A NOW VERY WET & WINDY SUNNY MANILVA ON SUNDAY.

SUNDAY 11^th/ MARCH 2018.     “ MOTHER’S DAY “

Just a little lie in this morning, as usual, on a Sunday the village is even more quiet than normal, until the church bells start calling the ‘faithful’ down to the Church! After a quick freshen up we had a quick breakfast of fresh fruit, toast & tea before getting this evenings ‘ Mother’s Day  Roast ‘ on the go!

I first collected ‘ Scruffy’ for the day, he’s now at my feet up in the office/studio as I’m typing/posting today’s Blog.

There was a very nice message, on the ‘Facebook’ messenger, posted overnight from Everett, Ontario, Canada, from Sandra, wishing Brenda a very special ‘ Mother’s Day ‘ - “ Thanks “

Early this evening Brenda had a surprise call from Sandra over in Canada!! 

At lunchtime, at Brenda’s request, I’m making ‘ Campo’ Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Salmon, with a nice glass of chilled, local ‘ Cava’ –  with freshly squeezed local Orange juice, this evenings ‘ Roast’ is also a Brenda favourite!

At the moment it’s grey & overcast but the rain has stayed away for now, during the night it was also ‘ rain-free’ - after another thunder & lightening rain storm during the evening, it’s still forecast for later but the overall temperatures are still hovering on the 17/18 degs+ mark, overnight down to 12/14 degs, next week we are in for more of the same, with just the chance of the sun breaking through at times, very unseasonable for the time of the year, only a couple of weeks ago the local authorities were complaining that the reservoirs were very low, now they are overflowing! Watch this space.

PS; We are now in the middle of yet another rain storm!!

The ‘ Roast Top Side of Beef ‘ – boned & rolled – went in the oven, first, to roast in a very hot oven until ‘ Med-Rare’ (Pink, no blood!) resting on a ‘ Trivet’ of bones and ends of vegetables etc, which I then use to make my famous ‘ finger-licking’ Pan Gravy’!- not forgetting the ‘Yorkshire Puddings’ later!!

See below;

Meanwhile the ‘ Vegetable Chef’ – sadly no ‘day-off’ for her, was preparing Broccoli & Cauliflower Florets in a three-Cheese sauce, Glazed Baby Carrot Batons with Diced Turnips, Baby Brussels Sprouts,  fresh , local Spinach with Garlic, fresh, local, Garden Peas ( in the pod) - Mashed Potato and par-boiling the local Potatoes, before going into the roasting tray, in the hot ‘Goose Fat’ - to roast this evening. I also roasted a whole Onion, at Brenda’s request, which I will braise later in the gravy! Lots of ‘ Horseradish Sauce’ and ‘ Dijon Mustard’ on the side!


See below; 

And ' Canadian Roast Beef  and Yorkshire Pudding '  yesterday evening ! 

Just a quick update on yesterdays sports results; sadly Liverpool were beaten 2-1, Everton, for a change, won 2-0, over here Real Madrid won 1-2 & Barcelona won 0-2, sadly England played terribly and lost to France, 22-16  - meaning that Ireland are the ‘ Six Nations’ Champions, even before they play England next week, on ‘St Patrick’s Day’ at Twickenham!!

Last night after supper we settled down to watch the new series over on ‘ BBC Four’ – of the ‘Danish’ crime/thriller, with sub-titles, “ Below the Surface “ with back to back episodes, as a group of lethally efficient and heavily-armed terrorists take 15 hostages off an underground train, below Copenhagen, into a home-made prison, the ‘ Counter-Terrorism Task Force’ is led by a Special Forces professional from a Military background, who in the past had been a captive himself! It’s all very gripping and very well filmed, all the actors are also very good, watch this space.

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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