General Chat

Mandy I have just looked at your avatar and how tiny Max was then. He is a BIG boy now. bless.xx

We never did get a pic of the girls in there bows did we? Have you made anything else for them in the holidays?

Frank I have sent it again just to you this morning.

Afternoon All,

Thank you for having confidence in me, I still think I'm a beginner with painting and never think things will turn out ok. One surprise was a necklace I entered that got a first in the any other craft class. Cross stitch or embroidery won the class the last 2 years and I nearly didn't bother entering it. Maybe they fancied a change! My back is aching today from putting the photos up.

I bet the children enjoyed having a skate around Mandy. Were there any tears? I always seemed to be tripping up and needing plasters! The front and back wheels used to part company on mine too, but I expect today's skates are better made. I bet some mums will be glad the holidays are over too.

OH has been sent into the garage with a big plastic bag to chuck out the old tomatoes, loganberries and blackberries in there. I've lost track of how old some are and we need some space to put this years, also space for christmas stuff. I'm labelling them with the year this time so I can keep track.

Speaking of Christmas, one of the village pubs here already has their porch decorated with silver snowflakes and silver bells. :-0

I enjoy trying things Frank, like Ros does and others on here. The friend whose house we were at on Friday had a doll sitting on a chair this time! The lady had made some lovely bags when we went before, but this doll was her sister's and was quite old. She'd made it a beautiful pink dress, neatly gathered into the bodice so it flared nicely and the puff sleeves and hem were edged in lace with embroidered daisies. She'd even made it some stretchy lace white knickers! I thought of Ros when I saw the neat stitching. I think she trained in sewing and design years ago but last year she made herself a lovely dress and crocheted cardigan for a wedding. She's a few years older than me as well.

I think OH might like some of that crab paste so I'll look out for it next time I'm in Morrisons!

Its only £1 a pot and does oh two wraps with salad. He said it is nice but I don't like crab so those of you who both like crab I think you may need two pots.

Ann its not paste although it looks likle it but a soft pate'.

Ann if you have loganberries in the freezer why not cook them up with a drop of water and strain it and make a pot of logenberry jelly. Its lovely on home made scones. I still have fruit in my freezer from years ago and sometimes get some out for a treat for the chickens.

I know Mel he looks so tiny doesn't he ,i take photo's on my tablet now and i don't know how to get them from there on to here ,i'll have to ask son as i'd like to change the avatar .

A few tears Ann ,Katie had two plasters on her leg where she fell over ,she tries to go to fast to keep up to Chelsea .
The skates they have are so different to what they use to be ,mine had a slider bit underneath that you unscrewed to move as your feet got bigger the ones the children have are like boots with a liner in .

The sky looks so black here now ,i think by the look of it the rain will soon be here .

It's my friends funeral tomorrow at 12.15 in the church .
I meant to say the other day i noticed some one had layed some lovely roses on one of the old graves in the churchyard ,i looked at the card and they were from a Gt GT GT Granddaughter , i think what i can remember the grave was about 1856 ,i thought they wouldn't be there very long as it is right by the path where people walk but they are still there so i was pleased they had been left alone .

Mandy Like you, I am pleased the rose's are still where they were placed. These people who steal the flowers from graves, their hands should drop off. Wo be tided if I ever caught anyone stealing from the local church yard. I sometimes take a walk round to see the OLD OLD graves.

It's more like November out there this evening. It's almost dark and so dreary. We put the heating on earlier and it's just comfortable.

Mel, I have no idea why I can't receive your email. It still hasn't come through.

Jonathan (our old neighbour) called round yesterday to see how we were, and today he has bought round 3 kilos of Damsons. Ros has offered some to Martine. She said she will make some Damson GIN. I have never heard of it, but will ask how she makes it. Might be a little tipple for me in the evenings. hic hic

Is our Jane home this evening or tomorrow. ??

Pam and Dennis (next door) have gone back to Kent this afternoon to do some more sorting out at his brothers house. She came in yesterday will a box of cottons, needles and safety pins,loads of ribbon that isn't been opened, and two bags of materials. What Ros doesn't want she will give to "Stitchery do" when she goes on Thursday.

You need to just relax this evening Ann. what a great success you had Yesterday. xx
Roa hasn't been doing much is the way of jewellery making lately. She has been too busy in the garden.

2nd part of Victoria tonight at 9,00 pm. Ros is sitting watching Corrie, then the X factor. I will put my lamp on and read, provided the Tele. isn't to loud.

See you all tomorrow. I am looking forward to another good night tonight. !!!

Mandy Like you, I am pleased the rose's are still where they were placed. These people who steal the flowers from graves, their hands should drop off. Wo be tided if I ever caught anyone stealing from the local church yard. I sometimes take a walk round to see the OLD OLD graves.

It's more like November out there this evening. It's almost dark and so dreary. We put the heating on earlier and it's just comfortable.

Mel, I have no idea why I can't receive your email. It still hasn't come through.

