Answer

He sarcastically says he makes ‘a marvellous picture’ without a shadow (the kid or Robin, his son) in other words he is alone now.

He is cooking ‘chicken giblets’ which seems a very ordinary thing to be doing, not something wildly heroic.

‘next to nothing in the walk-in larder’ shows the sense of disorganisation in his life as if that part (the woman, his mother?) is missing.

There is also a sense of frustration with the image ‘punching the palm of your hand all winter’ this could be to show his father’s lonely frustration and the fact that it is all winter shows that this feeling does not go away. Winter could be a reference to the winter of his life in that he is older and nearer death now.