There were three big ships on the Mersey today but the most that we saw was the back of a lot of peoples’ heads.

What was impressive was the massive crowd of people milling down through Hamilton Square and then catching a glimpse of the ships through the buildings rearing up almost as if they were buildings in their own right.

Down by the water the ships dominated the city shrinking the cathedrals and the shiny new buildings that have gone up too eagerly over the last few years. The only things not subdued by them were the squat tugs that busied themselves around the ships – like dogs shepherding large slow moving sheep.

And then the red arrows flew past quickly. Very quickly. Blink and you would have missed them. But they did leave behind some nice blue, red and white cloud.

Then we went home.

Before finishing I should mention that last nights asparagus were particularly good. I had probably over bought but when it is only around for a few weeks it seems silly not to indulge. They were boiled in a large pan of water their tops sticking out for five minutes. In the meantime I had hard boiled and peeled four perfectly light blue duck eggs. A large plate was warmed in the oven.

When the asparagus were done I lifted them out onto the warm plate and snipped at the elastic bands holding them together in bunches so they could spread out. The eggs were cut in half and placed at each end of the plate, butter melted and poured over and plenty of salt and pepper then went on top.

We ate them outside in the last of the afternoon’s sun chewing them down to the hard stem.