Another bank holiday weekend…

And this time I shall be heading out into the garden to prune and weed and reorganise. I’m hoping to make the whole week into that between the showers and avoid the holiday makers. In between that, I shall carry on with my newfound passion for making my own roasted nuts and seeds. Very complicated. You take 250g of mixed nuts and seeds, 10 grinds of salt and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Stir well together, cook at 150c for 20 minutes and then resist temptation till they cool down. They taste amazing, and my inflammation levels are dropping just as promised.

The more interested I get in healthy eating, the less comfortable I feel about ultra-processed food, so my cookery hobby is becoming more and more important. It means I can buy better ingredients because I’m not paying for time and transport and packaging, and advertising, and it’s amazing how many different things you can make for yourself.

My other current passion is flatbreads, and I can now make pitta and pika breads that look as if I didn’t make them, if you know what I mean. When you taste them fresh and warm, you start to realise that the taste you remember from a foreign holiday has a very good reason for being better. It certainly brings the family together, in a way that reminds me of seagulls when the fishing boats arrive! You don’t need to call out that the meal’s ready. They arrive, looking hopeful and can be given small jobs. As a result, my son and daughter are increasingly confident cooks. My husband’s talents, meanwhile, lie in loading and emptying the dishwasher, which is, apparently, a complex and manly art.

Speaking of seagulls, we walked our new route yesterday and saw two black headed gulls shouting at each other. I named them Kemi and Keir after two British politicians, but they could have been Trump and Putin. The funny thing was that they were so busy shouting insults at each other that they missed being fed. I also saw the Little Master, who’s now almost grown up and a very confident young man. He’s the one who’s looking over his shoulder, and I can’t see him being snatched by a crow again, can you?

So now it’s off for a quiet bank holiday when I shall finish the second draft of ‘Too good to waste’, which is the first in the next Windy Bay and get started on ‘Too Hard to Resist.’ They’re centred around the pub and have old friends and new, and I’m having fun writing them. You’ll be able to catch up with Windy Bay in July with ‘It Takes a Village.’ Till then, take care and have fun.