So Happy Hallmark Day to all of you out there.

If you look up Mother’s Day online you find out all sorts of interesting things but for me, best of all was this……..Mothering Sunday – not to be confused with Mother’s Day.

So here’s a quick breakdown of the two days.  Mothering Sunday is a Christian festival celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent at The Mother Church (that being either the Parish church where you were born or the local Cathedral). In days of yore and servitude it was also something to look forward to as you got the day off (a rarity) to go a Mothering, basically a day off to go home and attend your church.

Mother’s Day is a day that has morphed from Mothering Sunday, having been hi-jacked by card manufacturers. A day when we’re on a three line whip to celebrate Motherhood, buy expensive flowers (British of course) and travel to see our Mums.

Now I’m a mother and I’m lucky enough to still have my mother with me, not literally but in the alive and kicking sense and I am also most fortunate to have gone through adolescence and forged a fabulous relationship with her. But I know many of my friends have lost their mothers, again not in a careless way, but taken too early from them, some as a result of cancer and other incurables, and their loss is felt most keenly today. I also have friends who have no relationship at all with their mothers, it’s very sad but a toxic relationship with your family is difficult but especially so when its with the person society tells you will love, care and always be there for you. Some of my friends will never be mothers, either through choice or by a cruel twist of fate and for the them today can be equally difficult.

Mother’s Day can be fraught with a sense of overwhelming loss for so many, so for all those of you out there, whether you celebrate Mothering Sunday or loathe Mother’s Day for personal reasons these are for you…..and yes they are home grown.