After request from eldest son decided to play the dutiful mother and head out with hazel stick and basket to pick some sloes for his sloe gin. It is not that good a year for them. Last year the hedges were blue with sloes but yesterday I had to walk two fields to get a decent amount. It was very pleasant on such a beautiful afternoon to wander about the fields watching the alpacas. They look up when I appear but otherwise ignore me and get on with eating. The exception is the orphan who rushes up enthusiastically thinking I might have milk but nowadays rejoins the group pretty quickly so is becoming less tame – excellent.
As I was in a domestic mode I made Lancashire hotpot to a Gary Rhodes receipe. It took a while but was very good, more comfort food. The lamb came from a couple of orphan lambs we had reared that are now in the freezer. I know lots of people are squeamish about eating an animal they have reared but at least you know what it has been eating, what sort of life it had and how it was killed.
I bought a whole load of CDs recently of Pavarotti earlier in his career when his voice was at its best so we had an opera fest listening to Il Trovatore, La Fille du Regiment and Rigoletto last night. It was marvellous, cheered me up no end. I love going to the opera but it is good to listen to it at home because you can dance around to it, conduct and sing along which would go down like a cup of cold sick at Covent Garden.