It’s mid-November. The weather has been atrocious. To be fair, although it hammered down all day, we got home to a completely clear, if inky black, sky. We spent half an hour in the field playing pitch-dark-tennis-ball and the sky was lit by a zillion stars. We watched two satellites whizz by and were deeply disappointed when another big rain cloud came over and obscured our view.

The dogs didn’t care a jot either way. Every throw, despite us being completely unable to see it from the moment it left our hands, was frantically chased down by both dogs, retrieved and presented back to us with a modicum more slobber than the last time.

Coming in from the cold I thought “it’s time for a nice, comforting shepherd’s pie”…well a vegetarian chilli shepherd’s pie that is. I had some cold chilli in the fridge so all that was needed was a pan-full of unctuous, creamy, buttery mash to top it, a flash under the grill to brown the top and “Bob’s your uncle”. I must say that it tasted completely fab – even though you’re not supposed to blow your own trumpet.