Spicy and sizzling this summer

This will be a busy summer for me: Top a neighbour's sycamore tree and laurel hedge as they shade both our gardens. I have the tools and they are elderly, so I do the work. I can cut up the logs as firewood. Make newspapers into bricks: I wet the paper, mush it and put it into a brick shaper, squeeze water out and set them to dry in the sun. Then I use them as firelogs come winter. Go camping around Ireland with my husband, cooking some meals, sampling local hostelries and exploring heritage and nature sites. Pick and dry lavender flowers to make moth-repellent scented bags for drawers. New recipe I invented and tried last night: roast a chicken with piri-piri sauce smeared on top, and for the last 30 minutes add sweet potatoes and quartered fennel bulbs to the baking tray. A lovely combination of scents and tastes and it makes a sumptuous gravy! Books to read include a few by Linda Fairstein, Elizabeth George, Ian Rankin, Stephen Booth, Graham Hurley, Juliet E McKenna, Leann Sweeney, Barbara Nadel, Arnaldur Indridason, Nevada Barr, Sue Grafton, Carol Lea Benjamin, Audrey Howard, Emma Blair, Margaret Dickinson, Donna Leon, Christine Rimmer, Anne and Todd McCaffrey, Virginia Lanier, Dana Stabenow, Candace Robb, Arlene Hunt, Tana French, compilations 'Girls' Night In' and 'Boys' Night In/Girls' Night Out', 'New Irish Short Stories', Kate Atkinson... those are just the ones on the shelves around me here. Never enough time. I was a Book Giver for World Book Night and I still have a few copies of 'The Player of Games' promised to folks and not delivered. Must do that soon. And I want to enjoy some time with my niece and nephew, and my goddaughter... I'm collecting their Christmas books already!