Chitchat thread #24

[Containergardener]

Morning
Kettle is on, porridge bubbling , fruit picked, yoghurt made and bread baked. Phew.
More rain here and windy

[greenishfing]

Good morning.

For the first time in ages I actually had a dream last night. I presume that means that I must have actually slept properly for a while. It was a weird dream, lots of taxi drivers sitting at desks in the middle of the road and not letting me book a taxi!

I am so sorry to hear about Hibou, Nicos. She was very lucky to be part of your family. Try and remember the good times.

I'm going to try and snuggle down again for half an hour. I've set my alarm for 7am as I've an appointment at the surgery at 8.15am.

Back later.

[Snoop Puss]

Morning all.

That was a busy start to the day, CG. All I've done is allow Mr Snoop to make me a cup of tea and look at my starter. Mr Snoop says he'd like bread and crumpets from this lot. Me I was thinking alone the lines of spiced fruit buns (hot cross buns, in other words, without the cross).

Whatever I make, the house is very cold for bread baking. It was a really cold night, but no frost now because it's pouring with rain. Better light the range to get a bit of warmth into the room.

Yesterday was a good day. One highpoint, 5 kg of blood oranges. They don't look like much on the outside, but they're beautiful inside. Lovely colour and full of juice. I'll leave a jug next to the glasses. Help yourselves.

Right, better get a move on.

Have a great day, everyone.

[Bren In Pots]

Morning

Porridge and raspberry jam here this morning as well CG along with a dollop of yoghurt. Off to have my hair cut soon then a calling in at the deli on the way home.

enjoy your day

[greenishfing]

I'm back again. Well, early morning appointments seem to be the way to go. I left home at 8.05am, drove to the surgery, had my injection, and was home again by 8.25am. Not bad considering all the school traffic. I must have still been half asleep as I don't even remember seeing the needle and barely felt it.

Mr GF is, as expected, still in the land of nod. I've now got around to my second mug of coffee.

Our latest snow forecast has now moved forward again to Monday night.

[Florence Fennel]

Good Morning All Very windy here but fine so far. Your hair looks nice Bren Have a good day

[Nicos]

Mornin n’alln’all

We’ve had wind and rain all night….feeling very wintery again with a really chill wind howling around the outside of the house.

We’ll be nipping into town at some point today. Need to do a small grory hop.

Apart from that , we’ll play it by ear. I did get the bay tree cut back quite dramatically yesterday so I should do something with all those leaves!
I’ll dry some indoors for cooking, and the rest can be dried for throwing onto the BBQ and firepit later in the year. The scent is wonderful!

We’ve decided to nip over to the uk next week for a few days so I guess I should start thinking about packing and making a shopping list of things I can’t get here!

Enjoy your day peeps- you all sound very active this morning!

[bramble]

Good morning all, well the rain has stopped and it's a little brighter but its not to last.
Nowhere I need to be today so I will gladly leave the car in the drive.
It was horrendous driving in the bad weather over the last few days.
Some indoor chores to be getting on with and then I will have another session with my jigsaw.
Have a good day all.

[greenishfing]

Nicos, when I had a bay tree and cut it back, I used to string bunches of twigs together, hang them up indoors to dry and then remove the leaves from the twigs and pack them tightly into jam jars for presents. It's amazing how many dried leaves will fit in a jam jar. During Covid I remember sending one of my nieces a massive A4 padded envelope full of them as she had run out and needed a refill.

What are the things that you struggle to buy in France apart from teabags?

[Nicos]

GF…Things like Persil, SR flour, treacle, golden syrup, most UK sweet or savoury biscuits, malt loaf, ( can you see a sweet tooth element recurring here) Carex, lined paper(!- it’s little squares rather than lines) , then other things like over the counter medicines which tend to be 1/4or less of the price compared to here.

Most other things I’ve found alternatives for, but those are always hard/ impossible to find.

[burnie]

Well what a night/morning, very windy, but we both slept through it, didn't wake until 10.00 am, must have caught up on the missing hours a bit, better half still poorly so back to the doc's for more anti-biotics, different ones this time. It's so dull and overcast the car thinks it's night time and the head lights were on, then walking up the front path the light came on with the pri sensor thinking it's dark, we may see the sun tomorrow, might get a walk outside rather than wandering around supermarkets/garden centres to get a bit of exercise.

[Snoop Puss]

I'm surprised no enterprising online supermarket has set up in France, Nicos. I use an online supermarket in Spain set up by a Dutch couple that sells British, Swedish, Polish and goodness knows what other products.

Hope you manage to get out and about tomorrow, burnie. A possibility we might wake up to snow tomorrow. Even if not, it's going to be perishing cold. I can see me staying indoors.

Have a great evening, everyone.

[bramble]

Good evening sll, well contrary to the forecast we had no rain.
I managed to get out and had a potter around the garden and the greenhouse.
My daughter called in and so ended the gardening.
g.Have a good evening all.

[Containergardener]

Same here bramble , the wet forecast never came . Not complaining though.

I guess the French won't allow other supermarkets, they seem to like to stay quite strict who they let in.

Shattered tonight.

[Nicos]

I really thought that a company in Southern Ireland would have picked up exporting British foods to France post Brexit. There are one or two tiny companies but sadly nothing substantial.
There ya go bramble….an idea for you to make your millions!

OH adores cooking so we always come back with spices etc I’ve never seen here.
I’m hoping there will be some Xmas puddings or slab Xmas cake still available - or have they all been sold and Easter eggs are taking over the shelves?…ooooh…. Mini Easter eggs!…nearly forgot to put those on the list!