hello summertime

Today's page is brought to you by summer time - freshly picked from the tree just this morning!

The boy and I dined on fresh mangoes at lunchtime - not quite ripe, truth be told, but delicious non-the-less.  There is nothing quite as summer as a perfectly ripe mango.  For me, it has to be not too soft, probably on the greener side of ripe - firm, and juicy.

Luckily for me, and my mango loving family, we have two Bowen Mango Trees in our yard.  And as much as I curse their messy leaf dropping behaviour, I wouldn't get rid of them for all of the tea in China.  There is many a visitor that looks longingly and hopefully at our fruit laden trees, but between the my husband and I, the kids, critters and close family who just help 'emselves, there aren't a lot of leftovers!

Mind you, my mother insists on making mango chutney, as delicious as it is, with our green Bowen mangoes, when everyone knows that common mangoes make better chutney (and in using my green mangoes,  it means there is less for us to eat and at the height of the glut, slice up and freeze!)

A quick page I thought of whilst slurping on my mango at lunch time: 

and the journaling so you don't strain your eyes:

Picture of the unpicked fruit from my tree, the sliced mango from the net, as I didn't have any others to slice up just yet.  They aren't quite ripe yet, although I am planning a bit more of a harvest this arvo to beat the wretched parrots to them.  I swear those birds can smell a ripe mango from twenty miles away!

Haven't printed this page out yet, but will do so when I get chance in the next few days.

And ending on sombre note:  thoughts and prayers for those poor families on the west coast of New Zealand that have been told there are not likely to be any survivors after a second explosion in the Pike River Coal Mine, where 29 men have been trapped for the past 6 days. (who knows if they survived the initial explosion. Somehow, I doubt it...it would be too good to be true to have a second miraculous rescue after the Chilean episode). Very sad.