Lobster in the Gloaming

It's 63º F (17º C) right now, with the high today projected to be 88º F (31º C). Not too terrible, right? We don't really get slammed with heat until tomorrow, apparently.

Yesterday morning Dave said, "I think we should go get breakfast in Hampstead." Now, when Dave proposes doing something out of the house, I know to say yes -- he's such a terminal homebody that it's a very rare event. Turns out he wanted to visit a fishmonger on Hampstead High Street to pick up some stuff for our friends Gordon and Donna, who were having dinner here last night. So we leashed up Olga and walked to Hampstead, where we sat out on the sidewalk at Gail's and had coffee and pastries. I enjoyed the bright morning sun and the hallucinogenic reflections in a nearby shop window (above).

We had a little trouble finding the fishmonger, but when we did, Dave busied himself with his purchases while I took the dog for a short walk on the West Heath.

On the way home, we passed this impressive house, with its sculpted hedges and masses of white hydrangeas banked against the walls like a snowball fortress. When we first moved to West Hampstead in 2014 this place was a bit of a wreck, as I recall, but someone has since invested a lot of money in it.

We got home to find that Dave had purchased lobster (pre-cooked, not live, thank God). He spent the day mostly in the kitchen, preparing his four-course meal (green gazpacho with frozen feta cheese and radish flakes, scallops with pureed parsnips and orange sauce, lobster with fresh artichoke hearts, lemon posset).

I, meanwhile, sat out in the garden with Olga:

I'm reading "The Tender Bar," which I've been meaning to read for years, and I'm really enjoying it. It's a 2005 memoir by J. R. Moehringer, who grew up on Long Island the son of a single mother, and whose neighborhood bar served as a locus of male camaraderie in his life. It was made into a movie last year which I haven't seen yet.

Finally, Gordon and Donna arrived at 7 p.m., and we ate out in the garden in the gloaming. In England, in the summer, that's a long period of time -- evening and twilight last for ages, the sky staying bright behind the darkening trees. We had time for three of our four courses before moving indoors for our posset.

I'm still cleaning up the kitchen. I have one more dishwasher load to go and things will be back to normal, much to Olga's relief.