Swan Lake

A fabulous week ahead as No. 1 son is arriving in the morning from Florida where he is based at the moment. It's quite some time since we were all together so the house is buzzing with excitement! Shopping for and baking his favourite things have been priority this weekend. Quite a different shopping basket to usual :))

With all the preparations, (rather like the Queen arriving) and after moving a load of logs delivered and dumped just outside our gate so we couldn't get out even if we wanted to, I managed to sneak away. I went for a walk just an hour in the gorgeous sunshine for a blip to a neighbouring village which is Neighbourhood Watch gone mad. Curtains twitch and on meeting anyone you are immediately stopped and quizzed - no, interrogated albeit in a friendly way! It doesn't help I suppose carrying a camera. I made my way through a minefield of questions and headed for the lake containing two small islands draped in willows which looked just beautiful in the sunshine.

In a recent radio programme on kitchen culinary delights, recorded at Clare Collage Cambridge it transpired that quite a few of the audience had eaten swan. Are they testing for swan in our meat too? I have heard they are tough and stringy requiring a long slow cooking process. Personally I find the thought quite hideous - even Tilly seemed very unconcerned about a possible snack, with not even a small growl as the pair cruised by looking magnificent in the afternoon sun as it caught their feathers!