Fun in the Sun (with a blow up pool)

Thankfully, we’ve not been told about a hosepipe ban yet and so it was with great excitement yesterday that we blew up the plastic pool and filled it with water - good old Uncle Tony braved the cold water and kept Isobel company in the pool yesterday - I fear my turn will come but I managed to hold off yesterday - although very hot outside it was still chilly in the pool!

Oona (photo above) and family arrived safely on Sunday night, welcomed with a meal of duck confit and potatoes sauteed in duck fat with a little garlic and parsley - ‘anything duck’ happens to be my brother-in-law’s favourite so I see lots more duck in our future!  I do love the french terms for “in-laws” - a mother-in-law is called a ‘belle-mere’ (beautiful mother), father-in-law, ‘beau-pere’, brother-in-law, ‘beau-frere’ and so on - so much nicer than the jokes we ‘anglais’ make about our in-laws!!! :)

They turned up with a present for "Uncle Tony" - a "pushchair cup/bottle holder" that Oona renamed the "Tractor Beer Holder" - box is pictured above - photos to follow once installed and in use on the tractor!

Today we harvested our first cucumber (photo above) and there are plenty of others not far behind.  The melon is continuing to grow and we’re hoping we shall be harvesting that while the family are still with us and of course we have a daily supply of mostly bizarre looking tomatoes which are always delicious.

Last night we enjoyed an apple and blackberry crumble with both the apples and the blackberries taken from our garden and today we’ll be harvesting the enormous amount of pears we have on the tree - now we just need to find lots of pear recipes.....watch this space...!

We’re off to the “lake” today - a man made lake with a real sandy beach where they have lovely areas for picnics and pedalos and even a tele ski and wakeboarding beach - I’m not sure if I’m brave enough to get in the cold water for a wakeboard but will report back later.....