Chitchat thread #24

[Bren In Pots]

Morning

Its wet and windy here so I'm glad i don't need to go far today, plenty to do indoors just little things that I've been putting off.

Take care Rary and we'll be here when you're ready to come back.

[greenishfing]

Pouring rain here too. I could hear it from my bed earlier and it didn't encourage me to get up. According to the forecast the sun might appear by 4pm. I don't know why it's bothering ....sunset is 4.08pm. I've had Marks's flowers delivered to me twice in the last year with no problems at all. I can't remember the delivery company though. The thing I do remember is that a week after delivery they still looked perfect....no thanks to me. I was so impressed with their longevity I sent the sender a photo of them a week after delivery. This reminds me I ought to get round to sending the great nephew his advent calender soon or I'll end up having to eat it myself.... and I don't like white chocolate.

I've just given Mr GF an either or choice for today. Either a grory hop or a visit to his sister. Whichever he doesn't pick is for tomorrow.

[bramble]

Good morning all,
For all you peeps who have the wind and rain, we had it overnight, I could hear it while lying in bed,
It's a lovely calm sunny morning now, so taking the opportunity to walk to the library.

Hopefully I will get a bit of time in the garden this afternoon.
Enjoy your day whatever you're up to,

[Snoop Puss]

Afternoon all.

Glad to be back. Sorry to see you're departing temporarily, Rary. Hope all is well. Big hug to you and your family. No climbing ladders in the meantime.

Well, phew, all relatively OK here. The ground was so bone dry and terracotta like, the water flowed off rapidly. But the speed and volume of the flow was extremely destructive. Now there are just ponds about the place, interspersed with piles of debris and huge stones knocked out of terrace walls. There are a couple of near boulders, a metre and a half long each, sitting slap bang in the veg patch that featured in my favourite gardening related photo. They're surrounded by mounds of brambles and assorted other plant matter ripped out and washed down. Mr Snoop thinks we might as well give up on that patch. But I'm not ready to do that. Anyway, we can argue about that later. There's enough mud in the house to keep us busy... At least the rivers and reservoirs will be back up to decent levels after all the months of drought.

The tracks are wrecked, but we're OK with our beaten up 4x4s. Unfortunately, the neighbours down the way are in a more difficult position than us in that they just have an ordinary car and their access road is in a terrible state. Even we wouldn't consider driving to their place. Eventually, they'll get a JCB in to help them sort it out, but in the meantime, they're stuck. So we're on shopping and transport duties, plus storing their stuff in our freezer. Fingers crossed everything gets resolved for them relatively soon. Unfortunately, more rain is due, which will slow things down, as it will make it difficult for heavy machinery to get onto the land. We were forecast 11 mm at 30% probability and got 291 over 24 hours. The next lot is about 15 mm over three days. Fingers crossed that really is all it is.

Anyway, we're still here, as are the cats and dogs. But the birdlife has been decimated already. And there are no seeds left on any of the weeds to see the survivors through the winter. I'll feed them this year and hope for the best.

I hope you didn't mind the smiles stopping over the last few days. They'd never have made it home.

Have a great rest of the day.

[Bren In Pots]

It's good to hear from you Snoop, it does sound like you've been left with a lot of mess and damage that needs sorting. Take care xx

[bramble]

Snoop, good to see you back on line and you and Mr Snoop are ok.
It sounds like you have been through a rough time.
I hope the weather is kinder to you in the future.

[Nicos]

Afternoon n’alln’all
good to see you Snoop - sounds awful. Hope the mud in the house hasn’t done too much damage either. It’s times like those that friendly neighbours come into their own.
We seem to have missed the heavy rain and wind . I’ve spent the day packing as we are heading off tomorrow….I’ll pop in when I can.

We can’t finish packing up our bag…..guess who is fast asleep inside it?…awww- she knows how to make us feel guilty. She’ll have company but it’s not the same as mom and dad is it? When she gets a bit older we’ll try and take her out in the camper with a lead and harness and she if she’s up for an overnighter. She’s a bit too active and independent at the moment.

