ALMOST SUMMER

We went to London for the weekend to see Brian, to look out of the window on the train, to drink iced coffee, to eat Vietnamese food, to go to the new St John hotel restaurant, to see the blossom, to do a little shopping, to kick off our shoes and eat a picnic from Ottolenghi. It almost felt like Summer and I wanted more.

BEFORE THE MOVE

I started this film in the weeks before we left London. I finished it a couple of months ago on one of the first sunny days of the year when we headed to Anstruther for fish and chips. So nice to be reminded of a lunch outside with friends, a day in Bosham when the tide was all the way in and the road completely submerged, and apples in a beer garden where we sat and had a drink with my parents while looking out to the Downs.

LUNCH

I've been trying to make my lunch a little more regularly. Of course, I say this having just eaten a sweet potato falafel wrap from Pret followed by some sweet and salty popcorn (have you tired that stuff? Crack). But, at least I can remember the last time I brought my lunch to work and, even more impressively, it was in the last week. Compared to London this is a very good thing (although Pret and M&S may disagree with me).

I've never been able to get very excited about making sandwiches so when the mood takes me I'll try to make a little extra for dinner and, when we don’t just decide we are extra hungry and eat what should be the leftovers, I pack a small pot.

So once there were leftovers of this and the garlic nearly blew my head off.

Then there was a little braised fennel and a cold sausage mixed with half a can of chickpeas.

But more often than not it's some variation on rice, quinoa, squash, beetroot and feta which we eat for dinner embarrassingly regularly (although I think we may have found a new favourite this week with fennel, carrot and kale roasted with cumin seeds, caraway seeds and aleppo pepper).

Usually I just spoon my lunch into a plastic container that can be thrown into my bag with a fork and a piece of kitchen towel but if I was in the market for something a little more stylish I think this would do very nicely...