A random collection of bits and pieces from our place…
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I took a few photos while we were outside moving the chook dome. Our bed of basil had over twenty bees visiting (I couldn’t keep count of any more than that)…
Our mutant broccoli decided to flower before we had a chance to eat it – it has the largest flowers I’ve ever seen on a brassica…
The French marigolds keep evolving. You might recall that a basket of these came as a gift to our garden a couple of years ago, and they’ve happily self-sown along the paths and in the beds. The colours continue to mingle with each new generation of flowers…
We’ve had an interesting time with squash this season. Our self-sown mutant butternut trombies start out with mottled pale green skin and light coloured flesh. At this stage, we add them to curries, and they cook almost like a potato…
What they end up as, if left long enough, is a proper butternut squash (with just a little residual green around the stem)…
The flesh becomes orange and sweet. As we adore butternut pumpkins, we’re delighted with this outcome…
And remember the two tromboncinos which weren’t producing any fruit? Well..it appears one of them did, and we missed it. As we were moving the chooks, we came across this monster in one of the beds (gives you some idea of how wild our garden is, that we could completely miss something this big!)…
It’s definitely not a true trombie, but it’s a squash of some sort (the pencil is for scale). It weighs in at just under five kilograms, and I think it might be a Jap pumpkin cross…
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Lovely Bizzy Lizzy and her gorgeous partner Peter joined us for lunch last week. I baked a loaf of Buratto flour sourdough (which we ate with fresh ricotta and quince jelly)…
…tempered up a batch of dark chocolate rocky road filled with marshmallows, crystallised ginger, roasted hazelnuts, cacao nibs and feuilletine flakes…
…and baked a tray of June’s Hungarian cottage cheese cake…
Speaking of June (who also joined us for lunch), I made her a Turkish tile trivet after she admired the ones on my dining table…
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I had a birthday recently, and gorgeous Terri ordered me a giant cannolo – it was filled with chocolate and pannacotta gelato (if anyone is interested in these, they’re made by Rino and Marisa at Rino Saffioti’s in Haberfield)…
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Lovely Lorraine baked me a chocolate and nut krantz, and it was divine, a bit like grown up brioche (I broke off a corner to try it, then remembered to take a photo..sigh). It made me even happier that it arrived on a cake board…
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Our car is now seven years old, and the vinyl on the armrests has worn away…
As a birthday present, and in response to my incessant begging, my darling friend Maude crocheted me cotton armrest covers. Over the course of a couple of weeks, she popped in at regular intervals and sat in our car and crocheted.
I know I’ve said this before, but I have the best friends in the whole world…
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What’s been happening at your place?
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Oh my goodness, how did I miss your birthday Celia!!!? Happy birthday belatedly, love. And thank you so very much for the beautiful lunch (and the goodies!). It was so good to see you and Pete and to meet June (I’d love to have her as a neighbour… you too for that matter!). If it wasn’t teeming with rain, we could have had a good poke around the garden, I would have liked to see the chookies too. Thank you for the shout out here… and, dear readers, Celia’s sour dough is superb, but even better spread with fresh ricotta and Pete’s amazing quince jelly. Absolute heaven! xoxo
It was quite a while ago now, Liz! Lovely to have you to visit, thanks for coming!
Well illustrated. Those arm covers could be a big hit.
Thank you. They’re great fun, aren’t they? :)
Aaah, your armrests look kind of homely. Like two mutant darling daleks trying to sit hand in hand. As ever, all your food looks delicious and desirable. Do you use your marigolds for cooking? The petals would make wonderful petal confetti on an iced cake.
A twenty year old told me yesterday that they make my car look very “Asian”. His father said they looked a bit rude! :) Will remember that about the marigolds, thank you!
Happy Birthday Celia. Your butternuts look good. Our season was so harsh that our usual array of pumpkins didn’t even self eed. They have started now that the weather ha turned ‘normal’ – a bit late, I keep telling them. We are finally back in the garden..
Francesca, was it you who mentioned that all your marigolds were yellow? If so, I keep meaning to ask if you’d like some seed from our multi-coloured ones? We can collect some next time they set seed if that’s the case. Do let us know.. :)
Hi Celia, Yes, that was me. I love the more colourful marigolds. Please do save me some seed next time. Thanks F
Hi Celia, My April IMK is posted due to a ridiculous night of wakefulness. F
A very happy birthday to you celia (belated…) and those arm rests are the best addition I’ve ever seen for a car! Loving the shots from the garden, and of course I enjoyed seeing your squash – I’ve never had much luck with butternut squash…. maybe one day …… :)
Thanks Claire! We’ve never grown butternut squash either with any success, but we did try and plant them last year – I guess they must have made male flowers and we didn’t notice!
