Chitchat thread #24

[Containergardener]

Safe travels Bramble

[Bren In Pots]

Evening

Armorel my niece had a Labradoodle mostly because of allergies, like you say they are scatty but lovely dogs.
Rary you must have needed that sleep, take care xx

time go sort out dinner enjoy your evening

[Containergardener]

Well its rained most of the day, still not cold but the woodburner is on.

[Nicos]

Evening all.
I got a lot of weeding sorted today.It really has seemed never ending this year
It hit 21C in the sun so it was T-shirt weather.
Sorry to be hogging it - if I am?
All the washing was line dried too…hard to believe for 1st October!( I only realised that this evening)

Sorry your hols wasn’t everything you’d hoped lottie…but you did manage to get away with your man and had a lovely change of scenery. I’ve never visited the IOW…always fancied it though - mostly to see fossils. Maybe one day I should stop off one day early before or straight after the ferry .

Rary- so pleased you finally had your second op…things should be so much easier once the swelling has gone down. How exciting seeing inside your own hand!

Have a great holiday bramble- so uplifting.

Woodfire lit here too CG…nice innit?

Nighty night peeps- sleep tight….don't let the bedbugs bite

[Containergardener]

Morning all
Still dark.
Need to go for a food shop today and drop mum's off, that will be most of the day gone.

Brew?

[Nicos]

Mornin n’alln’all

A brew sounds just the ticket please CG …ta muchly x

Looks like we have no heating again today- the heating engineer is coming out sometime tomorrow….again We are on first name terms these days…
At least the hot water is working and we have the wood fires.

I’ve got a couple of things needing doing today then I’m hoping I can crack on with more gardening. Yesterday I massively cut back a very spindly rosemary shrub so I want to see if I can root some of the tips . Also make rosemary vinegar….
Any other suggestions ?

Today is deffo a porridge day - I’ve defrosted some cherries to go with it.
Help yourselves!

Enjoy your day peeps ( wonders what will accidentally jump into CF’s shopping basket)
Let’s share our lovely smiles….speaking of which- have those smiles been behaving whilst I was away?…there were loads spare where I was…I had wondered of they’d have gathered a few to restock en route!

[Bren In Pots]

Morning

Dentist and a Grory hop today how exciting is my day. hopefully it'll just be a check up and see you in 6 months. We've not lit our stove yet this season the chimneys been swept so we're ready, its just not felt cold enough just yet.

enjoy your day

[Snoop Puss]

Morning all.

Bright blue but distinctly on the chilly side this morning. No heating on as yet, but if we had firewood, we'd be burning it for sure. Still no delivery. Our firewood man has a bad back but his wife said he'd be delivering. Maybe he has other ideas. The pellet heater should be coming soon(ish).

Load of work to get through today. Did a good cardboard and plastics recycling session yesterday. With any luck more of the same.today.

Glad you enjoyed the smiles while you were away, Nicos. One of the many good thing about smiles is that they multiply very readily.

Right, I'd better shake a leg.

Hava great day, everyone.

[Florence Fennel]

Good Morning All Cloudy here and on the cool side. Grory Hop this morning and then hopefully some more clearing in the garden. Have a good day

[greenishfing]

Good morning all.

There's no rain forecast until tonight, and the temperature is forecast to reach 18°C. I did have the heating on earlier, though. It felt decidedly chilly.

Nicos, maybe rosemary jelly? (Made the same way as mint jelly).
I made it once, but decided I much preferred mint jelly). It does use some apples up as well, if you have a glut.

I'm trying to decide whether to have rice or couscous tonight. I've just realised that the only rice I had ever had when I was young was in rice pudding, and I first had couscous in the late 1970s in Morocco. I wasn't impressed by the couscous, which might have had something to do with the fact that an American at a nearby table kept loudly insisting that the meat with it was seagull. To be fair it could have been anything

[rary]

Good day, still raining here though I think the rain was off for a time overnight, however as I am not allowed out to play rain is fine, Nicos I spent a day in the IOW decided to leave the car on the mainland and travel round the island by bus, which I think was a mistake as all the hedge rows are very tall couldn't see a thing from the top deck of the bus, had I gone with the car I could have reached points of interest a bit quicker, but if you are going mainly to see the fossils
you need to know that there are a fair number of young folk as well I think I will try and get out to the greenhouse to water my potatoes and chrysants though I will have to find a glove big enough to slip on so that my hand doesn't get wet or dirty and thats a problem as I usually have difficulty finding gloves large enough to fit, just remembered I have mitts upstairs from my hill walking days that will do fine as they were made to fit over gloves, good problem solved just have to wait for OH to start watching tv or having a snooze enjoy your day and pass on your smiles

[mothhawk]

Afternoon all.

Glad your hand is not too painful Rary.

Nicos, what about rosemary salt? Plenty of recipes online for it. Dry it out and use as kindling for your fires, or toss some on just to scent the room. Save long straight twigs to use as barbecue skewers next year. That's assuming you are not a winter barbecuer, though I know some folks barbie even in the snow!

I made a clove orange today. I have a really old one (60+ years) that still smells great and thought I'd have a go. If it dries well and doesn't go mouldy with the juice seeping out I'll make a few more to hang on the tree in December. (Notice I avoided the C-word there? )


When it's more dry I'll decorate the ribbon with pins through sequins or beads.

[Jay22]

Evening, did some grocery shopping today and now just waiting for storm Amy to show up! It’s been raining on and off all day but not too heavily, saving itself for tomorrow probably.
We were sitting having lunch in the kitchen today when a bird flew into the window leaving a mark on it. Went outside to check but no bird to be found. Came in and five minutes later it happened again. No bird to be found. Was it one bird twice or two birds, and why who knows!
Anyhoo, enjoy the rest of your evening folks!

[Nicos]

MH…that’s a really lovely pomander!…..all the ones I’ve ever made have gone mouldy….whats the secret?
I’d love to make some now ready for Xmas ( no C word here either )

GF…yeh…same with me re the rice…those Vesta meals were my first taste of anything spicy or ricey….I loved them. Not so sure they would be my go to choice these days but back in the 70’s they were a wonderful experience!

Not done any gardening unfortunately today …but I think tomorrow will still be on ….pre storm ….

Jay…we seemed to have several swallows in the house this summer. We ended up having to catch a few of them as they just wouldn’t get the hint that an open door…humans wafting hands in that direction…was the way to go. So amazing seeing wild birds at such close contact!…I hope your bird/ birds were ok. Can you still get those stickers to put on windows to make them think twice about trying to access via the closed window?

[mothhawk]

MH…that’s a really lovely pomander!…..all the ones I’ve ever made have gone mouldy….whats the secret?
I’d love to make some now ready for Xmas ( no C word here either )

This is the first I've made, Nicos, so I don't know the secret. I may add more cloves as I suspect they help absorb the moisture plus acting as fungicide to prevent moulds germinating. The old one I have is completely studded except where the ribbon is. I wasn't sure how much space to leave for shrinkage, but maybe it will be better to have too many cloves rather than not enough. I've hung it up in a paper bag as you do with herbs to help it dry out. Thinking on it, I have a jar of ground cloves and it might be a good idea to shake the dust all over the orange. What do you think? I really don't want it to go mouldy.