Chitchat thread #24

[Snoop Puss]

Afternoon all.

Your hand is making good progress, rary. Excellent news.

Bright here today after the downpours over the weekend. Some places have been absolutely devastated. Shocking videos online of towns not that far east of us. We got lucky here. More drizzly days forecast. So looks like you might have some luck mushrooming round here in a couple of weeks or so, Nicos. Sorry you didn't find any, but glad you had a nice time.

Done some odd jobs in the village and at home this morning. Might have a little nap in a bit, Jack willing. Then I'd better settle down to some work. Need to do something active, though, to work off the Mars Bar I've just had. Mind you, you'd hardly know it was a Mars Bar. More like a Milky Way with a bit of runny toffee on top.

Have a great rest of the day, everyone.

[Nicos]

Flu vaccine now out of the way….just the Covid one now. I wanted a few days between them.

I saw some videos Snoop…very scarey Heartbreaking for those involved.

Did you manage a short siesta ?

[Snoop Puss]

^No. It's been one of those days... At least we're not flooded out, though. Here's a link to a video in English (8 mins) for anyone interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TImd25v9tg

[bramble]

Snoop, that's devastating...We are here just outside of Malaga since the beginning of the month and we haven't seen a drop of rain.

[Nicos]

Mornin n’alln’all

Oh my Snoop… how heartbreaking for everyone.
What on earth can be done to try and prevent this sort of inundation? It’ll cost trillions of € to try to protect the area. Money no government seems to be able to spare.
And it’s happening worldwide too isn’t it?

And on that sobering thought I’m going to be grateful that I live where I do .


So…..*takes a big breath ……what’s everyone up to today?
More garden pottering for me. It looks like the rain will be holding off until Sunday at least.
I think I’ll concentrate on the apples today.
Storing a few trays, making apple cider vinegar, baking a Dorset apple cake to freeze and making some parkin. I’ve left it much later than usual this year to make the parkin, so I hope it’ll be sticky enough by Halloween/ bonfire night! I can’t seem to find my super sticky recipe but I’ve found another one…unless anyone can suggest one they use ? The stickier the better!

Time for a wiggle on….

Enjoy your day and do share those lovely smiles…someone somewhere will greatly appreciate them
Oh…and speaking of which….the smiles headed over earlier with parcels tucked underneath their arms…..what is that about Snoop?

[Snoop Puss]

Morning all.

Parcels, Nicos? I didn't see that, but to be honest I'm not surprised. Jack is now so tall he can see what's on the table and work surfaces without even craning his neck. And he has become a dreadful thief as a result. I guess he doesn't see it as thieving - things are just sitting there waiting for him to play with them or eat them. I guess the smiles have decided to pack up their valuables and hide them somewhere safe. Better check if they've taken their sou'westers. If so, I'd better suggest they bring them back and I'll put them somewhere high, along with just about all our other belongings...

A dull start to the day and lots to fill it.

Our new fridge is arriving at its destination in the village today. Not quite sure when it'll get here. A big extravagance, but the gas fridge will annoy me no more.

Have a great day, everyone.

[Nicos]

Te he Snoop…jack does sound a wonderful handful

Ooo…a new fridge! That’s going to be wonderful!
Will you keep the gas one as a backup?( thinking power outages/ lack of sunlight for the solar panels?) or is it well and truly done-in ?

I forgot to mention…..I’ve had absolutely no side effects from this flu vaccination - not even a sore arm…has everyone else found it to be the same?

[Bren In Pots]

Morning

Snoop I've just watched the video horrendous and heart breaking the clear up going to take years. Its taken 2 years for everyone to be back in their homes from the flooding caused by storm Babet that was down the road from us.

Nicos it took 4 days before I could sleep on my flu jab arm that seems to happen every time, MrPots was fine not even a twinge.

Some sewing today and making a coupe of birthday cards.

Enjoy your day

[Florence Fennel]

Good Morning All It's certainly a count your blessings time when there is such devastation in the world. I've just been cleaning my dining chairs - cat hair!!! Have a good day

[Nicos]

Cat hair Flo?….te he…
I guess you will see more of him as the weather gets colder and wetter…

[Snoop Puss]

Ooo…a new fridge! That’s going to be wonderful!
Will you keep the gas one as a backup?( thinking power outages/ lack of sunlight for the solar panels?) or is it well and truly done-in ?

