Chitchat thread #24

[greenishfing]

Good morning all.

A cold, grey, breezy, cloudy morning so far. In fact I just gave Mr GF a few choices of what he might fancy eating tonight made with the chicken thighs I've been defrosting in the fridge overnight (curry, pie, soup, goujons, sweet and sour) and he looked out the window, gave a theatrical shiver and gave a definite answer of soup. Enough said! It looks like Winter outside.

I've been awake on and off since well before dawn and had lots of dreams. I woke up panicking after one where I lost my passport and keys at an airport. I wonder if the day will come when instead of passports we'll all have microchips inserted like dogs? That is bringing back a half forgotten memory of a futuristic film!

I'm going to make some buns next and the jellies I forgot to make yesterday.

[rary]

Good morning, cold and wet this morning the alexa thing is showing a temperature of 9c not sure how accurate it is, but our central heating system came on and it is set at 15c, I might send OH out to assess how cold it is.
If the rain stops I will try and get my veg beds sorted out, as I am working off a gravil and concrete base it's not mucky underfoot so safe enough for working, but first I will get ready to take a walk up the town for some messages, have a good day and smile

[Snoop Puss]

Morning all.

Well, yesterday's rain was much more than expected. Maybe 60 mm/litres per square metre. All very welcome, except a bit more of my winter veg patch has collapsed into the drainage channel below. Not very sure how to resolve this. The man with the JCB wasn't able to come to sort out the previous bit that fell. And now the collapsed area might be too big to deal with. Trying not to think about this too much, as it might be an insurmountable problem. Anyway, at least the fruit trees got a very good watering.

Nice and sunny now, but everything is dripping with dew. We would seem, after all, to have lots of small spiders about the place, if not big ones, as the webs covered in dew were looking lovely in the sunshine when I took the dogs out.

Mr Snoop has gone into town for messages, as rary would say. With any luck, the Lidl tools will be there for him to pick up, though the messages from Lidl and the transport company are very odd and contradictory.

My day... Work and housework. Probably a bit of baking. I'm starting to get the suspicion we buy bananas and deliberately don't eat them so that eventually all they're good for is cake.

Have a great day, everyone.

[Nicos]

Mornin n’alln’all
Definitely back into ‘proper’ summer weather here for the next couple of days- too hot to sit in the sun again yesterday until at least 6pm.
Poor Hibou has now had two attempts at growing her thicker winter coat…and is moulting again.
I really must concentrate on the weeding and collecting of seed heads before the rains come. My sunflowers are drying nicely as is the next batch of English marigolds. My nasturtium have gone bonkers- back into full flower. They look stunning. So pretty.
No plans this weekend apart from that
OH raked up the first load of leaves earlier this week. We’ve decided not to compost them all but to try mulching the veggie and flower beds with them , seeing if the worms will pull them down into the soil.
Got to try and keep one step ahead of this water shortage.

Hope everyone is fine- enjoy your weekend peeps

[Nicos]

As we’ve just decided to use our indoor oven to make the pizza , it looks like I might as well do some baking too to make the most of the heat . Yum!

[Florence Fennel]

Good Morning All Cloudy but warm here. No plans for me, apart from Monty's jobs for the weekend Have a good day

[bramble]

Good morning all. Its dull, grey, and cold here.
We had 24 hours of rain from yesterday morning so everywhere is sodden.
I have decided to make soup today as I need to use up the frozen tomatoes to make space in the freezer.

Snoop, I hope you can get your garden sorted.
Have a good day all.

[rary]

Good evening, after a walk up the town for the messages, as it was dry I decided to get some work done in the veg bed, and as the day progressed the weather improved, I cleared enough soil out the bed to allow me to turn one of the tree trunks that I was going to saw and thank goodness for that as I think it would have been quite a problem for me to saw through it, I now have my second bed sorted, though still to cement the joints of the slabs, I will need to clear the soil from the last bed to allow me to reposition another tree trunk, thats the work for next week. Snoop if the sides of the drainage channel is falling in when you have heavy rain, would making the edges V shaped and pegging in some wire mesh to hold it, not help hold the sides in place, it doesn't help the soil if you have to use a JCB whenever there is a problem so hope you get a satisfactory solution
Hope everyone has a good evening and remember the smiles

[bramble]

Good evening all.
Got nothing garden related done today.
It was cold, wet and miserable.
Went to the library and made some soup in the afternoon.
Have a good evening all.

[Bren In Pots]

Evening

I've not done much gardening either Bramble just planted 18 mixed lettuces into buckets. I did sort out my freezers though a bit like playing Jenga, at least I can find things now.

enjoy our evening.

[Snoop Puss]

Nice day. Went scrumping for figs. Our figs are a bit disappointing this year. Too watery after all the rain. Anyway, have enough now to freeze for the winter for my favourite Middle Eastern dish of quall with figs: https://books.google.es/books?id=Ax8...20figs&f=false

In other fruit news, there's an advantage (to us at least) of there being fewer birds: we actually have some bunches of grapes to pick. Most years the blackbirds take them. Plus, I went and looked at all our fruit trees. Quite a few have succumbed this summer, but there's a pear tree that has been stunted for the last dozen years and more and has never produced a single pear. This year, it's grown huge and is covered in pears. Not quite ripe yet (it's a winter storage variety), so it'll be a toss-up between who gets them first, us or the boar. But at least it's trying.

rary, agreed. But in this case my winter veg patch is quite a bit higher than the approach the JCB would take from below. It's hard to describe, but essentially my winter veg patch is a terrace above the drainage channel. Anyway, there's no need for the JCB to cross the veg patch. I went and had a look today to see if I could see why it was happening. Years ago, there was an old almond tree growing out of the drainage channel bank. It died well before we arrived here and eventually fell into the drainage channel. We managed to move it, but clearly it has left the bank vulnerable. There are lots of really thick roots visible, extending into my veg patch. Not sure what the solution is. Or if there even is a solution.

[rary]

Just a thought Snoop, could you use an old fishing net pinned to th ground to hold the soil in place, you might be able to get something like that a lot cheaper than wire mesh, if you got one made of nylon it would outlast you, if its natural fibers the soil might well have stabilised by the time it rots away

[Nicos]

Mornin n’alln’all
Woken by a rolling thunderstorm this morning!….exciting
We’ve had some rain but not as much as we were expecting so I’ll pop out and do some more weeding later . Might do some ironing….but maybe not( If I say it often enough on here I might feel guilty enough to get on with it!)

Apart from that, I have no idea what today will bring - no doubt OH will find something for me to do

Love the idea of that recipe Snoop ( couldn’t view it) - fresh figs…yum! I was nearly tempted to buy some the other day but at 69cents each I just couldn’t do it.

Enjoy your day peeps. May the sun shine and may it pour with rain depending on your wishes

[Florence Fennel]

Good Morning All I'm cooking breakfast this morning so the pan's on and taking orders if you haven't get eaten Have a lovely Sunday

[Nicos]

Sounds yum Flo…I actually fancy a bacon butty even though I’ve already just had a big bowl of porridge

Thankyou xxxxx