NO SIGN OF NARNIA

Great was my relief this morning when Pa left for a few hours at hospital as it meant that I could devote my energies to some serious cookery and sot out my sons room ready for his return. Before Pa left I cooked us at last the promised breakfast of eggs Florentine, this is a great favourite with Pa and I but as it takes a lot of fiddling about I only make it about once every two or three weeks.
Dressed and well fed off we went, he to the hospital ,I to the garden to pick beams and to bring in a marrow. Lurking amongst the large spiny leaves were a couple of monsters and I cut them both and lugged them back to the kitchen to be dealt with later. Hollandaise sauce uses only the yolk of egg so with four egg whites sitting in a bowl it seemed a good idea to make a Pavlova for pudding tonight served perhaps with some of the boozy blueberries and chopped toasted hazel nuts, or perhaps some fresh plums.

Dinner tonight needed some preparation and I set a pint of link to infuse with two bay leaves, sixteen peppercorns and a crushed clove of garlic then went on the dice onions to cook with the minced steak,this with the addition of a few herbs and a squeeze of tomato purred would be thickened later to make a rich meat sauce.

Ever since reading The Chronicles of Narnia at the age of seven I have lived in hope of one day finding Lucy's wardrobe. With the cleaning done I emptied the washing machine and then on to the exploration of my sons wardrobe, not a task for the faint of heart! The wardrobe is built into the wall of the house underneath the eaves and is a strange enough space to be sure. From the outside it likes exactly like another room and this has in the past lead to some confusion when visitors, new to the house go in search of the lavatory. My room has another of these strange small rooms, mine is bigger and actually has a window , as a child I would have had the jim-jams every night wondering what might come out of it. I still do now I come to mention it and it does house some very,very large black spiders!

Spiders also infest my sons wardrobe where its roof slopes up into the eaves and the fear of one of these monsters dropping down the back of my neck was enough to make my hunt for the lamp post a short one. The one strange thing I did discover was the initials A,S, carved into the door frame............I wonder?

With his wardrobe and his bedroom beaten into submission I took a stroll in the vegetable garden to cool off and while I was there picked a bucketful of runner beans of which I seem to have an embarrassment this year, I have begun to notice that the neighbours always seem to be out when I approach with beans or courgettes, spinach and sorrel however are still welcome.
Twiggy was wild to be out in the garden today and celebrated her freedom by catching a small rat which she left on the front door step, this is progress as she usually brings her trophies still squeaking in to the house, I once found one of her victims hiding in my bed, I was not amused!

The weather held dry for my son today and he visited all his old haunts, this sort of weather is best for these visits as on sunny days the place is infested with later day hippies and wannabe witches, they don't really have a clue what it's all about and in an case a true witch is born, not made! These ancient stones were places of pilgrimage long before Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales, in fact long before Christianity reached these shores along with those pesky Romans!

All the chores were done at last and Pa and I enjoyed our meal of poached marrow rings filled with a rich meat sauce and topped with bechamel sauce and a sprinkling of cheese, followed by Pavlova, one thing is certain we shall want not super tonight.