“I wish I’d married someone compliant..”, I said.
“Why? So that everyone would go along with your crazy plans?” he replied.
It’s hard to believe that twenty-seven years have passed since this photo was taken. I can’t say that it’s been a doddle, but after all this time, he still finds me amusing and I still think he’s a superhero. We make each other laugh a dozen times a day. And there are no pointy bits in our relationship, if that makes sense. We’re very blessed… ♥
. . . . .
Twenty years ago, we were having dinner at Nick and Mary’s house, eating cucumbers that Mary’s Greek father had grown in his backyard. They were a revelation. Ever since that day, I’ve been desperate to grow them at home, so we could eat them straight out of the garden.
This year, we’ve finally found a variety that grows really well. It’s called Marketmore and our seeds came from Mr Fothergill. This mildew resistant variety is growing prolifically in our backyard – we harvested seventeen cucumbers yesterday, six the day before that, and twelve the day before that. The skins are quite thick and a bit prickly, so we peel them before turning them into Greek salad (in honour of Mary’s dad) or eating them dipped in ssamjang. (PS. Pete’s tip is to pick them while they’re still small enough to be a bit bumpy!)
. . . . .
Also growing in our garden is a grafted fingerlime tree. It’s supposed to have multi-coloured fruit, but to date, it’s only ever produced green ones. The rinds are very bitter, but the little pearls are deliciously citrussy.
The tree itself is under negotiation – it seems to fruit at a ratio of half a dozen small fingerlimes per billion thorns. It’s threatening to grow extremely large and its position adjacent to the driveway is already proving problematic. Pete’s not happy, but he’s indulging me for now – I so love having such an unusual tree in our backyard.
. . . . .
There’s something very rewarding about eating our own produce. My breakfast yesterday was well-toasted sourdough, topped with cucumber, my marinated feta and fingerlime pearls, finished with a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, a little Malden salt and a grind of black pepper. It wasn’t pretty, but it was very, very tasty.
. . . . .
We’ve been friends with Marty and Joyce since we were teenagers. I have a lifetime of hilarious shared adventures with them, but perhaps my fondest story is of our visit to a food court in Chinatown. We were nineteen at the time and we’d sent Marty off to get food while we minded the table. He returned with an enormous plate from the all-you-can-eat buffet – enough to feed all four of us for the $4.50 he’d paid.
It was a genius piece of engineering – he’d begun by positioning chicken wings around the edge of the plate to extend its capacity, then proceeded to layer various dishes on top until the pile was a good 15cm (6″) high. After we’d stopped laughing, we demolished the plate with the four forks he’d brought back, then went off in search of dessert. It’s one of my favourite eating stories ever.
Last week, more than thirty years after that fabulous meal in Chinatown, we found ourselves sitting at Marty’s bar, drinking his spectacular Young Henry’s cider slushy. The mad bugger works as an A&E specialist, trains for ironman events, and owns a bar. A couple of weeks ago, his hair was green and he won the My Little Pony award from his cycling club. It’s too wonderful for words that some things never change, and our darling friend is still stark raving bonkers. Long may it continue.
. . . . .
One of my favourite authors, Peter Dickinson, passed away at the end of last year on his 88th birthday. The short stories written by Peter and his wife Robin McKinley are some of the best I’ve ever read. I’m in the process of rereading them all and if you’re looking for well crafted, beautifully eloquent prose, I can’t recommend them highly enough. They’re now all available on Kindle.
. . . . .
“Can you keep small children awake for a few hours?” asked Will.
Desperate to combat jetlag, our friends arrived with Not-A-Baby-Anymore Grace and her big brother Tom. I immediately fed them chocolate chip cookies, then put them in front of the balancing animals. Tom proved particularly gifted, whereas Grace needed a little more help. She did, however, declare her Princess Twilight Sparkle stack to be the best!
. . . . .
Wishing you all a glorious, relaxing weekend.
May it be filled with joyous everyday stories!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Love your stories, Celia. :-)
Thanks lovely! Hope the new year has started well for you! xxx
Why would you want someone compliant? That would be boring.
