Prep

 The Gorse Fox was up first. He had planned to lie in for a bit longer but Jasper started his Olympic Trampolining routine at boy 7:15 so the Gorse Fox got up in the vain hope that he wouldn't disturb the Silver Vixen.

There were chores to complete this morning. The most important was to get the ham on. This meant cracking out the stock pot that he purchased yesterday.

Onion, carrots, peppercorns, celery, bayleaf, five spice and several litres of Coke (yes, the Real Thing) submerged the ham and the stove was fired up. When it finally reached the right temperature it was left on simmer for two and a half hours. Meanwhile, the Gorse Fox prepared a marinade. It was meant to have maple syrup, but the Gorse Fox realised he didn't have enough... so he replaced it with honey.

Eventually, the simmering was done and the ham left to cool slightly. The rind was peeled off and the remaining fat was scored. The marinade was poured onto the ham and it went into the oven. Over the next 90 minutes it was basted several times. Finally, it was done. It is now wrapped in cling film and sitting in the bottom of the fridge until Sunday.

While faffing about this morning, the Gorse Fox also retrieved the "party" table from the garage and got it all cleaned and set up in the Orangery. It is this time of year that the Oranger morphs into a large dining room.

During the afternoon, the Gorse Fox had a chance to spend some quality time in the Silver Vixen's branches of the family tree. As a result, he has made several corrections, and completed several bits of outstanding research. He also compiled a 4-degree relationship book of the Silver Vixen's relations. This goes through the tree and works out the various degrees of relationship - 1 step removed: parents, siblings, children; 2 steps removed: grandparents, uncles/aunts, 1st cousins, nephews/nieces; 3 steps.... etc. The final documents was some 389 pages of A4. (The Gorse Fox didn't print it!)