Mountain Views News, Sierra Madre Edition [Pasadena] Saturday, March 4, 2017

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Mountain View News Saturday, March 4, 2017 


Walking Sierra Madre…The Social Side 

by Deanne Davis


“Spring is Nature’s way of saying, “Let’s party!” – Robin 
Williams

“It is easy to understand why the most beautiful poems 
about England in the Spring were written by poets living 
in Italy at the time.” Philip Dunne

I know it’s just the first few days of March, but Spring 
is definitely in the air. Everywhere we look as we walk 
Sierra Madre we see green! Green! Green! No longer are 
we saying “brown is the new green,” we are surrounded by 
green lawns, green trees, flowers galore. The ornamental 
cherries and plums are sporting a few pink blossoms and 
more are on the way. The camellia in our front yard has 
outdone itself with hundreds of flowers when we were 
pretty sure it was on its way to that big green bin in the 
hereafter. The daffodils, however, have not bloomed yet. 
Lots of green spears, but no hint of flowers after the 
initial three several weeks ago. Possibly they need a little 
sunlight after all this fantastic rain we’ve had. Speaking 
of rain, you need to take a look at the stream up in the 
Canyon where water from the dam runs our. There is a 
LOT of water in there, rushing down, and the sound it 
makes is so sweet to hear. Yes, water can sound exquisite 
when you haven’t heard it in a while. 

 The pumpkins from last Halloween are starting to 
deteriorate at the Parker house, which means that they 
will be planting the seeds for those giants they cultivate 
fairly soon. They’re the folks who create the incredible 
pumpkin kingdom on their front lawn with the giant 
spider, Cinderella’s coach and so forth. 

 Had an interesting experience last Sunday. Had dined 
out after church with son-in-law, Dave, and grandsons, 
Luke and Blake, hugged and kissed everybody goodbye, 
waved them out of the parking lot, turned on our faithful 
Honda and heard: click. Tried again: click. Battery had 
died a tragic death. However, could have been worse...
the sun was out, it wasn’t raining, called Auto Club and 
they were there within ten minutes. Not only were they 
there with the speed of light, but their truck was an 
absolute playground of batteries. They had the one we 
needed, installed it, took the deceased battery away and 
we were on our way home in twenty minutes. Now I ask 
you, is that fantastic or what!

 Speaking of car people, you know who is really nice, 
and will help you whenever you pull into his driveway? 
Chris Hovland at Sierra Madre Independent Honda, at 
Baldwin and Montecito, kind of right across the street 
from Beantown. He never says he’s too busy and will help 
you with things like resetting the codes for your radio 
when the battery dies, and other stuff like that. He never 
even looks impatient. We really appreciate that. 

 Having mentioned making Lemon Marmalade last 
week, I was asked how one goes about making that. If 
you have a lemon tree, this is really great as us lemon tree 
growers always have more lemons than we can use. I like 
to can stuff. I don’t do anything that is terribly difficult or 
that might give anybody botulism, but with jams, jellies 
and pickles, you’re pretty safe. Even if you’ve never done 
this before, you can astonish your friends when you give 
them a beautiful jar of jam or jelly that you’ve canned 
with your own tiny hands. 

 Buy a box of half pint canning jars. They have them 
at Target, OSH, Smart & Final and some grocery stores. 
Take 5 or 6 jars, rinse them in hot water, then refill with 
really hot water and let them sit till you’ve got your 
marmalade made. Then dump out the water and up-end 
the jars on a clean towel so they’re not totally wet when 
you’re ready to put your marmalade in them. Put the lids 
to the jars in a bowl and cover them with hot water till 
you’re ready to seal them.

 Now, let’s make Lemon Marmalade… You’ll end up 
with 4 or 5 beautiful half pints.

 2-1/2 - 3 cups thinly sliced lemons (remove all seeds, 
of course), add the juice from another two or three 
lemons... hey, it’s your tree and you can use all you want!

6 cups water

4-1/2 cups sugar

. Combine lemon slices and water in large pot. Cook 
rapidly till tender, about 20 minutes, stirring frequently.
. Drain lemons out and measure liquid; add water to 
make 6 cups. Add lemons back in, with sugar, mixing 
well.
. Boil rapidly, stirring constantly, about 23-26 minutes. 
Should be very thick.
. Pour into hot canning jars; seal.
. Turn jars upside down after they are sealed and allow 
them to stand on their heads for an hour or so. Then turn 
them right-side-up. This will make sure all your lemon 
peel is distributed through the jar, rather than crouching 
up near the top like it’s trying to escape.


 These jars of marmalade are beautiful, clear and make 
a lovely gift. It’s easy! Just be patient and plan to read 
the newspaper while you stir. (Adapted from “Freezing 
& Canning Cookbook” Edited by Nell B. Nichols, 
Field Food Editor, Farm Journal – 1963Doubleday & 
Company, Inc. Garden City, New York)

 My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis

Blog: www.authordeanne.com

 “A Tablespoon of Love, A Tablespoon of Laughter” is 
now available at 

Sunrise Books + Coffee at Pasadena First Church of the 
Nazarene – 

just down the road on Sierra Madre Blvd.

Kindle readers, give yourself the gift of: 

The Crown – An Easter Story It’s on Amazon.com on my 
book page!

 Follow me on Twitter, too! https://twitter.com/@
playwrightdd

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