It’s raining.  Not really enough to soak the garden, which would be good, but enough to make us think that spending this Bank Holiday Weekend at home a good idea. 

We began the weekend in style, with friends at Lumiere, our favourite local restaurant.  These “Tequila Slammers” went down wonderfully – there’s tequila sorbet in the glass, a salt shard in the middle and a lime sphere in front.  The sphere needs to be eaten in one go and popped in the mouth rather than nibbled and it was interesting to see who was gung-ho about doing that and who was, like me, slightly anxious!  No need for anxiety, though – the burst of sweetly sharp lime was spot on and completed the experience beautifully!

Saturday and Sunday were days for fiddling about in my studio, remaking the book and trying to make some sense of the first one.  The postman brought a new addition to my shelves in the middle of all the fiddle – another distraction!

But in between the fiddling, there was some testing to be done.  A group of our friends are tackling the Three Peaks Challenge in August, in aid of the National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society and I’ve taken on the role of chief cook and bottlewasher!  They’re going to need a variety of nutritious and energy-packed snacks as well as a couple of fairly substantial meals so I’m auditioning one or two new ideas including these Crispy Ginger Slices.  They’re a light shortbread base with a ginger variation on Kendal Mint Cake on top – totally yummy and if I can work out a gluten-free version, will be a winner.

The good thing about being home all weekend is that the papers have been read and thoroughly digested, giving me plenty of things to consider whilst fiddling about with paper and glue.  I mean, do places really have to be dangerous to be interesting enough to read about?  And I thought long and hard about my opinion on this but resisted the urge to share it in 140 characters.

Best of all, I had time to watch the tulips open

and to make enough of Gordon Ramsay’s Chicken Biryani that there was enough to look forward to for lunch today as well.