Three pretty good things: 7 July

1. My blackcurrant harvest

I planted a little blackcurrant bush about 30cm high last year during spring time. Ben Lomond is the variety I went for, which is wildly available here. Last summer I got about six precious blackcurrants. This year I got more than 800 grams of these babies. Wow, I am very impressed and hugely excited. As the canning bug is still with me, I turned them into five jars of jam. I relied on Dan Lepard's recipe, except for the addition of lemon. Blackcurrants are tart enough and have enough naturally occurring pectin to be jelled on its own. We are all thrilled by the end products. Yes they taste differently from the superb French blackcurrants my father-in-law grows but they are next best things, my English blackcurrants, which are adored just as much.

2. My new cooker

I inherited a camel colored cooker when I moved into this house. The oven and the grill were never working but the gas stove was. It lasted 10 years under my reign and we decided that this year it shall retire. We've got a new one with dual oven. What can I say? I've never appreciated fully a gas cooker until this week. My muffins turned out picture perfect, with cute looking dome shape top and seductively browned. The roast lamb shoulder is perfectly crisp on the skin and ever so tender inside. And the roasted cauliflowers, oh my, hubby said it's a winner in a roast lamb dinner!

3. Olympic torch relay in my town

The Olympic torch relay passed my street today. It was very moving to see the army soldiers being part of the parade. And the torch bearers are chosen not because they are TV starts but because they mean something to our local community. I like that very much.