It is so unseasonably warm on the moment we are not really feeling the benefit of leaving the central heating turned off.

Kristen has gone to university and so feeling the pinch we have kept the heating off for as long as possible. There were one or two mornings last week when we wavered but now we appear to be back to balmy evenings. If you are going to be making these sacrifices you want to be able to walk round the house with icicles hanging off the end of the nose and thick scratchy wooly jumpers piled over the shoulders. But there is none of that here. I have just been outside to pick a few bay leaves and there was a warm glow to the breeze even though it was 8.00 in the evening and dark.

In the meantime I have been cooking Greek this evening.

Earlier in the year I was given a book of Greek cooking. it has been by my bed and I have leafed through it before going to sleep but it was only this morning that a recipe caugt my eye and I thought ‘That will do for the evening’.

My eye was caught by the combination of honey, strong coffee and brandy. It is cooking now on the oven and filling the kitchen with an unseasonably warm thick rich inviting smell no doubt helped along with an infusion of cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves.

To eat with I have a choice of small pastas that I picked up at Mattas on Bold Street. i was very pleased with the one that looks like spaghetti hoops. I may need to put that to one side until Kristen is home again.