A bird's life

This is the early bird on the Constantia patio. A young thrush, fearless, hungry, full of hop.

I will channel the thrush today as I start early, interviewing a woman I have admired from a distance and for a very long time, through her gardens. She invited me for a walk and tea, even though she does not know me and I called her out of the blue. I am looking forward to the tea being coffee (we'll be at a hotel, so no worries) as I just found to my horror that tomorrow's Illy tin is bare. Gulp. Terrible way to start a day. (But knowing about it now is better than only discovering it as I unscrew the espresso pots parts from one another in the morning...)

Then it's off to shop for Tuesday's lunch-under-the-tree ingredients; my mother turns 81, and I'll be the lunch cook. We'll have chilled tomato and tomato leaf consommé; a modern but old fashioned aspic of avocado and shrimp - the jelly will be flavoured with a local fynbos shrub, Coleonema, which is very citrusy; then crispy roast lamb ribs with another local plant, the succulent spekboom, chopped into sour submission as a gremolata; and finally, frozen strawberry soufflé .

I think there are worse ways to be busy.