Bank Holiday laziness

On Saturday I made vegetable gratin, which was potatoes, parsnips, carrots and spring onions and chillies covered with Stilton and baked in the oven.
We watched THE DEVIL'S CHAIR after that.

Sunday was slob day. But very, very sunny, and I managed the first barbecue of the year. Highlight was halloumi cheese marinaded in herbs and olive oil (thankyou Delia)...Managed to spend nearly all of the day outside reading and stuff, which was very nice. Got some serious knitting in as well. :-)

Today was a visit to the garden center where I got a Japonica, a duck with a life belt round its neck (don't ask) and some lawn seed. We repaired to The Dog and Partridge in Woodhouses



for lunch. I had Goat's cheese salad with balsamic reduction (!) and he had chicken and ham pie. Sat outside in the sunshine and had a lovely time doing absolutely nothing. When we got home, I attacked the garden, cutting down a laurel bush and revealing a snail hotel of biblical proportions in the sycamore tree behind it. Hundreds of the things. Even though they eat my plants, I can't bring myself to do anything bad to them, and I even helped many of them back onto the tree (after they fell off in all the wood cutting)..

Now contemplating a take away curry before I get stuck into another Charles De Lint book...

Funny, life is not so rock and roll these days :-)

Car woes

Well, Jezebel2 (my ancient car) has been in dry dock for two days, forcing me to work from home, and I just found out she is being released later on. To the tune of £391.02!!! Ouch!
We are already feeling the pinch money wise (seems to me its nothing but bills these days, although we are both lucky to still have work, so I am thankful for that at least)...but £391..

Ouch!

Manchester Spring Markets

We went along on Sunday, and very pretty it all was.

I liked the "carpet of flowers"...

and we ate Turkish style for lunch. I had something called Sac Borek, which is like a flatbread with spinach, feta cheese, onions and a coriander and mint salad on it.

In fact, here it is!

The markets were smaller and nowhere near as busy as the Christmas ones, but as it is a new thing, I suppose it will take time to get going. A lot of the Christmas people were there, and we got some weird cheese from the Dutch Cheeseman, and I had a Pimm's punch, which is Pimm's, gin, orange and a shed load of fruit chucked in. It was very nice, and strong too! In fact, I think that is the first time I have ever had Pimm's.

Even better was a trip to Border's on the way home......:-)

Happy Beltane! )0(