Impromptu

A few days after the chicken just noticed, off to Horton Country Park at 09:30 or so. A Thursday morning. Rather early for us but we hoped to get a modest stroll in before the heat of the day came on.

This being some days before the blackberries noticed at reference 1, we kept an eye out. As it turned out we did not see very many, but we did see a few bilberries - or at least that is what I think they were. See reference 1. Present in the snap above, but probably not visible, even when you click to enlarge.

The good news was that we were more or less in shade all the way round, so heat not a problem. Some veteran runners, men and women. Quite a lot of mums with children. Some cyclists - but not enough to be a bother. The grass in the fields used for grazing horses looked a bit parched and bare. Most of the horses looked as it they had been retired and were a bit scruffy, but by way of contrast there was a string of polo ponies, very smart with their rich, short clipped coats. They also seemed rather small to be carrying the sort of noisy Surrey types (with booming voices) who played polo: perhaps that is why each player needed a string of them. And perhaps they needed to be small so that they were agile: you couldn't expect the sort of shire used to pull the visitors about at Hampton Court Palace to be turning on a pound coin. So a compromise between agility and strength. Maybe their playing life is quite short.

A mystery tree at the half way point. Complete with a convenient bench to admire it from. We thought perhaps relics from some young persons' camping activity in the field adjacent.

While I think this was what might be called a tedder, a contraption for turning newly cut hay so that it dries for baling. Probably not much call for it this year.

More or less on the spur of the moment, on to the butcher, looking rather the worse for wear after his COVID booster, not having had any trouble before. As luck would have it, he did not have much in hand, but he did have a matured fore rib, just the one rib that is. Before his time, I would have been a bit sniffy about the old beef, brown and cracked on the outside, but having had one from him (noticed at reference ), I was game for another.

As it went into the oven. Tied and well oiled with rape seed oil.

As it came out.

Details: one bone. 3lbs 9oz. 90 minutes at Mark 3? Plus resting? Chart at reference 5. Mark 3 equals 163C. In the oven at 11:45, rather later than intended. Basted around 12:45. Skewered and turned oven off around 13:10. Left meat in to rest. Spot on, as it turned out. Damp and grey through brown rather than pink and oozing.

Served with a profusion of vegetables, it being hot and their needing to be used up. And with courgettes back in vogue with us. Perhaps they are about it being a hot summer. Taken with some more of the Fleurie noticed in the previous post.

The first shift did about half of it. I went on to lose at Scrabble by an embarrassingly large margin. And I had thought that I performed OK with wine taken.

Left over vegetables blended with some water the next day to make soup, helped along with a beef stock cube from the cupboard and some brown stuff from the beef itself. Rather good, though I say it myself.

Cold beef with salads followed.

Finally polished the beef off on the Saturday, leaving enough room for both miniature foreign water melon and giant English plums. Both from Sainsbury's, both rather good.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/08/blackberries-one.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilberry.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/04/beef-without-backbone.html. This is the sort of place where the string noticed at reference 4 tends to go...

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/08/trolley-525.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/06/sheep-shoulder-day.html.