I’ve spent a large proportion of my day today preparing food for dinner tonight. We’ve got guests coming. These days, this is quite a rare event because we have not really done much entertaining for the last eighteen months. When we first moved down to Cornwall, we didn’t have the space to do it and now we live in a rats’ nest so we feel a bit loathe to ask people to come here.

However, our friends, Iain and Becks have just moved out of their lovely house and into a rented place and are feeling a bit glum because it’s cold and damp there, having been uninhabited for ages, so we said come over to us for a meal – at least it’s warm here! They have moved out of their lovely cottage, just along from our old place, because they’re going to build their own house – a project we’ll be watching with great interest, with both of us having a hankering to do the same one of these days. (Talk about being gluttons for punishment – we’re sick to the back teeth of brick dust and mess, yet we’re still saying ‘oh, that’s be a great thing to do’.)

Cooking has always been a great joy for me and if it wasn’t for the state of the kitchen in this place, there would be nothing I’d like more than to amble around, preparing things to eat.

Tonight we’ve got a low-fat meal that I hope won’t taste like it’s been slavishly made to suit my diet. I’ve even done an experiment – a crème brulee without the crème…..I hope it works!!!

I never like to let on my menu to my guests in advance, but we know they’ve got no internet access so I’ll let you in on the secret. We’ve got: home-made hummus, with crudités and home-made pitta bread, then home-made pasta with a white wine, mushroom and cream sauce (there is only a tiny bit of cream in this, but it’s surprisingly rich) then finally the crème brulee, which has essentially been made with mashed banana, honey, vanilla and yoghurt – later it’s going to have sugar sprinkled on it and be placed under a hot grill…..I’m just worried that the consistency won’t be right and the sugar will sink before melting. I hope not.

Tonight though, I am going to try my best to create the right ambience for our friends whose lives have been a bit stressful of late. I’m also working hard on getting a good meal prepared. Most of all though, I am planning warmth, both in actual temperature and in emotional temperature. I hope it is a success.

This is of course, me, putting the final touches to the dinner table. I like the trails of fire across this as I light the candles, I hope that I don’t set fire to the place like I did last time I served a meal with candles!

Last year, I was at the farm shop, photographing cabbages!