Fleur's marmalade

Every weekend I have marmalade toast for breakfast. I love it. What I don't love is that my favourite local marmalade costs $14 a jar.

It's orange season. I have sugar. I have a recipe. So I make my own - and it's delicious.

I call it my own but it's really Fleur's marmalade, as Fleur gave me the recipe after we'd picked a bootful of oranges growing wild around Lostock, NSW, one school holidays.

Fleur's marmalade:
1kg citrus, thinly sliced
10 cups water
1.8kg sugar

• Soak cut fruit in water overnight.
• Transfer fruit and water to a large saucepan and boil for an hour. Reduce heat.
• Gradually add sugar until dissolved. Increase heat and boil rapidly for 30 mins, stirring often.

The recipe says this makes 13 x 250g jars but I only ever get around 7 jars but that's probably because I like my marmalade quite sticky so cook it for a longer period.

I sterilise my jars by putting them and their lids into a 180C oven for 30mins because I don't have a microwave and can't be bothered with the boiling water method. We're still alive. Fingers crossed.

Snakes in the city

We love a bit of a bushwalk but not the type that involves equipment, beyond a packed lunch, or a long drive. More the type that will have us back home in time to cook some sort of braised dinner we'll have in front of the fire with a bottle of wine (the Child will have sparkling water, if she's lucky, tap if she's not). The type that doesn't involve leaving Sydney, so we set off for Bantry Bay at Middle Head.

After heading into Garigal National Park on the edge of Seaforth Oval, we don't see anyone apart from two joggers and three other walkers for three hours. It was bliss. We do see a cute snake, who is also making the most of the winter sun by basking by the side of the path. We oohh and aahh at the closeness of such a fine creature and bark at the Husband who wants to poke it with a stick to see it move. He gets a stern chat about letting nature be.

We are shaded by by banksias, the air is filled with birdsong and small animals dart about too quickly to identify them.

When we get home, I decide to find out what sort of snake we'd crowded our faces around. "Good photo, Mum," says the Child when I've got a perfect match up on the screen before she realises it's not mine but a Google image. Excitedly, she sees our snake listed in a Top 10 Most Venomous Snakes in the World list.

The New Zealand-born Husband had been threatening to irritate a deadly Eastern Brown snake. The Child and I roll our eyes. Will he ever learn? Probably not, which is fine - as long as he lives long enough to tell the tale.

Wash day

Possibly my favourite ever vintage buy. Encapsulates many homey things that warm my heart, such as fresh linen, washing lines, hand-made embroidery, domestic history. $10 from Marrickville Markets.

Could stare at it for hours. Which may explain why I need new glasses.

Winter coat

After the success of last week's bird bag and the pleasure it gave me, I thought I'd reward my sewing machine with a new winter coat. So I roughly traced around the supremely unattractive plastic one she arrived at my front door in 10 years ago and had a crack.

No complaints so far, which is why I like making things for inanimate objects. She's even got linen lining, so she's feeling rather smug and very smooth. Luckily, she's a bit short sighted like myself so hasn't noticed the rather rough seams.

I figure I'll get round to fixing those in the next 10 years or so. Rushing can be so overrated.

See what others are up to in their creative spaces today here.

I smell good

I can make such an outrageously fragrant statement as it has nothing to do with me personally but, rather, the Miller Harris perfume, picked up at Duck Egg Blue, Balmain, I was given for Mothers' Day.

I tend to fall in love with scents quite quickly and then tire of them just as soon. I'm fragrantly fickle, it seems. Rarely do I make it to the end of a bottle. But I'm pretty sure this one is THE one.

Even though Miller Harris is an English company, my particular love has the fancy pancy name of Noix de Tubereuse and falls somewhere between an oriental and a floral scent. Sweet but with depth. Just the way a great love should be.

Angry birds

We've always been proud of the star jasmine that grew over our back fence as it was a sea of green and home to several doves. In spring, the fragrance was sweet and strong, to the point of once having to shut the back door on a hot summer's day as the scent was so thick it was giving me a headache.

What we didn't realise was that the jasmine was crushing the lattice beneath it and slowly pulling the fence over. So, very reluctantly, we had to cut it down. Every time I found a nest hidden within the twisted limbs I almost cried. I shouted to the displaced doves who were watching from a nearby roof that I wasn't razing their village but rather improving the infrastructure. They responded with an angry beady stare and then started doing the weird jumping and bobbing dance they always do. Clearly, they're not grudge holders.

With the lattice replaced, the Husband and I thought we'd make the most of the lovely long weekend weather - rain - by planting some seeds in our newly dug vegetable patch. The Child stayed indoors and busied herself by labelling paddlepop sticks to mark our seed placement. I think she may have pitied her covered-in-mud parents who now resembled medieval potato farmers as she slipped in an extra stick with a double-sided message to us.

Enjoying the rain immensely, I thought I'd try out a few test pots for the nude fence. We unanimously voted for Dulux Malay Grey, as it looks great behind our grevilleas. Decision was unanimous in a two-out-of-three-aint-bad Meatloaf-singalong kind of way as we didn't show the Child the options as we feared she may argue for the bright blue blob you see on my boot. The rain and homeless birds were depressing enough.

So we celebrated by taking the Child to the last night of the Vivid Festival. In the rain.

I see red

Yesterday was a little bit of a rough one. Nothing major but enough to make me wake up early this morning as I sometimes do when I've got things on my mind. May as well make the Husband and I a cup of tea, I thought.

When I walked into the kitchen I was greeted by a bright red glow across the sky. It was beautiful - and it made me feel instantly happy. Apparently, mountaineers who've seen sunrises from some of the highest peaks in the world say it's almost a spiritual experience. I'll take their word for it as I prefer to view such scenes on a cold winter's morning with my slippers on and a cup of tea in my hands.

I was left with the feeling that all is right with the world. Our family is healthy and close, the 15-year-old Cat still chases her tail and Lee Mathews will exchange the too-small dress for one that fits.

Life is good.

Have a lovely weekend. A lovely long weekend for us Australians.