Limes drying

This morning I woke to the smell of limes – a spicy, sweet, pungent aroma that filled the house, leaving me feeling relaxed and content. 36 limes in 1cm pieces had spent the night in the dehydrator, the steady hum of the machine lulling me back to sleep when I woke in the wee-smalls.

It’s often the little things that make the difference to how the day pans out. As often as not they remain unremarked, so today I thought I’d try to notice some of the things that made me smile.

  • a house that smells like a combination of spiced tea and mulled wine (drying limes)
  • puppies that snuggle up and make little wuffling noises on my shoulder
  • a friend explaining a crochet pattern and making it all seem super simple and much less scary
  • knitting in public in the library with like-minded people, all of whom thought my vanilla cake with carrot cake marmalade was super-delicious
  • shopping for our mid-winter feast (next weekend) and planning all the things
  • coffee in the winter sunshine with Himself and the dogs
  • the decorative plum tree all pruned and the prunings tidied away > success
  • a hot toddy to sooth my (suddenly) sore throat – thank you Sandy. (I confess to altering the recipe slightly to accommodate what’s in my pantry, but it definitely works anyway. Turns out lemongrass is tasty with ginger and apricot liqueur can substitute for scotch)
  • the thought of a bubble bath and an early night

Writing this up, I found that the more things I listed, the more smiley-things I thought of. I guess that’s the whole mindfulness thing, right?

5 thoughts on “Contemplating

  1. Those limes look great! What do you do with the dried limes? As soon as I saw this photo I thought about doing the same with some of our lemons, but I’m not sure what we’d do with the end product …

    • nikmacd on June 19, 2016 at 12:09 pm said:

      This is my first lime-drying adventure, but I intend to use the results in teas, add bits into cooking, pop a few slices in the bath from time to time or – if keen enough – chop bits up to make potpourri. Quick tip though: slice the fruit a little more thinly than I did. 1cm slices take about 24 hours to dry to the dry but pliable texture that’s required.

  2. What a lovely post!
    And I am interested in dehydrators…..do you use it often?? (Sounds like spam….but genuinely interested!)

    • nikmacd on June 19, 2016 at 12:22 pm said:

      Thank you:)
      I regularly make fruit leather, apple rings and banana chips, but it depends on what excess fruit I have to hand. I’ve also dried chillies, tomotoes, kiwi fruit, pear (etc) at various times as well.

  3. Doug on June 19, 2016 at 7:33 pm said:

    So many limes! Made me smile just seeing them all~ 😀

    Mm… the smell of limes. That is indeed a fine smell. Maybe I should invest in some of this drying technology too…

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