Snow and Marmalade

After a weekend living in a winter wonderland of whiteness – which I love – the snow is beginning to go, albeit ever so slowly.    We did not get to go out in the snow so I have only the few photographs I took in the back garden.     I love the garden covered in snow – it loses its usual wintery tattiness and looks smart enough to be the country garden of a stately home instead of a lowly ‘cottage in the lane’.

Waiting for summer

I spotted this red-legged partridge in the garden scavenging for left-overs under the bird feeders.  A rare winter visitor to our garden.  

Last week I made a start on the yearly ritual of marmalade making.   Half way through I have made 10 pots and will make another 10 this week.   We do eat a lot of marmalade in this house, and I love to make extra for family and friends.   Each batch takes me a morning to make – and I do cheat as I chop half the fruit in my food processor, the rest being cut into the usual thin slices.   Then I cook the fruit with the addition of water in the pressure cooker for fifteen minutes.   After bringing back to room pressure the sugar is added and then boiled until setting point is reached – probably about 20 minutes.     We like a dark marmalade, so I add a tablespoon of black treacle with the sugar.  This gives the dark colour and I think a bit of a ‘tang’ to the orangeiness.

I’ve been keeping up with the multi coloured granny square blanket.  I am enjoying it and it is easy and quick.  Last evening I spent darning in ends.   At the same time I am making another pair of wrist warmers in navy blue, but I think I might run out of yarn and have to undo them.    That’s OK – I don’t mind and if I find I am just a tad short I will undo them and make them a couple of rows shorter.

With all the snow about I am finding it a bit difficult to find much to put in it, at least anything that is different to what has been in it so far this year.     At lunchtime I picked more Viburnum – I think this is Eve Price – some more Garya Elliptica and some gold  Euonymus.  Not a very bright combination, but that is all there is just now.  I must make a note to myself to get more winter flowering plants for next year.