just passed the first quarter of the year, so it's time for my first update of 2025! Also, since Easter is coming up next weekend, I've added a section with some Easter recipes (scroll down for that). :)
Winter-Spring Update (2025)
For the past few years I've written quarterly updates (from "season to season"). I started out writing monthly updates in 2019 and then "two monthly" (two months at a time) ones in 2020, but found that quarterly was better for me. So I'm going to carry that on in 2025. :)
You can see my autumn-winter 2024 update here if you like: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2025/01/new-year-gingerbread-cookies-autumn.html
I didn't do much during January really. I had a bit of a stressful start to the year, due to personal circumstances.
At the beginning of February I celebrated Imbolg. You can see my post about it here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2025/02/imbolg-2025.html
Also during February, I went to Popeyes and got some food. Similarly to Slim Chickens, I'd had milkshakes from there before but not a meal. I tried Slim Chickens' food for the first time in December. I like them both, but like Popeyes' chicken a bit more and prefer Slim Chickens' milkshakes!
At the beginning of March I celebrated my birthday. I got a few presents and had a red velvet cake from Marks & Spencer (a small one because they didn't have the bigger one I usually get) and some food at home. I also got takeaway from Nando's.
In mid-late March it was Ostara/Ostara aka the Spring Equinox. You can read my post about my celebration here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2025/03/oestara-2025.html
Later in March I met up with my dance friends at a pub in Hangleton (Hove). It was nice to see them.
While I'm not currently going on regular park walks , I went to the park a few times during February and March. I had planned to go to Hove Park for Oestara but ended up going to a nearer one instead, because it was quite a busy day. However, I went to Hove a couple of weeks later, around sunset. I also went to Burger King and got a double bacon cheeseburger, a mocha latte and a Coke, then went and sat in the park for a bit.
Here are a couple of photos:
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| View from by Hove Park. |
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| Blossom trees in the park. :) |
Apart from that I went to Happy Café (Action for Happiness' Meetup events regularly).
I didn't do a lot of baking apart from for Oestara (carrot cake bars). But I did make chocolate protein muffins from a mix in February. Easter is later this year (next weekend) and I am planning to make something for Easter. See below for some Easter baking ideas! :)
Weather wise, it's been varied. As I mentioned in my Oestara 2025 post, it felt like quite a long winter this year. It also felt colder than the past couple of winters but I'm not sure if it was. We didn't actually get any snow in my area this year, whereas we got a little bit last year.
This past week the weather has been warmer, around 15C (58F) some days and up to 18C (64F) once, but nights are still chillier, down to about 5C (41F). Today it's about 12C (52F). It's been mostly sunny for the past couple of weeks, which has been good.
So that's it for the update! There wasn't a lot to write about but never mind. :) The next sabbat will be Beltane at the end of April/beginning of May and I'll do a post about my celebrations. While I'm no longer writing in-depth celebration idea posts, last year I did a post sharing some salads for Beltane and extra ideas (and one for Litha as well). I may write another post about salads to have during spring in general.
I hope everyone has had a good start to the year. And if not, I hope that it gets better. :)
Read: The Cloisters by Katy Hays, You Love Me by Caroline Kepnes, The Manifestation Diaries by Kimberly Wenya (non-fiction book about LOA/manifesting, Halloweird: Classic stoies from the Season of Samhain editied by Johnny Mains (got this as a Christmas present but I'm always interested in Hallowe'en/Samhain stories! lol), Speak Your Truth by Fearne Cotton, Self Help by Gabrielle Bernstein (birthday present).*
*I've never seen the TV series YOU that the You books are based on because I don't have Netflix, but it sounds like my kind of thing! This was the first book in the series that I'd read and it would have been better to have read the first one before, but I still enjoyed it.
Links I found useful during winter and spring:
Lauren Grace post about living through the seasons: https://laurengracelife.substack.com/p/why-i-believe-in-living-through-the
how to use CHATGPT to level up your life (Tam Kaur video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hrYRD0fCiY
Easter Baking
Easter is next weekend (Easter Sunday is 20th March), so I thought it would be good to share some baking inspiration! While I've previously written baking posts for sabbats such as Lammas and Madron/Mabon and autumn and Christmas, I haven't done one specifically for Easter before.
