Joyful June – Day 12

Yesterday’s Action from ‘Action for Happiness’ calendar – “Make a plan with friends to do something fun together.”

With restrictions starting to slowly be relaxed here, a very good friend had invited me to join her on a nature therapy group walk. This would have been very interesting to do, and a great way to relax on the weekend. Unfortunately the group walk was oversubscribed, so this has been put onhold for now.

Never mind, now that we are allowed to have visitors over to our homes again, she came over for a wonderful evening of lots of chatting, laughter and wine. Dinner started with some baked crumbed cambembert served on a bed of salad leaves and logenberry sauce. Later I made homemade Flammkuchen made with creme fraiche, nutmeg, bacon, onion, cracked pepper, with dill sprinkled on top.

I fell in love with Flammkuchen the first time I tried it in Germany, and I was taken with their “version” of pizza. I’ve made this before for friends, and my friend was over the moon when I offered to make some last night. She told me that they won’t try and make it at home, as she and her partner have come to associate Flammkuchen as my “thing”. To them, dinner at my house goes hand in hand with Flammkuchen and other German dishes.

I was really touched to think that my love of cooking for friends, and sharing with them my experiences, brings joy and happiness to others. For me, the kitchen really is the heart of a home.

Since we couldn’t do the nature therapy walk, and this morning turned out to be a grey winters day, a late continental brunch was needed. Simply consisted of; English lavender tea, dark cherry Greek yoghurt, croissants, Alpine milk creamed herb cheese from Germany and deliciously sweet strawberries. With lots more chattering and laughing.

I couldn’t help but laugh when my friend saw the herb cheese and said:

“Jenn, you are so predictable with your love of all things German.”

She is right, I hadn’t realised how much my time spent living in Germany had positively influenced so many factors and attitude to my life.

Last night and this morning were for me, a fantastic tonic for the time spent in isolation. We had time to talk about deeper topics of conversations, light hearted and funny stories to share. We also got to share what was happening in our careers, and our own plans for the future.