Chitchat thread #24

[rary]

Good afternoon, dull and wet with drizzly rain, temperature of 4c but feels warmer as there's no wind, CG where's the bottle you were drinking from when the stone was picked up, was out and put the fire on in the greenhouse and now having a bite to eat before heading back out to the greenhouse to pot on some alstromria, and possibly sow some seeds though I know I need to be patient 🤕 oops wrong patient 😄 enjoy your day

[rary]

CG yes I too can see a face on the stone, and that's without drink
I couldn't let the opportunity for a wind up pass😁😁

[Containergardener]

Haha in my defence Rary it was OH that picked it up.

Stone needs a name. He is living outside and reminds me of the roman head sculpture finds at local roman bath house recently..Perhaps he needs a roman name.
Just sits in my hand gf . Not big.

[Florence Fennel]

Good Morning All Grey skies again. Have a lovely Sunday

[Bren In Pots]

Morning

I'm a bit distracted this morning I'm sat at my desk watching a pair or robins building a nest in the lean-too. Its been just one robin until this morning now he has a mate. They don't seem to mind when we walk through there to go outside so hopefully they'll stay.

[Snoop Puss]

Morning all.

Is your stone a local type of stone, CG?

Blue skies today, but pretty chilly and very windy here. Back to dull again tomorrow. The smiles are making the most of it, flitting about in the wind with the birds. Still got birds roosting in our garage and next to the kitchen. Good indicators that spring has still not arrived and not to get too excited.

The usual jobs today, plus top up the solar batteries and make a big list for Mr Snoop's grory hop tomorrow.

Have a great day, everyone.

Edited: Sounds like your spring is ahead of ours, Bren. Hope your robins stay. What a treat that will be when the youngsters come along. Noisy, mind!

[Florence Fennel]

How lovely for you both. We rarely see birds, other than magpies and pigeons. Plenty of cats!
Talking of rocks, I made Rocky Road yesterday and I think there are too many rocks in it, it's more like granite

[Jay22]

Morning, grey here too! No sign of spring here yet.
Taking mother in law for coffee later, always interesting!
Couldn't believe it, I slept until after nine this morning so I really should get a move on. Catch you all later. x

[greenishfing]

Good morning all.

A chilly, wet 7°C here. Still not even a glimpse of the sun. I'm going out shortly to deliver a birthday card and banana loaf. (98 today)

This miserable weather isn't encouraging me to go outside more than I have to.

[bramble]

Good morning all.
Another lovely sunny morning here, much better than the forecast.
The usual Sunday here, going to church and grandson coming for lunch.

We have a pair of Robin's in our Bach garden and they come right up to the door for crumbs.

Have a good day all,

[Containergardener]

Morning
Very grey and damp looking here, not cold though. Even took hat, gloves and coat off for a bit whilst walking.
Aw robins how lovely. I had a nest behind my gh in a 2 on end stacked troughs. She was sat on the nest and he was going in feeding her. One day nothing, the nest had been pulled out . Probably someone's cat I only saw one Robin after that.

Yes Snoop local stone, it's quarried round about and crushed for use on forest tracks for the logging trucks to drive over. They are felling where we found him, Mr Rock was on a part of track that was mostly mud but he was there all alone

Shall nip and see mum today, it would be their wedding anniversary today so think I will grab some flowers on the way. Will take the dog and walk her coming home.
more seeds arrived yesterday, don't know who on earth ordered more
What do you do to top your solar batteries Snoop Puss , do you get alot of power from them?
Jay I don't know whether to laugh, sympathise or be intrigued re coffee with mother in.law.
aw FF I'm sure it stays tastes lovely. We are short on pud for later if you need some help eating it
98 is going some gf. I like banana bread but OH hates bananas ugh.

[Snoop Puss]

We have two solar systems that run different sets of devices, Containergardener. One set-up has gel batteries that need no maintenance. The other lot are lead acid batteries, which we top up with distilled water.

These lead acid batteries are quite old as we bought them extremely cheap second-hand from someone who never looked after them, so they won't last as long as they ought to. But they serve our purpose. We use them to run a big chest freezer and a fridge. That doesn't sound like much demand, but the solar panels for this set of batteries are not well-placed (best we could do, but not really adequate) and on short days, they power both these devices for maybe 18 hours and they never run out of juice. In summer, although the days are longer, the ambient temperature is considerably higher, so they probably provide more power overnight than in winter. Overall, I think they do a good job. Had we bought them new, they would have cost us about €3000 and would have lasted twenty years or so and would have powered the whole house. In fact, they very well might now, but this was a secondary system that I wanted in order to have a freezer and electric fridge (we also have a gas fridge).

We bought gel batteries for our first system thinking the newer technology would be better than lead acid (lithium at that stage was still in its infancy and hugely expensive). I would not recommend gel. We place next to no demand on these batteries (they run my laptop and the satellite equipment, with very occasional use after dark of a kitchen appliance, but I try and avoid that) and do no better than the lead acid batteries. We wouldn't consider using them to run the freezer and fridge even though in theory they have greater capacity and were very expensive.

Lithium has advanced dramatically and there are now lots of different suppliers. Our next sets of batteries, should we live long enough to replace our existing ones, will be lithium, I imagine.

[Containergardener]

Interesting re batteries Snoop. Maybe one day we will get somewhere abroad , in which case OH would like plenty solar and resources etc.

[Snoop Puss]

Lithium is the best bet for batteries at the moment. Solar panels have come down in price, as have lithium batteries, but by the time you buy all the other bits and pieces, it's still quite an investment. If you live off-grid, you need a back-up supply (generator) just in case you have a run of dull days. And if you're connected to the grid, you will need to find out about the local rules. In Spain (for example) it's illegal to have batteries if you are connected to the grid, the idea being that if you benefit from the grid as a back-up supply, you should be paying towards the grid. Just things to bear in mind if and when you find somewhere abroad.

[Nicos]

Afternoon n’alln’all
Just got Sunday roast on hold as our daughter has had a family drop in unexpected…and yes- they are nattering away having a coffee
5 minutes away from serving
Oh well. Frustratingly it won’t stretch to feed 9 as we have to do a grory hop tomorrow,
.

Earlier we had our almost 3 year old granddaughter explaining how to use the washing machine and dishwasher!!!

CG……I can see the face too…Romulus?

Snoop - we have a Lithium battery in our camper - mainly because it can be put on its side and also because it can ‘accidentally’ be run down to nothing without damaging it.


Right….best start rehearing…..
Enjoy your evening peeps