Summertime

Criss-cross! Everybody clap your hands...

Ughhh, look at that disgusting blue sky.  Honestly, I hate the fact that I always end up complaining about hot weather when we get it so infrequently here in the UK, but it really does take me a while to adjust.  I'm pale-skinned and don't tan easily at all, so my skin ends up burning and breaking out in a rash in the first few days of sun, and I still get nervous when leaving the house without a coat. #britishproblems

Rainbow food

One big bonus to warm weather is how much easier I find being healthy.  I often stick to stodgy, carb-filled meals during cold winter months but salads are so much more appealing when you can sit out in the garden to eat and soak up rays. Of course, these things are always nicer in theory - it's only once you've committed to being outside that you remember that the next-door-neighbour is having very loud work done on the house and that every buzzy insecty thing in the country is suddenly in your face.

I just can't get over how good these cherries look.  Sorry.

Before and after

Of course after extolling the virtues of healthy eating I had to go and bake a few trays of cookies, just to balance things out.  These are stem ginger cookies, the recipe for which I found online after developing an out-of-the-blue craving for ginger cookies.  While I was making these I was taken aback by how solid the mixture was, as I'd been expecting something much runnier, like cake mix.  Luckily, I cottoned on and things turned out OK.