Chitchat thread #24

[bramble]

Great to see you back on here Rary.

[rary]

Thank you for the welcome girls?🙄 I was going to wait a bit but decided to bite the bullet and come back on,sadly other things in life took a higher priority, but now so glad to be back.
You are so right Nicos I never need to water the garden and have had a great crop of potatoes, onion, garlic, cabbage and tomatoes, though the cabbages suffered from lack of attention due to other necessities, in the past three weeks I have set up 3 water butts which all together holds 450lts. and they were filled within the first 2 days of being set up, I use the water for watering the greenhouse and just now I am down to about 150lts but expect them to be filled up again in the next two days, the rain we get in this area could be more valuable than oil if it was saved there are thousands of gallons flowing down the burns every day, fill oil tankers with it and you could turn quite an area of Africa green.
Oh and should have added the flower garden has been great, so that gives me something to smile about. Again thank you and its good to pass on a smile. Goodnight

[greenishfing]

Good to see and hear you Rary!

[mothhawk]

Wotcha Rary! Lovely to see you again. You've been missed lad.

[bramble]

Well the rain finally arrived this afternoon so decided to make some more tomato soup.
Waiting for it to cool down so I can put it in the blender.

My second grandaughter got her leaving cert results today.
She did really well and now has enough points to go to college.
She has been waiting the whole summer for these results.

Have a good night all. I cant believe its getting dark so early. 😥

[Nicos]

I’m glad your garden is doing well Rary - you put a lot of effort into it over the past couple of years.
Did you manage to sit out much on your new patio areas? We’re intending on covering our old concrete patio with slices of railway sleepers on a Douglas Fir frame. Well, that’s the plan!

I need an early night…we have a gite change over tomorrow and 10-12 cubic metres of logs for the wood fires arriving in the morning

Sleep well peeps - I bet those smiles will set off early to greet Rary…send them with a brolly Snoop, we have thunderclouds here at the moment.

[Nicos]

Send my congrats to your granddaughter bramble. You must be feeling really proud of her!
Well done that lass!

[Nicos]

Mornin n’alln’all
Tea and toast anyone?

[Snoop Puss]

Morning all.

Congrats to your granddaughter, Bramble.

I remember pictures of your flower garden from previous years, Rary. Always looked lovely. Glad to hear it's been a source of smiles.

Quite a chilly night last night, but heating up already and I've got lots to get through today, so won't dally. If you see the smiles, tell them to turn their brollies upside down on the return journey so they can fill them with rain and bring it back with them.

Have a great day, everyone.

[Bren In Pots]

Mornin n’alln’all
Tea and toast anyone?

No thanks Nicos I've just finished a bacon and mushroom cob

Congrats to your G/daughter Bramble xx

Its cooling down here now I even wore a fleece yesterday evening it looks like its time to put the loft hatch back in place we don't want any of the heat to escape.

Enjoy your day.

[greenishfing]

Morning all.

Warm and overcast here with a few spots of drizzle earlier. According to the forecast we've got possible showers every day this week.

[greenishfing]

I'm feeling quite pleased with myself. I've set off a couple of jars of preserved lemons, (unfortunately not grown by me) and mixed up four small Christmas puddings for next weeks birthday present. The only part of making them that I hate is grating the frozen butter. I don't know which is worse grating it by hand or using the food processor and then having to clean it. Today I made the breadcrumbs in the processor and grated the carrots in it but grated the butter by hand. The puddings are now all steaming away in the electric steamer which was a present years ago and only sees the light of day about three times a year.

I am now truly in "domestic goddess" mode (well as much as I can be) and have got some beef out of the freezer to make potted meat later tonight and I think I'll put the breadmaker on next.

[Snoop Puss]

Good reminder, GF. I keep meaning to make some of those lemons and then forget till I actually want to use one.

Also feeling quite pleased with myself. The veg patch is looking quite decent now. Might have overdone the number of brassicas but never mind. They might only grow small seeing as they're only just going in. Might have sprouts this time next year...

[rary]

Good evening, haven't done much today as OH has difficulty moving just now, not sure if it's sciatica or a pulled muscle, but whatever it is, it still means I am "the head cook and bottle washer" I decided to buy a pressure cooker to hopefully cut the cost of cooking, I will need to find out how to use it now as the book that came with it, isn't much of a help, I have also planted some cabbages an sown some peas in the greenhouse, really need to try and reduce our expenditure as heating is going to be crippling, OH needs the house kept reasonably warm, actually have the heating on just now as it has turned quite cool. Nicos as I said yesterday the water butt's would be filled quite quickly the 2 smaller ones are full and the 200lt one is quarter full and that was from the rain overnight, it has been drizzly all day but I'm not going out to see what level the water is at, I am now going to have a rummage around to see what gardening dvds I have, that can be shown at the gardening club, better doing it now as OH won't be able to see what I am doing, then telling me to get rid of some of the clutter, it's not good manners to ignore her, well enjoy your evening, and remember to pass on a smile. Goodnight

[greenishfing]

The only reason that I was sort of prompted into starting off the lemons was (as usual) my sister saying that she was running out....which made me realise that I was using my last jar too.....my usual disorganization. She can, possibly..... rival me, in the disorganization stakes. When I go to buy more food I must buy more unwaxed lemons and set more jars off. I love them.

I remember that I tried growing brassicas twice in Spain. The first time I bought cauliflower sets from the old men on the local market and without any effort on my part ended up with football sized cauliflowers. The second time I bought brussel sprout sets from the same old men and those plants gave me sprouts for over a year and then cabbage-ish things off the top too. Totally lucky and random on my part. Impossible to grow too many....somebody will always be happy to take them off your hands.