Eye of the Tiger.

Today was a really hot day, with the last scraps of yesterday's sea haar disappearing before 9.00 in the morning. M and I slept late and with British Summer Time beginning, it was lunchtime before we knew it. We took a quick walk around Duthie Park and then wandered over to M's Granny and Grampa's house for Sunday morning cake (brilliant family tradition; I'm very glad to be part of it!) and a catch up with the whole family.

Later, M and I drove out to St Cyrus beach for a walk (along with half of Aberdeenshire - thank goodness it's a HUUUUGE stretch of coastline!) and a little paddle in the sea. After lounging on the sand and walking under the pink cliffs, M and I stopped past Steptoe's Yard on our way home. Oh my word. This place MUST be seen to be believed - I'm not even sure I can describe it. It's a rag-and-bone yard with 20+ trestle tables laid out in the yard groaning under the weight of glassware, crockery, fireplace grates, single windscreen wipers, a broken zip, an unravelled riding crop, a motley collection of plant pots, broken ornaments that long became home to slime, spiders' webs and decades of dust... And a million other broken, mismatched, misplaced, useless and wonderful things. Inside two enormous warehouses lay hundreds upon hundreds of paintings, an equal number of chairs (with no two the same), bookcases, lamps, lampshades, Christmas decorations, bedroom furniture, strange, intriguing metal objects, empty cans of WD40, pairs of prescription glasses and a dusty old man in the corner, who knew the exact location of each of these objects, their source and their worth. Truly fantastic. There were a million photo opportunities but I especially liked this tiger garden ornament. I still wish I had bought it. Google it, visit it, report back to me on how my description has come nowhere close.

Tonight we had one of M's other friends and his lovely lady for dinner, so we hurried back to Aberdeen to cook together for the second night in a row; I love cooking with M in our little stamp-sized kitchen - it's a challenge but we're getting better at it! We made pork chops in a creamy cider sauce with caramelised apples, mashed potatoes and asparagus for the main course, and cherry and white chocolate cakey squares with ice cream for pudding - mmmmh!