Big “Lockdown” Birthday could have been a Big Letdown Birthday, but I have an amazing husband and I had an amazing day full of video chats and phone calls with family and friends, every one a surprise!
I ended my birthday feeling very loved, and with a bit of a croaky voice.
Bit of a bumpy start to the week, with a bad case of the blues on Tuesday. But a morning walk from Pontrilas – Rowlestone – Dulas – Cwm Road – Abbey Dore, mainly along footpaths (courtesy of Around & About Ewyas Harold & Abbey Dore Yellow Map), sorted me out.
Got great views of Skirrid and Hatterall’s Ridge, and spotted wild flowers galore on the road up from The Trout, and wild garlic down by Dulas Brook….
And the tiny lambs were still in residence at Upper House Farm.
Birthday preparations by Phil went up a gear on Friday, while I spent the morning doing a Big Shop at Aldi and Sainsbury’s. Had to queue to get into both. But succeeded on the saucisson-for-dad front, and bought birthday food treats for the weekend. Dropped essentials off with dad and Jean, and collected a crate of birthday presents, and a cake and candles! Plus stakes for the pond fence…
Saturday was brilliant. I need say no more.
A sunny stroll on Sunday, and a quiet day to recover from all of yesterday’s virtual socialising.
Lots of cute sheep, and long shadows:
And back at Forty Acres, I spotted Orchid No. 3 on the front lawn…
Monday afternoon I walked our Sunday stroll in reverse, and picked some of the roadside wild garlic that we’d spotted en route. An old Aldi Wonky Apple bagful produced four small jars of Wild Garlic Pesto (adapted from this BBC Good Food recipe).
And, seeing as I have a large bag of Almond Flour to use up, I’ve made a note of this Ask MetaFilter post suggestion For Next Time:
Almond flour works great as the nuts ingredient in any riff on “pesto” or “romesco” sauces – sometimes I toast it first, and I usually puree all the other ingredients and then just stir in the almond flour at the end so it doesn’t end up turning to almond butter in the blender/processor.
And as the shadows lengthened I planted out some of the seeds Jean had put into my Birthday Crate: sunflowers, pumpkin and marigolds.
All in all – A Good Week.
CUCKOO!
28 April 2020 Update: Easy access to my Herefordshire Week 016 photos on Flickr.