BBQ preparations

For one reason or another this year's neighbours barbecue is on a Sunday. This has all kinds of negative connotations about early finishes, work the day after, and the weather forecast not being so hot for that day, but on the plus side, it gives us a day to prepare - particularly important this year as we've dropped for the salads.

So today I spent a happy five hours making three-bean salad (shown here), Italian pasta salad, tabbouleh and good old British potato salad. At least, it was a happy five hours at the start. By the end my back and feet were killing me and I would happily have given up seeing a chopping board, or a knife, or another Jersey Royal as long as I live.

Finding room for four huge bowls of salad in the fridge was a challenge too, but we managed it. Just have to suffer warm tonic with the gin tonight.

The other major task for today was defrosting the freezer in preparation for the mender man coming on Monday. Managed to find some kind neighbours with spare freezer space, so we didn't have to live on strange concoctions for a week to use up all the supplies. Just bagged it up and shipped it out.