Our marmalade malady

One thing I can say is life is never boring at Towerwater. We are in the middle of major renovations of the interior rooms of the house. We tried to contain the inevitable disruption to our lives by undertaking it room by room, but this became impossible through the unpredictability of restoration processes and now we are living with three rooms packed up. Most of the content of these rooms huddling in the centre of the rooms leaving the walls free for the different stages of preparation and limewashing.

The house renovations are taking centre stage in our lives. I am sad to admit that the gardens are being neglected in the process this year. The major tasks like pruning, composting, and putting down manure did happen, but the planting and sowing has been neglected. We hope to catch up later in the spring.

One task we did not have time for this year was making marmalade. With the citrus lane covered in yellow and orange fruit begging to be turned into marmalade, we decided instead to give them to friends in town. At least they will still be used for making marmalade and all the healthy organic citrus peals will not go to waste. In our home, freshly squeezed orange juice has become a staple at breakfast.

Our marmalade malady was soon resolved by sharing the healthy organic fruit and hopefully picking up some good karma in the process.

Our holding back on sowing plans this year did not stop Mother Nature from doing her own thing. The garden looks as though She danced through it with a broken bag-full of nasturtiums seeds. The garden is a riot of shades of yellow and orange. The dams around the fruit trees are filled to the brim with flowering nasturtiums. A nasturtium has also spread up and through the citronella scented geranium in the herb garden.

The flowering almond trees alongside the road between Robertson and Bonnievale reminded me of the passing of time and that it has been eight years since I started writing this blog. It is amazing how things change and yet how many stay the same. I suppose these are the signposts of the normal eb and flow of life.  

We did not get around to making marmalade this year, but we are managing to finalise the restoration of the interior detail of the house, I hope.

Happy 8th birthday, Blog!

Previous birthday posts

Still life with oranges - 2021
Almond trees in August -2020
Of birthdays and blossoms - 2019
A life imagined - 2018
Looking back to the future - 2017
Reflections - 2016
Happy birthday blog - 2015
Heading for spring -2014