Yes, yes, I know. :)
Lovely stories! You cucumbers look delicious. I can just imagine Marty’s plate full of food.☺ Beautiful memories. The children have grown so much since you saw them last. It’s been almost exactly a year since I started baking sourdough bread, thanks to you. 😊 Sherwood is still going strong and I always think about you when I bake bread. Many, many thanks! 🍞 Enjoy your visit and have a wonderful weekend.
Manuela, honestly I think of you as Supermom!! I don’t know how you manage it all, particularly with a (relatively) new bub! So glad sherwood is still going strong in bison country! :)
Celia, I sometimes peel my home grown cucumbers but I also enjoy eating them with their skins on as long as the skin is not bitter. I find that the prickles rub off very easily with a clean tea towel or piece of kitchen roll.
Thanks Jane, we normally don’t peel either but these skins are very thick! We’re actually half peeling them (in stripes) – works well!
Life looks delicious and fun at your place Celia, as always. I am picking wheelbarrow loads (I am not exaggerating!) of cucumbers at the moment. I am even giving them away to a local cafe. They are wonderful but it is almost a case of death by cucumber. Your finger-lime tree sounds fascinating, I hope it survives! I think you mentioned in a blog once that life is not perfect but it is full of perfect moments. Or something like that, apologies if I have it wrong. I have been thinking about those words a lot recently, they are very wise. Happy weekend to you too x
Jane, it’s so true, isn’t it! We live imperfect lives filled with perfect moments. I know you understand this so well! Much love to you xxx
I totally get what you mean by no pointy bits in your relationship. A perfect way of describing it. Can you pickle the cukes? Rich told me he’s eaten his quota of cucumbers in this lifetime and he never wants another one in a salad – he needs to be more compliant :)
Rich needs to be more compliant? Good luck with that Nance… ;-)
What a lovely pic oh you and your hubby. After 15 years, thankfully my hubby and I have no pointy bits on our relationship either.
Love that you have finger limes, I want them but overtime I pick up a tree to buy it BITES ME!
So far I haven’t bought one :(
Thanks for sharing.
Oh, and Pricilla has a son… a very lazy son that isn’t doing as he is told so far. Possibly because I didn’t follow instruction very well. I will give him a little more attention and let you know how it goes. We all agree that he was very tasty though.
P.S Pheonix son of Priscilla Queen of the Sourdough
Chat soon
Julie
Gourmet Getaways
Love your wedding photo – surely compliant would be boring???
So I’m told.. ;-)
Love the wedding photo! Certainly compliant would be boring. You are such an amazing person, wife and mother. I can only hope to have as many amazing memories as you one day. This year I am aiming to let go a little more and let the boys be wilder….not that weren’t wild before. Now we can just all enjoy it instead of worrying about the cleanup later!
Celia, this was such a beautiful synopsis of everyday moments. I heard a quote the other day that fits you: “Being able to relate your experiences to others — and your own life — becomes magical when you have attentive, appreciative eyes.” ~ Pico Iyer. Here’s to seeing more everyday in 2016! xo
Lovely Kim!
You’re very kind, dear one, thank you. I do find so much of life hilariously funny, which I’m sure is a blessing! Helps to have mad friends and family though.. :)
“And there are no pointy bits in our relationship, if that makes sense.” — Makes total sense. Sometimes we are stupid silly with each other, probably because we learned to nitpick less and appreciate one another more. What a blessed state it truly is. All the best to you, Celia, in this new year!
Wonderful stories! An elderly friend of mine is in the process of writing a memoir for her family so that some of her stories will not be forgotten.
Congrats on 27 years of happiness together! You ARE so perfect together, it is obvious, it flows through each word you write about your perfect match
Phil and I will soon celebrate our 16th year, a bit behind you, but marching happily too
I thought your salad of bread and cucumber looked gorgeous, nothing bad to say about it at all…
great post, great stories, I also have friends that go back to 30 years ago, but it’s hard for me to see them – we live 6 thousand miles away, but last month two of them came all the way here and we spent a few days together – WHAT FUN! nothing changes that much, a few wrinkles, a lot of gray hair, but the enthusiasm for life is the same.
