Marmalade

I posted a couple of weeks ago about making this year's first batch of marmalade - I have now worked my way through all 8lbs (or so) of oranges, and have an impressive-looking stock of jars full of marmalade, like bottled sunshine.

A chance thought as I was enjoying a glass of gin and tonic led me to ponder the possibility of using other kinds of citrus fruit, limes in particular. 

Which resulted in me making 2 small batches of lime marmalade, one lime with Gin and Tonic, and the other Mojito - lime with fresh mint and rum.

I think they worked out reasonably well. 

Marmalade harvest

I have, I think, ended up with a little more than 15lbs of orange marmalade, and around a pound of each variety of lime marmalade. I shall not, of course, be eating it all myself, but will be giving or sending jars to various friends and family members (postage charges permitting) 

I may also use some in baking - chocolate and orange cupcakes,perhaps. . .

A trip to London

The full-on Hamlet post will be coming a little later, this one is about the rest of my London trip.

I arrived around mid-day, and checked into our hotel, near the Barbican, and met with my sister. 

We had plenty of time before the highlight of the trip, so we decided to go and visit the Geffrye Museum, which is based in a former almshouse and is a museum of the home.

Outside there are trees and benches and grass.

Inside, there is a little chapel, and a series of galleries with rooms, furnished as a main living room or parlour would have been furnished, in various different periods, starting in the early 17th Century and continuing up to the 1990s.

There are, unsurprisingly, more rooms for the 20th Century than for earlier periods, but all are interesting. 

After having lunch in the museum's cafe and  going through the galleries, we went out to the back of the museum where there are gardens, which are again arranged to reflect tastes of of different periods, together with a separate walled garden featuring bee-friendly plants, plants for dyes, medicinal plants, and edible herbs/plants. 

And the museum also has a number of (very clean and bright!)beehives (wisely, these are beyond a flowerbed with clear 'no access' signs!)

It is not a large museum, but it is an interesting one to visit, and I am glad we went.

Afterwards, we walked back to our hotel to freshen up and change, then went to the Barbican where we were able to meet up on the 'lakeside terrace' with one of our group, for a quick drink and  lots of chat. 

After this, we headed up to the 'Gin Joint' restaurant. This has (as the name suggests) an extensive list of gins available, and a very impressive cocktail menu which is would have been churlish to ignore.

We each indulged. Of course we did, how could we not?  

Mine was a 'Bermondsey Orchard' which featured rhubarb liqueur, apple and sage and egg white (and gin, obviously). 

Others in our group tried the 'Fort Fiesta' (which included pink gin and grapefruit) and a 'misty French' which involved lemon and champagne (and gin)...


They were all very nice. As was the meal which followed, although  it was a little alarming that all of the staff disappeared when we were trying to pay our bill. Given that this is a restaurant in a theatre, advertising  pre-theatre menu, and not particularly busy, to make it so difficult to pay, at a point 10 minutes before the evening's performance is due to start, is a bit of a failing!


Happily, however, we all made it into the the theatre and into our seats before the doors were closed!

Sadly, two of our original group were not able to join us, both due to family illness. We had one substitution, and returned the other ticket which was duly re-sold. I hope the young woman who bought it enjoyed her evening! 

Catch Up

I've not blogged for the past couple of weeks partly as nothing very exciting has happened, and partly as my laptop has been poorly, and life is too short to try to blog from a phone!

My backspace key came off, and the tab key became extremely stiff and unreliable, so I decided that replacing the keyboard, rather than just the one key, was the way to go.

and then as I waited for the local repair shop to get the new keyboard in, I managed to spill a glass of G'n'T, and while I didn't, at the time, think any of it had gone onto the laptop, other than (literally) a drop or two on the casing, the laptop then intermittently  refused to start up which seems a bit of a coincidence.

Anyway, I took the battery out, and left everything in the airing cupboard for a few days. I thought it was completely dead, and was comforting myself with the reflection that I'd just backed everything up, so wouldn't lose anything.

However, (touch wood) it seems to be behaving again now, so it looks as though I have a reprieve, if not a cure.

I also now have a new keyboard.

And today I learned I won a book in a competition on The History Girls blog, which is a very nice surprise (it's a very interesting blog, I heartily recommend it, quite apart from the chance to win books) and I found that the unexpected parcel I had to collect from the post office this morning was a couple a books which I had forgotten I'd ordered, which is also happy-making.

And less than a week from today I get to see Nathalie, and Anabel, and Ian, and Brian, and of course Cheryl, and we all get to see Neil and get our copies of  The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

And I have booked a day off work so I will have a short week, although we have a partners meeting this week so there will be at least one very long day!

Meanwhile, it a a beautifully sunny day, and I have been pottering around, repotting tomato plants, and ..er doing laundry (so nice to be able to dry things outside).