No need to ask where July went as the answer is the same as for April, May and June. How is it that the time flies so quickly when we seem to be doing nothing?

Except of course, that’s not strictly true. There’s still plenty to be doing and of course, we have to eat! With a warm weekend in prospect and a spatchcocked chicken marinading in the fridge, it was time to crank out a huge bowl of brown rice salad to go with it. This recipe - originally from one of the other Mums from Edward’s primary school days - has a faithful following not to mention a bit of a fan club. It’s my go to “bring and share” and since someone always asks for the recipe, I take a few copies with me as well. By choosing ingredients carefully it can be gluten free and vegan too. Anyway, it starts with a fair bit of chopping - just the thing for a meditative Sunday morning.

Whilst the rice is cooking, there’s plenty of time to open bags of nuts and seeds to throw into the bowl and to make the dressing too. And there’s the key to the whole dish - the dressing is rich in garlic, lemon juice and soy sauce (that’s where I have to be careful when making for our GF friends). The thing is, whilst I was emptying the waste bits into the bin (todays contribution to our new HotBin composter) I noticed a disgusting hint of rotten potato coming from our larder cupboard. More for the compost then - but also a few potatoes in need of immediate use.

There followed an impromptu addition of a couple of tortillas then and our garden Sunday lunch of spatchcocked chicken, brown rice salad and tortilla hit the spot perfectly. Since the tortillas also originated at the primary school gate, albeit from a different Mum, we were enjoying long standing favourites even if it did seem like yesterday.

How far we’ve come in such a short time. There I was, thinking of enjoying lunch with that particular bunch of school Mums, some twenty five or more years ago when there in the fridge was a box of edible flowers.

Not just any edible flowers, but varieties particularly suitable for pressing. Later that afternoon, I spent a couple of hours carefully taking each one and trying to engineer it into the right shape between two pieces of absorbent paper.

The wedding cake trials have begun.

It’s not only the days, weeks and months that fly….