I master Yorkshire Puddings

It was to be a hot day today without a cloud in the sky and I was feeling a bit under par - not sure why, just think the heat had got to me so I was rather less than enthusiastic about getting up and preparing and cooking a roast dinner.  I had nothing in for a pudding so today I made individual apple, sultana, cinnamon and orange crumbles and in the topping I had put oats and pumpkin seeds.  I got those done first and cooked so that they would only need a quick ping in the microwave before serving.

Our main meal was to be roast leg of lamb and thinking about it I am not sure I have ever cooked a joint of meat like this before.  I had got this from Shuks after Christmas.  I couldn't find a recipe for doing it in the Instant Pot so, as it was only small, it needed very little time cooking in a conventional oven.  We browned it first before putting in sprigs of rosemary and sat it on a bet of onions and little hassleback potatoes.  I even got round to making some Yorkshire pudding batter and got the veggies prepped before we set off down to the village to meet Mum at the cemetery because today was Father's Day.

Everything was fine at the cemetery.  We really need to get down one evening when it is cooler to do the lettering again but in the meantime we gave it a sloosh down and deadheaded the flowers at the bottom and gave it a bit of a watering before Mum came to join us.

She seemed very quiet today, maybe because it was Father's Day - I am not sure - but when I asked her she said she was ok, just didn't have anything much to talk about.  I know it has been difficult for her during lockdown but to be fair things are pretty much back to normal here save for the fact that we have to wear masks and I reckon that will be relaxed completely pretty soon and left to people's own discretion - if you walked around Paphos now you see so many people not wearing them - even though tourists are supposed to abide by the island's rules they are either ignoring them or not being told what they are when they arrive - a bit of both I reckon and I have to say in this heat I find wearing a mask very claustrophobic.

Anyway I digress, we paid our respects and made our way back home.  It is a bank holiday weekend here - tomorrow is Kataklysmos (The Great Flood) so lots of people have returned to 'their village' to spend the weekend here and there are tourists staying at 8a so we needed to make sure that Mum's car was parked where it wasn't obstructing anyone.

The lamb was superb and I managed to make some half decent Yorkshires and the pudding was really lovely too so all in all the lunch was a success.  I shall definitely be getting a leg of lamb from there again - it was New Zealand so tasted like we Brits expect lamb to taste!!!

We spent the evening watching the tennis final from Queens - the Brit guy lost although more precisely he threw it away and then we watched the Wales v Italy game before retiring to bed.  A year ago we had rushed Chivers to the vets and left him there hopeful that he was going to pull through.  As you will know that was not to happen.  This plays on my mind all the time as I had heard him that day being sick and had not gone to investigate sooner.