DAISY DAYS (AND SPIKE JONES?)

Got that song of his going through my head - Mairzy Doats - very sad. Spike Jones and the Wacky Wacketeers (he was also with the City Slickers). I think my parents must have had a 78rpm disc of it, possibly with Three Little Fishies on the other side?

Back to partial sanity.

Daisies, such a huge family of flowering plants - daisies of all sorts and plants that look like daisies, feverfew and olearia, erigeron by the paving down from the house, and daisies, proper ones -in the lawn and ox-eyes in the long grass.

Just been down to the damson trees to check on the pocket plum - Taphrina pruni - a fungal disease, and there are a lot of mite galls on the leaves. At least the latter is harmless.

One thing that a garden can bring is flowers into the house. (Is or are - lots of flowers but 'one thing' ? Grammar, grammar.) And at this time of year that means roses. Roses with alchemilla and geranium, roses with roses and roses with lovage.

 

Not forgetting pinks. Yesterday I noticed a shrub that was a but boring had produced white flowers. It had done nothing at the back of the house so I stuck it in the lower banking. Then I realised it was a eucryphia about which I had forgotten. You can just see the flowers on the right of the small pic.

Nearly hacking back time for the geraniums - cut them back to the ground and they will burgeon forth with, possibly, another flush of flowers in the autumn.

Some flowers in the garden, especially pale pink ones just quietly get on with it. Like this pink evening primrose and the Allium Christophii. The latter appear from long grass, amongst the Rosa rugosa, in many places where they have been forgotten.

Friday/Saturday and it is raiiiiiining so bag of Seville oranges out of the freezer and making marmalade - 

To the recipe - 9 Seville (bitter) oranges, one sweet one and a couple of lemons, squeeze out juice, put pips etc into muslin bag, put peel and pith through a mincer. Shove the lot into a big jam pan with bag of bits hanging in it. Leave 24 hours.
Bring to boil and simmer till rind soft - say a couple of hours.
Add 8 pounds sugar (I warm it in the bottom range oven first) and stir over low heat till all sugar dissolved, Boil hard for 10 minutes and begin testing by taking off heat and putting a small spoonful on plate chilled in fridge. Push with finger and when ripples - done. You may need to repeat this a few times if not yet ready, boiling for a minute or two and then testing again.
You may need to do it in 2 batches depending on pan size. 
Put into hot jars and seal, label and eat.

Breakfast and open a jar and there is an earwig running about on top of the jam. Now it could not have been in there before I opened the jar - too hot - jars sealed when jam very hot. So?
I had been in the garden and the insect must have dropped off me after I opened the jar. R shudders and says there is no way she is eating that marmalade. I take the earwig outside, then return to my bread. At least I have not eaten bread and earwig.

Sunday and a novelty as we walk the 1 mile into town after breakfast and enjoy a coffee outside the Farmers' Arms pub after having temperature taken. On the way back we meet good friend NC who tells us that there is a juvenile heron standing in a field by the road. It just stands there and ignores us. The herons that visit our pond usually fly off at the slightest thing.

Picking last of red currants, more raspberries and black currants. Threatening the raspberries with the bonfire seems to have worked. Lots of pears, plums and apples to come. And first of chard for tonight. Lawns too wet to mow. 

Did nothing in garden (well picked more raspberries to go with meringue and cream).