Back tracking a few months as my beekeeping updates are a little behind. March began with swarm season in fully swing and a month that left me at times, feeling somewhat bewildered. Wondering if the swarm retrieved had the original queen or, virgin queen mentioned in the Bee’s and February post. What about the original hive? After a hive swarms, the remaining bees must have a new queen and lead her out on a successful mating flight in order to survive. Continue reading “Bees and March”
Tag: nature
Postcards from Melbourne
Mission accomplished and hubby has completed his goal, with his first Ironman championship, swimming for 3.8km, cycling for 180km and running for 42km… what a feat! One of our local newspaper (Gulf Daily News) featured him as “Bahrain’s Fittest 51-year-old !” Definitely a grueling challenge and I was both happy and relieved to see him finally cross the finish line to become an Ironman, 12 hours, 37 minutes and 17 seconds later. I guess the Oat Porridge with Coconut Milk and Avocado Smoothies might have had something to do with it all.
In preparation for the Ironman and on the day of the race day we spent some time in Frankston (race start) and St. Kilda (race finish), a lively seaside town overlooking Port Phillip Bay, a very beautiful area. While in Frankston saw some pretty amazing sand sculptures, certainly taking sandcastle making with the good old bucket and spade to another level.
the lemon tree
Gardening in Bahrain definitely poses some great challenges and if you are “no expert” like me, then gardening can become quite exhausting at times! However, I do try my hand at keeping a few edibles in the garden such as herbs, lemons, limes (still waiting), dates, lemongrass and some baby tomatoes.
What I absolutely love about gardening and especially this time of year, is witnessing the first stages of growth… then watching that new beginning transform into an edible culinary ingredient that has endless possibilities both in cooking and baking!
Two years ago I planted a lemon tree (which was quite big to begin with) into a very large pot and was very excited at the prospect of growing my own organic lemons! Sigh… last year I ended up with about five lemons! It was quite a painful sight, seeing lots of new buds (potential lemons) fall to the ground and realize that my efforts of successfully growing lemons was not to be! So now you know that this post is not going to be about “how to grow lemons”… but a glimpse into the new beginnings within the garden that sometimes we fail to notice as our busy lives consume our every waking hour. This year I am feeling more hopeful with each new stage of growth on my lemon tree! So take a moment, marvel and appreciate the life of a lemon…
Buds
The amount of buds growing on the lemon tree will determine the volume of fruit it produces… if of course they don’t fall… like mine did last year! Apparently you need to underwater at this stage.
Flowers
The buds of the lemon tree blossom and the flowers exude an intoxicating soft lemony perfume that fills the surrounding air…and what an amazing scent it is!
Ripening Fruit
The flower is in bloom and peeking out from its center is the developing lemon!
Lemons need plenty of water at this stage of growth so the fruit becomes full and juicy.
This was one of last years lemons which seemed to take so long to ripen… !
My quest to successfully grow lemons will continue! In the mean time, if anyone out there in cyber space is an expert on the subject of citrus trees I would love your advice!
You might like to try some recipes using lemons. Click on image for recipes!
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