early autumn in the garden, and my parents in melbourne (and a bonus mango fig basil smoothie recipe)

For the past couple of weeks my parents have been visiting in Melbourne.

Most of the time, they've been staying with my uncle and aunt, further out in the suburbs, but for a few days they squeezed into my little apartment, all three of us sharing one bedroom.

Was it crowded? Yes. Was it cosy? Wonderfully so.

They have now moved on to their next destination, Sydney, to visit another uncle and aunt, and already I miss them. I look around and see how gleaming clean and neat as a pin my apartment is now, thanks to their hard work and magical touch. My fridge is filled with delicious food. My bedroom is totally spruced up. But it also feels a little empty now. You see, for the past few days I've been getting back to my apartment from work to be greeted with smiles and chatter and home-cooked meals. We would eat together, the three of us, and then hang out in my room, chatting about all sorts of things until it's time for bed...

Gah, I'm getting all sentimental. Let's move on to the pictorial part of this post. While they were staying with my uncle and aunt, I visited and had some really lovely times there, too, and I took quite a few pictures. I've blogged about my uncle and aunt's awesome edible garden before so here's more of that. I guess this is sort of an early autumn edition, though the weather has been rather warm this March so you can definitely still see traces of summer.

So, figs are in season...

freshly picked figs.

And the sweet basil is thriving.

sweet basil / italian basil.

Naturally, this prompted me to make a mango-fig-basil smoothie. I used mangoes from the markets and yoghurt from the shops, and, of course, the figs and basil are courtesy of the garden. Whiz it all with some water and ice, and we're good to go.

(Quick recipe! 1 small-to-medium mango's flesh + 4 figs + 1/4 cup yoghurt + 20 sweet basil leaves + drizzle of honey {optional} + 1 cup water + 6 ice cubes, blend and serve.)

a delicious and refreshing mango fig basil smoothie.

The tomatoes are juicy and sweet.

vibrant cherry tomatoes.

Also, purple French beans are pretty. Tasty, too.

pretty purple beans.

Last but not least, I absolutely adore their cat to bits. He would follow me all around the garden as I did my sight-seeing and herb-picking.

Other times, he just sits on the deck chair, like a boss.

cat awesomeness.

So that's pretty much my month of March so far, in a nutshell.

I hope yours has been just as excellent... feel free to leave a comment letting me know about it!