Mudlarking

Exemption from catering detail post Gourmet Sunday only lasted a day as Tuesday brought beef olives and “mum is good with those”. Hmm, it is not rocket science…….I do love them though, and have discovered that cold leftovers sliced perform very well in a baguette. You never see beef olives in London (or at any rate I never found any). When I mentioned this Lachlan rolled a weary eye. “Only the Scots”, he said “would think the best thing for stuffing some beef was, more beef …..” This did not stop him scoffing it.

Since then the weather has been very rainy. Lyra and I were lucky on Wednesday to catch a patch of sun for a walk over towards Kersfield to see the horses. There was a pair of large raptors in the field by the wood, hanging out with the crows, buzzards I think by the size. They are so much more economical in flight than the crows. Hardly a flap. They seemed to catch an upwind almost immediately and just rode the current up and into the wood as we passed.

I do like the mellow sandstone of the Kersfield clock topped barn. The clock is two hours out – I wonder if it switched to double summer time during the war and never switched back…. Their mole is in a positive frenzy and the verges are studded with molehills. It is to be hoped that the lady moles are likewise out of season otherwise the poor soul will be digging for victory until February.

Yesterday was torrential. Lyra and I went out in a mizzle which Keith declared was “as good as it is going to get” . He was half right. Over the course of an hour and a bit we had two absolute downpours but also a couple of dry patches when the hood and bobble hat combo could be relaxed. The field ditches were full to the brim and the lane utterly awash. Lyra does not like a muddy puddle (she likes to see through to the bottom) so she was skittering left and right to find dry patches but in the end gave up and waded through beside me, slurping a sneaky drink of eau de puddle as she went. It was dry but misty when we got to the deer field. I hesitated at the gate swithering whether to stick to the road or risk the mud, but thought I spotted a couple of deer at the end of the field and decided to play “creep up”. As it happens it was two fence posts at the end of the field, but in the course of creeping up on them we got very close to three small does lurking in the middle of the hedge.

Much sewing has ensued. The landing curtains continue to provide excellent entertainment. On the knitting front one Christmas jumper is finished, the belt goes on and on and a third jumper is now underway. As always it has been started without a clear plan as to the design, which is developing as we go. It may work. This time I have been listening to, and enjoying very much, A Brief history of Seven killings by Marlon James. This is largely set in Trinidad around the 70s and centres on an attempt to assassinate Bob Marley.