Error in earlier marmalade recipe

Having just made batch number two, I realise I should never rely on reciting recipes from memory. There's a fatal flaw in my marmalade recipe, and I've corrected it in bold and italics. If you've downloaded the original, please check and download the changed version or your marmalade won't work. I'm really sorry - it wasn't a deliberate attempt to hide the secret in family recipe or anything. I think I must have had a dose of the Dufus at the time!

Batch number two...

...of this year's marmalade is underway. The oranges are simmering at the moment. I'm upstairs typing and the smell is all throughout the house, rising up the stairs. Oh yum.

Now the skies are clear again...

... we went for an early morning cycle before breakfast this morning. The sun is rising earlier now and it's light by 6am, so we were out on the bikes at about 6.30.

Not far from our house is a field with a couple of ponies in it. Being a horsey person from long ago I often stop for a chat and today was able to give them a couple of apples. The owners don't seem to mind them getting treats, and I'm mindful to only give them things that are good for them. So many people feed horses fresh bread and that's NOT good - it's an invitation to colic. Old, dry bread is OK though. Anyway, I digress.

I took Penelope for my ride this morning and I think that was probably a mistake. My body was low on fuel and I found the last half a kilometre quite hard going. I'll experiment tomorrow or the next day and take Petunia for a pre-breakfast ride instead.

Red sky in morning, er....dust storm!

We had our storm last night, thunder, lightning and rain. And wind. There have been strong winds all over NSW, blowing dust from the red centre to the coast. I woke at 5.30 this morning to run a breakfast meeting and the light outside was apocalyptic - a curious, otherworldly orange. The sun was rising but you couldn't see it, the dust was so thick. After my shower I took this first pic at 6am. The second photo was taken at the golf course where my breakfast was being held. This was around 7am and there was still a strange dusty tint to the air.

It's worrying for anyone with asthma or other breathing difficulties. Even inside our house with the windows shut you can still taste dust. It's 11.15am now and the wind is still blowing steadily, swirling the red dust around our city skies. The sun is a faint white disc trying bravely to shine though the amazing haze.

My car, which is usually white with a dusting of leaves and a cobweb on the left hand wing mirror, has been restyled in orange.

One of my friends just rang me to tell me a guy down her street was hosing his car off. In the middle of the dust storm. I ask you -!!! What kind of idiots are there out there? Firstly we have water restrictions here that don't allow you to wash your car with a hose between the hours of 10 am and 4pm, secondly it's only going to get filthy again - even filthier in fact as the dust will stick to the wet car. And she said another guy was hosing the dust from the tiles on his roof. Some people have no sense of the environment. Some people have no sense!

The speedy approach of summer

Every year we get a hot few days some time in September, as if nature is teasing us and reminding us that a stinking hot summer is on the way. Today is one of those days. It's in the high 20s if not 30 degrees here at the moment, with a warm north west wind (in a normal world it would be in the low twenties). This is the kind of day that ends in a storm before or at sunset. My mother has a theory about such days - they are sent to destroy her magnificent azalea display. Her azaleas are looking just lovely at the moment, a riot of pale pinks, purples, and variegated pink and white. One particular pale pink one has a scent to die for, and it's planted near her front door so the smell wafts inside. We always joke about the wind and rain ravaging them when they're at their best.

Pic shows Penelope with the scented azalea - this bush is about 2metres/6 feet tall and wide.

This week in Spring...

We had a super little storm last night - pounding rain for about ten minutes, then lighter rain on and off for the next hour. It freshened up the garden and this morning everything looks freshly washed and happily hydrated. Some of this week's treats are:

Above, my Tomgirl ivy-leafed pelargonium. I have two of these in hanging baskets and they are loving the early spring sunshine; they're covered in buds.

Arab's Eye/Black Eyed Susan. I put these bulbs in three years ago. The first year I was rewarded with dozens of flowers and the last couple of years they haven't given me a single one but simply drooped to the ground. This might be the only flower I get this year so I recorded it for posterity.

Sweet peas, just coming into bloom. Behind them the red flowers are pineapple sage/salvia, with a bank of white daisies to the left.

Dutch iris.

Viburnum Anne Russell. Heavenly scent. Unfortunately only one lot of flowers this year on this young plant. My helpful cats, always keen to lend a paw or tooth, chewed off any other buds. Little horrors!

Primrose. This is called Sundance I think. Sweet little flowers... you can see how small they are by comparing them to the flat leafed parsley leaf top left in the pic.

Native jobby.... not sure of its name. Beautiful French Lavender behind it.

New Season's Asparagus

Oh joy! Oh bliss! The first of this season's asparagus was in the grocer's today. Realistically asparagus, along with all other fruits and veggies, is available all year round these days at the cost to your palate and the vegetable's own carbon footprint.(Peruvian asparagus has been on the shelves for ages.) But I like to eat and cook with local seasonal produce whenever practicable. So on the menu tonight is the first bunch of this year's asparagus. Some of the spears are a bit thin and will I think be a little stringy and tough - but as I haven't had asparagus in months I don't care.

Accompanying it will be butterfly pork steaks, done on the griddle and served with a little Char Siu sauce, and a French dish which includes aubergine, eschallots, mushroom, parsley and pan-fried breadcrumbs. Mmm.