kestrel

Yesterday morning, we went to the library to look at the “exhibition” of possible development of new housing round our village. It’s a matter of “how”, rather than “if”, but there’s going to be very little that Long Ashton can do in terms of influence, I fear. I took the opportunity to actually *join* the library – I’ve only lived in the village for 9 years, and I don’t like to rush things. And then, of course, I borrowed some books, which was probably foolish given the size of my to-read heap.

After that, we trundled up to Telford, to collect half a cow from the inestimable Steve Rawlings. This is rather less meat than it sounds, as Dexters are small beasts anyway, and this was a small beast in Dexter terms too. On the way home, we stopped at a farm shop somewhere in Shropshire for some fruit and veg, and then at Ludlow Food Centre, which was very impressive, and not as expensive as it looked.

We bought a variety of sossidge (as we generally do when we spot new ones), a small shoulder of pork for perlmonger’s birthday tea (a rather excellent looking pork goulash seen on The Boy Oliver’s prog the other day), a red cabbage to accompany it, and an astonishingly looking elderflower and lime cheesecake, just because we could, really.

Today we have to do the “up to the elbows in gore” thing and get this cow bagged up for the freezer. We also have to deliver some Parish Plan questionnaires for data entry to two different households, go on the village walk this afternoon, and cook this goulash, which I have just discovered requires three hours in the oven after a load of prepping. And there’s the red cabbage to do.

I’d better get on, I guess. Still, there is a bottle of Pelorus to look forward to after all our labours :)