今日もあまりお天気が良くなく、曇り一時雨、でした。涼しいのでこの機会に、と夫とお庭仕事を２時間ほど頑張りました。それほど大きなお庭ではないですが、特に夏の間は結構あれこれすることがあります。今日は、昨日買ってきたホスタ（４株）を殺風景だった場所（日当たりが悪く土も悪いのでなかなか植物が育たないバックガーデンのゲート近く）に植えました、少し明るくなったので植えて良かったです。土が悪いのでうまく育つか心配ですが。他にデルフィニュームやジェラニュームを切り戻して、ついでに少し草抜きをして、背が高くなって倒れて来た（このところ風が強く余計）バーベナにサポートを足して。
The weather wasn’t very good today, mostly cloudy with a little rain. As it was very cool, we did some gardening for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Although our gardens are not very large, there is quite a lot to do at this time of year. We went to a garden centre yesterday and bought 4 pots of hostas, so we planted them in the area where not many plants are growing near the garden gate because the area doesn’t get much sun and also the soil isn’t good (clay soil). They brightened the area up so we are pleased we planted them. As the soil isn’t good we aren’t sure if they will survive, I hope they’ll do OK. We also cut back delphiniums and geraniums, did some weeding and put extra supports on the verbenas, which are very tall and had started to fall over because of the strong winds we’ve been having.
今日の夕食は、餃子と豚しゃぶサラダ。餃子はいつもは１００個くらい作って冷凍しますが、今日冷凍していた豚ミンチを使ったので焼いてからでなくては冷凍出来ないので、食べ切れるように餃子の皮１パック分の２５個だけ作りました。２５個だと包むのはあっという間でした。でも、調味料を色々入れたり刻むものが結構あるので、案外時間がかかります。餃子を作る日は普段餃子だけですが、今日は豚シャブサラダも。豚しゃぶ用のお肉はロンドンから冷凍を取り寄せていたもの。
Today’s dinner was Gyoza and Pork Shabu Shabu Salad. When we make gyoza we usually make nearly 100 of them and freeze what are left, but we used defrosted mince pork today so couldn’t freeze them unless we cook them first, so we made just what we could eat today (used 1 pack of gyoza skins, so 25 of them). Once the filling was done, it was very quick to make 25. We usually have just gyoza when we make them because we have them until we feel satisfied but as we only had 25 today we needed something else – so made Pork Shabu Shabu Salad as well. We ordered frozen Shabu Shabu pork from London.
和食（餃子が和食かどうかは微妙ですが）にすると、毎回思っているより時間がかかって食べる時間が必ず遅くなってしまいます。作り慣れていないせいか、和食はやはり時間がかかるのか。
Every time when we cook a Japanese meal (though if gyoza is Japanese or not is debatable), it takes longer to prepare and we end up eating later than usual. I don’t know if that is because we aren’t used to cooking Japanese or Japanese meals tend to take longer to prepare.
