Patience

I must admit that my patience was tested at 6.30am when the whippet started howling to be outside. She seems to have picked up the baton for getting me out of bed early now that the kids have entered the lying-in stage.

Still, as I was up I decided to get the oven on, smear maple syrup.sugar and mustard all over the shoulder of pork and slide it into the oven where it will cook away slowly for the next seven hours.

In the meantime me and the whippet made friends again and I took her along the riverbank for a wander where the heron was waiting for lunch. Either that or it was frozen to the spot, can't be certain.