Pauline noted that ‘every garden needs a bit of mystery’ but for now I’m happy to have this one solved. I posted this photo last week, and asked for help identifying it. Extensive Google searches were no help.
Mystery flower
Three cheers for my blogging community! Cathy of Words and Herbs thought it might be ‘Nigella.’ Anne of Anne Lawson suggested ‘love-in-a-mist.’ They’re both right.
These wonderful, self seeded flowers are Nigella damascena – Love-in-a-Mist. Thank you both.
Nigella damascena in bloom and going to seed
Buds and Blooms
California Avocado Cupcakes
Over the weekend I sampled a delicious avocado cupcake at Sunset Celebration Weekend. I meant to share it with you yesterday. The cupcake and the frosting both contain avocados as a healthy fat alternative. You can download the recipe at the California Avocado Commission. Please let me know if you give them a try.
Gardening Nirvana 
As soon as I saw the photo of the whole plant it looked familiar – but still had no idea what it was called. Now I remember, it used to grow in my favourite aunt’s cottage garden. How wonderful that it self seeded from some other garden and decided to live in yours 🙂
I made a great chocolate mousse using just avocados and cacao – and a fudge affair a few months back using cacao, avocado and various nuts. You can have a lovely treat and zero added sugar and chemicals – and no wheat either 🙂 🙂
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Aren’t they lovely Alys! Try chewing a few seeds… they taste really peppery! 😉
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Oh how interesting. I must give that a try.
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Recipe printed! Look forward to trying it out
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Yeah!
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Oh yes, now I see. Good eye Anne! I Googled and see they also come in white and pink mix. That’s fun too. I linked to the cupcakes, interesting variation with the avocado. Iced things luckily aren’t too appealing to me. The whole cupcake craze befuddles me. I could never eat anything with 2 inches of icing on it, yet they seem to be very popular. But offer me a shortbread or gingersnap cookie and I’m all over it like a hungry shark. xoxo
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Mmmmm…shortbread….Oh yes.
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What a community! And of course, what beautiful blossoms. I hope they stick around for some long lasting happiness.
And I can’t wait to try the cupcake recipe. I’m always on the lookout for ways to put avocado into just about everything. YUM
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If you give it a try, please report back. The samples were delicious.
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Really like the name of the flowers. “Love in the Mist” Sounds like something I must plant in my garden. 🙂 (Note the optimism.)
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Optimism is, well, optimistic. Go forth and think optimistically, Marlene.
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