The gas one is done-in. It won't stay alight and even though we could perhaps source an engineer to fix it, it'd cost an arm and a leg. I was glad to have it, but it has been getting more and more unreliable. And I'm getting less and less able to handle the gas bottles. So an electric fridge it is. Should be OK. Will keep the batteries charged by generator if necessary.

I'm going to give it a jolly good clean out and use it a cupboard

[Armorel]

Afternoon all

Just a dull grey quiet mild day today so I shelved plans for laundry. Hubby is 'altering' a solid oak dining table, one of four that we had in our guest house, to add two drop down flaps and make it bigger. Friends have just said they'd like to visit next Thursday and Friday nights so he has a deadline now. Our garage is full of dust from sawing and sanding - oak is VERY hard! It's also been quite noisy.

I've been multi tasking with computers this morning now that Windows 10 has reached end of support. There are options but they are all complicated or expensive It seems unbelievable that so many perfectly good computers/laptops will soon be vulnerable just because MS, in its wisdom, made the requirements for Windows 11 so strict. I hope that most will be recycled but I'm not holding my breath. We certainly can't afford to rush out to buy new Windows 11 computers just because ours are now deemed 'obsolete'. It really makes my blood boil. Neither are we of the younger generations that conduct their entire life on a smartphone. There are always ways round this kind of conundrum but they are never straightforward. However, I can be a bit bl**dy minded at times so I'll work something out

I had my annual Diabetes checkup yesterday so the blood test results will be through soon and they are bound to summon me to be lectured. At least I had only put on a pound in weight which was pretty good But previously they put me on meds that made me quite poorly and basically confined me to home because I daren't go out. So I expect I will have to fight that fight all over again or find an alternative.

It's our adult autistic daughter's (38th ) birthday tomorrow so we despatched a box of gift wrapped presents to her care home upcountry at the end of last week. We will chat to her as usual on WhatsApp tomorrow and she will be SOOO excited about it all. We used to bring her home at this time but one year she got very upset because the shops had been full of Xm*s stuff since August. She was convinced she'd been deprived of celebrations (and presents!) when we returned her to her care home in November. Her patchy understanding of time and calendar meant she couldn't understand that she was coming home again in December So we took her back in mid July this year and she won't be home with us again until mid December. It feels like a long time ...

My mother was a Yorkshirewoman and Dad was a Lancastrian so she always made parkin at this time of year. But I'm the only one who likes it so I don't make it any more. I probably have her recipes tucked away somewhere but, since we moved to a much smaller property this summer, I can't find anything

Hope everyone is well, smiling lots and staying warm.

[Nicos]

That’s hard for you about your daughter Amoral- but I hope she has a lovely birthday x

Parkin?…well, I got as far as finding the recipe I lost but didn’t have enough butter to make that and a crumble- so tomorrow will deffo be the day for me to make it. I notice it freezes really well too so long as it’s really sticky beforehand. Double quantities for me if I’m to stand a chance of even sampling it!
Do share your recipe if you can find it please. I seem to recall there is a slight difference between Yorkshire and Lancashire parkin..one is less sticky and one has more oatmeal by % ?
I’m going for an extra sticky one with added ginger…

The heating engineer has finally turned up- and couldn’t find a fault…well, there was one for sure….I guess we need to wait until it happens again….

[mothhawk]

Evening all.

Amorel, same moan here about windows 11. Did you know you can get Windows 10 Extended Security Updates till October 2026 so you can continue to use windows 10 securely? You won't get any other extras or tech support but at least your computer will be protected for another year until you can change to Win 11.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/wind...ty-updates?r=1

[Florence Fennel]

Good Morning All It's a Frank day. Crikey it's dark, just getting light. I'm usually reading in bed at this time. They were going to try to leave him on his own today, but no-one can pop in to walk him at lunchtime. The longest stretch he's done has been 5 hours. He's in his basket sleeping peacefully, so I'll read for a while now. Grory Hop delivery later and the chiropodist, so lots of barking later. Have a good day