A Special Birthday Lunch

We have felt a bit guilty about not having spent more time with Dad on his special 85th Birthday on Friday so today I was doing Sunday Lunch and had invited Klaus and Sheila to join us and I wanted it to be special and so I was delighted that the weather was just ideal for us to be able to sit outside for lunch.  The rain that had been forecast has not come and it has got a little warmer over the last couple of days.

In fact it was so nice this morning that I needed John to try and get more shade around the gazebo otherwise we were going to melt.  My menu had cooler weather in mind!!!  As John was busy throwing some material over the gazebo he disturbed one of those bloody great locust type grasshopper things - these are massive, almost six inches long and I don't mind them if I see them sitting on a plant but I didn't want it flying anywhere near me.

We didn't expect that Mum would want to swim, the temperature of the pool has dropped quite a bit - it now hovers around 25-27 degrees rand and I have no idea what that is in real money I can't decide whether that is warm or not.

Charlie is fascinated by the floating thermometer which Diana kindly gave us.  He watches it intently and I am just waiting for the moment when he decides to try and catch it and overstretches and goes for an unexpected dip.

Boris is in disgrace again having lost yet another collar - He is a nightmare and at this rate I am going to have a job lot sent over by John's Mum.

On that subject John has been trying to get hold of his Mum - when she and Hadge returned the other Wednesday Hadge was clearly unwell and has subsequently been diagnosed with cellulitis which is a really nasty deep tissue infection, thankfully there was no sign of DVT and we now have fingers crossed for a speedy recovery.

Our guests arrived and we started out with drinkies in the conservatory until it became too hot to sit in there any longer and so we moved outside to have that old summer favourite - stifado with hasselback potatoes and hot coleslaw!  Actually stifado is nice any time of the year but I am not sure this was my finest effort - I think I just had too much going on yesterday for me to do my best.

Pudding however was a triumph as I did a lime and coconut pannacotta with a raspberry and pomegranate coulis and sprinkles of lime and chili chocolate - it must have been good because everyone absolutely cleared their plates.

I hope we redeemed ourselves by giving Dad and Mum and Sheila and Klaus a nice lunch - I think we did.


On a very sad note this evening we said goodbye to my lovely Uncle Alfie.  I have so many fond memories of him when I spent my summer holidays in Cornwall with him, my Aunty Val and cousins Christine and David.  Uncle Alf always had an easy smile and a twinkle in his eye even when we had been naughty - he was a really gentle man and he will be missed.