Busy bee

S was out early to go to a writers' conference in the Pyrenees. I mostly did domestic tasks. Having done a couple of loads of washing, I worked on using up some of the fresh stuff we brought back from Spain. This included some defrosted sweet pastry. The easiest option for this seemed to be tarte au citron, but I fancied a change, so after browsing a few cookbooks I decided to try Jane Grigson's recipe. It includes ground almonds, which I thought was interesting, but I regretted my decision as they made for a compact, gritty texture instead of the silky, wobbly filling I love. It also required making faffy, messy candied lemon slices, most of which fell apart. Will not repeat, and the rest is going into the freezer.

I bumped into G in the street just before lunch, so ended up catching up with her and V over a cup of tea for an hour.  Back home I had a quick lunch and got on with the next task, making pesto. Our basil plant in Almuñecar was so bushy and thriving that it seemed a shame to leave it. I didn't have time to make anything with it, so I stuffed a bunch of cut stems into a jam jar and covered them with olive oil to help them survive the journey. While the lemon tart baked I roasted some hazelnuts and made hazelnut pesto, which I've just had for dinner. Much more successful than the tart. But I feel I've spent much of the day cooking and cleaning up the resulting mess.

I did get out for a quick blip stroll later on, and encountered this busy bee, which seemed appropriate. Going to chill with my next book group read now.

Edit: I have just realised on looking closely that those red spots on the flower are tiny little bugs.