The ripe strawberry
There’s a planter sitting on top of the barbecue with a strawberry plant in it.
Today I happened to wander round the back, and hanging there was a ripe strawberry.
It didn’t even have a slug bitemark in it. In fact it would have to be quite an athletic slug that got its teeth into it.
There are other strawberries coming, but this is the first ripe one.
Lizard on the barbecue grill
Saint Lawrence was martyred on a gridiron and so might this lizard have been if it had spent much more time on the bars of our barbecue grill in the full sun.
Lizards are a feature of summer. You have only to sit outside for a few minutes, and you’re bound to see one darting across the corner of your vision.
The dogs hear them rustling through the flower bed and hunt them. They’re particularly excited by the louder rustle of the large green lizards – the ones we call komodo dragons because they look so sturdy and well fed. Laurence is a pygmy compared to them.
If you look closely at a lizard’s head, it’s just like that of a dinosaur, but unlike dinosaurs, they’re survivors. They’ll sleep through the winter and wake up when the warmer days begin.
The pot stand, plant shelter and lizard high-rise was today used for what it was designed. We lit a barbecue in our makeshift structure of pink and grey breezeblocks.
Clearing in front of it we found what I think was a slow worm. It got away fast enough, though.
Barbecue flames with foil-wrapped potatoes
I’d saved some rosemary branches which helped to get the fire alight and also imparted a nice smell.
We parcooked potatoes in the microwave and plonked them in foil in front of the blaze.
I’m full up now, but I’m going to go back out there to enjoy the heat and have a last drink.
Just enjoyed a very nice barbecue on our terrace. Some Jack Daniels sauce over some pork chops cooked over a wood-fired barbecue. Could have done with some fresh bread or jacket potatoes but it went down well nevertheless.
During the summer we have one or two of these a week – depending on how energetic I feel. Hopefully next year the herb garden will have taken off and I can use these a bit more in my cooking.
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