The St. Albans burger scene.

St. Peter's burger, The Meating Room

Here in St Albans, the locals (well, me) occasionally refer to the Cursed Restaurant. It's a large, open space in the Maltings (the main shopping area). It's ever so slightly tucked away, but visible from a main road. And it's cursed. Ever since Deep Pan Pizza closed in the mid 90s, nothing has stuck, and the last two occupants have left the restaurant overnight, the tables still set for diners who will never come. I'm pretty desperate for an awesome Mexican to fill in the space (come on, Wahaca) but until then, it's empty.

There used to be another cursed space, near the clock tower. Restaurants would come and go. It's a (particularly awesome) Italian now, but for a few golden months it was a gourmet burger restaurant, and it was amazing... not just because they had a bring-your-own-bottle policy. And that was it for the St Albans burger movement. Apart from a few great pub burgers (forever weeping about Bar 62 closing their doors after this beauty), there's not been anything.

Until now! (Yeah, I was getting somewhere...)

Out and about with Ritz Breaks

I keep expecting summer to be over, but it really isn't that cold yet. Basically, it seems to start out cold - so on go the black tights - but then it gets all sunny! Which is nice, but confusing, and it makes me very warm.

We risked it this weekend, anyway, and had a picnic in the park. So many of my friends have had babies recently, and it means that we rarely see them because it's hard to do nighttimey, pub-based things when you have a little 'un in tow. It's crazy how suddenly things move on. It doesn't seem too long ago that we were all meeting up in the university holidays, but now 80% of our group are married - in some cases to each other - and the babies are a-coming. Growing up is a funny thing, because as much as life seems to move quickly, more often than not, you move with it. So whereas a few years ago those landmark 'grown-up' moments seem terrifying, suddenly you feel ready for them.

That said, I'm not sure I'll ever grow out of drinking al fresco. A few cans of Pimms were the perfect accompaniment to our picnic, as were these Ritz Breaks. Real talk: I got sent these a few weeks ago in this beautiful red Zatchel, and have been cheerfully munching away on them so much that I had to save my last two packets for the purposes of this post. I'm seriously addicted to the new rosemary & olive ones - not only can you just pop them in your bag and head out for the day, you also get lots in a packet, they're super tasty, filling and not too naughty. Oooh, and they're good with houmous!

How pretty is the Zatchel? It goes perfectly with my red Converse, too. And the rest of my extremely red wardrobe, because red is the best.

Have you been making the most of our last few summer days, or are you already in hibernation mode? I'm about ready for the transition - I'm already planning evenings filled with red wine and slow cooked beef stew...