Butcher's Block

This is a very usual sight for me to see on a Saturday morning. One of our weekend rituals (after we've had the breakfast pancakes) is to go briefly into town and pick up our meat for the weekend. This morning I finally remembered to take the camera and blip the fabulous butcher's block they have in the shop!

This particular block is coming towards the end of its life. It's around 30 years old, and started out totally flat - yes, really, the curved top has been created by 30 years of chopping sawing and expert cutting up of fine meats. Just under the blue-handled knife you can see the other half of the half-shoulder of lamb we bought for our special Sunday Bank Holiday weekend roast (and in celebration of the Wonderspouse's gig next weekend being sold out AND of his book getting into the Kindle top 100).

The other delight of going to the butcher's, apart from amazing and very reasonably-priced meat, is that they're extremely friendly. It's the sort of place where taking a photograph of the block is not considered eccentric at all, where, if payment fails for some reason, as very-well-known and regular customers we'll be allowed to settle up next time. There is always banter and good humour, and our "little domestics" about whether to have unsmoked streaky or smoked back always cause fun. Our Christmas goose comes from here, as does the meat for our Wedding Anniversary potted meat, and if he doesn't happen to have any kidneys handy, he'll pop out the back and chop one out of a carcass for you! He also sells home-laid eggs from time to time - although to comply with regulations regarding supplying and packing we have to put them into the egg boxes ourselves! And yes, there is proper sawdust on the floor!

So, we're well set up for the weekend now. The only other news from today is that we're dozing in front of the TV. There are times when it's necessary to stop and recharge the batteries - which is what we're doing today.