Oranges and Lemons

"Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clements..." It's the beginning of an old English nursery rhyme and singing game, and it kept echoing in my head on Sunday while I was harvesting my citrus crop ahead of our Big Freeze. In a good year, I can leave the fruit on the trees all winter and simply wander out to pick some whenever I need it. Last year I had freshly picked and squeezed orange juice every morning until the fruit finally ran out in March. Not this year, alas. I've packed my fridge, and the fridge at my mom's old house, and the rest is going into bags for friends.


At the same time, I'm also dealing with another sort of lemon. Anyone who has read this blog for long has heard me whinging about my LG Katrina Klunkers. In the last few months, I've finally given up and replaced both my refrigerator and my hot water heater. Well, the Saturday before Christmas (as we were leaving for the airport to pick up a friend coming in to spend the holidays with us!), my dishwasher made a sound like a rocket taking off and then crashing back to earth, and quit. And then, the day after Christmas, I was typing up some plotting notes for Sebastian #11 when my range suddenly started shrieking and flashing all its lights (I wasn't even using it at the time), and also died. So I now have a new dishwasher, and the range is supposed to be delivered this afternoon (fingers crossed). The timing, needless to say, was lousy. But maybe I could send a bag of lemons to LG?