We held a birthday lunch at our beach hut for my sister who celebrated a big birthday recently and rather than focus on the number, I wanted to focus on the girl.

When we were growing up my sister was a tomboy who could out-run or out-jump any child in our neighbourhood.  She was a force to be reckoned with.  She would often decide on the game or activity of the day, usually involving some impossible leap over a stream or fence that she would complete brilliantly of course – me not so.  Hence why no one ever picked on my brother or me otherwise my sister would turn up and just her very presence would ensure that all peace would be resumed or else.

Our Mum would beg us to let her brush our hair but we were never still long enough so we had a permanent bed head state about us.  We tore up the neighbourhood on our bikes; nail varnish and glitter was never something we worried about that came later and my sister shone at that too.

So for her lunch party, I decorated the beach hut with a wild flower garland because I thought that would be in line with the wild flower girl that was the envy of our neighbourhood.

She’s brilliant and although a long-term cancer sufferer she shows cancer that she’s a force to be reckoned with, so go and pick on someone else.

[yumprint-recipe id=’36’]

The brushettas are quite firmly a Waitrose recipe from one of their Summer Harvest

leaflets but I adapted it somewhat but I cannot take the credit for the original idea.

[yumprint-recipe id=’37’]