I adore watermelons.
Actually I adore all melons but watermelons have a significant memory attached. When I was a child, we spent 3 weeks of the summer caravanning around Europe. My birthday is in the summer and when it came to picking a cake, I wasn’t too enamoured by my choices!! I then spotted a wagon overflowing with freshly picked watermelons….I pointed, would I be able to have that as my cake instead? that tradition was maintained year after year, which was tricky when N.I. wasnt as fancy with the whole range of fruit and veg. But every year i got melon as my birthday cake 😀 on my 18th I had a melon fruit basket, a bit like this….
When I got engaged, apart from my dad expecting my “husband to be” to provide for me, he was also told that he was to maintain the watermelon tradition…..he’s never forgotten, ever 😀 Each year when my parents phone to sing happy birthday they always ask “well?” and I always grin whilst answering, “melon boat for breakfast”
This year as part of our holidays we were at a friends in the country that was just before my birthday, my husband bought 4 melons; 3 were sliced and shared around the 30 strong group and renditions of happy birthday sang, the 4th saved for my actual birthday.
Last night, I decided to use the last of the melon and make watermelon vodka slushies…….which i thought was very versatile of me 😀 I also had non-alcoholic melon smoothie for breakfast this a.m. T’was awesomesauce both ways. With the melon having a high water content already I only needed to add a lil juice in the machine with all the melon pulp. one quick whizz later it was ready for drinking. 😀
That got me to thinking….I’m sure there are more versatile things inspired by melons. So I checked and these images inspired me. I will be attempting all of them. At least if I fail it’ll be fun eating the mess and starting again…. and the nails, might just get dazedandbeautiful.wordpress.com to do them for me 😀 I love the carved melon, there were many carvings and inspired ideas to make….like pumpkins at halloween there are some very creative people out there. It’s something I’ve not attempted as yet, but it fascinates me enough that I really wanna try it out…..
IDEAS
I hope you’ve enjoyed my tale and are inspired to get fruity. Melons were my inspiration, but it triggered thoughts re all fruits. What a fabulous way to get your 5 a day. I think I should blog a few recipes next….non alcoholic and alcoholic fruity concoctions…. what say ye??