Happy birthday, lovely Celia. I hope you had a great day. I love your garden.
My raspberry bush is starting to shoot and the strawberries are growing. I think the columbines from last year are growing again and I have planted 2 new peonies. All the fruit trees are beginning to flower. I keep wandering around just looking at things growing. I love spring in Italy.
Thanks Deb! Our neighbour has made raspberry canes that seem to produce berries, even in Sydney climate! Must get some from him, but not sure where to plant them yet! :)
You DO have wonderful friends, and wonderful foods tumbling from your kitchen and from your garden. Love butternut squash and would you believe our Woolies has not had them for the last two weeks. The Turkish tile trivet is beautiful! Thank you for the lovely post.
Ardys, I really do, thank you! Hope you get your hands on some butternut soon – not sure why Woolies would run out of pumpkin in Autumn! :)
“Ah Pisces/Aries cusp” Rose says nodding as if she knows anything about astrology. A late happy birthday to you Celia dear. :)
Nope, birthday was much earlier than that, Rose! :) Thanks though! :)
Happy birthday Celia – I hope you had a wonderful day. You certainly deserve it. xxx
You’re always very kind A, thank you! xx
I can’t wait to see what mutant hybrid your triffids produce next year….
Very impressed that some turned into butternuts. I thought they were a thing in their own right, not an accidental hybrid (?)….we need a plant geneticist to explain it all to us…
And those arm rests are hilarious! :)
Our gardening guru Linda thinks one of the last batch of trombies might have cross pollinated with a butternut. I think the mad thing is that they start out as something completely different. I suspect it’s a one-off – the chances of getting seed that replicates this is likely to be very low! :)
Happy birthday after the event ~ hope the year to come brings most of what you desire! Am laughing: I too need a pair of those armrest covers. I keyboard sitting on a real Eames chair sadly over 50 years old, the leather looking considerably worse than your car arm rests . . . love the old chair, perhaps I should give this a go :) !!
Thanks Eha – time to get the crochet hook and wool out! :)
Happy birthday! So your car has gone the same way as ours. In the front of our car the vinyl/leather/dodgy product has torn EVERYWHERE. Our car looks dreadful. It’s not a very good advertisement for Honda. And have you noticed how thin that ‘material’ is? What a disgrace. That trombie is enormous. I love how Lorraine gave you back one of your cake boards! I love butternut pumpkin as it’s so good in risottos xx
Our car is in great shape apart from the little bit of damage on the arm rests. Maybe it helps not to have dogs. :D
More lovely photos. Happy birthday Celia. You kept that quiet from us lol. I hope you had a wonderful day:)
It happens every year, Jody! The birthday, that is. :)
Happy Birthday my lovely friend! I was so chuffed that you enjoyed the Krantz :D We go crazy for butternut squash and yours look fabulous. And those arm rest covers are cute!
Thanks darling! The Krantz is all gone – it was divine, thank you!
Happy Belated Birthday Celia. March is absolutely the best month to be born in isn’t it ;) I love the arm rest covers. I need something similar for my steering wheel. My trombies are having a last spurt as if the know they are about to be ripped out. I picked a monster marrow the other day but it was still smaller than yours. No mutants here though. Lucky you get two veggies on one vine :)
Thanks Tania. Our squash are really just doing whatever they feel like this year – it’s kinda nice.. :)
G’day! Love random bits of pieces Celia, true! LOVE your trivets and the Hungarian cheesecake is now on the list too! Without being rude (perhaps is just me) but your pumpkins do seem today a bit perky! lol lol
Love the knitted arm chair protectors!!! GREAT idea! You could sell those custom made! Thanks for brightening my day!
Cheers! Joanne
Joanne, thank you – a friend made rude comments about my armrest covers yesterday as well! :D
Happy Birthday! Hope you enjoyed your special day; special like you!
Cheers! Joanne
It was great, thanks!
Belated Happy Birthday wishes. You are as generous receiver as you are giver, displaying and virtually sharing your wonderful gifts :)
ED, you are always so kind, thank you! xx
Birthday blessings! And I love your wild garden and all its treasures :)
Tandy, thank you – it really IS wild at the moment, and it’s been raining so much that we haven’t been out much of late. Will be interesting to see what’s happened with all this rain!
