Steak Lady

Monday sees the first ever visit by Steak Lady and Mr SL to this house and Dad claims to be as nervous as when he was a-courting Mum and had to go meet the In-Laws for the first time. Then it was, "Will they think I am a suitable partner for their precious No 1 daughter?" Now, 20 years later it's all about whether they'd like the house and home we'd created and would they approve of the potentially mad thing we've done stopping work, selling up in Kent and moving to this Brand New Life. Mum was, I suppose, a little nervous about whether Steak Lady would think she was a good housewife and home maker. There was a bit of tidying frenzy, menus were drawn up and some special foods prepared. Zero hour was 11 and the stage was set. Sparks texted us an ETA having lent Steak Lady his satnav and set it running for them. The plot was afoot.

In the event we need not have worried. Steak Lady and Mr SL seemed delighted with the place right from the off. They loved the tour showing them all the rooms and they were impressed thoughout by the clean, light, newness and obvious build quality. Mum sat them down with a quick snack of toast with mackerel paté (from yesterday's beardy-Skipper's fish), fancy ham and cheese and Steak Lady piled in with relish. "I WOLFED it down!" she told a friend who called to see how things were going. Then we all got our wellies on and showed them round the fields and garden and, again, they were delighted. We adjourned to the sitting room (now set up as a clean 'best parlour' after the eviction of all kindergarten beasties). Here I schmoozed up alongside Mr SL who made a big fuss of me. He loves dogs anyway, and has 3 Yorkies one of whom is (the late) Coco's brother and litter mate. Kitten 'Blue' adopted Steak Lady's lap.

We were called through to lunch, which was a delicious fish pie plus peas and curly kale from the garden and everyone piled in again so that the dish was soon scraped clean. Steak Lady then produced from her car three lovely stocky healthy fruit trees with which Dad can start his planned orchard, a 'Katy' and a 'Red Windsor' apple and a Conference Pear. These needed a drink, so were stood in the tin bath for a while. They will not need watering much once they are in the ground here in Roscommon if this summer carries on the way it has been going, but the rain held off for our tour and for Dad to mark out the position of the trees in the planned orchard. They also produced for Mum's imminent birthday, a lovely fancy table cloth from Montenegro, where they'd been on holiday as part of a cruise.

And so the visit ended and Steak Lady  and Mr SL headed back to Dublin with the satnav re-set to home. They had been a bit nervous that we were 'so far away' and that it would be a difficult and exhausting journey. Now they were delighted that it wasn't so bad after all, 2 and a half hours of easy, mainly major road and motorway driving. They will be back, they promise. Safe journey, you guys! Sláin Abhaile.

By the time they arrived home, Mum and Dad had started the orchard, planting those first three trees, but that's for another post.