The Weather Deteriorates...

Today was the last fine day before we have a week of awful weather forecast.  It gave me the opportunity to have a wander around the garden before Mum came up which will be the last time she will drive.  I know this is going to be a difficult transition but she says the time is right and I think that is wise.

Anyway before she arrived and before the wind picked up I found that I have a rose in the garden which I do not recognise.  I think that this was originally a very fragrant smelling pale mauve rose which Mum gave me and which must have been grafted and this must have been the stock or it was some other rose that has reverted back to stock as there is no other explanation.  I don't mind because it is really pretty and a nice surprise!

Lunch was all organised - we were having lamb shanks with mustard mash and hot coleslaw and Mum had asked for a traditional baked rice pudding for afters.  I can't think I have made one of those since I went to secondary school, if I have made one at all.  Lilian had kindly donated some proper pudding rice and I had decided to follow a BBC Good Food recipe which got five stars but which I managed to misread!  I thought the mixture looked dry and there wasn't much of it because I thought it said 800ml of milk and I only measured out 80ml of milk so half way through the cooking time I had something which resembled concrete so I had to hastily put in some extra fluid and hope for the best.  

Mum arrived safe and sound but by the time she did it was really gale force so we told her to wait in the car so that John could walk her in without her being blown away.

She was in pretty good spirits under the circumstances and we sat in the conservatory and chatted.  I showed her the present that Lilian had given me for my birthday (the sitting Buddha holding a candle) and Mum told me all about the trip they had had to the theatre on Thursday to see Goodnight Mr Tom.  They had all enjoyed it.  

When it was time for lunch I plated up.  We had two big lamb shanks and one smaller one which we gave Mum but in the slow cooker they all seemed to have plumped up rather than shrunk.  

John put on a fair old dollop of his mustard mash and the veggies from the slow cooker and a dollop of the hot coleslaw.  It looked enormous and I told her to only eat what she wanted and bugger me she ate the lot and it was more than I could have managed and she said she really enjoyed it which is good.  I have promised her that this will not be the last time she is here for Sunday lunch we will go down and pick her up and bring her here.

This was my old fashioned rice pudding after it had been given extra fluid and extra cooking time.  It was actually quite nice although, as mum said, a little on the sweet side so I will know for another time.  Anyway our neighbours benefitted from the remainder and declared it to be delicious!

The weather started to deteriorate mid afternoon.  We started to get a rolling mist and the visibility was getting worse.  The wind was coming from the South, I know that because my newly erected weathervane in memory of my lovely friend Joani was telling me so.  I was worried that as the wind got stronger it might go whizzing off into the field but it was ok.