So, it’s almost Christmas. The solstice has been and gone, signalling the start of winter (in spite of what the Met Office tells us about winter starting on 1 December!), and to get through the cold season, I focus on the fact that we’re heading for spring, and the days are getting longer. With a birthday in May, spring is definitely my season, and I can’t wait for longer days and warmer weather. Today, the weather app on my phone tells me it’s 9c outside at the moment – not that I’m venturing out to confirm that. That’s around 48f, if you don’t speak Celsius. It’s also grey, wet and…

Arugula. Okay, in the UK, we call it rocket, so maybe I’m cheating slightly, but I recently found out an interesting fact about this unassuming salad leaf. My current work-in-progress has a scene that includes rocket, and as someone observed, who would get turned on by salad? Good question. I didn’t have a good answer at the time, but days later, I did. It turns out that rocket is an aphrodisiac – which does start with A – and has been documented as such for almost two thousand years. I didn’t know that, either. All I can say is, I’ll never look at a plate of salad the same way…