Chitchat thread #24

[rary]

Good afternoon, finished up getting some antibiotics for grandson, wth an appointment for Tuesday morning, hopefully his mother will be able to take him over as I have to take son for an appointment as his car has a problem with the tyre pressures, everything seems to by tied in to the controls on a Tesla I'm quite glad I have a car that will start even with a flat tyre or started with a push or rolling down a hill
hoping all you people with the sore backs take some time out to rest,as I have been told sore backs can be very debilitating on the elderly hopefully I will get all the heave work that I require done before I too get old, and those going to dentists or into hospital make a speedy recovery, talking of dent again I am thinking I have finished up quite fortunate losing my teething due to chemical contamination as I can lift me teeth out rather than tying a thread round one and attaching this to a door handle then slamming the door, and believe me it works. Right of to walk the dogs so have a good day and smile

[greenishfing]

Good afternoon. This morning I changed my WiFi network password.

I quickly connected my phone, the TV and the Hard drive recorder. I put off the printer until last. 🤯🤯🤯 Several hours and many swear words later it is working. The problems are 1. My router doesn't have a SSID button. 2.My printer does not have a screen where I can imput passwords. 3. I connect nothing wirelessly that has a CD drive. The air was blue! How it didn't end up thrown out of the window I don't know. I'll go and connect the other TV shortly I think. That, at least will let me imput a password with the remote control.

I've been sorting paperwork for my brother in law this afternoon as well.

[Bren In Pots]

It’s been lovely and sunny here today. I didn’t need a coat on my stroll over to the supermarket for my Grory hop.
Apart from that I’ve mostly been in the garden it’s our first council green been collection of the year tomorrow so I wanted to make the most use of it.
Enjoy your evening.

[Containergardener]

Morning
Yesterday was lovely when the sun was out, cool otherwise. Little bit of frost but the sun has reappeared I will make the most of it and get outside again.
Bacon butties and brews ready, help yourselves.

[Jay22]

Morning CG and all. Mmm bacon butties sound like just the thing, thank you!
Seems like another lovely morning although I haven’t looked out but the sun is shining through the bedroom curtains.
Domestics today as son is visiting this weekend. Looking forward to that.
Hope you all have a fab day. Now to follow that smell of bacon…x

[Bren In Pots]

Morning

A misty dull day here so Jay and CG I wouldn't mind a bit of your two's sunshine please. More gardening later after domestics it should be nicer outside by then.

Enjoy your day

[Snoop Puss]

Morning all.

Another chilly night, not quite as bad as the night before, but still plenty cold enough for a hard frost. Bright sun at the moment, storm forecast for tonight, with a bit of rain over the next few days. Not much, but all welcome. Supposedly we get about a third of annual rainfall in March and April. Not much of it so far.

Busy, busy day ahead. Especially as I spent some of yesterday looking up slow cookers and buying one. Trying to get away from gas and instead using the solar panels. Have started a thread asking for recipe advice if anyone's interested in helping out a slow cooker newbie: https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...cooker-recipes

Have a great day everyone, especially you, GF, to make up for yesterday.

[Nicos]

Mornin n’alln’all

And a semi- sunny start to the day here. Hope it stays that way as I need to cut back a massive bay tree/shrub. I cut it back quite a bit when I used it to make the three Xmas wreaths so this is just tidying it up. Never much fun clipping out the top though if the leaves are sopping wet!

Bacon?…oooo…..yummy yum. You’ve got me drooling Jay!

The trip to the DIY store went well yesterday and we called in at a bin end shop and bought loads of seeds.
The hunt for a non digital, max/min thermometer though wasn’t a success. The hunt is on!

Enjoy your day peeps. The smiles were very frisky as they flew by this morning Snoop - what were they getting up to chez toi?

[Florence Fennel]

Good Morning All Misty here too and chilly with it. Have a good day

[Nicos]

Guess who is a very happy bunny?
We called in at Lidl knowing they’d be getting some blowaways in this morning. 20€ down from 30€ each! Usually they only have a handful of these special bargains so we weren’t really expecting to be successful. They had at least 40 out on the shelves!
So, we came away with a couple Having just paid for them and on our way out I spotted reduced plants. Two Pelargoniums for 1€
So I managed to limit myself to 2.
Now that’s what I call a good shop! Oh, and OH picked up some secateurs too

It’s actually a lovely day and the icing on the cake for me is that we brought out last year’s pots of geraniums and it looks like they’ve actually survived!!!,. They need a good trim and spot of feed/ water but the stems are good and solid. I’m not going to celebrate too soon as I’ve never managed to get them through winter before…and it’s only early days yet. I’ll be out pampering them in the sunshine once I’ve finished my brew.
Any tips at this stage?..they’ve not been watered since November and kept in the dark as I’ve nowhere light which is frost free.

[rary]

Good afternoon a frosty start this morning with blue skies, though cold was nice and bright, was at the church coffee morning and when we came back out it had clouded over, collected the dog before heading home so just going to change and get them out a walk, that of course will be after I have had a plate of soup OH has made by cooking a ham end along with some peas, butter beans, carrots and leek, Snoop as far as I know everything goes into the pot along with water, switched on and left till it's cooked, must say the soup is delicious, (she evedently has been watching what I do) the cooked ham will be used for the tea tonight, OH uses the slow cooker quite a bit, and when I check power usage and due to the solar panels there is nothing or very low consumption registered,so definitely a very economical way of cooking, and tasty😋 right off to take the dogs for a walk, have a good day and pass on some smiles

[Snoop Puss]

^Thanks, Rary. Sounds just the job. I'll still use my pressure cookers a lot, but I don't find them very satisfactory for pulses. Too easy to overcook them.

As for the smiles, Nicos, the birds were kicking up a right racket this morning, so maybe that got them all excited that spring is on its way. I think they'll be disappointed when they get back home. There's a bitter wind out now.

[mothhawk]

Afternoon all.

I had the gutters cleaned out this morning. It was booked for tomorrow but the guy rang and asked if he could come today as another of his jobs had re-arranged the time they wanted. I'm ashamed to say it's been 5 years since they were done, and the rear gutter had a large clump of grass growing in it! All speedily done now for a couple of years at least. Then did a grory hop, plus I swung by the pharmacy to collect the rest of the scrip not available on Tuesday.
Snoop, what brand of cooker did you get? I'm interested in getting one, but a bit bewildered by the number of choices out there.

[mothhawk]

I've also seen a combi convection oven/air fryer/microwave I fancy. Do I need both I wonder? And never use the gas cooker again....

[Snoop Puss]

^I bought a Crock Pot brand slow cooker on special offer. Most of the customer reviews were very positive, though there were some negative ones. But it scored well in reviews of best slow cookers that I found online. Looks like I was lucky because the special offer has already ended. And without that offer, it looks quite pricey in comparison with others.

I found it very hard to choose. Size seems to be the main factor, though, and whether it's digital or manual. Some people like oval crock pots in a large size as then they can cook joints or whole chickens. The one I bought is 4.7 litres, so of middling size. I'm expecting it to do the two of us for two meals, possibly a bit more. There are some inexpensive models for one or two people.

People here might be able to recommend one that might suit you too, as they seem to be very popular with Grapes. Maybe start a new topic here? https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...ecommendations

For other recommendations, there are lots of "best slow cooker" type articles online. The other thing you could do is look on Amazon for the size you're interested in and then sort the results by average customer rating. You don't necessarily have to buy there, but it might give you an idea as to what brand and/or model to get.

As for the oven you mention, our friend up the valley has one of these in his flat in the UK and he absolutely loves it.