Ludlow Rooftops and Cooking Ham in a Cotttage

A perfect moment of happiness: Saturday afternoon, leaning on sun-hot
the parapet of a tower in the ruins of Ludlow Castle. The town slopes
away steeply from the red sandstone castle wall to the river, in a bowl
of wooded green. A wedding party is coming out of the church - on foot,
because the streets are so narrow - and the bells boom and fade as the
breeze changes direction. One of the chimneys below is smoking. Who is
crazy enough to light a fire in August?

Haul: two boxes of strawberries from the streetmarket, and a second-hand
wristwatch from a flea market. £7.50, and it seems to keep time.
It's the first time I've had to wind a watch in 20 years.

Recipe: Cooking ham.
I learned by accident how to cook ham without turning it into a piece of
salty leather.
Very easy, but takes time. You just have to be lazy, and let it be.
1.) soak in clean water in the pan you are going to cook it in. Forget
about it, read a book.
2.) Drain off soaking water, refill to cover, bring to boil on the stove
top. Simmer for 30 minutes or so. Enough time to get another chapter
in. When the chapters done, lots of scum will have come to the
surface. Spoon it off, and top up the water from the kettle.
3.) Add 3 tablespoons of marmalade to the water.
4.) Bring at back to the boil, and stick it in the oven at the lowest
possible setting OR put it in a hay box, packed around with crumpled
newspapers, blankets etc.
5.) Go out for the day. Don't worry about getting home.
6.) Roll home. Switch off oven if you're using one, otherwise, just put
your feet up, and wait.
7.) This is the crucial bit: Let the ham cool down in the pot, in its
marmaladey bath. That's the secret bit. It relaxes and sucks the juice
back in - just like you do when you rest in hot water.

Roughly an hour before you need to feed anyone, coax the ham out of the
bath and into an oven tin. Save the bath water for pea soup tomorrow.
Strip off the skin and most of the fat. Sprinkle what's left with brown
sugar - or more marmalade...
Bake for 30 minutes, just enough to brown the sugar and fat - that's
enough time to clean and cook some potatoes and cabbage.

Cheats Cumberland Sauce.
1/3 of a bottle of wine, 3 tablespoons marmalade, zest and juice of one
orange. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Never tell anyone you spent the day mucking about, letting the ham do
all the work. Tell them you slaved over it, and suggest they do the
washing up.