We took advantage of a fine day to cut up a whacking great tree that came down in the storm. It had fallen on a brand new fence, sod’s law. We managed to saw the main branches and then had to somehow detach a huge ivy branch that was holding this bulbous bit of trunk in place on top of the trunk. Eventually with much cursing and tearing of hair we rolled this huge chunk of wood off the fence and got on with sawing up the rest – loads of lovely ash logs for the wood shed.
Continuing the theme of domestic labour, we spent the evening making the first batch of marmalade. The first Seville oranges are in the market now and we made 10 jars last night and tried it out for breakfast this morning. It was excellent, last year I overcooked it, but Chas still managed to get through it. The next lot of oranges are soaking so the batch two will be made tonight. I love seeing all those full jars of preserves in the larder.