Chitchat thread #24

[bramble]

Good morning all.
Cold and frosty with some snow falling.
No plans for the day so it will probably be indoor jobs.
Grandson coming for lunch as usual.
Enjoy your Sunday and stay warm.

[Snoop Puss]

Morning all. Glad Mr Bramble is OK.

Drizzle here today. And right through to Christmas, say the weather folk. The ground is now so wet the puddles aren't draining. The smiles said it was OK, though, as the underground water supply will be fully replenished for next year's veg patch. They were very keen to see the snow that some of you have got, so they set off in a proper hurry.

Sorry for not dropping in yesterday. We went out for yet another outing and feast with the friend up the valley. All this good living is starting to pall. I was presented with a very pretty plate of salmon tataki yesterday and it might as well have been cotton wool for all the pleasure it gave me. I'm heading back to the UK this week for Christmas. My mum's been telling me all about their food plans for me... No idea how I'm going to get to the other side of New Year. Anyway, talk about first world problems... I should be grateful.

Today is a baking and freezer filling day for me, so that Mr Snoop doesn't have to worry too much about that while I'm away.

Hope you all have a great day.

[lottie dolly]

Exiting is'nt it,getting all these christmas things planned,not felt this good in a few years,thats the marzipan on 3 cakes,might do the icing as well,get it out the way,i thought,with the scraps of both the marzy and the icing,about a few little sweeties,several ideas,from mint creams ,nuts and choc extext,snoop have a safe flight,luky mr Snoop,i did that in our earlier days,when i visites my son a couple of times,although i had writen instructions on each plate,i still had to often repete over the phone bless him,and how to use the washing machine,we keep getting odd bouts of fine snow,good thing is,the car is not iced up,only i have to use it in the morning,as it should be safer under foot for me,and a darn sight wamer,see yur later

[Bren In Pots]

Afternoon

Cards are finished and ready to be delivered, just need to buy a few presents then we’re sorted.
No decorations yet we’re waiting for a break in the weather to go searching for holly, there’s usually plenty in the hedgerows around here.

[Nicos]

We ended up bringing in more split wood for our fires, then cooking , so hopefully tomorrow will be the greenery day. It really does make such a difference to the feel of Xmas.
We do have a small amount of mistletoe in our apple tree - I guess some of that will be sacrificed. Nothing like a bit of snoggy stuff in the house eh?

[Nicos]

Mornin n’alln’all

Oi….who’s pinching all the snow?
We we’re forecast several hours worth overnight, so I got up all excited to see…..ner sner
Oh well. It’ll be our turn one day

Yesterday I did a baking sesh and experimented . Sort of a cross between a Bakewell tart and an apple Charlotte using 50:50 apple : mincemeat . So pastry base, then the festive filling then sponge on top. Worked out really well. Much less sickly than a mince pie.

Holly hunting here today too Bren - fingers crossed we find some with berries, although I expect the birds will have gobbled them up by now.

Keep warm and safe peeps…

[Nicos]

Oh, I forgot to mention that when OH put in his new car battery he found an abandoned mouse’s nest (containing one hazelnut ) tucked up against the air filter Rural living eh?

[Bren In Pots]

Morning

Freezing fog this morning so we won't be going for a stroll around the lanes looking for holly, hope you do better Nicos if it clears we'll see later. We don't see much mistletoe around here if we do spot it, its usually too high to reach.

enjoy your day

[greenishfing]

Good morning all. It's a cold one here again. -3°C and murky. The temperature isn't forecast to climb above freezing at all today. I met up with my sister, niece and great nephew yesterday for breakfast. I am not a breakfast person but I had been up a couple of hours. The place where we met was nice, the staff were really nice and found us a ground floor table even though we hadn't booked (my sister, the organiser, didn't know we needed to), but the food was a let down. It's a shame as they are supposed to be showcasing the produce from their adjoining farm shop. I must say that 9am on a Sunday is a civilised time to be driving with empty roads. When I returned home it was really busy with traffic fighting to get into the city. I passed on picking up my click and collect orders from the outskirts. I'm sure it'll be much quieter today. We also all had a video call with my brother in Australia before we split up to go our seperate ways.

We still haven't had any snow but there's a 39% chance this afternoon supposedly. Probably a better chance of flying pigs than the weatherman actually being right!

[bramble]

Good morning sol,
Minus 3 here with freezing fog, so it will be a day indoors.
I may do some gift wrapping later, I'm sure I'll find something to fill the day,
Stay safe and warm whatever you're up to,

[Nicos]

Found quite a bit of holly but none had berries on. To be expected in this weather!

I’ve had a call from my daughter in rural Cumbria saying it’s been -8C there They are having to smash through at least 2” of ice on the water troughs for their cattle. Not an easy life.

[Bren In Pots]

Afternoon

Pity about the lack of berries Nicos do you have any Fimo or something to make some.

The fog lifted then it snowed

[Snoop Puss]

Afternoon all.

Chilly here, but nothing like as cold as you've all got it. Hope you're all managing to stay warm. We've got miserable grey skies and drizzle instead. Mind you, a proper downpour is forecast for tomorrow. Again.

Been a bit of a strange day today so far. Very busy but nothing actually achieved. Very frustrating. So I'd better step on it.

No holly round this way and mistletoe is protected. But we do have a rule in our household: never come home emptyhanded. So lots of kindling makes its way here instead.

Have a great rest of the day, everyone.

[greenishfing]

We have had a little snow flurry earlier, not enough to stop the birds from munching however.

I went out earlier and picked up my click and collect purchases and then called at an old friend of Mr GF's and also at my brother-in-law's to give them hunks of Christmas cake. The mark 3 version is going in the oven either tonight or tomorrow.

I can't believe how cold it feels.🥶❄

[Nicos]

It’s really chill here too gf. We don’t have curtains- just nets and they let the cold air drop from the windows. Some windows have wooden shutters but I really don’t want to close those during the day.
Thank goodness for our wood stoves!

Snoop…why is mistletoe protected? The trees here are heavily laden with snoggy stuff.
This year we’ve cut our very own home grown ….