Roll on my Early Summer

I'm writing this in blazing sunshine in mid April, sitting in a park in Beckenham, on the fringes of the South London.  So forgive me for me wanting Summer to begin right now.

Summer days, albeit a very warm April, will be with us soon and my mind and taste buds are looking forward to the abundant fresh produce and the bright colours that Summer always brings to our meals, life and gathering of friends.  After all, what better way to enjoy the good weather than to entertain friends or to organise an impromptu banquet at a local park or beach?

I've turned to my diaries and notebooks for inspiration, what were my partner and I doing for the last few Summers, what get-togethers did we arrange, what food did I cook, what made Summer?

Some of the spices and herbs, the smells and tastes, evoke memory and I can't help smiling, sunshine, good food and great company, can do this. 

Bright tomatoes and oregano came immediately to mind and then lemon zest merges with orange and then this morphs to more exotic combinations and flavours.  Yellow courgettes with caraway, especially those only a few inches long, if that, stuffed with cheeses or a fish medley and baked in an oven ready to be served with a luscious green salad and griddled ripe tomatoes, halved and sprinkled with ground pepper, perhaps some seared orange segments served with toasted almonds.

Already the smells are coming through with colour and I turn back to green salad and think of coriander, both seeds and herb and think of thick Greek yogurt gorged with them, with fillets of monkfish or chicken marinating overnight in the fridge only to be cooked over a charcoal embers the following evening, surrounded by friends with glassed of wine and beer.  To the side I see feta salad, perhaps Greek, perhaps just with melon or cucumber and fresh bread served with tapenade.

I have other dreams of Summer, some from 1976 and 1977.  The Summers of the great drought that made the summer holidays just that bit more fun and the Silver Jubilee year just a little like being on a film set.  The Brotherhood of Man won for the UK in 1976 with "Save all your kisses for me" and in 1977, Marie Myriam who represented France, won with her song "L'oiseau et L'Enfant".

I remember people smiling a whole lot more, especially when I think of the Winters we had all in a row, I remember one of them being so bad Dad had to dig our way out of the house (it was mid-Wales and I think it was the 77-78 one.  I can remember one of them without electricity, thank our parents for being a coal and wood household, we certainly weren't cold.  Friends in town had to stay with relatives because they lived in houses with only electricity.  The plus side to this, for us kids anyway, was not being able to get to school. snow fights and teasing your little sister about snow monsters and frost giants. 

But my dreams of Summer prevail and they always borrow facets from other places, namely other places where I've seen happy faces and experienced warm sun really.  Our holidays in Thassos, my visits to Malta and most recently our visit to see Susan and her family in Australia.

Although my body (heat and sun-stroke) isn't too keen, I am happier on a Summer day.  I have to go and sit in the shade on a regular basis, and I have learnt that even if I am in the shade but temperature is over 35 degrees, I need to go indoors, no mater well I feel, and drink plenty of liquid.  But it doesn't stop me watching others enjoy the heat and it gives me respite to go into the kitchen and prepare something light and tasty for others to enjoy.

With all this said, I want Summer to happen sooner, so if the weather doesn't hold out, at least we have the food and the smiles to look forward to.

Over the next few weeks, I will be endeavouring to bring forward Summer and the enjoyment it brings.

Bear with me, I may miss a few times, but hopefully the spirit of Summer will be felt along the way.

Welcome to my Early Summer