Danskcolin: Sunday April 5th 2026 "Friends, do YOU already have an escape plan ready, if ever you're wrongfully imprisoned?"

Yes, Friends, do YOU have an escape plan ready, if ever (Heaven forbid!) you become wrongfully imprisoned for a crime you didn't commit?

Most of us do, don't we! But one local prisoner's prison term came to grief as a result of one simple mistake he made - see this morning's Onion News for details!

Oops!!! And of course the plan was discovered by prison staff during the routine weekly prison beauty contest (round 1: prison 'togs', round 2: swimsuit etc etc) and as a result he was moved to a cell with no windows, which was a bit harsh, my wife Lois and I think, as we read the story in Onion News' print edition here in leafy Liphook, Hampshire, to put it mildly!

my wife Lois and me - a recent picture

The story makes us smile, because this morning we've come up with our own 'escape plan', would you believe!

We're not in prison (yet!) but we may have to make a quick getaway at, or near, the end of the Sunday Morning Meeting today at Lois's church - and with good reason: if this week's preacher's exhortation address is longer than usual and the meeting is prolonged, we may have to slip quietly out through a side entrance - because we have an important lunch invitation to get to today, and we mustn't be late, our hosts have warned us, in no uncertain terms!!!

details of the daring "escape plan" that my wife Lois and I have worked out

if we have to slip away early from this morning's Sunday Morning Meeting:

the 'X'-es mark the approximate position of our seats, next to a little-known

side-door which we can push quietly open to make our escape - simples!!!!

Luckily, this week's preacher, local man John, keeps to his allotted 30 minutes, and we can get away as normal, in time to 'scoot' up the mighty A3 dual carriageway to our daughter Alison and family's temporary home, 16 miles away to the north, just over the county line in Churt, Surrey.

And, as it turns out, we're, if anything, slightly early for our invitation so no worries there! And we arrive just in time to see our son-in-law Edward carving the meat for the special meal he has laid on, for this year's Easter Sunday lunch, which is nice!

our Easter Sunday lunch of pork, Yorkshire pudding and vegetables, with our

daughter Alison's family: (left to right) Isaac (15), our son-in-law Edward, Lois, me,

Rosalind (17), Alison, and Josie (19) at Churt, Surrey today: (middle left) our

3 grandchildren showcasing the chocolate Easter eggs Lois and I have bought them,

And, as you can see from the photos above, Bjorn, one of the family's two dogs, delights Lois and me by finding time in his schedule, on another of his very busy days, to pose for a charming selfie with us on the family couch, which very much puts the icing on the cake for us, and makes the visit especially memorable, which is nice!

Kudos Bjorn!!!

16:00 I drive Lois and me home to Liphook with that 'pleasantly full' feeling - no meal to cook tonight, but possibly we'll just find room to have more of Lois's delicious home-made Easter hot cross buns, with a cup of tea or two, or three!!!

flashback to Friday: Lois unveiling her 2026 buns, to my obvious delight, to put it mildly!

And, with no evening meal to prepare tonight, there's more than enough time to discuss some of Lois's classic hot cross buns of past years, which is nice!

flashback to two of Lois's classic hot cross bun batches for 'Easters Past':

(left) Easter 2021 and (right) 2017, at our former home in Cheltenham - yum yum!!!

Happy times!!!!

20:00 Feeling pleasantly relaxed, but thinking about a possible early bed, like a couple of old 'ruins', we decide to wind down on the sofa tonight with one of Lucy Worsley's tales of another 'old ruin' (!) - Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire, the ruined former home of 17th century playboy William Cavendish.

Yes, 17th century hell-raiser William Cavendish was a bit of a naughty boy, no doubt about that! But there's evidence in the castle he built, up north in Bolsover, Derbyshire, that he was also a bit morally conflicted.

Did he sometimes regret his hedonistic life-style, and long for something a bit more virtuous now and again?

The jury's still out on that question, because, inside his castle, Cavendish had installed two halls for his personal moments of contemplation, called 'closets' in those crazy, far-off times, with William dedicating one 'closet' to virtue and the other one to vice.

The other 'closet' where Cavendish did his 'contemplating' was quite different, however, as presenter Lucy explains:

But did Cavendish favour one 'closet' more than the other one, for his contemplation hours? Lucy thinks she knows the answer: the 'vice' closet, which Lucy says, seems much more 'personal'.

And not only that, but there's an intimate little motto there, over the window:

The clincher, however, is that 'vice closet' was the one with the nice view:

Cavendish's statue of Venus, overlooking his garden fountain, has been criticised, however. Although supposed to be based on a slender, elegantly turning, classical figure of the goddess, it was obviously modelled, instead, on some local, rather dumpy Derbyshire lass.

But, rather than sneering at this dumpy Bolsover Venus, Lucy thinks that we should celebrate her as an example of British classicism.

Naughty Cavendish!!!

It's all a bit sad in a way, because Cavendish's big hobby, apart from vice, was horses, and he desperately wanted to be appointed King Charles I's Master of the King's Horses. He even went so far as to invite the King and Queen to his castle for the weekend, as a "sweetener".

Perhaps King Charles wasn't impressed by Cavendish's "Closet of Vice", because the king never gave Cavendish the job, perhaps, also, influenced by the growing wave of puritanism sweeping the country, prior to the Civil War of 1642-1651.