Chitchat thread #24

[greenishfing]

Good morning.

A grey and overcast one here, thankfully with no wind. The Telecom engineers have returned to our cul de sac. Two ordinary vans and two cherry pickers. Hopefully, my neighbours will be reconnected to the world today.

My nearest neighbour, a youngish Eastern European girl, was standing surveying the devastation practically on the verge of tears yesterday. I took pity on her and gave her my wi-fi password and told her that I thought she'd be near enough to get a signal. However, her reply of "YOU have internet," and the accompanying look made me feel like an ancient relic. She was, however, ecstatic, and I have noticed that she has connected her phone and tablet, so she must be in range. I get a notification to my phone, where the modem app is, every time anything new joins the wi-fi with the option to block.

Nicos, I was only commenting to Mr GF last week that we seem to have lots of fallen leaves early this year despite vast amounts of rainfall. I used to have one set of neighbours who seemed to hate fallen leaves and spent hours sweeping them up and bagging them. They were going to take them to the tip until I asked if I could have them to make leafmould.

Rary your fire reminds me a little of the fire in my granddad's greenhouse when I was a toddler. He had a rocking chair at the side of it that we used to snuggle up in together to escape my grandma.

[bramble]

Good morning all from a bright and breezy Dublin.
We had rain last night so it looks clear at the moment,

I mentioned on hear weeks ago that the leaves on the chestnut tree were turning yellow.
They have been dropping ever since..what a strange summer.a

It's not a bank holiday here, ours is the first weekend in August,

Not a lot to do today but there will be plenty of weeds to pull and flowers to deadhead after the rain.

Have a good day all whatever the weather.

[mothhawk]

Good morning all.

It's raining here, the first proper rain for weeks, nice an gentle so it will soak into the ground nicely. My runner beans look happier already.. Yesterday's wind has done for the sweetcorn though, only one stalk still standing, the rest are flat on the ground.

Well done with the photos, Rary, the onions are impressive. Where's the kettle for the stove?☕

[greenishfing]

Aaaarrrrggghhhhh! I spoke too soon. My WiFi is down now. The workmen seem to be having problems with the maze of wires!!!

[greenishfing]

Back to normal again. My wi-fi is back. For some reason they had to run me a new wire too.....I think one of the engineers cut through mine by accident.

Actually I am very impressed. I remember back in the days when BT had no competition and if your phone went off you were lucky to get it back on within a week.

My neighbour has just called round. She's not reconnected yet but has just given me a bottle of wine as a thank you. We still have the crews of three vans and a cherry picker working away.

[rary]

Morning all.

Fantastic photos, Rary. What's your round fire-chimenea made from. Some people here turn gas bottles into fires like that. Me, I'd be scared of residual gas in the bottle. Lovely onions .

The fire, Snoop, is made from an open top stainless steel vessel that was used for mixing materials, where I worked, when it was being scrapped, I got permission to take it home, I then cut an opening on the side and used a large drum lid, onto which I had secured a small chimney, I later got permission to take the pipe which makes the chimney, I then took the pipe and drum to a local fabricators who welded a steel plate on top and fitted the chimney, when I think on it I have had it almost 35 years and it hasn't deteriorated one bit and like gfs granddad I did have it in the greenhouse for a time, and boy was the greenhouse warm😀

[Snoop Puss]

^Fantastic, Rary. Good bit of ingenuity. Clearly works a treat. Any of your grandsons ever tried to cook pizza in it?

[rary]

Yes one of course has tried, though its a better doing burgers, also very good for baking potatoes wrapped in foil, but you can do those in the fire and ofcourse you dont need the foil for me that😀, as for ingenuity, when the club members were down on Tuesday night, someone remarked about the different things that I had and putting them to alternative use, three electric boilers which I use for diffrent feed teas, nettle, seaweed and comfrey, a fridge/ freezer, one side a compost bin the other a wormery, an air fryer for sterilizing burn sand a blue bin for storing the sand, one for holding all the old compost from my baskets, wire bed frame for growing peas/beans also ideal for drying onions, along with various other things and another member pointed out that when we worked in the steelworks, so many things came in as scrap and you learned pritty quick to keep your eye out for alternative uses for things.
And sorry bramble I am not sure what the varieties of onions are, there are some sets and some from seed unfortunately I thought that I had posted the onion varieties on one of the forums on here but cant find where, if I come across the names I will let you know.

[rary]

Good afternoon, I have had quite a busy day today, up the town for some messages beforecheading over to the coast to collect some seaweed, spent a fair bit of time explaining to various people what I use the seaweed for, so many people unaware that seaweed can be used on the garden, how we are losing so much knowledge, the big companies must be rubbing their hand as they increase the price of garden feeds😕, anyway collected three large bags of it, and once home put it all on top of the emptied onion bed, I then spread some below some cabbage, cauli and broccoli, after that I cleared out some of my gutters, fortunately I got those done without OH seeing me, so now just relaxing and happy no arguments, just going to head out for fish suppers for tea, have a good evening and try passing on the smilies🙂🙂🙂

[lottie dolly]

pre evening all,what big onions you have rary well done,my garden is slowly taking shape,this year has been something of a disapointing wash out,to what i had planed,hope by next season to have ground ready to go,with my head in a better place,hope you get the tooth sorted out ,my son said the other day,he was expecting a call from me in the early hours as it was so windy it seems i slept though it,i did notice some rain barrels blown about the garden,it is good having some family visit,and nicer they want to help me,ref bread maker,i tried another using the kenwood for kneeding,what a phaf,i am borowing one on a permenant loan from a son,then let it begin,i have to get hold off my mojo and kick it into shape,have a lovely evening all

[bramble]

Good evening all
Spent a good part of the day in the garden.
The weather cooperated until about five thirty when we had a heavy shower.

Rary, dont worry about your onion variety but they look really good.
I collect sea weed as well and dig it into the garden.

Good luck with the bread maker Lottie, if I had one I know for sure I would eat too much bread.

Have a good evening all.

[Containergardener]

Morning
Dry at the moment and a stormy looking sky, heavy rains due again so will get out walking shortly.
Need to call and see mum who is still having trouble with her back but we have someone dropping by first this morning.
Enjoy your day.

[Snoop Puss]

Morning all.

Hunters are about, so no walk for the dog today. Plus she has to wear a collar, just in case the hunters see her. We've stopped making her wear a collar as she has assorted lumps including round her neck, so having a collar on is a bit uncomfortable. Poor girl. We'll have to wait till this evening.

In the meantime, tedious admin and some paid work. What joy.

All your 'inventions' sound fascinating, Rary. Mr Snoop saved the metal housing from our old top-loading washing machine. Any ideas what I could do with that?

Have a great day, everyone.

[Nicos]

Mornin n’alln’all

Woken up to calm and sunshine!…wasn’t expecting that

Looks like today will be a weeding day after all.
No local vide greniers, so no distractions

Enjoy your day peeps rain or no

[Nicos]

Cross posted there Snoop! * passes her a brew……

Funnily enough we have an old steel hot water tank in our barn exactly for converting into either a fire like rary’s or cut lengthways into a kettle ( or double) bbq!
No need for either at the moment but it’d be great to convert for use in a shelter in the field. You can bet your sox that if we got rid of it we’d wish we hadn’t