Rites of January

We got pretty comprehensively thrashed at the Mayor's quiz last night - our team came 28th out of 40.  Our strengths (history, geography and literature) didn't figure in the list of rounds, so we were on to a loser from the start.  Frankly, my dears, I don't give a damn who the last three were in last year's X-factor.  We kept reminding ourselves that it was only a game, and enjoyed it.  It was doubtful whether the quiz would happen at all - we have approaching an inch of snow on the ground, and that, in these parts, is enough to bring everything to a standstill - but not, in this instance, the Mayor's quiz, whatever else may have ground to an icy halt.  A ploughman's lunch is served at the half-way point, and may perhaps account for a touch of the quease this morning.

As I type, the snow has started again: fine powdery stuff again, same as yesterday.  I've trudged out as far as the steps to leave new supplies of bird seed.  One good thing about the snow is that it's easier to spot the birds as they come to feed.  Yesterday we had several visits from our young male blackbird, whose beak is starting to turn to the yellow of the adult bird.  The robin is frequently around, and we also had visits from a wren and a couple of dunnocks - they always seem to go around in pairs.  There are also some families of young woodpigeons, who are now developing the white collars of the mature bird, although they're still very timid - a slight movement from the warm side of the window is generally enough to see them off.  We've run out of peanuts, so haven't seen the jay for a few days.

Seville Orange Marmalade, 2013 edition

I finished this year's marmalade-making yesterday with a third batch of the amber nectar.  It all seems to have set (eventually: the first batch had to go back for a few minutes), so all I now need to do is get it all labelled and put away.  The timing was just right: I started on the last jar of last year's output just as the Seville oranges arrived in the shops.  I passed by Waitrose's at £2/kilo, finding equally good fruit at £1.50 at the village greengrocer's.  So much for local shops being more expensive than the supermarkets, eh?