Chatback number 22

[Florence Fennel]

Good Morning All I'd almost forgotten how dark it is at this time in the morning. Haven't read back yet but I will. Have a good day

[mothhawk]

Morning Flo and all.
Just getting light and the robin and blackbird are twittering away somewhere close.

[Bren In Pots]

Morning a misty start to the day so it feels like autumn's here.

Jam making today and gardening later not sure what else yet.

Enjoy your day.

[Nicos]

Mornin n’alln’all
Very Misty start to the day - I can only just see the vague outlines of those frees in the foreground of yesterday’s sunrise photo.

Having a wood delivery later on. Well, I hope we are as we ordered 10 steres ( cubic metres) a few weeks ago and they only delivered 7 and some of it was unburnable pine.
They insisted it was 10 but we -and a friend- stacked it straight after they had gone and we were a good 3 steres short……then they started ignoring our messages, even though we sent photos with measurements.
(You can also tell near enough to half a stere when you regularly stack wood so their claims that it was 10 fell on deaf ears.)
We managed to track them down by various means and OH turned up on their doorstep a couple of times….and after some quite disturbing conversations they finally agreed to deliver 3 more steres.
All in all , an unnecessary bit of stress just because we tried a new supplier.
It makes you wonder how many other people they diddle out of wood…a bit here, a bit there.
Wont be using them again !

On a happier note, we had a lovely long chat with our granddaughter last night!
At almost 7 months she’s beginning to copy us with certain sounds and hand movements…we had a sing song together ( it’s very clear she loves music) and played peek-a-boo with a teddy and rabbit I bought at a charity shop….then she showed off her gymnastic skills by balancing on tiptoes and hands , rocking back and forth and then patting the floor with one hand….then we told her a quick farmyard story including animal sounds and she just giggled all the way through
Its been the most interactive time we’ve had via the internet, and it was lovely!
I’m starting to feel like we’re going to be like Children’s TV presenters for her!
The most important thing though is she recognises us and feels comfortable with us when we’re next over.

More bedroom sorting today - we’re getting there!

Time for another brew?…

[Snadger]

Morning all

Does 10 cubic metres of hardwood last you a year Nicos? I need to order some and usually get a trailer load which is possibly 5 cubic metres? but I measure it by heaped barrow loads which works out at about 33. Its always 30 to 35 and if I was to get any less I would have a word in the guys shell like.I am guessing I will need two to three loads a year and always get another load round about the turn of the year. This year because of gas and electricity prices I will be making more use of the woodburner and probably doing most of my living in the room its in during the winter.

Anyway, looks bright out but I can hear the wind in the chimney so will need to get wrapped up to walk Kato. After that its a trip to Aldi for necessities then maybe playing with my anvil this afternoon!

TTFN

[greenishfing]

Morning all. It's a beautiful morning here. The sun is shining and a light breeze is just fluttering my washing. If I concentrate I can just hear the hum of the M1 at rush hour in the distance. We have now tried the blackberry, raspberry and grape jelly I made the other day and it tastes good, nothing like the boot polish flavoured gunk that was supposed to be grape jelly from a few years ago. I think I'll be having a go at sweetcorn pickle next, never tried that before but my sweetcorn is doing amazingly well this year. So far even the secondary cobs on the plants are full. I am just sitting here waiting to get through to the doctor's surgery, number 19 in the queue, as I've got a text to book my husband's flu vaccine. It doesn't seem that long ago when making a phone c4all meant being shackled to a land line and no "hands free" feature and of course you couldn't use the internet and make a phone call at the same time and texts didn't exist.
Have a great day everyone.

[bramble]

Good morning all.
Sitting here in the sun listening to the waves.
It's a beautiful morning and there are people on the beach already.
Have a good day all.

[Peteyd]

When we first moved into our house we had no real heating so practically lived in our living room as we put in a wood burner.

