summer treasure hunting... a suburban harvest

Hello, everyone. How's your December been so far?

Mine's been busy, in a mixed-up sort of way. Work's been hectic. My parents are visiting.

The former is not so great. The latter is pretty freakin' awesome.

My parents have been staying at my uncle and aunt's place out in the southeastern suburbs, and on the weekend, I hopped on a tram so I could join them for a couple of days.

It's like a different world out there.

I'm used to my little apartment, and the hustle and bustle of inner city life. Whenever I visit my uncle and aunt, however, I'm transported to a quiet neighbourhood. Laid-back. Spacious. Peaceful.

And there's a garden. Oh yes. I do so miss having a garden, and my aunt has got a rather fabulous one. Forget about flowers... this garden is full of food. Just the way I like it.

Friday morning, I languidly wander off to the patio deck, walk down the stairs, and lo and behold, there's lettuce, so bright and verdant. We enjoyed those gorgeous lettuce leaves in a salad that very night.

Lettuce, you're looking good.

And just next to the leafy lettuce, the green beans sway, looking nice and crunchy.

Green beans, you're not too shabby, either.

I get distracted and wander off to another corner. Here we have tomato plants, and they're coming along nicely. Most of them are still green, but I spied this reddish beauty. I hope to sample one soon!

Oh tomato, you'll be mine one day.

There's also a tiny capsicum plant with tiny green capsicums. Very cute.

Baby capsicums, I look forward to you flourishing into handsome young men.

Mum and Dad have been raving about the zucchinis from the garden. I soon found the zucchini fruits, complete with zucchini flowers, growing out from the base of the plants!

Ah, zucchini, you're such a tease.

At this point Dad enthusiastically comes over and leads me off to the potato plants. "Let's see if we can dig up some potatoes!"

And so we did.

One of them had already sprouted, so we re-planted it.

Diddly dee, potatoes!

Then, together, we discovered these green-and-purple chillies.

I'd like to get to know you better, pretty chillies.

And not too far away, the strawberry plants, sitting pretty in a rectangular box of soil, where I found this young strawberry, blushing a pale pink.

You're destined for great things, my little strawberry. Yes you are.

Saturday afternoon, my aunt picks a few of the ripened strawberries. They look small and awkward; the colours are fairly subdued. But the taste... oh my. I can't remember the last time I had such perfectly sweet strawberries. They are beautiful, and I am so in love.

A strawberry in the hand is worth two in the bush...

And that's not all... but I think I'll leave the rest for another day! I'm sorry if the writing in this post seems a little choppy and unhinged - I put it together in a hurry. Hopefully the pictorial tour of the lovely produce makes up for it - and if you like what you see, I'll be back with more!