Katsu Saturday

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When I first moved to Sheffield, the area around Kelham Island on the River Don was largely derelict, sad and forlorn - a mere shadow of how it had been in its heyday.  I seldom had reason to go down there, although there were a couple of cute, small pubs (The Fat Cat and the Kelham Island), a small brewery and an interesting industrial museum  all of which I occasionally went to.  I think it's probably 8 or 9 years since I last had any reason to go down that way, though.

I knew that the area had been slowly gentrified.  I knew that the old industrial buildings were being turned into apartments and townhouses.  Tabitha, Gareth and Freyja had friends who had moved down there.  But I paid little attention. And I didn't know about the arrival of wine bars and bistros and little cafes.

And then Duncan and Nate moved into an apartment overlooking the river.  I became slightly more curious - and invited us to lunch :-D

So on Saturday, The Builder and I came into Sheffield on the train.  Freyja was already in Sheffield having come up from London on the Friday evening. Tabitha, Gareth and Cally came across town on the bus. And we all congregated at Nate and Duncan's place for chicken katsu (potato katsu in Freyja's case), Japanese style salad, rice and a katsu sauce, followed by Duncan's sticky toffee pudding.

It was a lovely afternoon. In many senses of the word. The sun shone and the weather was comparatively warm (well, compared to the weather over the past 7 months is was quite warm!). We had a convivial afternoon. The food was delicious. The wine was plentiful. Nate and Duncan gave us truly delicious port to drink. A good time was had by all. (At least, I think Duncan and Nathan enjoyed having us, although it was rather something of a Family Invasion).

And then we all walked back into town. Freyja went off to do some Uni work. The Builder and I caught the train home again. Everyone else went to an art exhibition at the canal basin.

On Sunday, inspired directly by a conversation we had had over Katsu Saturday lunch, The Builder and I went out to Marsh Green Farm shop and ordered some new chickens.  We have two light Sussex, and two Plymouth Rocks coming.  We asked to pick them up on the May Holiday weekend in a fortnight - but The Under Gardener has now cleaned out, disinfected and sorted out the chook coop and run. I might see if we can pick them up on Sunday instead of Sunday week.  While we were there, I bought a sheep which the butcher has obligingly done up for us in freezer packs. It was an old season sheep, so hoggett rather than spring lamb.  I must say I do prefer hoggett. It's tastier, not to mention bigger :-D  And, strangely enough - cheaper.

This was the somewhat apocalyptic looking sunset we had last night: