We had a lovely weekend, spent mostly in the garden or on the allotment. We ate and drank and pottered about. The sun shone, with very occasional rain showers (although – we could do with some sustained rain). It was all very peaceful and restful.

So you might wonder quite why I have been oh-so-sleepy today?!?!?!?!?!?

We had lunch in The Peacock in Bakewell on Saturday. It’s where we nearly always go when we have lunch in Bakewell. I don’t know that we will go again – it might be time to sample some of the other pubs. I think the standard of the food has been going noticeably downhill over the past little while. Their menu says that they serve freshly prepared, fresh local produce. It doesn’t tell you that they use frozen chips! (I really don’t like commercially frozen chips; they always seem a bit floury and a bit dry). I don’t think we can afford to eat at The Rutland Arms, except for very occasionally – though their menu does say that they serve twice cooked chips. I assume they are not twice cooked frozen chips! We might have a mosey around some of the other pubs though.

On Saturday evening I made a version of the monkfish wrapped in bacon that I had last Saturday evening at The Swan which was, alas, not properly cooked in the middle. Mine was! I can’t remember what sauce they put on it at The Swan, but we had ours with new potatoes, asparagus, peas and broad beans with butter and mint. It was lovely.

Actually, it was a very foodie weekend. I’ve made some vanilla ice cream and the rhubarb puree ready for a rhubarb and ginger ice cream. I made bread. I decided it was very wasteful to throw the egg whites away when making ice cream and have been making meringues. I must remember that egg whites can be frozen in future. Too much meringue isn’t good for our teeth! We’ve been eating home grown lettuce and radish and have just had our first wandering-around-the-garden nibble on peas and broad beans from the plants. And we are starting to eat the carrot thinnings. It’s all quite exciting.

I had a phone call from Peter yesterday afternoon. He has had a recurrence of his chest infection. It seems that he started to feel a bit better and took to Rushing About Like a Mad Thing. His doctors say that this was ill- advised! They also said that it would take time before he was properly better and that rushing about is not to happen until then. In the meantime, we are not taking them out to lunch next weekend. We will wait until he is better and then take them out. We’ll have lunch on Sunday with Tabitha and Gareth instead!

And Peter must be dissuaded from dashing about – it would be nice were he to live long enough to *have* lunch with us! Though I suppose it is a reasonably hopeful sign that he is not in hospital and that he was laughing over the phone yesterday.

What else is there? Tabitha and Gareth have been in Brighton for the weekend. Freyja has been in London at a convention. Austin had a long weekend in Japan. Marlo has been lying about in the sunshine. It’s all been quite jolly really.

Still doesn’t explain quite why I am soooooooo tired today, though!