Escape to Towerwater

With an intense week involving further extensive renovations to a Victorian terrace cottage, I only managed to get away quite late. At one stage I contemplated staying over in Cape Town. Finally, I braved the traffic that was moving at a snail’s pace.

Arriving at Towerwater after dark, I unpacked the bakkie, made supper, put on some music and relaxed into the weekend. Towerwater felt even more amazing, if it is possible. The sanity of the property removed me from the chaos of exposed electric wires, plumbing and endless interaction with contractors.

Saturday, needed careful scheduling. I had to call on several places in the town. Being a weekend, some of the stores close at 11am with most closing by 12:30pm. I managed to get everything I needed and still take a bakkie load of superfluous garden refuse to the local dump before 12:30pm.

A successful bait station

The fruit-fly traps were full and had to be refreshed.  I was glad that I decided to take maths and science at school because I felt like a biologist, alchemist and mathematician all in one. I emptied all the flytraps individually in the outside basin and divided the different species caught in the traps into groups. This enabled me to systematically identify them and see which pests are more active in which part of the garden.

I then had to measure and calculate ratios of bait mixes before filling the traps again. With the traps refreshed, I could pause for a light lunch before picking Seville oranges and lemons for making marmalade. 

  

Two batches of uncooked Seville marmalade

With the loss of the Valencia harvest, our organic orange choices for marmalade-making this year is restricted to the Seville. I decided to make two batches of marmalade. One comprised of plain Seville orange marmalade, while the other Seville orange and ginger.

By the time the two pots of sliced peel were cooking away on the stove it was already dark. I decided to put on some music and relax with a cocktail of gin, vermouth and homemade Limoncello, garnished with a strip of lemon peel. 

Limoncellotini

I sat back on the chesterfield with my Limoncellotini. Enjoying some favourite music, I marvelled at the pure genius of the artist while gently sipping my cocktail. My escape to Towerwater was complete.