this week's excuses

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I have written nothing this weekend, but I've some good excuses...

1. really nice weather gave me a chance to launder the pile of bed linen that's built up since the last one - everything's washed and ironed now, so that'll be OK for a few weeks.

2. cheap Seville oranges in the supermarket - I bought a load and have turned them into marmalade... maybe too much, and I may have to give some away.

3. changed the cartridge on my record player - I've been putting this off for weeks as it's a fiddly job, good for another year or so now...

4. I've been watching rugby... it's an ethnic thing, plus it gives me something to talk about to my mother instead of just who's dead in the village, and how much better than me my cousins are doing.

I think that's everything I had to do, so may actually get down to work in the near future :)

Comments

Complaining?

I think not young lady. Now wash your mouth out with soap!

We have not been complaining about what you have written. I keep wondering and asking how you manage it, but to no avail.

If there are any complaints, it's because the complainant can't do better.

NB

If we can't get a story...

If we can't get a chapter, may we have some of the Marmalade, Please?

Just the thing for tea.

Sweettooth Lynn

any particular preference?

I made two batches - one straight orange fine shred, and another 'Oxford' very dark with chunks of peel... and I've still some left of the mandarin and lime I made before Christmas :)

Breakfast's one of the few things in life I take seriously... start off with a pot of Assam (Harmutty's good), then after a bit of a potter, two rounds of toast and marmalade with a pot of something lighter like a Sikkim or Darjeeling... and on weekends there'll be eggs or kippers in the mix.

Of course the getting up early to do all this is one of the things that will condemn me forever to a solitary life... that and ironing bed linen :)

Ironing sheets ...

... is something we gave up doing 30 years ago. Life's too short. On the other hand, our freezer is now well stocked with Seville oranges so that fresh batches of very low sugar content marmalade can brewed throughout the year. We had a minor disaster just after Christmas - I ran out of marmalade and had to resort to toast and home-made damson jam for breakfast. Now A's jam (also low sugar and very tart) is superb but I do prefer the bitter taste of marmalade at the day's start, and she lovingly provides it. I'm a lucky fellow.

My last game of rugby was played in 1955 when I left school and, thankfully, I've not had to have anything more to do with it. I haven't missed it even a tiny bit. The dirty songs were OK, I guess :)

Geoff

Blueberry jam

We have a few U-pick blueberry farms near our house. My wife and I will pick about 30 pounds of blueberries every year. After we have eaten as many fresh blueberries as we can stand, my wife makes blueberry jam, and freezes the rest for daiquiris. I use what is left of last years frozen blueberries and make blueberry wine. We do the same thing with blackberries too, but they're free to pick.

Mr. Ram

I hadn't thought of freezing them

but I do like a twelve month's supply in jars all lined up on the shelf under the stairs :)

Ironed sheets are a luxury I'm prepared to sacrifice a few hours for, though my friends think it's eccentric... it's partly because I like sleeping on ironed sheets and pillow-cases, but also because they fold better when ironed, stacking neatly in the cupboard (I also iron my underwear for the same reason... I'm probably a bit uptight).

Rugby wasn't optional for me; it was the only winter team sport for boys at school, and as my brother-in-law and cousins had full international caps, my brother had schoolboy and youth caps I was expected to play. I wouldn't say I loved it, and I was fairly rubbish... a teenage growth spurt sent me from under five feet to over six in a little less than eighteen months, without putting on any great amount of weight... I never played anything other than second XV in school, too thin for a forward, too slow for a back... our history master started a boy's hockey team in the fourth year so I switched to that, until I finished the sixth form... our rugby mad headmaster had revenge on those of us who switched, by denying us 'representation honours' when we left school (even though some of us had played scores of rugby matches for the school). I played a couple of seasons for the village youth after I left school, but stopped when my then boss said meeting clients, or going to commissioners' court with a black eye sent out the wrong message for a firm of accountants :)

We sang hymns mostly....