Jonathan (our old neighbour) called round yesterday to see how we were, and today he has bought round 3 kilos of Damsons. Ros has offered some to Martine. She said she will make some Damson GIN. I have never heard of it, but will ask how she makes it. Might be a little tipple for me in the evenings. hic hic

Is our Jane home this evening or tomorrow. ??

Pam and Dennis (next door) have gone back to Kent this afternoon to do some more sorting out at his brothers house. She came in yesterday will a box of cottons, needles and safety pins,loads of ribbon that isn't been opened, and two bags of materials. What Ros doesn't want she will give to "Stitchery do" when she goes on Thursday.

You need to just relax this evening Ann. what a great success you had Yesterday. xx
Roa hasn't been doing much is the way of jewellery making lately. She has been too busy in the garden.

2nd part of Victoria tonight at 9,00 pm. Ros is sitting watching Corrie, then the X factor. I will put my lamp on and read, provided the Tele. isn't to loud.

See you all tomorrow. I am looking forward to another good night tonight. !!!

I'd better make sure I look for pate then Mel. I'm not keen on crab so a pot sounds just right for OH. :-) I wasn't sure how ok the fruit would be Mel as some looked quite dried as if it had freezer burn and some is from before we altered the garden as we haven't had a Loganberry since then. I never thought to give my friend with chickens some, but will remember if there's a next time. Loganberry Jelly sounds nice.

OH is wallowing in bubbles in the bath. He hurt his back taking the freezer stuff to chuck out to the bin. :-S I keep telling him to split loads........I think he's wishing he had now!

The skates sound much better with boots than our old ones that slid apart Mandy. I thought someone might have a fall. I expect the younger girls often try to keep up with their older sisters. It's frustrating you have to learn over again to do things when you make any changes isn't it. It's partly why I stick to my old phone rather than get a smartphone!! I'm beginning to sound old!! lol. I hope it is fine for the funeral of your old friend tomorrow and hopefully the roses left on the old grave will still be there. How nice to think someone would put flowers down over 160 years after you died.

I hope Frank gets another good night's sleep tonight. I've never heard of damson gin either........wonder if it's a bit like sloe gin. I need to catch up with lots of jobs now I've put the paints away! I've had 2 black sacks on the go this afternoon, one rubbish and one for the charity shop!

Evening all

Sorry I haven't been on the thread for the past few days, I've had terrible migraine's with OH gloss painting all the woodwork so didn't think looking at a computer screen would help. The paint has dried now so I just have a small headache which hopefully will go soon.

Thanks everyone for your help with Sky, I unplugged it and plugged it back in a few minutes ago and it worked on the main TV, I also noticed that both Victoria's will be on the planner once tonight's has been recorded. I only had 3% left on the planner so we were lucky it was sorted now.

The only problem I have now is we don't have Sky on our TV in the bedroom. We had it going through a magic eye, so we're not sure why it's not working. We're going to try and tune that TV into Sky but not sure if we can do that through the magic eye or not. Hopefully it'll work when we try in a minute.

I haven't read the posts properly yet so will do that tomorrow. Hope everyone is okay and the wedding went well for Jane and Chris.
See you tomorrow
Night Night

Damson gin is lovely. I may make some myself this year as I have the damsons.

We also love sloe gin and one of the best ones is Raspberry gin which you add water to and so is goes much further.

Nigel Slaters recipes.

Sloe or damson gin

Pricking the diminutive fruits with a needle is less fiddly than it sounds; a job to do on a damp Saturday afternoon. The jars, filled with sugar, gin and fruit, need turning regularly until the sugar has dissolved, then tucking away in a dark corner for a couple of months while the magic gets to work.

sloes or damsons 900g, washed and picked over
sugar 700g
gin around 1.5 litres
Wipe the damsons, discarding any that are squashy or bruised. Prick the fruit all over with a needle and put them into glass preserving jars, layering them with the sugar. Alternatively, freeze the fruit in a sealable plastic bag, then bash them with a heavy object until they are cracked.

Half fill each of the jars with fruit. Pour gin over the fruit to fill the jars, keeping the gin bottles for later. Seal and leave in a cool place, preferably for three months. Turn the jars over from time to time – I do it every few days - or give them a respectful shake. Filter the gin through a muslin-lined funnel into the reserved gin bottles. Store in the cool, where it will keep for several months.

how nice for there to be roses on that grave Mandy and for them to still be there. I sometimes put flowers that are left over from the church on the graves in our little churchyard.

I am still enjoying Victoria and now I am going to have a shower and watch the last episode of Strike the Cuckoos Calling.

Morning all,

Dull morning but its not raining. We had a catistroph in the night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!One of the big old apple trees in the orchard has fallen over. It is so loaded with fruit and yesterday while watching the deer I thought to myself "those branches are near the ground how does he manage to mow under it?" now I know. I think it will be a big job to cut it up and we will have to have the tops out of the others. We have'nt touched some of them for 20 years. It was'nt even windy last night in fact it was really warm and calm when I went out looking at the hogs with like a very fine misty mizzle you could see in the outside light.

It is raining in the air...............