What a glorious, uplifting read this was! Congratulations to you both on your anniversary – what a beautiful wedding photo. And only you could follow this with a photo of cucumbers….hilarious! Have never heard of fingerlime and I love the idea of that salad for breakfast :) wish I could send you some of our new season olive oil but I don’t think it would make the journey without leaking!
I’m nothing if not random, darling. :D And I’d love your olive oil, but the last time I was sent any, all that arrived was a smashed bottle in a very oily, leaking box!
:( It doesn’t travel well unless hand delivered! One day…..
Thinking, “that’s a strange cucumber, looks like a finger lime’. Read with more focus Maree! Love the takeaway story, great tip about chicken wings but sadly these days they fill the plates I think. So lucky to have long term friends from early days, I lost all of mine after a life change, must be nice. Definitely have to get one of those balancing puzzles. LOL about ironman filling his drink bottle with the slushy, beautiful. Happy 2016! Maree (& Geoff) who are now extremely thrilled grandparents!
Congratulations on your anniversary, Celia. We clock up 27 years this year, too, and it all passed too quickly. x
Loved reading these stories! Sitting around after a very physical day, post hot bath in my underwear with a glass of wine and catching up on the important things in life:)
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I love your little snippets Celia. Your breakfast looks delicious and has inspired me to try growing cucumbers again. I’m jealous of your finger lime tree. There is a waiting list on them at my nursery, they are that popular!
We would not have an argument at a common breakfast . . . today a thick bought sourdough slice piled high with cottage cheese, cucumber slices, scallion bits and chilli . . . oh, had some beaut black coffee as well . . . LUV that wedding photo !!!
I love the photo of you and Pete at the front of the church. Pete looks very smart in his tails. And you were a stunning traditional bride. I wish you’d taken a photo of that plate of food from Chinatown! How lovely to have such wonderful memories with friends you’re doing life with. I think eating food you’ve produced yourself is not only satisfying but therapeutic xx
giggling at the all-you-can-eat story – pretty sure one of my friends did that once too. Love the wedding photo :)
Lovely post Celia, full of tender moments. Happy anniversary. I will have to look for that variety of cucumber come spring.
Nice wedding photo!
I find that a person who’s not so compliant makes them all the more mysterious ( when young) but when they hit after the age of 40 being compliant truly does help! Hehe…
Lovely wedding photo :) My parents lovely neighbours have been giving them home griwn cucumbers, delicious and crunchy. Happy new year x
Such a lovely wedding photo, Celia. I think laughter and respect is at the heart of long and happy relationships – that, and good hugs. Much the same goes, I guess, for long standing friendships and you’ve got to love a good natured, mad bugger haven’t you. Baby Grace still has the same lovely laughing face doesn’t she. Those balancing toys look as if they could be quite addictive.
Oh O I love how you write like an aussie – crazy bugger.. c
I originally typed “batshit crazy” but edited it out.. ;-)
I’m keen to grow a fingerlime so there’s some tips in this post about thorns and location. Thanks.
Wonderful everyday stories… much better words to live by and inspire that media news and magazine articles :)
Happy anniversary Celia. It’s truly something to celebrate.
I tasted fingerlimes for the first time a couple of years ago – they are so different from the fruit I’m used to. As a citrus addict I couldn’t get enough. How lucky to have them in your garden. Looking forward to seeing your ingenuity in using up all those cucumbers!
What wonderful stories of your life and friendships, Celia. I enjoyed getting to know you better through hearing about your times with friends. Your cucumber bounty is amazing and I’m not familiar with fingerlime. I learn so much from you! I will check out the books, too. :-) And that you and Pete can still keep each other laughing is definitely worth a celebration! xx
naawww… still as cute as ever! x
Many happy more laughs to you and Pete! And ‘stark raving bonkers’ – I think that has all the signs of a strong friend in the making when judiciously selected..
Fantastic post, Celia. Love it when you share photos of your wedding day and it’s good to see that your honeymoon hasn’t waned a bit. Never have heard of fingerlimes although I’d probably have to get to Florida to find anything close. I would never grow one, however, even if the climate was more agreeable. I have enough problems with my roses’ thorns. I’d need a transfusion every time I passed that darn tree. :)
That breakfast Celia! Why don’t I have those ingredients in my kitchen right now??!