Behold marmalade

And here's the first batch for the year. We've tried it and it's absolutely delicious.

My mum gave me another batch-worth of empty jars today so I'll have to return them to her all filled up. While my husband, when on form, can go through a 250ml jar a fortnight, I hope I'll have enough altogether to last us for a year and enable us to supply our family and friends with some orangey delight as well. This year we ran out two months ahead of schedule. I had no idea of my husband's capacity for home-made marmalade - it's twice the capacity for shop bought!!

Sometimes you just gotta do a POETS day...*

Today was the blissful kind of spring day when the air smells of floral scents and the sun on your back actually has a wee bit of warmth in it. Not a hugely blissful day for me to begin with, I'm having a bit of a health scare at the moment and went to see my doctor this morning. Results of tests on Monday so a nervous weekend for me.

To cheer me up my lovely husband, who drove me to the doctor's in case my mind wasn't wholly on the road and traffic, suggested we head out for lunch afterwards. As the doc was running an hour behind schedule and we were both famished by then, I thought it a fantastic idea so we spent two happy hours at a delightful pub in the pseudo-countryside ten minutes' drive from home.

It was almost four by the time we got home - time for a cuppa and realistically not much incentive to get back to work. So we didn't. I did a cursory check of my email, returned some phone calls and headed out into the back garden with my husband, the dog and the cats, watching storm clouds gather. (No day this warm this time of year is complete without some kind of meteorological change.) Picked some lavender to dry for the underwear drawers, pruned a salvia, and tried very hard not to think about test results and the implications if they aren't good.

The weekend is a continuation of this idyllic sunshine so I'll be making marmalade and riding my bike. We haven't decided which bike tracks we'll take this weekend. We've done Homebush Bay and Olympic Park the last two weekend rides and I'm happy to do them again as it's lovely cycling by the river. It'll take my my mind off Monday morning, which is a good thing. Fat lot of sleep I've had this week!

* POETS day: P*ss Off Early, Tomorrow's Saturday

Marmalade in the raw

No, the title isn't what you think. Get rid of those smutty images of unclad people smeared with marmalade!

Today I got my year's supply of Seville Oranges from a lovely lady who lets people pick from her tree once she's taken all the oranges she needs for her own marmalade. She doesn't ask for payment and is happy to help others. She also has a couple of really lovely Siamese cats, but as it was raining today, and Siamese will be Siamese, they had elected to sleep in the comfort of indoors rather than 'help' me pick oranges as they did last year.

So this weekend the business of making marmalade will begin. I have enough oranges for about five batches I think. Making a batch takes you at least half a day although you can do other things while the oranges are simmering for two hours.

If I am very, very lucky this haul of flavoursome fruit will last my husband most of the next twelve months. He was reasonably greedy with last year's batch and had licked the spoon clean on the last bottle by June. He's Marmalade Man. He's been eating it since he was a wee bairn in Scotland. I love my marmalade too but not to the extent he does.

For me a lot of the pleasure comes from making it rather than eating it. There's something old-fashioned and delightful about making preserves. And the home-made variety leave the supermarket stock in the shade when it comes to taste.

Roll on weekend!

Ahh, spring!

Spring started here officially yesterday. Australia is practical like that - start your seasons on the first of the month regardless of the solstice. Spring really does seem to start at the end of August, particularly where I live. Over the last week green shoots have started to appear on just about everything, the daffodils are out, the jonquils have almost finished, the sweet peas are in full bloom. Golden wattle (a blessing if you love the look and scent, a curse if you get hay fever) is brightening up the local parks. And best of all anyone who grows jasmine is delightfully responsible for filling the air with perfume. Here's ours out the front, looking towards our front door.

And a few more around the front... jonquils, and our new and sparkling hanging baskets with the pelargonium Tomgirl. I love this deep red, it's crimson gone to the dark side.

I've enjoyed my rides the last few days even more than usual with the heady scents of early spring emanating from peoples' gardens. One guy up the road has his entire front fence covered in jasmine, and you can smell it several doors away.

The ponies in the little field a few blocks away are starting to shed their shaggy winter coats, and are enjoying the lush new green growth.

Hibernating winter gardeners (not that we have a particularly cold winter here) have been busy with the compost and fertiliser, and the less attractive scent of chicken shit mingles with the florals.

This is the perfect time of year to do stuff outdoors. In summer the heat and humidity is punishing, but right now it's a pleasure getting out and pedalling after lunch. The warm sun on our backs, the air still cool enough to stop us overheating.

Life just doesn't get any better than early spring.

