Sadly Molly is correct - it's late on a Sunday evening and I'm already missing her. It's going to be a big issue because I'm not going to see her for such a long time - longer than it's been since we last got in contact, and I can't say I like that thought at all!
But still, I digress, so I shall continue to sip my wine and fill you in on the details of our Sunday, which had me more relaxed than our trip to the spa!
When Molly says early, she meant at 8:30am (which isn't normally early) but on a Sunday!? Suffice to say that I'm glad that getting up had a purpose, that's for sure.
And what did we get up early for? Well, none other than a trip to a farmer's market in Winchester, a place I really like as I used to live there many years ago, so know it reasonably well. Added to that, I also really like farmer's markets - as you may have gathered from our blog, we do tend to do a lot of cooking, eating and messing around in the garden (which sounds oh so domesticated!) which means that an open air market filled with good ingredients, good food and plants and things is a perfect match.
But first thing's first - breakfast. We headed to Winchester, parked the car in the multi-storey car park, and headed up the high street to the Starbucks branch where we elected to partake in hazelnut hot chocolate (me) and a small tea (Molly), along with a couple of portions of fruit toast, which is one of Molly's favourites that I have definitely gained a liking for.
After tiding away a nice breakfast, we had a wander around the various stalls and stands selling organic produce of all kinds - lots of meat (everything from beef to venison to wild boar to partridge to pheasant to crabs and beyond!), lots of organic veg and lots of very lovely breads and cheeses! Some of this, of course, both me and Molly bought in abundance - I now have two joints of meat (one beef brisket and one haunch of venison) to slow cook in the coming few days, which no doubt will be absolutely fantastic (your dishes are only as good as their ingredients, after all), a particularly nice local cheese and lots of other bits and pieces too. Oh, and while there, there just happened to be a stand that sold hog roast in bread rolls... which I'm not sure about you, but I find incredibly difficult to pass on.
While hopping between the stalls in the market, there was a shop in Winchester where we nipped into and found a hanging basket case, some seeds and some plant food, as well as some cheap gardening gloves and tools. Given the price of it all, we grabbed a load of it and continued our meandering through the market.
All in all, a very successful time was had at the farmer's market - if you're local to the Hampshire area, I'd strongly suggest having a wander over to a local market near you when the dates are on. You can check them at http://www.
On the drive back home from the market, the car loaded with goodies, we decided that the weather wasn't looking that sunny - contrary to what the weather forecast said - and so instead of visiting a National Trust (http://www.nationaltrust.org.
We got back and immediately lept into the garden and started planting things - the hanging basket is now up and has seeds ready to grow, there's also two new climbing rose plants against the fence and another rose bush in a put between them - my garden is certainly beginning to look like it has been touched with green fingers (Molly's, obviously, as I'm not really that good at growing plants!).
During this time potting up the plants, which included Nasturtium, Lobelias and the aforementioned roses, the weather appeared to take a turn for the better and the sun burnt all the cloud and fog away. Before we knew it, it was a glorious Sunday afternoon, and I suggested that instead of cooking lunch in the kitchen, we might as well do it outside in the garden on the barbeque. Molly agreed and she set about preparing a salad while I got it all up to temperature and oiled up the grill.
And so, cooking on the barbeque we had venison burgers recently acquired from the farmer's market in the morning, as well as some seasoned and marinated pork kebabs that I had purchased from a farm shop on Friday - combined with the salad that Molly made, and some of the specialist breads also from the farmer's market, it made for a delicious - and very filling - lunch indeed, so much so that I'm only really slightly peckish some 11 hours later!
Still, the time was by now moving on, and it would be soon that Molly would have to go home to sort out all her things for work tomorrow... but not before we spent some time in the kitchen baking a large batch of fairy cakes for her work colleagues!
It was absolutely lovely to spend pretty much the entire weekend with Molly... certainly it's something that I don't take for granted even though I'm occasionally very capable of being more than a little insensitive and not making her aware of how I feel about her. She is, as I have always known, a stunningly beautiful and gorgeous woman and I feel so lucky that I've been given a second chance with her.
Okay, okay, I'll stop with the gushy stuff. But suffice to say that I've enjoyed this weekend because of the woman I've spent it with more than the things that we've been doing. It's going to be a tough time while Molly is away!
-Jeff
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