Besetting problems?

No prizes for guessing what I was doing this morning. Actually, I started yesterday on the marmalade-making, but was so distracted by having to pop out to consult with the gardener that I didn't get further than cutting up all the peel and putting it in water with the pips tied in a hanky, in the way my father used to do. (Strange how that and bottling fruit always seemed to be his job - that and making tablet!). So it didn't just soak overnight, but all afternoon and evening as well. However, eventually I got it simmering while I was at breakfast, and carried on from there ... and on ... and on...until I remembered just why it was such a long time since I'd actually bought actual oranges and done the whole palaver.

It's the setting. And the stickiness. Mindful always of the admonition that if you missed setting point you could boil the mix till you were red in the face and it wouldn't set, not ever, I kept taking it off the heat and checking with the chilled saucer, and putting it back and doing it again, and again, and again (I ate my lunch during that bit) and finally gave up, bunged the whole lot in jars, and went for a mossy, muddy, damp walk with my pal.

When I came home, the bottom of the preserving pan had a thin film of very stiff, very wrinkleable marmalade on it. I poked it about and watched how sticky it was. The jars appeared to have liquid in them, but were ever so slightly warm. We wiped them till they were unsticky and I bunged them on the top shelf of the larder. Will they ever congeal? I shall report.

I am not a domestic goddess after all. Never let me forget that.