Mandarin Sunrise

Admittedly not exactly ‘essential supplies’, but whilst out food shopping on Saturday, I had a sudden unexplained urge for homemade orange jelly with tinned mandarin oranges set in it. A throwback to a fond childhood memory no doubt, but hardly comfort food by modern foodie standards.

Only thing was, I made up three portions in the afternoon for our Saturday night dinner, but by nightfall it had sadly still not set. Ashamedly, I did at one point think about just drinking it as a fruit cocktail, but I fended off that disgraceful urge.

So-it-was that after sunrise this morning I came down to make some tea, only to find that all was finally well in jelly world. The vivid orangeness ( so many e-numbers I realise) looked so chirpy in the morning sunshine.

My first reaction was just to photograph it right then and there on the table, but two thoughts entered my head: First, was that when cooks test the setting or stiffness of something they have made, they boldly hold it over their head to demonstrate their total confidence; Second, was a memory of artist Olafur Eliasson’s brilliant artificial sun in his Weather Project at Tate Modern years ago.

So-it-was, there was an orange jelly sunrise seen rising over Knutsford this morning.