A picture to capture summer bliss. For the first time in ages the weather was inviting enough to eat al fresco, and it was wonderful!  For the record,we had home-made pizza, made from scratch, which is the absolute best. And for desert a pastry made with red currants from the garden, yummy! I designed the pastry – a shortcrust pastry, a thin layer of dark chocolate over it, then currants lightly boiled with sugar, vanilla and orange zest. I can do the taste and texture in my head – of course the real thing is always slightly different. Should do a book of receipes sometime.

Another should: I should be finishing my drawing project – but am giving my studio a new floor. A wooden floor that I have just stained a very sunshiney yellow. Now it needs a coat of lacquer. Actually, it needs three. I will have seen every square centimetre of that floor at least five times before I’m done.