We pay £240 for a very well filled flat bed full. that lasts us about half a season (when we're burning it every day, a lot longer if its only the evenings and weekends)

[greenishfing]

We once had a wood burner. It's main problem was that often it wouldn't quite make it all through the night, so if one of us woke up early we used to get up and put more wood on in Winter. Our clever dog worked this out and if it decided the fire was getting low it used to knock something onto the tiles to disturb us so we would stoke the fire. It's a pity he couldn't manage to do it himself or I'm sure he would have. My pet hate with that fire was cleaning the glass doors.

[Snoop Puss]

Afternoon all.

Absolutely bucketing it down out there today. Hope the lettuces I planted out are coping. Doubtless the cabbages are in their element, though so are the snails and slugs.

Still haven't got our firewood in. Our usual guy isn't answering the phone, but possibly on holiday. We'll soon be wanting to use the range. Possibly even tonight, it's so damp and chilly outside.

Not much news. Work on the cards for today, but not much, thank goodness.

I'm afraid the smiles weren't keen to go out this morning. Too damp for them. I hope some of them find their way to you.

Have a great day, everyone.

[Nicos]

Snadge - we use up to 20 steres a year as we have two fires.
We only buy wood from sustainable sources which was why we wanted to try out/ support this new business.

We can lockdown the big one (50cm) for 12 hours if we use oak, but the small one (35cm)lasts 6 hrs max, so it depends which part of the house we sleep in whether we bother topping up the small one in the night.
I wish we could train Hibou to let us know gf!…that’s an amazingly clever dog!

Snoop , no fear…I spotted the smiles tanning themselves in our garden…so I had a quiet word with them and they headed off ooop norf

Time for Brew…there are slices from the massive Bakewell tart I made yesterday up for grabs …I used Black cherry and cocoa jam I made 6 years ago!
and it’s delish!
Help yourselves…

[greenishfing]

Snadge - we use up to 20 steres a year as we have two fires.
We only buy wood from sustainable sources which was why we wanted to try out/ support this new business.

We can lockdown the big one (50cm) for 12 hours if we use oak, but the small one (35cm)lasts 6 hrs max, so it depends which part of the house we sleep in whether we bother topping up the small one in the night.
I wish we could train Hibou to let us know gf!…that’s an amazingly clever dog!

Snoop , no fear…I spotted the smiles tanning themselves in our garden…so I had a quiet word with them and they headed off ooop norf

Time for Brew…there are slices from the massive Bakewell tart I made yesterday up for grabs …I used Black cherry and cocoa jam I made 6 years ago!
and it’s delish!
Help yourselves…

I 've never heard of using cocoa in a jam but I'm thinking black forest gateau in a jar. Yum!

That dog was amazingly clever but he also liked his warmth and comfort. I would sometimes get up in the morning and all my cushions had been moved from the furniture onto his bed.

[Nicos]

Pre- evenin n’alln’all

The wood delivery has now been postponed until Friday
Lets hope it’s it yet another avoidance issue

Still working on the bedroom.
most of the stored boxes have been sorted and we’ve just got the fitted wardrobe and cupboards to go through.
Having not slept in there for over a year now , it’d become a bit of a storage/ craft/junk/ attic room seeing as we don’t actually have an attic!
At least the bed has been taken to pieces and stored …

I’ve just been out in the garden to bring in a lettuce and it’s lovely and warm out there- 21C….I should have been outside gardening

[Nicos]

I 've never heard of using cocoa in a jam but I'm thinking black forest gateau in a jar. Yum!

.

It is a bit that way!…I used Green and Blacks pure cocoa powder - didn’t want to add in any form of dairy to the mix in case it went off.

[Bren In Pots]

Evening the mist soon cleared this morning, so the laundry went out and I make jam and dehydrated apples. Then gardened in the afternoon so a good day after all.

No cake here Nicos I've been nibbling apples all day or so its seems like.

Enjoy your evening.