Cheeky Cheery Cherries

It's Sunday. A quiet Sunday, too. Which is worthy of a blog entry in itself but that is not the reason to stir myself into action whilst in the middle of a lazy Sunday. Lazy due to the abscence of both the women in my life and it's amazing how peaceful it is...(dead man typing when Inga reads that! Hee hee). Inga is out doing Scouty things at a Scouty place and Rachael is out doing acting things at an acting place, leaving me to amuse myself all on my own (not in that way! Get your mind out of the gutter for once!). So I bought some sugar. 4kg to be exact and now I need to do something with it. I've ruled out eating it up and getting both fat and hyper at the same time and instead I'm going to partake in that exciting pastime of making jam. Yeah, ok, so it's a bit of a dull pastime really, but the flavouring for the jam is courtesy of Mr Nobody, so it would be rude not to. Let me explain. Our neighbour told us that there were a few cherry trees 'over the back' that were starting to fruit nicely so, after a bit of deduction (she's not that young and neither is the dog she walks) we located said Cherry trees and lo! (always wanted to use that in a post) one was laden with ripe fruit. So, today I spent an hour picking a few cherries for free . Now I know this is being incredibly greedy as we already have a Cherry tree in the back garden bowed low with fruit, but those are incredibly sweet and juicy and begging to be eaten straight away. The free ones are not so sweet but perfect for jam making or pie filling. Ok, perfect for eating too, just not quite as sweet and slightly more polluted (the free trees are by the bypass). So, here I am, typing away while they soak for a bit, after which I will wash them thoroughly in lots of running cold water (or put them outside as it's pissing down again - Bloody Glastonbury, it's all their fault!) before destoning them and then cooking them in my big fat 'I'm making things' pot, which hasn't seen any action since last years pickle and chutney making. It's going to be a simple recipe; Cherries, sugar, lemon and a knob of butter. It's not going to be a stiff jam - not enough pectin to make a firm set - but it should be damn tasty. I hope. Wish me luck and, if you beg well enough, you might get a jar :-)