[mothhawk]

Evening all.
Great to see you safe, Snoop, glad you're both OK and sorry the house is a mess with mud. And the land messed up too, after all the hard work you've put in on it this year. You're amazingly upbeat about it, I wish I had your spirit.

[greenishfing]

Good evening. We did the grory hop earlier and this week I didn't buy a pannetone......I bought two..... at Mr GF's insistence.....to use his favourite comment "just in case".

Snoop it's good to hear that you're okay even if the weather had left you with a lot of extra hard work. We never saw the sun today. It didn't even come out to set. I was half listening to the local weather on TV this evening and I'm sure that when the forecaster was looking into her crystal ball regarding the end of the week I heard the word "frost" mentioned more than once.

Nicos I hope you have a good trip. I used to love seeing the white cliffs getting closer when I'd been abroad for a while. My next landmark was the cooling towers at Tinsley viaduct in Sheffield (sadly demolished now) and then eventually Emley Moor TV mast. I hope you get your daffodils and of course pub grub with suitable liquid refreshment.

Good night

[bramble]

Good morning all.
Surely I cant be first on this morning.
A bright sunny morning at 7 degs.
Going out to buy some more winter bedding this morning .
Looking after my grandson this afternoon, so that's my day spoken for.

[Snoop Puss]

Morning all. Thanks for the kind thoughts.

Sunny spells today, rain again tomorrow. We're OK, really, but it's going to be very hard for the neighbours, as we've got drizzle and some significant rain forecast most days for the next ten days or so. Looks like we'll be on fetching and carrying duties for a bit. The public water supply has been deemed unsafe. Lots of the villages here take their water supply from rivers. I'm guessing the problems are chemical run-off from the land and turbidity. Lots of farmers have been spreading muck recently, now that they've harvested their crops and ploughed in the stubble... There is a big reservoir nearby, but the water is used to serve towns rather than the villages. Bet there will be a big demand for a change to that if this situation becomes more frequent.

Anyway, not much on the cards today. A visit to the neighbours with food and bread and a bit of billing. The lull in the work is quite handy.

Have a great day, everyone.

[greenishfing]

Good morning. Another grey day here with rain yet again..... surely the reservoirs are starting to fill now.

We're going Care Home visiting this afternoon.

[Bren In Pots]

Afternoon

Not a bad day here no rain or fog just cold.
House stuff this morning then gardening it’s our last green bin collection of the year and we’d got a bin full by the time we’d finished.
Grory hop tomorrow I’ve got my list ready

enjoy your evening.

[greenishfing]

Evening all.

We never got to go care home visiting as Mr GF felt "conveniently" off it this afternoon.

When I did the grory hop yesterday I bought a big bag of galaxy minstrels...... an old favourite treat of mine. I remember when they were called chocolate treats. Either my taste buds are feeling "off it" or the recipe has been changed. What a let down...... I only "need" a hit of chocolate every so often and not even a lot then, but when something tastes wrong I'd rather live without. I remember when for a while during the mad cow disease scare Bovril lost it's beef taste and I couldn't touch it and several biscuits have lost their va va boom recently. I'd rather have one original biscuit than half a pack of de-sugared, de-salted and de-fatted cardboard. I have no idea who tastes the prototypes of lots of the latest products but they obviously belong to a different dimension.

[mothhawk]

Morning all.
Dark and rainy outside. Looks like I'll be doing the grory hop in the wet today.
GF, have you tried making your own biscuits? They are so easy, I never buy biscuits now, I make everything from digestives to bourbons, though I do tend to stick with a few favourites, mostly oaty ones because I love oats.

Oh, and BSE is still about. It's just that most dairy and beef cows are culled before they reach the age at which the disease manifests, at around 5 years of age. I still wouldn't touch beef products with a barge pole.