Another sunny day – yippee.  I was straight in to the garden today before I even had a cuppa.  I couldn’t wait to get going.  Unlike others in the house this morning who were quite content to stay inside.

I have such big plans for this part of the garden.  They involve a fruit cage and a new greenhouse.  But for now, this overgrown area has had a section cleared and I planted out 2 types of French bean. One will be yellow and the other green. I realise I may be unusual in choosing breakfast items from my vegetable garden but that is what I did today.  I was inspired by spinach and beetroot.I use the leaves and bulb of the beetroot.

I feel healthier just looking at this traffic light array of colours.  I love the dark green with the bright orange of the orange and the deep orange of the Aplhonso mango.  Plus obviously the redness of the beetroot.

I blended it together with a heaped tablespoon of tahini and coconut water.  It was absolutely delicious.  Sweet and earthy and a gorgeous colour.  Harvey and I both enjoyed a glass full of this one. After a few more hours in the dehydrator, these nut and flax crackers finally dried out sufficiently.  I wanted to take some out for lunch today.  We were all contributing food and I was taking cheese, fruit and crackers. Still warm from the dehydrator I couldn’t resist spreading some butter on a couple. Well, I had to make sure they tasted OK and these were a funny shape so not suitable for public consumption 🙂 . I was impressed.  They have a lovely flavour and finally, after many hours of dehydrating, a crispy texture.  Very good and worth waiting for.We headed off to South London for lunch.  To an area I lived in for many happy years and where some very special people we know still live.  I was meeting my sisters and their families at Simon and Sarah’s, two very special people to us all.  Simon was originally a friend of my sister Lucy’s and we all got to know him very well because he was our lodger for a while.  Lucy and I also worked with him twice.  Our Mother adored Simon and used to ask one of us, any one of us, to please marry him.  Well, none of us took any notice and Sarah married Simon.  We were all really looking forward to meeting up at their house for a get together.

We all contributed some dishes which meant we had a lovely mix of food on our plates.  I had vegetable couscous, roast chicken, guacamole, onion bahji, cherry tomatoes, cheese tortillas, salami, green salad and a salad made up of olives, peppers and tomatoes.  Deeelicious!  I also had some parma ham and potato salad later.  All enjoyed with a  couple of large glasses of Pimms.

After eating we relaxed in the sunshine.  So many years to reminisce over and tales to tell and catching up to do.  It has been quite some time since so many of us were together. Pudding time 🙂  Sarah had made a lovely strawberry pavlova and Lucy brought a fabulous chocolate cheesecake which came from COOK.  I confess I had another sliver of the cheesecake and a little slice of a lemon tart too. This tasting box of Green & Blacks chocolates was a good find.  I bought this at Ocado and it is a selection of all their flavours in small bars and it comes with tasting notes.  I think there were 2 (may be 3 but I think 2) bars of each flavour and they were enough for a couple of mouthfuls of each of their wonderful chocolates.  I also had a small amount of cheese.

So diet wise not the best days eating.  But in my defence I didn’t go crazy and all I have had since is some Rooibos tea.  The food today was lovely.  But the best thing about today was all the special people I spent it with.