Moth and Marmalade

I completed my first batch of Seville orange marmalade today, having done the juicing and chopping yesterday and simmered it overnight in the slow cooker. I first tried this method last year, and like it because it avoids all the hanging around while the peel cooks, and probably also uses significantly less electricity than the hob. By the time I started, it was almost dark, and the poor lighting and general mess in the kitchen put me off trying to photograph it.

I was searching for a book when I was distracted by a lot of J's early drawing and writing. She loved to scribble as soon as she could hold a pen, although then as now she needed hand-over-hand support to grip and limit sudden involuntary jerks; I always tried hard not to direct the movements. Bright felt tips were easiest as they were long enough for our combined hands and gave strong colour with minimal pressure; she loved bright colours and used a wide range, whatever the subject. She was three and 8 months when she drew Moth, having transitioned from densely scribbled pages to rudimentary objects at about two, and I was always impressed at the way she observed and combined the shapes of which objects are composed. This is the only one of her many cat drawings which has a name; most are just "cat". Moth was the first cat in her life, a beautiful tabby about six months older than J. Here she has drawn two bright suns; often she included three, four or five in varied colours. 

When I finished the marmalade, I found her watching Brian Cox's series about the universe on iPlayer, with Millie, our little tortoiseshell, curled up on her lap.