Afternoon All

I am back :-D. What a wedding !!!!!! It was just fantastico :-D :-D. The sun shone all day and it was hot.I took so many pics it is going to be difficult to chose what to send .But that will have to wait now as Fitz is coming up for lunch.
We got back about 5.30 last night ans I was in bed by 8.30 !!!. I literally could not keep my eyes open.I was that tired I couldn't even eat anything for dinner. I shall make up for that now with lunch :-D

Thomas is home and sitting surveying the garden.I think he might just have wandered down the bottom now after just sitting in the middle of the lawn looking half baked lol

Fitz has just walked through the front door so had better get moving. I will get back here later on today.

Afternoon you all, welcome home Jane.

I'm glad the wedding went off well, and that Thomas is home and settled.

Thanks for the recipe for the Damson gin Mel, will get Ros to get a bottle next time she's shopping.

Glad you got SKY back Gill. As I said it works for me every time. How is the BILs treatment going ?

Was in bed after Victoria last night, but didn't get to sleep till midnight when Ros came in. I was up by 7.20 this morning gasping for a COT. Didn't want breakfast as I had Crab Claw Meat last night in a sarnie.

I got told off this morning for chopping up the leeks and pork, for the leek one tonight. She (ROS) wanted to do all herself, to give me a break from preparing and cooking.

While she was out having her eye test ,they did get the last pair wrong, so they are giving her a complete new set fee. Ready next week.. I got the flour, dish and frozen pastry out and the rolling pin. When she came home he waved the rolling pin at me and said I TOLD YOU I want to do it ;-) ;-) ;-)

We had rain during the night and this morning. This afternoon the sun is out now and again, and it's quite warm.

Hope Gs back is O.K. this morning Ann. I often wish we had a bath, so I could lay back and have a good soak. The chances are I would either fall in, or not be able to get out without assistance. So a shower is safer . <3 <3 <3

England play again tonight. I hope they perform better than last Friday. Whether I go to the pub or not, will depend how I feel.

Afternoon All,

Good to see you back Jane and see you had a nice time with great weather. I expect Thomas is glad to be home and checking out his patch. :-)

Frank, I have to stick to showers now too! OH has been walking very delicately today and says he's stiffened up. He's at the stage where his back has eased a bit, but one false move or twist and he'll be back to square one!! He's even taken some Ibuprofen so it must be quite bad. I expect he will be watching the match on the telly tonight so I shall be in here on ebay or doing some jewellery!

What a shame your apple tree has come down Mel!! :-0 I wonder if all the rain you have had has helped cause it too. Apple trees can get really big so as you say it will take some time to chop it up and clear the space. It's a wonder it didn't crash into anything or pull any other trees down.

That's good you at least have SKY back on one telly Gill. We have one of those dongle things on a bedroom telly. I'm not sure how you adjust those though! I hope you can get it back. Might this link help? I haven't looked at it properly but if you scroll down there's a heading about what to do with problems with a magic eye.

http://www.freetv.ie/sky-magic-eye-installation-problems-and-solutions/

I hope your migraine headache goes now the painting is done.

Afternoon all

Congratulations Ann, you did really well.

I'm so glad the weather was nice for the wedding Jane, we've had a mixture of sunshine and showers so I was hoping you didn't get any rain. It sounds like Thomas is pleased to be home and hunting again. :-D

BIL is doing okay with his Chemo Frank, he is sleeping a lot so his wife is having to wake him up occasionally to make sure he has plenty of drinks. She's worried he'll become dehydrated and end up back in hospital. I've just found out he has Chemo for 8 hours so no wonder it's taking it's toll on him. MIL went with him last time as there was no one to look after the children so his wife couldn't go. To be honest I think it might of done MIL good to spend some one on one time with her son.

Oh dear Mel, it's a good job you weren't standing near the apple tree when it fell down, good idea to have the tops taken off the rest of them.

I managed to tune the TV in the bedroom to Sky, so we're all back to normal now. I was hoping to watch the two Victoria's today, but Sandra wanted us to finish off watching "The coach trip" which we started watching over the weekend off the set top box, we're now up to date with it, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up with Victoria on Sky tomorrow.

Well, I've just washed my hair, so I'd better go and dry it.

I didn't see your post there Ann, thanks for the link, but as you can see from my post it's all sorted now, I just needed to re-tune the TV into Sky, which didn't take long.

Yes, my migraines have gone, I'm not very good around gloss paint. Normally I'm okay with the one OH uses as it's supposed to have less fumes, but unfortunately it made me very ill with migraines and sickness, even Sandra said she didn't feel very well, thankfully she's okay now too. We tried to go outside as much as we could but it rained a lot so it wasn't possible to stay outside for long. I'm glad all the painting is finished now though.

That's good your migraine has gone Gill and great that your SKY is all tickety boo now. I'm glad your BIL is coping better with the chemo this time and his mum is good to be keeping him hydrated.

I was surprised to see Ada Lovelace in Victoria or 'mathematical Ada' as she was known. Her parents lived not far from here at Kirkby Mallory Hall (now gone) and Mallory Park race circuit is built on the Hall land. The church is next to the racetrack and a few years ago we went to look at the memorial to her that is in the church yard.