Back in 2020 (during the early days of the pandemic) I included a baking section in my March/April update. You can see it here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2020/05/marchapril-update-baking-inspiration.html
For Oestara/Ostara aka the Spring Equinox this year, I baked carrot cake bars with vanilla cream cheese frosting. The recipe is from Simply Taralynn: https://simplytaralynn.com/2025/02/12/carrot-cake-bars-with-vanilla-cream-cheese-frosting/
You can see mine here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2025/03/oestara-2025.html
At the bottom of the page (in the Oestara post) I included a few links to carrot cake recipes that would also be good for Easter. I'll share some more below as well. :)
Here are some Oesara and Easter posts (sharing recipes) previously featured on the blog:
Oestara (fairy cakes, similar to cupcakes): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2014/04/oestara.html
Oestara 2015 (sugar cookie bars): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2015/03/oestara-2015.html
Oestara 2018 (white chocolate Malteser cake): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2018/03/oestara-2018.html
Oestara 2019 (Malteser squares): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2019/03/oestara-2019.html
Oestara 2020 (white chocolate tiffin): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2020/03/oestara-2020.html
Oestara 2021 (Birdies Perch Malteser slice): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2021/03/oestara-2021.html
Oestara 2022 (Maltesers traybake bites): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2022/03/oestara-2022.html
Oestara 2023 (spicy carrot cake cupcakes): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2023/03/oestara-2023.html
Oestara 2024 (carrot cake cupcakes): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2024/03/oestara-2024.html
Oestara 2025 (carrot cake bars with vanilla cream cheese frosting): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2025/03/oestara-2025.html
Note: I've left a couple of posts out because some didn't come out so well or I made the same thing twice. You can see the full list of Oestara posts from 2014 up to 2021 in my 2022 Oestara Round-up post though: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2022/03/oestara-round-up.html
I normally put mini eggs on top of my Oestara bakes, to fit the theme! I noticed that in the last few years I've started making carrot cake most often, lol.
Here are a few more carrot cake recipes:
Easy Sugar Top Carrot Muffins: https://thecafesucrefarine.com/easy-sugar-top-carrot-muffins.
Old fashioned carrot cake from Precious of Precious Core: https://www.preciouscore.com/carrot-cake/
Carrot zucchini/courgette muffins (Shay from Mix and Match Mama): https://mixandmatchmama.com/2025/04/carrot-zucchini-cupcakes/
My past Easter baking posts:
Easter Biscuits (cookies): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2014/04/easter.html
Easter Cake (Tres Leches cake): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2015/04/easter-cake.html
Easter Chocolate Fridge Cake/Squares: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2016/03/easter-chocolate-fridge-cakesquares.html
Frosted White Chocolate Easter Cake (my favourite recipe to make for Easter!) https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2017/04/frosted-white-chocolate-easter-cake.html
Also in 2021 I made an ice cream cake for a change. You can see a pic in my spring-summer update post from that year: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2021/07/spring-summer-update.html
And here are a few more recipes from other sites:
The best fridge cake recipes: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/easiest-ever-fridge-cake-recipes
Easter chocolate cupcakes (from Jenny of Apply To Face Blog whose ice cream cake I made): https://applytofaceblog.com/easter-chocolate-cupcakes/
Lemon blueberry zucchini cake (gluten free): https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/lemon-blueberry-zucchini-cake/
I most often bake the frosted white chocolate Easter cake (a James Martin recipe), I last made it in 2023. My most recent post with a picture of it is from Easter 2020: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2020/04/easter-2020.html
And last Easter I baked Tres Leches cake again (9 years after I first made it!). This year I think I'll probably do something "no-bake", like a version of my favourite Birdies Perch Malteser slice (Sam Stern recipe). I made it for Oestara in 2016 and 2021.
Hope that gave you some ideas for Easter baking! Happy Easter to those celebrating! Or Happy April in general. :)
Photo: Carrot cake cupcakes I made for Oestara 2024.
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