Sending you belated birthday wishes Celia. And those crocheted armrests? Genius.
Thanks Nancy! And I know! They came about because Maude had given me a teapot with a crocheted handle cover for Christmas and I begged her to make me something similar for the car. I told her it was the perfect solution to my problem! :D
I love all of your work Celia but it is the rocky road that has got me tonight! x
Oooh, wish I could share some with you Jane! If you come quick, there’s still a couple of pieces left.. xx
Happy birthday Celia! What a lovely random collection of joyful moments. I’m glad your friends treat you well :-)
They really do, thanks Jaqi!
Happy birthday, Celia. I love reading about your mad garden! The broccoli flowers are surprising, but very pretty!
Thanks Suelle! The garden is full of rainbow chard, thanks in part to your inspiration all those years ago! I don’t know why we ever thought we didn’t like it! :)
Hi Celia, what a week! Happy birthday! You certainly do have lovely friends. I love your armrest covers and all your edible delights. I also love the broccoli flowers, I have never seen them like that.
Thanks darling – the broc flowers are amazing aren’t they? Usually we get teeny tiny ones, but these were quite big – more than a cm in diameter!
The armrest covers are full of win. Around here? Drawing, cooking and doing dishes. I’ve started going to the Thursday Farmer’s Market. Do they have them there? Outdoor markets with stalls full of veg? I bought a couple of bags of mushrooms. Haven’t decided what to do with them yet. Hugs, Maz
We have lots of farmers markets, but rarely on a Thursday! Usually they’re a weekend thing.. xx
Happy birthday Celia! Your life is so beautiful and you do have awesome friends. The crochet armrests are so darn cute/cool. Have a wonderful year! :)
Thanks Padaek! I’m very blessed with truly wonderful friends!
Happy belated birthday Celia :) Those broccoli flowers are very pretty and I like the knitted covers. You do have lovely friends Celia, lovely people have lovely friends :) Those sweets look delicious, makes me want dessert and it’s not yet breakfast time!
Thanks Stefanie! You’re very kind xx
Happy birthday sweetie, it looks like you were very blessed indeed! All those yummy goodies and of course your wonderful crusty bread too. I’ve had no luck with pumpkins this year, maybe I should let one of my trombies go next year and see what happens? So much life and energy going on in your garden- wonderful xox
Becca, thanks darling, and if I had any idea what the heck was going on with the trombies, I’d attempt to offer advice. But honestly, I have no idea at all what’s going on with them this year! :)
Those cake boards are coming out of the wood work. Thank goodness Celia. I am so sad that i have missed your birthday. I hope that it was a lovely day for you and that your boys looked after you for once. Much love xxx ( PS very cute arm rests)
by the way I didnt mean that your boys are a burden and dont look after you because they are all lovely, but I do mean that you are a very special mother and do a lot for them . I hope that they made sure they told you that for your birthday
Yes, darling, they really do always look after me. Thank you! :D
Wow, what terrific friends you have – and I’m sure they feel blessed to have you as a friend too. All of those goodies look so scrumptious!
I love the colors in that French marigold and of course your garden bounty is amazing.
But let’s face it Celia, those armrests are the bomb! What a clever and fun idea. I LOVE them. Happy birthday my dear.
Di, they really are, aren’t they? I have a little burst of happy every time I get in the car! My online friends are wonderful too, and it’s been a joy getting to know you better this year! x
The feeling is mutual Celia & I love sitting with a cup of coffee in the morning to see what you’ve been up to.
A joyful post Celia. Love the bees in the basil and those armrests….! Remind me of my knitting sister :)
PS Belated Happy Birthday dear virtual friend.
Thank you darling friend! And for all your tweets as well! xx
Always look forward to and enjoy your posts immensely. We share a Birthday month:-) Hope you had a good one.
Thank you! Hope you had a good birthday too! :D
Loved the colorful, unpretentious ‘Bits & Pieces’ of your place! Thanks a bunch for sharing :) Incredible pictures indeed :)
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it! :)
Sorry to have missed your birthday, Celia. I hope it was wonderful. You so deserve it. What great gifts you received! Those armrest covers are the kind of gift only a good friend would know that you need. Your garden photos are just what these winter-weary eyes need to see. It looks like you’ll never be rid of the tromboncinos, in one form or another.
It was a lovely day, thanks John! I wonder if we’ll be overrun with squash forever, in one form or another! :)