Spring is continuing to bloom here and I was so pleased when my neighbor’s wisteria vine extended itself along my back fence.

I watched and waited, hoping to get some flowers, and lo! it produced several lovely branches of flowers.

I was delighted. So pretty and with a delicate fragrance. 

I took this photo — and just as well I did, because overnight the possums found it and devoured every single flower!

Oh well, at least I was able to enjoy it for a short time. There’s still one dangling flower cluster in the lemon tree, and I expect the possums will find it and then go on to eat the lemon rinds.

I can’t really blame them — We’ve taken over their habitat so it’s fair enough that they eat what they can of our gardens. 

My lemon tree is laden with fruit and I’ve been using lemons as often as I can. I love them. I’ve also given quite a few to friends.

The other night I had guests for dinner and I made a lemon tart, which was very yummy. I served it with home-made blueberry sauce and ice cream. 

I forgot to take a photo of it. And though there was still quite a large piece left, when a friend dropped around the following day, we each had a slice for afternoon tea, and she took the rest home to feed to her husband and son.

I’ve squeezed a few and frozen the juice, as I like it when I have just a glass of water. I’ve also frozen some slices of lemon, as they look pretty in drinks, as well as adding a nice freshness.

I’ve made several dishes — a curry and a chicken casserole — that used lemon juice and zest of lemon (the peel) in them. And I’ll probably make osso buco soon which I always top with gremolata, which is a mix of lemon zest and finely chipped parsley and garlic, served raw — just mixed together. It’s delicious and only takes a few minutes to make. In fact I make gremolata to go with a lot of stew-type dishes but it’s also yummy with fish dishes. You can read more about it here.

I’m using them as fast as I can because it won’t be long before the possums sniff them out. Last year they nibbled off the entire peel of the lemons, leaving the fruit hanging on the tree, naked. You can read about it here.

I also like making lemon drizzle cake. There are heaps of recipes around, but since I have a gluten intolerant friend visiting soon, I’ll probably make the cake from this recipe. Almond meal (which is just ground almonds) makes a surprisingly moist cake. Alternatively I might try this recipe, which looks delicious and is also gluten-free. I made limoncello last year so I can use that, too.

What’s your favorite thing to do with lemons?

Autumn leaves are pretty special here — our native vegetation is often very beautiful, but the plants that have leaves that turn gold or orange or scarlet are almost invariably exotics, imported from the northern hemisphere. So when I spot some spectacular autumn display it’s a treat.

I spotted this in a neighbor’s front yard coming home the other afternoon. The sun was shining through the last few autumn leaves of this tree and they were lit up gorgeously, as you can see.

I drove on past, then stopped, backed up, and got out to take a few photos.

Two days later and we had rain and storms, and last time I passed it, there was just one golden leaf, hanging valiantly on. I didn’t stop to take a photo as the rain was pelting down and I was a wimp. <g>

I really miss the glorious Virginia Creeper in my old garden — one whole fence was covered in glory every autumn — but not only have I moved, the entire  back yard has been bulldozed down to mud, and the creeper, and all my other lovely plants have been replaced by bricks. All that remains of that garden are my photos.