Summer and Smoke

Last week was, personally and professionally, crap. I guess we all have weeks like that sometimes.

But today is the first day of summer, and it's appropriately hot. It's also the day we put up our Christmas lights, so I'm going to assume that greater cheer will ensue.

So that's summer. Smoke is because last night we tried out another of my birthday gifts - a food smoker. Andrew had fun with methylated spirits and sawdust, and we ate delicious hot-smoked salmon for dinner (nothing like traditional, cold-smoked salmon, that's an entirely different animal). Phoebe, fussy creature that it is, liked the salmon but only without 'the smoky brown bits on the outside'.

The other Good Thing about this time of year is cherries. They are up there on my list of favourite things to eat, and I never ever eat imported, out-of-season cherries, so it's a very special few weeks in summer when I gorge myself on them. Life may not be a bowl of cherries, but at least there ARE cherries.