The First Picnic of the Year

   By late March we were already eating lunch outdoors most days so logically it was time to take the food show on the road.

   Our lake, just a kilometre away, is almost deserted at this time of year so we knew that we could easily score a picnic table with view. We joined forces with a couple of friends, met up in the car park and spread out and shared the goodies.

   Tomatoes from the market and roquette, dandelion leaves and bittercress from the garden,

 A big Greek salad...

  A couple of hours later: the remains of a roast chicken, homemade bread, roasted red and yellow peppers (with plenty of garlic) and the last centimetres of the chilled rosé and vin rouge.

   Time to go home.

A day at the seaside...

     On a cloudy Sunday, my sister Hilary drove us to the Suffolk coast with a short stop at Walberswick for a coffee. By the time we arrived at Southwold, raindrops were spattering the windscreen.

     I LOVE Southwold because it's the absolute essence of English seaside places. Lining the front are traditional seaside huts painted in bright and different colours. A long pier protrudes from the beach. The sand and pebbles are held in place by "groynes," which, on chilly summer days, act as handy windbreaks. 

     The rain poured down so we are our picnic in the car. Then we walked to the end of the pier, checked out the amusement arcade and wondered if the landmass we could just make out in the distance was, in fact, the Netherlands (somewhat confusing the junior member of the party who got very excited when she thought we could see "Neverland"). Then the sun came out so we walked into the town of Southwold which is pretty almost to the point of tweeness but not quite. Then we went home and later went out for fish and chips. In other words, a very traditional English Sunday.