Spring has finally Sprung!

At last - it took it's time, but today, for the first time, it actually felt like winter was behind us - I could walk into Richmond without seven layers of clothes, a scarf and gloves......and not get frost-bite if I stood still longer than 17 seconds!

I feel as if I have come out of hibernation - and I love it - let summer begin! But to clinch it all, to really confirm to me that winter was over, was the magical sound of.............the musical ice-cream van coming down my street! I'm not sure at what time of the year he would normally start but I am very impressed with his optimism - it wasn't THAT hot today.

Typically I was writing summer recipes at the same time, so I thought I would finally get some into the blog. The feature I am writing is about Billingsgate (see my earlier blog for more information about the great London fish market), so lots of healthy fish recipes. but the one I have included is for crab and avocado salad as crab to me brings back such lovely memories of summers at Cromer beach as a child, with Dad insisting we buy the biggest crab we could find for our crab and cucumber sandwiches! Unfortunately I can't whizz up to Cromer each time I want crab, but luckily I live pretty close to Sandy's Fishmonger in Twickenham, so am spoilt for choice when it comes to great fish or game.

Crab and Avocado Salad

Serves 4

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

4 spring onions

juice of 1 lemon

2 little gems, trimmed and leaves separated

2 avocados, stoned, peeled and sliced

the meat of 2 dressed crabs

• Heat the oil very gently and cook the cumin seeds for a few minutes before adding the spring onions.
• When you can smell the aroma of the cumin and onions, turn off the heat and add the lemon juice. Swirl around to help the juice and oil mix together.
• Place the little gem leaves onto four plates then top with sliced avocado and finally the crab.
• Pour over the dressing and serve immediately.

The perfect day..............

Sometimes I just feel my job couldn't be any better. Yesterday for example, was spent on a trip into London to buy cheese for a feature I am writing on British cheese. So I obviously started at Neals Yard in Covent Garden, famed for it's stock of British cheeses and staff who know everything you would ever need to know about the cheeses and the people that make them. It's not just shopping, it's an education. I was served by Callum, who, it has to be said, knows his stuff. He walked me through the cheeses I wanted, telling me a potted history of the makers and those that had gone before them, and while this is going on I obviously have to taste them all. I could happily just stand in the shop and breath in the smell, but getting to taste anything you like is such a treat, and inevitably ends up with you buying far more than you had anticipated, which I did!

After that it was on to the Commonwealth Club for lunch, to discuss the virtues of avocados

with a friend John who runs a PR company. I can't believe that there needs to be PR to sell avocados - how come everybody thinks they're not good for you, when they clearly are - full of vitamins and great fats - yes, great fats, not the bad ones! Include them in your diet now please!

semi-marathon de Paris - success!

Wow, what an achievement - I have run and survived the semi-marathon de Paris (the Paris half- marathon to you non-French speakers!), and not only that, but in under 2 hours and still managed to walk up and down the steps of the Sacre Coeur the next day - neither of which I thought would be possible!

The organisers admitted it was possibly one of the coldest years this event has taken place and with 27,000 people registered it was bound to be a busy event.

From start to finish I was surrounded by others pounding the pavements of Paris, and this was

exactly what I had been dreading - bumping into each other, tripping over when trying to get past and just generally not being able to run in a straight line - and this without a drink! And to top it all off, at the end of the 21km, when the finish line was insight there was a bottleneck - we all had to stop 20 metres from the finish line and it took 15 minutes to get over it - lots of 'boo..ing' was to be heard. I even thought of forgoing my medal rather than waiting in the cold.

Obviously a celebratory lunch was had - in a great restaurant not far from the 2km marker - L'Apprenti. What I love about this place is that from the outside it looked nothing at all, but when you stepped inside, it enveloped you with warmth and comfort. The food was typically French with amazing sauces and flavours and the atmosphere absolutely perfect for a relaxing afternoon of eating!

Unfortunately as often happens after doing lots of exercise, my body didn't want too much food (at this point it was too busy trying to recover!), so I had to top it up again later with a plate of French cheese and salad at La Fontaine de Mars - another great French restaurant not far from the Tour Eiffel. Cheese and salad was not on their menu but as with all French restaurants, and very unlike English ones, they are happy to serve you what you want, and normally do it very well!

The final countdown.........

Well, this is it, only one week to go to the dreaded 13 mile, half-marathon slog around Paris - I can't imagine I will be feeling like calling it Gay Paris for a while after that!

Luckily a few friends are joining me so this weekend we decided on a training weekend in Kent, thanks to Tom who was house-sitting in a rather large house! Liz who had organised the Paris trip is now unfortunately injured so can't take part, but as all good friends do, she came along to help us with the training schedule by buying lots of bubbly on the way!

So Saturday was a chilling-out day, with a stroll around the area, in preparation for the last long run on Sunday - 10 miles. Of course what I hadn't thought about was the Kent terrain - the longest, steepest hills you've ever seen!

Tom did us proud with a huge lasagne for dinner on Saturday night - carbo-loading for the runners and fat-loading for the non-runners!

Sunday morning I was woken at 5am by torrential rain and high winds, just as the forecasters had predicted (why are they only right when you don't want them to be?), but we had to go ahead regardless as I needed to know if I could actually run as far as I had to!

