Jam Day.

The weather was much the same as yesterday, a deceptive blue sky very early on which soon changed to overcast with a persistent cool wind. There were very occasional and brief sunny patches and I only saw a few solitary butterflies trying to warm up on the ground. 

Most of my day has been taken up with making what may possibly be my last batch of Dingles Farm blackcurrant jam. I thought I was doing really well having pushed the blackcurrants through the sieve, added the sugar and water and cleaned up all without getting any purple splashes around the place. Then I went to the freezer to look for some cubes of lemon juice that I had frozen after making lemon cupcakes the other day. I never did find them even though I dug right down in the freezer but I did unearth more frozen blackcurrants. So there was a halt in the proceedings while they were cooked and sieved and a new calculation made for the extra water and jam sugar. Then started the boiling of the jam. My jam kettle (doesn't every housewife have one?) was now rather full so I worried that it might boil over and I didn't fancy having to clean burnt jam off the hotplate. There followed much stirring, one quick removal when the jam rose up and a lot of watching of my jam thermometer. The temperature seemed to get to 219F and no higher when my book said I needed to get to 220F. More stirring and watching and testing of jam on a cold plate to see if it wrinkled. But how wrinkly did it need to be? That was the question. Eventually the jam was up to 220F, looked wrinkly enough and was carefully poured into 13 jam jars which was all I had. (Handy hint - not having a jam funnel I cut the top off a plastic drink bottle and used that.) Peter doesn't eat jam and for most of the time I don't eat bread so I guess some of my Christmas presents are now sorted.

It's been a 'bird' day today as well. This morning I was idly staring out of the bedroom window when a sparrowhawk flew past just above the hedge. That was notable as I don't see sparrowhawks here more than a few times each year. Then, as I sat loading photos on this blog a buzzard few past the window and landed by the house wall in the corner by the conservatory. It was so close that all I could see from the window was its back. I ran upstairs with my camera but by the time I looked out of the bedroom window it had gone.

 Too chilly today for anything except the bumble bees.