Saturday 13 July 2013

High Tide02:22 (2.30m)
Low Tide07:56 (0.80m)
High Tide14:27 (2.50m)
Low Tide20:42 (0.60m)
Sea temperature: Not taken
Sea conditions: calm
Weather: grey, muggy but promising
Joined by: The Usual Suspects, The New Yorker (who is now in residence for the summer) Libby Purves, journalist and broadcaster and Miss Lush. A busy morning on the beach!
I had to dash off to wait for my new phone to be delivered this morning so didn't get a chance to chat to Miss Lush, but it was lovely to finally meet her, having heard so much about her.
The Pirate had had a disturbed night as he'd had a phone call at 2am but they rang off. When your mother is very poorly and your son is on boat such an incident is a worry. Having sat up fretting and trying to work out who it was The Pirate's wife had finally discovered that the number calling was The Pirate's elderly and occasionally confused mother, who never actually uses it to make calls but has it by her bedside to receive them. She had clearly confused it for either the TV remote or the device for calling a nurse, we all agreed this was easily done, even if you are not 90 and frail.
One group member is also suffering from frailty at the moment, dear old Jess The Poet and Sara's elderly lurcher. She has been very wobbly on her feet over the last couple of days and the vet can find nothing specific wrong with her so we all discussed ways of making her comfortable and restoring her strength as she is much loved by every member of the group. The consensus was that she should be treated much as a dowager duchess would in her later stage of life: plenty of rest and peace, chicken broth, short walks around the estate and the company of those she loves. She hates the heat and it's going to be hot today so she got a lift home with DK and will probably spend the day surveying the estate from her bed.
Thank goodness it is going to be a lovely day as the social event of the year for this part of the village is this evening. The wedding of the first of the younger generation of Garden-Potts to be married is due to take place in her grandmother's garden, which is next to ours. Over the last few days there have been marquees, platforms and gold chairs being set up and yesterday afternoon there was a music rehearsal. They are a very musical family, all playing instruments and one of them has his own band, so is was lovely to hear the voices wafting over the hedge with laughter and "1,2,3,testing, testing" and now there is a vocalist rehearsing, her dulcet tones drifting across the orchard as I type - there will be little sleep tonight... I don't get much opportunity to dress up these days and although I have a pretty broad range of shoes in my collection I have had to borrow a glittery pair from Legs (actually I've borrowed three pairs as I still haven't decided which to wear yet but probably the ones that match my black and sequinned toenails). 
Mermaid dress, shoe choice and nails drying
I'm wearing my mermaid dress and Mertz is wearing my Father's dinner suit, the trousers of which have had to be taken up, but otherwise it fits quite well. Whilst it is lovely that he is able to wear something my Father had made to measure when he was 48, and my Mother is delighted, I am now slightly concerned. Mertz is 50 and when we met exactly 20 years ago he weighed the same as me, now he can fit into my Father's dinner suit, my Father was 17 stone by the time he was 60....


We'd been out last night to celebrate 20 years since our blind date, to Satis House and had wonderful food. The place is decidedly camp, with lots of velvet and tartan drapes but the staff were exceptional. As we arrived in the bar for drinks there had been a bit of a kerfuffle, with the bar manager looking uncomfortable and shifty whilst staring at us, which was peculiar. It transpired that he had been talking about us because when our wine was brought to the table it was 'with love from The Wolves', such a lovely surprise and so very kind. I was jealous of Mertz's Sea Trout with samphire but my Malay aubergine and squash dish was delicious and I had the best cheese plate I've had in years as well as a goat cheese panna cotta with crispy bacon and a bacon flavoured reduction as a starter. Stupidly I'd also eaten some cheese when we called in at the local for a night cap with DK and The Architect on the way home, cheesed out...Having said that I have spent the last 15 minutes, whilst my fake tan and toenails dried, looking for goat cheese panna cotta recipes and found this one, which is similar to the dish I had last night and I'm going to give it a go: recipe





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