Month: February 2026

When your garden gives you lemons

Picture of a lemon tree with lots of lemons.
Happy lemon tree

Our lemon tree is very happy this year. We were lucky enough to have a Meyer lemon tree in every single garden we called home in the Bay Area. And no, we did not pick houses based on the garden plants. In fact lots of houses in this area seem to have lemon trees.
It has lemons almost the whole year but January-March is really peak season so I have been busy the last couple of weeks to make some good use of these lemons.

Picture of on a white kitchen counter.
Pretty lemons

So far I made Meyer Lemon Marmalade, lemon curd and lemon bars. I have also made Ginger Cardamon Meyer Lemon Crinkle Cookies and Lemon Sorbet before and of course lemonade. My favorite is the marmalade recipe. I have a handwritten version of it that was given to me by the previous owner of our house. It has all her notes and I thought it was really sweet of her and special. Every time I make the recipe now, it reminds me of her. I most like to eat it with yogurt or on toast or rolls with cream cheese. So good!

Someone holding a scone with a dollop of lemon curd, next to a glass of lemon curd with a spoon inside.
Lemon curd goodness

Even though I probably used 50 lemons so far, it does not seem to have made a big dent in the yellow lemons on the tree. I already gave some away, too. It just keeps on giving.

Which recipe would be your favorite and do you have any more suggestions for recipes?

Fresh F.I.G.s – Week 1

I hung up my template for the F.I.G. collective next to my work desk, because I figured that way I will not forget about it. F.I.G. stands for finding joy in gratitude. If you want to know more about how this works, head over to Elisabeth’s blog where she explains it all.

We are already half way through week 2 for this week 1 recap, but later late than never I say. So here we go.

February 1 – I re-potted most of my indoor plants and now they have space to grow again. Everything about the process made me happy: having sunny weather to do it outside, smelling the fresh dirt, choosing new pots where necessary, watering the plants after, finding them new spots in the living room.

February 2 – I got a surprise gift today. My colleague cam back from visiting her family in Egypt and she gave me this really awesome canvas bag with a palm applique on it. She has a similar bag I kept admiring so she got one for me. I do have the best colleagues.

February 3 – I was taking the bus home today and it arrived at the stop just as I arrived, too. This usually never happens. Either the bus is late, or it’s early and then I am too late, or it is already full and it does not take any new passengers. So this was really nice.

February 4 – My son fell asleep during German class. So you would think that is nothing to be grateful for, right? It’s not, but I am grateful that he told me even though he knew I would not be happy about it. German class starts at 6:30pm in the evening and he does not like it much anyway so I can kind of understand. But that he was so honest about it really made my day.

February 5 – The feeling of my body being all tired out after gym class.

February 6 – I took my bike to get to work today and the weather was lovely and the breeze on my face was the best. There were birds singing and it smelled like spring.

February 7 – I planted some new plants in my front yard. First I got to pick them out at the nursery and then I got to plant them. I am not a big planner when it comes to gardening. I often just go see what they have, research on the fly and see what works.