So we made a vague plan and drew a map on a scrap of paper that I kept in my pants incase of getting lost - Tom was going to be miles ahead of me, and Jules and Andrew were going a different way, so all would be no use if I got lost! Luckily I didn't, but did go up a few dead-ends which then brought my total mileage up to around 12 miles and had me running practically through rivers for 2 1/4 hours! My only thought was that Paris has to be easier (and hopefully a lot flatter) than that!

Luckily we are all of the same mind and decided we deserved a post exercise treat of more carbs, so headed off to The Pilot at Dungeness for the biggest ever plate of fish and chips.....and a small side-order of mushy peas!!

The day was rounded off by a stroll on the beach, but even that couldn't be simple - there had to be a bet - they say everybody has their price, and Polly's was a quick dip in the freezing sea for...

..... a figure that I am unable to disclose. Suffice it to say she certainly earned it!!

The training schedule falls apart!

The week in SA continued in the same vein, with food and wine being consumed at an alarming rate! My training schedule was not doing well - I had to do two 4.5 mile runs plus cross-training on the days I wasn't running. I'm not sure strolling around an apple orchard or sauntering amongst the grapevines carrying a camera could really be classed as cross-training? If you think travelling to a warm country will be good for training think again - the great thing about being in Britain at this time of year is that you have to go out running to stay warm!

And how could I possibly not eat the amazing food that was put infront of me? Even the typical South African braai (that is normally a complete meat-fest), was impossible to resist, with large flat mushrooms stuffed with cheese, chargrilled nectarines with feta cheese, and a wonderful home-made cheesecake that our host Johan insisted we ate the South African way, with a little red wine poured over the top - it was unusual, but delicious.

But the whole purpose of this trip was to learn about great South African fruit, so we did spend time wandering the vast apple, pear and plum orchards, and learnt about the varieties that are sent over to us in the UK. Interestingly the research showed that a lot of people don't buy South African fruit because they think it is grown artificially. Having visited at least three farms I can assure you there is nothing artificial about the glorious orchards that spread out for miles, with the fruit ripening naturally under the intense African sun.

We did manage to fit in a quick visit to Aquila Private Game Reserve near Touws River, with time for a safari to see the wildlife of Africa - they have giraffe, zebra, elephants, rhino, leapoard, cheetah and lions - and you will get to see them all - the reserve is not that large and there are fences to ensure they don't leave! The highlight of the safari was the stop for fizzy wine as the sun went down - we couldn't escape the alcohol even there!

On our final day we visited Langa Township, something I would highly recommend if you visit Cape Town. It's hard to say how it made me feel so I will leave it up to you to visit and judge for yourself. After this the plan was to drive up the West Coast Road towards Langebaan for a ten course lunch at Die Strandloper Seafood Restaurant. This was the final straw and we all voted against it! There really is only so much food that can be eaten, and for me, with no exercise taking place, my body was starting to rebel! The thought of returning to cold, grey England was a depressing one, but if I am to make the Paris half-marathon I need to get myself back in shape pretty quickly - only two weeks to go!

A fruity South African experience

Life is always full of such extremes, and this certainly is one of those - from the freezing sand dunes of the Kent coast I have travelled to the Western Cape in South Africa, and it is HOT!

I have been invited by South African fruit growers, to find out why their fruit is good and to help promote it back home in the UK. but not only do they want to promote their fruit, they are also very keen to show us how proud they are of their beautiful country, and they have every reason to be - it is stunning.

We arrived this morning, slightly tired after an all-night flight, but were revived by lunch at The Mount Nelson Hotel, the most iconic luxury hotel in Cape Town. It is famed for it's afternoon tea, but after the huge buffet lunch we were served there was no room left, plus we had lots more to fit into the day.

A quick trip to the top of Table Mountain by cable car and then we are driven out to Stellenbosch, one of the Western Cape's wineland areas, set at the head of the Eerste River Valley. Not only do they make great wine here, but the area also contains finely preserved examples of the Cape-Dutch style of architecture. We are lucky enough to be staying in the Lanzerac Hotel, a distinguished Cape-Dutch house on a 300-year old country estate over-looking lush vineyards and the Helderburg Mountains.

So on to dinner, and again I find there is no shortage of food! This week is going to be tough if I intend to keep up my training schedule for the Paris half-marathon in only 3 weeks - I am not just carbo-loading here, I will be over-loading pretty much every nutrient available to man if today is anything to go by! We eat at Moyo, an African Themed restaurant on the Spier Wine Estate and the buffet is vast! Even our group of nine carnivores, two vegetarians and one serious nut allergy sufferer did not struggle to over-eat.

Summer picnics in Kent

Most of you will know that when I'm not talking about healthy food, I'm styling it for photography for magazines and newspapers. And if you think the life of a food stylist is glamorous, think again!

The last two days were spent in the beautiful Kent countryside, we had rented a beach house to shoot a summer catalogue of kitchen and house-ware with the idea of showing picnic baskets in sand dunes, and tea parties in the garden.

Great plan........................until it snowed.............and

snowed.......and snowed! How to make summer in one foot of snow??!! Pretty impossible but luckily the house was very pretty inside so we got some great shots and you would never know the difference - I challenge you to find the shots!