A spring picnic

Every day this week has been the same and I'm not complaining at all - a grey, cloudy morning then at lunch a clearer sky and finally an afternoon of streaming sunshine, blue skies and hazy, summery smells.

I've been spending hours outside at a time and making the most of the glorious natural light to practise my photography skills. Today I had my first picnic of the year so snapped some photos to share and I'll include the recipe for one of my favourite teatime classics - oaty date slices :)

Ingredients

2 cups pitted dates (soaked in boiling water)

2 cups plain flour

1 cup oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter

Method

1. Line a 8x8 baking tin with baking paper and preheat the oven to 180C.

2. While the dates are soaking, add the flour, oats, sugar and butter to a large bowl and rub together with your fingers until fine crumbs remain.

3. Sieve the water from the soaking dates then add them to a blender and whizz up until you're left with a smooth paste.

4. Press half of the oaty mix into the tin then spread over the dates and finally, pour over the next half of the crumble topping.

5. Bake for 20 mins.