Incredible weather makes the Restrictions easier

It is 3rd January and the weather is amazing.  My poor garden doesn't know that it is Winter and it is supposed to be asleep - we have things which are putting on new growth or have not lost their leaves which they would normally do.  I took the opportunity to get out and do some tidying up - I was keen to use my new collapsible garden trug which was a Christmas Present from Mum - probably one of my favourites and a close second to the good old fashioned dishcloths she found which are fantastic!  (I am so easily pleased!!).  I was being helped, or was that hindered, by Charlie who is making a good recovery from his nasty wound.  His ear looks odd but then it doesn't have any fur on it but there is no sign of the abscess and the tear seems to have knitted.

I did a 'Bobby' this morning - by which I mean I took time to remove all the dead leaves from the shingle and it looked all the better for it.  I fear some of the plants are in for a bit of a shock should we get some normal cold wet and windy winter weather with the odd golf ball sized hail storm or two - that is what tends to do the real damage.  The hail we had before Christmas battered some of my little cuttings to within an inch of their lives unfortunately.

As I moved my way round the garden you can see that the bougainvillea has flowers and leaves - normally by now it would be an interesting stick!  I had to give the rose we have planted in memory of Hadge a haircut too - it got a severe one a month or so back and then produced twenty or so blooms and then began to get out of shape so today it got a trim because the forecast looks mild for a fair few days so it can start to put a spurt on again.

Into the final part of the garden and you can see how healthy and green everything looks.  The sunshine was glorious and I was almost tempted to stick my toe into the pool but then I thought 'nah!'.  It was a strange Sunday for us because the current restrictions mean that Mum cannot come to our house nor we go down to hers so we were taking the opportunity to have a piece of beef with yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and roast veg.  We like our beef rare and I know that would not be her cup of tea.

The forerib was too tall to get into the oven successfully so John had to butcher it to make it short enough.  Because you have to cook it on very hot for 20 minutes and then down on low for the remainder it was being cooked in the convection oven part of the microwave whilst the roast veggies which need hot all the time were going in the oven.

Now that is what John would call a proper roast and he ate the bloomin' lot!!!!  Actually it was very nice even though the meat is hidden by all the veggies on this plate!  We enjoyed it and then settled down to watch the final episode of Tin Star followed by Rim Roth playing Christie in Rillington Place before turning in for an early night!