Chitchat thread #24

[lottie dolly]

Good morning all,sorry not been on here for a week,my head floating around with them smiles,i had a nice weekend with family,we sat outside most of the time,son built a fire place outside in the open,we were plenty warm enough,it was nice to jump in the shower on return,we all just chilled out,have not read all the posts,but hope the tooth fairy was kind to MR GF,and your all doing well,frost Nicos is a shock to the system,been cold here at times,the garden is showing it's age,i have already picked several different squash,some are already in the freezer,i have to go round said garden on a tidy up,and see what needs to be picked,i have the sons air frier on a trial loan,i must say,i now need one,the squash is nice,and done i no time,the other day i put stuffing flavoured with chilly sauce in one half it was so tasty,i seem to be eating more healthy,and look forwards to my dinners,instead of what ever is easiest,have a good afternoon all and Bgood2yourselves

[Nicos]

Nice to see you back lottie. I was beginning to wonder if you had been ill.
Having a great time is a much better option!

My house smells of warm blackberries and apple. Delish.

Just having a quick brew and then back to domestics.
It feels quite humid outside . It’s not rained yet so I decided to water in those new pansies again. Bound to rain now eh?

Anyone got plans for the weekend?

[Snoop Puss]

Afternoon all. Special hello to LD. Good to see you back.

Bit of a better day so far than yesterday. Car only needed a new clutch cable. Phew. Now to book it in for its MOT and hope it passes.

Overnight low of 5 ºC, so nothing like the mid-teens that were forecast. Tomatoes and co looking even more sorry for themselves. Consoled myself with another dozen cabbage plug plants from the agricultural co-op in the next village down from ours. A bit late, but never mind. They'll make the brassica bed feel loved and wanted. Plus, from the look of the sky at the moment, some of that rain that got cancelled might get uncancelled this afternoon. Also phew.

Currently got a sourdough focaccia in the oven. It's going to come out like a paving stone, like my previous loaves. A total failure and this time it's a tried and tested recipe. The problem isn't the starter, I think, but the flour. The packet says bread flour but it's behaving more like cake flour. Not sure whether to try a recipe with yeast or just give the flour over to dusting worksurfaces rather than actual breadmaking. Anyway, the dogs won't be sorry about the failures.

Right, a few phone calls to make and then it might be eyelid inspection time for me. Have a great afternoon, everyone.

[bramble]

Good night all.
while on my walk today I came across lots of BlackBerry bushes and a wild rose with big fat juicy rose hips..
I must have spent the best part of two hours and came home with about over four pounds of blackberries and a little over a pound of rose hips.
Decided there and then to make mixed fruit jelly.
With the blackberries and rose hips I added a bag of strawberries, a bag of rhubarb and a couple of cooking apples.
it's all boiled up now and dripping juice overnight.
Very pleased with how my day worked outl

[bramble]

Nicos, yes, we have along walkway of chestnut trees, I have taken all my grandkids there over the years to collect conkers.
We collect pine cones and acorns as well,
Our park is huge, 240 acres. It has something for everyone.
Playing pitches for football and soccer , tennis courts, pitch and putt, Boules, all weather pitches.
Rose garden, herb garden, clock tower and walled garden, duck pond, coffee shop and playground.
Farmers market at the weekend and numerous other facilities.
Our park was owned by the Guinness family and donated to the people of the city of Dublin.
As far as I am aware there are numerous follies in the park.
If you are interested you can Google at Saint Ann's Park, Dublin.
As you can read, I am a big fan of our park.

[greenishfing]

Evening all.

We got a totally unforecast downpour this afternoon which attempted to saturate my nearly dry washing. I more or less rescued it before it got too wet.

Happy to see you back LD.

Snoop, you must be so annoyed about the flour not living up to expectations.

Bramble, your park sounds far nicer than ours which seems to be permanently covered in lots of smelly duck and goose poo.

A lacklustre day generally here. The only good thing today is Mr GF was so unimpressed with the first Strictly Come Dancing of the season that he says he is not at all bothered about watching the rest of the series.

[rary]

Good evening, again a very busy day doing nothing, a walk up the town to ger some messages and collect a prescription for granddaughter, then had a haircut, if I took a photo, you would know the one cut, it has a bandage on it, also had a visit from BiL, I think he is beginning to cope with his loss, later I secured some enviromesh at 5he rear of the shelter I made between the greenhouse and the hut, hopefully this will cut down the cold wind that can blow through iit at times, as I am hoping to store my fuchsia and all my begonia which I will be leaving in the baskets and containers in the shelter, then before tea time we went for our covid and flue jags, OH said her arm was beginning to feel a bit sore, just before she headed to bed, not sure I might have slipped up there she possibly wanted me to come and comfort her 🤔😏 ah well I've missed the chance now😒 no matter enjoy your day tomorrow, and pass on some smiles
Should have added, hearing aids with auto shutoff only works for men, I think its something to do with the male hormones triggering it

[Nicos]

Mornin n’alln’all
Dark and damp here. We had the central heating on for a couple of hours first thing - and what a difference! Stuffy though.