Charley the Catburglar

Sharing a house with two blue-eyed mischievous cats provides us with a daily giggle. They're always up to something daft, evil or funny. Charley is one for choosing his own toys - which are items that were not designed with that purpose. As an adolescent he nicked a furry koala that is supposed to grip onto your bookshelves or act as a page marker or something. I had it high up on my bookshelf. Then it was on the floor. Then he was chucking it around. Two years later he still chucks it around but there's not much left of it.

At Mum's house he has a thing for clothespegs. When the animals stay with her, when Greg and I go away, she finds clothespegs in the living room and kitchen, or catches him in the act of ferrying them about. Unrepetant, he gives her a "What?" stare. It's not that he and Annabel (and Rosie the dog) are shortchanged on toys. They have dozens between them. Annabel scorns them all and plays with sweet wrappers.

Now Monsieur has decided he wants the clothes brush for his very own. It lives on the top shelf of our walk-in robe, and three times in the last week I've found it on the floor in the morning. On Sunday I found it downstairs hidden under a seat, tucked away next to my footstool (which he also covets and pushes into his favourite hiding place under cover of darkness). Yesterday I heard a thumping in the robe and there he was, picking up the handle in his mouth and pushing it towards the edge of the shelf before dropping it. He's doing it again now. We could find a different hiding place for it but then I suspect we'd BOTH forget where it was....until Charley found it again for us.

How can you put on 2kg overnight???

I'm trying to lose weight. Erm, I'm ALWAYS trying to lose weight! The last couple of weeks I've ridden the bike more, and tried very hard to resist temptations. Few biscuits have passed my lips. I weighed myself yesterday morning and was pleasantly surprised to find I was 2kg lighter than last Tuesday.

But last night we went to the House of Diet Doom. Friends invited us over and for whatever reason I'm always a kg heavier after having dinner at their place. Perhaps it's because they serve it rather late and put crisps on the table to tide everyone over until dinner is ready. I can't resist crisps. I wish they'd put salt and vinegar crisps out as I hate salt and vinegar. So crisps, home made lasagne, then a little ice cream with berries. Thank God for the green salad. I think I was the only one who ate some though.

So I weighed myself this morning. 2kg heavier.That's seriously annoying as I had quite an active day yesterday, helping a friend at a trade show, doing grocery shopping etc.

2kg. Some birthday present :-(.

I've gone bike mad

Last year I picked up a lovely 25 year old Centurion Accordo mixte frame road bike on eBay. I hadn't ridden for years, and the last time I had was on my just-as-old mountain bike. I had the road bike a few days before swapping the saddle for a gel one and changing the handlebars to sit up and beg. I don't have the best sense of balance, and the drop handlebars terrified me, especially turning corners going down hills.

Since then I've been out on my bike, which I've named Petunia, every week. I ride her to the shops with baskets front and back if I don't have to grab a big load of groceries. I go for half hour rides along a super bike track for a bit of exercise, and now my husband has a road bike too we load the bikes on the car and head for the country or somewhere like Olympic Park with 35km of bike tracks.

It's brilliant. I love it. I've now swapped the tacky rubber handlebar grips for Brooks leather ones, and my husband is buying me a Brooks saddle for my birthday. The gel saddle can go on the MTB to replace the existing ancient one and I'll sell the MTB on eBay I think. I'm unlikely to ride it again.

I bought a lovely new oldstyle bullet light for Petunia but the blasted thing won't fit 'cos of the front basket, which is really annoying. I need the basket though. So I'm doodling away on designs for attaching it to the basket instead. Could, I suppose, mount it on the SIDE of the forks rather than under the basket where it won't fit? Note to self: fiddle with that.

But now I've found something I really really really really want. This. I've been trying to turn my bike into something old-fashioned, but when I saw this bike my heart somersaulted. I want it. I'm saving up for it now. While I love Petunia, she's rough and ready, the gears do change by themselves despite regular servicing, and while I adore her for her vintage bike charm, I'd love to have this Rolls Royce of a Velorbis Victoria as well. Not that I'd be riding it to the shops. Around here someone would take chain cutters to the locks and make off with it. So Petunia would still be my shopping ride. You might say there are cheaper bikes around that look a bit old-fashioned, any kind of cruiser would do, but I know myself and know I won't be happy with something cheaper, especially once I've had a test ride of the Velorbis which I plan to in the next couple of weeks. I want a bike that will last me the rest of my life. The Velorbis ticks every box. I researched the Pashley Princess too, but it's only available with 5 gears and I live in a hilly area, and it's several kilos heavier than the Velorbis. See the bit about the hilly area again.

I've started to obsess about bikes. I try and find time every day to nick out on mine even if it's only for ten minutes to the shops. It's healthy. It's getting me fitter and heaven knows I need that, I'm far from fit at the moment. This can only be a good obsession, right? Right? :-)