Marmalade season

A dreich day: damp, cold, and dark. Outdoor photography was never going to happen, but luckily I had the ingredients to hand for a couple of batches of marmalade. I'm slightly dubious about the oranges, if I'm honest - the current "Marmalade oranges; produce of Seville" doesn't seem quite as unequivocal as the old "Seville oranges". But we are where we are, and I daresay I'll manage to produce something acceptable from them.

I confess that I didn't actually get round to making any marmalade today - though it may happen tomorrow, if I'm still in as bad a mood then as I am right now - but I did do some other cooking. For most of the day the kitchen was tantalisingly scented by sausages seething in caramelised onion gravy in the slow cooker; and I also made a couple of batches of meatballs in spiced tomato sauce for the freezer. So I feel that my cooking credentials stand up to at least cursory scrutiny.

In other fruit-related news, today was the day when I finally replaced my ancient, steam-powered phone. Interestingly, when I placed the order yesterday the delivery day being quoted was next Tuesday. But then the order acknowledgement said the phone would be delivered on Monday; and this morning I got up to a text telling me that it would arrive today, unless I chose to reschedule. Over the years I've had my disagreements with the Fruit Corporation, but to my mind that's an excellent demonstration of managing customer expectations to best effect.