Marmalade time

After my despair yesterday at having bought so many Seville oranges, I realised I would actually have to do something with them, so this is the start. Half of them are now soaking, sliced up, in the preserving pan; I've even got the wee bag of pips dangling in it as if I were my mother (though come to think of it making marmalade was something my father tended to do, and I remember him slicing the oranges with a guillotine. (don't ask). You will notice I've even inherited my juicer - do they still sell ones like this? If it's just one orange or whatever I use an olive wood hand-held one, but for larger quantities I always get this old one out, though I know I have one on my food processor ...

Other than this pressing date with a box of oranges, I have to confess that the entire day was dominated by my lack of sleep last night. I heard 2am strike before I dozed off, and I woke at 6am though I slept again till 7.30 and went around like a zombie for much of the morning. Partly it's problems with my feet - I saw my wonderful sports physio this afternoon, who was convinced that it's circulation rather than anything else; certainly I've always had cold feet and can remember putting my hot hands down inside my ankle socks when as a child I had to play a piece at my piano teacher's concert - my icy feet always cooled them down! Anyway, when they get warm they hurt in this cold weather, which makes sleep elusive. 

Apart from that we had a visit from our semi-resident gas man and went a brisk walk in the brilliant afternoon sunshine, avoiding the almost-invisible icy patches, and I washed a load of black garments and hung them out (not in that order). I dropped back down the Duolingo Diamond league, not having done enough lessons in this good weather, which means I'll not make the final of the competition this time - much less stressful, really, just to bob along in the middle. Oh, and I uploaded the rest of my Christmas photos to Flickr and got a Christmas card from a friend who posted it in Alabama before Christmas. 

And now I've been sleeping over the telly and trying not to let my feet get too hot as I did so - and need to go to bed and sleep again. Toes crossed!