“Every home should have a marmalade day” – Mrs Brown

(cross-stitched jam labels for marmalade)

I love how marmalade looks in a jar. Warm and colourful. Like a piece of amber.

This weekend, we had our marmalade day.

Middle and Youngest loved helping for the first time. Especially when it came to squeezing the oranges and cutting the rinds into thin strips. Yes!

While the fruit was left to simmer, we had just the right amount of time to watch the Paddington Bear Movie. I’m afraid I didn’t find the book. In reality, I’m not sure we would have had time to read even a chapter. Weekends are so packed. We also fitted in the Big Garden Bird Watch and an afternoon of electronics, as well as all the usual items on the weekend “must-do” list.

Once simmered, sugar added and marmalade boiled, I was left to pot up the marmalade. They did pop back into the kitchen to quality check the test blobs on the saucer, which I used to check for setting. Eldest turned up, just in time, to help clean the preserve pan at the end.

Now they are all potted up .

I like to add a little something to preserves. If they are going to sit in the larder for any amount of time, they need to look good. I need to smile when I spot them. So I cross-stitched a few labels to add to each jar.

I’ll need to think of something smaller for the smallest jar. Needless to say, Youngest insisted on this particular jar being included in the potting up. Sigh. Not the easiest size to pour hot marmalade into, as my jam funnels are both too big. I managed. Somehow.

Today they went to school with marmalade sandwiches. I think that is a first for us. Maybe I should just add that I tucked the sandwiches into their lunch bag, and not in their hats. Not this time.

Note on film: Youngest pointed out that he didn’t think all the jam jars Paddington consumed on the journey would fit in the bear’s suitcase. Interesting. He seemed unbothered by the fact that the film was about a talking bear that no-one batted an eyelid as he stood on the platform at Paddington Station. With no other bears being shown in London. It was the jam jar mystery that puzzled him.