We have just had a weekend of the most glorious weather. It's been sunny and warm and still and lovely. Temperatures in the very high 20s. In our garden both the thermometers read slightly over 30d mid-afternoon on Saturday and when we got back on Sunday. Unusually for England, which is usually very humid if the temperature rises over around 24, the humidity levels were low. It was just lovely.
So on Saturday evening, we lit the barbecue. I think we used it only two or three times last summer. We used it twice over the weekend!!!!! It is, however, a bit rusty and the lid doesn't close properly anymore. Mind you, we've had it five years and we bought it extremely cheaply at B&Q so I don't suppose it owes us much. We might buy a new one. They've got some quite nice ones at Focus for around £50. One of those would do quite nicely. And by next autumn, we might even have a functioning shed. It could live in there over the winter!!
In the meantime, however, it did a fair job on our pork chops, chicken pieces and steak on Saturday evening. It didn't do too bad a job on the piece of lamb I put in on Sunday, though I think next time I do it I'll wait for the flames to die right down and cook the meat on the embers - the bottom of the lamb joint was seriously singed!! That was me being impatient, I think. But it was absolutely lovely to be able to sit out in the garden until it went dark at around 10pm. We were down in the "orchard" and the birds were singing and the trains were choofing lazily; Marlo lay in the grass under the trees; we sat on chairs under the trees. It would be nice to have a summer in which we could spend lots of time down in the garden. It's a nice place to be.
Another nice place to be was Kedleston Hall on Sunday afternoon. Not that we went into the hall itself. We were there for the Derbyshire Food and Drink Festival. I must say that it wasn't as big as I had expected, but we had a good time. There were lots of the people who have stalls at the monthly farmers' markets. We don't go to the farmers' markets so much any more (we mostly go to farm shops these days) but I recognised many of the stallholders or at least their stall names. And I guess I don't tend to buy things like pies and cakes and quiches. Usually I make my own. But I did buy some pieces of hogget , and some gammon and a few bits and pieces that you don't see kicking around in many places. And we had a pleasant potter around. We also had a nice drive to and from Kedleston Hall. We went cross country in both directions - but a different route on the way back. It was a lovely afternoon. We were not a little curious about the HUGE number of motorbikes parked in Matlock Bath. I rather assumed there was a motorbike convention happening. But it seems that there are always lots of bikes there on Sunday afternoons. Apparently they enjoy riding on the twisty roads thereabouts.
Last year I bought a rather nice lilac shift-shirt in the end of season sales. It fitted quite well then, although I didn't have a chance to wear it. It still fits, but it does make me look as though I am about 15 months pregnant. The Builder has a favourite pair of trousers which fitted beautifully at the end of last summer. He can't even get them on now. There is clearly only one thing for it. It's time to bite the bullet, stiffen the upper lip and embark on action. So tell me - where do we get liposuction and how much will it cost?
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