Stiff upper lip, everyone, we'll get through it!

Oh, summer.  You tricksy thing.  Every year, those of us on this silly island think that it's going to be different.  Every year, we are surprised when the sun barely shines and we spend more time wearing socks than sandals.  Every year, the phrases "oh, and we had such a lovely spring" and "maybe we'll have an Indian summer" fall forth from our quivering lips as we hold back tears of disappointment.

Ah, but summer, you know what you're doing.  Day after day, you give us overcast skies, sunny mornings that turn to rainy afternoons and then suddenly, all at once, boom, SUNSHINE!  Hot, glorious sunshine, exotic blue skies over grassy parks, lushly green from all that rain - and sometimes on a weekend!  Then everything is forgiven and we revel in our lily-white legs, Pimms on the lawn and indolent afternoons.

Gone are the stews, the roasts and the crumbles of the colder months.  Even when it's still nippy, I refuse brattishly to cook anything resembling winter food.  Mercifully, although it may be raining, the weekend market stills provides enough of these to fill a salad bowl:

Such plenty would suggest jam, a clafoutis, a tart - or simply wandering into the kitchen, taking a handful and wandering back out again.

Of course, everyone has raved about these this year, and with good reason:

It's simply not an English summer without strawbs, whether with cream or without - may I recommend Cornish clotted instead of your usual double?

When I was growing up, a meal of cold meats, salads and my grandmother's magnificent curried prawns always marked a special occasion - Boxing Day lunch, my grandparents' wedding anniversary in June, or just a big family get-together - so I still feel like a meal of this kind is a treat.  There's an idea that because all the food is cold, it's quick and effortless to prepare, but I would say the opposite - people seem to make more effort precisely because of the lack of heat.  Look see:

That, to me, is a mini-feast full of treats.  Simple pleasures, you may say, but pleasures nonetheless.  Potato salad with cress (retro but classic), pate (no accents on this keyboard) and a salad of peach, mozzarella and prosciutto.  Basically equals yum.

So far this year, all of this has been eaten indoors.  There has not been a chance to say "oh, doesn't food always taste better when eaten outside?"  I know it's nearly the end of July, I know I've already seen 'back to school' things in the shops, but maybe, just maybe, there will be a weekend when we can do this again:

Obviously with full plates though.