Bramble - I’ve just spent the last few minutes with a brew in hand wandering the paths of Saint Ann's Park using Google street view. As you say - it’s lovely! Thanks for that.
One day I’ll go back to Dublin - I’ve been there three times so far and always come away having enjoyed a different aspect of it.
I generally hate cities - but not Dublin. That park will be on the ‘to visit’ next time for sure.
My mom’s grandparents both came from Dublin so I’d like to do more family tree research before I go - to get the most out of the visit. Apparently her grandpa was on his way to Australia with his brothers via Manchester where he met a rather lovely Dublin lass and fell in love and stayed.

Rary - We have to wait until mid October before we can have our flu jabs.
I like the idea of the plant shelter. I could really do with something like that- mostly for the geraniums when I need to bring them in. Anywhere here frost free has no light .

Today will include more domestics. My windows really need cleaning. Each time I’ve done them has been followed up with Saharan rain - leaving them all dusty again

I had a lovely video chat first thing with my 18 month granddaughter . We did a farm animal puzzle together. Such a sweetie
Isn't technology incredible!

How did the focaccia turn out Snoop - as expected?
Nice big chunks in soup or chopped up and fried into croutons ( and frozen ) would save it from being wasted maybe?

Enjoy your day peeps- see ya later!

[mothhawk]

Morning all. I've done my domestics for the day, apart from another load for the washing machine. Now I'm having a sit down and a brew before making apple and rosehip jelly, because I brought home about a pound of rosehips from my walk yesterday too. It's dripped overnight to leave enough juice for about a pound and a half of jelly. Adding blackberries is a good idea, Bramble, they give lots of juice and hips give hardly any. I may try that next time.

[greenishfing]

Good morning everybody.

It's cool and cloudy this morning. I'm off to the surgery for my flu jab in an hour or so which will hopefully be as quick as last year, like being on a conveyor belt.

Everybody seems to be picking rosehips this year. When my sister and I were apple picking last weekend she suddenly decided that she wanted rosehips too. I let her wander off by herself, having been attacked by rose bushes in the past. She came back with 3 rosehips and a few scratches muttering about gauntlets. At this point I asked her what she wanted the rosehips for and...did she like them? Evidently she wants to make some kind of liqueur. I told her that I made rose hip wine once and it was horrible, but then I'm not a fan of rosehip syrup that my mother used to force feed me as a child either or even Turkish delight which I think, probably wrongly, is made from rose petals.

She has now decided she is going to make a small amount of liqueur and hopefully get someone else to do the picking.

My GF has just made me a fresh coffee. See you later.

[greenishfing]

Should have added, hearing aids with auto shutoff only works for men, I think its something to do with the male hormones triggering it

Male hormones, hmmm. I always thought it must be due to the "frogs and snails and puppy dog's tails" as opposed to "sugar and spice and all things nice".

[bramble]

Good morning and the sun is shining.
Doing the other half of the jam making this morning,
Hubby went shopping earlier and came home with lots of plums that were going cheap , so I will be making plum jam as well.
I never bothered with rose hips before but these looked so big it was a shame not to pick them.

Nicos, yes, the parknis well worth a visit and easily assessed by bus.

Mothhawk I will be interested to know how your rose hip jelly turns out.
Have a good day all.

[Nicos]

Ooo….can anyone please share their rosehip jelly recipe- or better still the rose hip and bramble jelly?
Do you have to pick specific rose hips - ie the oval red ones or will any rose ‘hips’ work? ( oh…it says which in that link below!)

So here’s a thing….
In french rose hips are called gratte-cul basically ‘bottom sctatch’ because the hairs make you itch - and presumably if you eat them whole you end up with an itchy bottom?

I found this…..”. Remember the itching powder? If you consume unprocessed rose hips you can get what the Aboriginals called “Itchy Bottom Disease” from the hair on the seeds”

from https://www.eattheweeds.com/tag/itchy-bottom-disease/

There you are…a fact for the day

[greenishfing]

Mr GF has just told me that in WW2 he and his friends used to go pick rosehips in Autumn and if they took them to the town hall they got paid for them as they were used for making rosehip syrup. He also added that they got paid for rats tails.

He can't remember how much they got paid.

[nick the grief]

Arternoon all ... today I have mostly been driving 2 hours to get to Abergavenny from Tenby then 3 hours to struggle up the M5/M42 ... I gave up in the endand headed across country ... Just having a large mug of tea now to help me calm down ... On the plus side 89 days till we go to Devon for Chrimbo/Significant birthday ( I will be a full qualified old fart rather than an apprentice)...