Early Sunday morning

OK, not as early as usual, but early for most.  It's been a busy weekend.  On Friday, half way through afternoon school my visitor arrived (earlier than expected) so she read through some stuff she had brought with her until I was able to leave school.  We went home and had some rather nasty fish and chips, ordered online and delivered.  It was most disappointing because the last time I ordered from there, it was absolutely delicious.  This time it tasted and felt as if it had been cooked at lunchtime and then reheated.  Then we chatted and I tried not to fall asleep until after half past eight.
Yesterday my visitor had to go into London for a meeting so after a wander in and out of the station I went home to get some stuff done.  I didn't manage to do very much as I'm still feeling achey and not 100% but I did bake some soda bread.  After my visitor had arrived back, I got ready for our latest witches' do - a Christmas meal at the local pub.  Fairly indifferent food (I think I'm getting fussy in my old age), reasonable alcohol and great company.  Thank you all very much ladies.  As always, I left early, while I could still keep my eyes open, so missed a lot of the fun, but that's what happens when you are an early riser, isn't it?

Soda bread!  I do love soda bread.  When I was a teenager, we lived in Belfast for four years and our summer holidays were spent in the South, usually based around farmhouse accommodation.   One hostess was a great bread-maker and we ate loaf after loaf of her still warm soda bread with fresh butter melting on it,  Absolutely wonderful!
I've tried various recipes, all of which are quite nice, but the one I like the best is the one I used yesterday.  It is made with white flour and involves buttermilk, which is easy to find around here now (thank you, Morrisons).  The flavour is just amazingly good!  I just add some butter, rubbed into the flour, as soda bread does go stale rather quickly and the fat helps it to remain fresh a little longer.

So brekkie this morning is toasted soda bread with jam, etc.  Yum yum!