Too pretty to eat.

Last Saturday was one of those wonderful Autumn days that Melbourne is very good at. The man of the house and I decided to drive up and visit our beautiful Dandenong Ranges. We're lucky we only live a half-an-hour away. What a perfect place to enjoy the season, all those tall, tall eucalypts and splashes here and there of European deciduous trees in the throes of changing colour from green to all sorts of reds and golds.
We found a spot where a chestnut tree had dropped part of its crop and couldn't resist collecting a few handfuls.
Now I know that there are many places in the world where chestnuts are 'old hat' but they're not native to Australia and this born-and-bred Aussie was in her thirties before ever encountering one. I gotta tell you I'm hooked. I just love chestnuts. They're such mean little characters though, and don't give up their bounty easily. Anyway, after much pricking of fingers we managed to harvest some. Man-of-house who was born and raised in England deftly de-husks them by standing on the prickly casing with one foot and teasing it apart with the other. Voila! A lovely feast for the eyes as well as for the tum. I can't imagine peeling enough to stuff a turkey though. What a job.
Bye for now, until next time.