General Chat

Feeding and watering Mel.

Anng are you feeding them or just watering them? I use liquid seaweed and tomorite and mine are usually nice and sweety aharp which is how I like them. My cues are just starting to grow the plants up the top of the greenhouse already and I think I shall have to take it across all the tom plants. If they all ripen at once I shall be giving all my neighbours cues. At least I have four families I can give them to.

Been doing housework!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hoovered and dusted the bedroom and hall and at last I have got the christmas tree out of the hallway and bunged it in the study. I could'nt believe how heavy it was ans now understand why oh left it out of the loft.Tidied all the kitchen and got the sausages out of the freezer this morning so they are ready to cook. Cooked cabbage and broccoli yesterday and thats in the fridge so just has to go in the micro but must do some carrots and pots now. I may make yorkshire puds as I shall cook the sausages in the oven so must take advantage of it.Not sure whether to do bubble and squeak ot not. Hav'nt had that for ages.

Still can't get into my card games on the pc.

Mandy I grew some tiny red currant sized tomatoes last year but they were a bit of a pain to pick as they squashed when too ripe and they were so small so were almost all sking. But yours sound a bit bigger. My sun gold are the size of blueberries. But this year so far they are really sharp, last year they were sweet.

No Anng not to bad this morning as soon as I felt them Colin dabed them with the After Bite pen and this morning they don't itch at all but I can feel all the raised little bumps on my neck .

Shopping all done ,we called into the fruit and veg place ,they used to do the market in town and lots of other towns but I think they just have the unit now ,everything set out in a huge refrigerated warehouse so you take a basket and help yourself , last week we had some lovely ripe apricots so I got some more this week ,they had packets of the tiniest tomato I have ever seen , Tomberries they are the size of a blueberry, lovely and sweet so I'm going to save some seed and see if I can grow some next year ,I had a job to see them when I cut the tomato in half .
And they had English strawberries this week Vera so they are not over yet .

Ooh Mandy I bet that itches.

Yes, if I go I will probably buy something.

Morning all,

Nice sunny morning here, I'm sure earlier in the week they said showers for us today now there's no sign of rain and it should be quite hot today 27 I think was mentioned .

I have plenty of green tomatoes, just one turning orange at the moment, I have one quite big tomato and its not round its quite a funny shape so I think it might be Mels plant and there's others coming on the plant too and it's in a pot with a tumbling tom so mixed up ,I got the plants muddled up so until the toms come I'm not sure which is which
So far we had had 21 mini cues ,I've given some away but we could easily eat one a day in sandwiches and a salad tea .

Shopping day so just having a cuppa then we're off .

Angg you'll find something to buy I bet ,I bought a first Christmas present yesterday ,oh what am I like christmas things in July lol

Oh and I have been bitten to death on the back my neck ,Colin counted about fifteen bites .

Good morning all. 19 degrees here, very grey, no rain. (PC says cloudy). Might go into town this morning although I don't need anything.

Morning all,

Grey and wet looking out there this morning and its 18 degrees. Pc says to expect rain for 6 days in a row starting tomorrow. It also says partly sunny.

Have to have a clear up today and find something for dinner tonight probably sausages and may do a toad as its not too hot.

When I saved the seeds of the BIG tomato I could'nt believe how small they were compared to an ordinary tomato.

I am picking sungold and alicante and a few tumbler now. the two saved by Mel from last year are fruiting. 4 on one plant quite big tomatoes but not ripe yet, still green, there are two or three on the other saved seed plant but they look medium sized tomatoes.

Courgette looks like it is giving up did produce two very small courgettes but they shrivelled up. Strange we and now I have never succeeded with courgettes.

No not so swollen now and the middle finger on my left hand dos'nt feel so stiff today either thank you Mandy. We seem to have had that fine rain most of the day and it is dampening the ground so thats good.

At last my cuecumber has little cues on it and its growing like mad I have to tie it up every other day. Toms are coming along nicely and the ones that were self sown from last year are not the lovely big one as I had hoped because they're round. It has no stake in it and there's two in the pot of last years compost. Its only had water and a bit of feed but it will be interesting to see what the fruit is like. The sungold in the little greenhouse are nearly up to the top so will have to take the tops out soon. I am hoping to get one more truss on them. This new greenhouse is more pointed than my old one so the ones at the sides canes reach the slant of the roof. The old ones roof was'nt so pointed hence it was taller on both sides if that makes sense.

Evening all,

We had a little rain in the night and first thing it was very grey but the sun soon came out and its mostly blue sky now, it was very hot in the sun so we sat in ths shade for our coffee .
We went to Tesco's this morning for a few bits that we can't get in Aldi ,goodness knows what we got as it came to eighty pound odd and we haven't done our main shop yet .

Ann did you watch the sewing bee ,won't say to much as you may have not seen it yet but I thought that some of the made to measure dresses at the end looked very odd to me ,a lot I thought poked out round the hem and looked stiff .

Vera you had a good spend up but it's nice to stock up especially if it's things you've enjoyed before .
Handy to know you could have a smaller portion there ,a lot of people can't eat a big plateful and seeing large amounts on your plate can put you off .

A blessed fly has nipped me twice on my arm today so I've put some After Bite on and it soon eases it ,yesterday I had about five bites on the back of my neck .
How is your fly bite today Mel ,I hope your ring finger hasn't swollen up any more ,does that sound right or should it be swelled up ,well which ever you know what I mean .

Two friends from church popped in to bring me back the advent ring which I had'nt picked up from the church. They were having a clearout in there so brought the top back to me. My stand for it is still down the church. Pat who drove is a chiurch wardon and Jane with her has a bit of dimenture so we chatted for a while but they did'nt come in.

Stu has been busy today so he is coming tomorrow which means I have to find something for dinner now.

Still a little light rain here at the mo.

I have taken a pic of the ring they brought back.

Afternoon ladies

We had a bit of rain overnight but today there's only been a very few spits and spots, not nearly enough for the pots or garden. It's been very grey looking all day and I even took my umbrella out with me but it wasn't needed. However there has been a cold wind..

Are you nearly straight again now Annx? Presumably you have considered eBay for the equipment you have to sell. We haven't used eBay ourselves for a long while but when we moved here we used it to sell a lot of our pond and garden equipment and a cement mixer. We made sure we said that the buyer would have to collect and we got good prices.

It sounds as though you had a nice lunch and garden visit yesterday AnnG and it was lucky the rain held off for you.

We had a trip out to a farm shop today. I had won a £10 gift card in a raffle at the strawberry tea we went to recently so we decided to go and spend it. Of course, instead of buying something for £10 we ended up spending £65 in the shop and nearly £30 in the cafe.

The shop is expensive but we've always liked it for the quality of the goods. The meat is almost all from their own farm and the vegetables are also almost all farm grown. Pretty much all the other stuff they sell is local. Years ago we used to buy some little frozen vegetarian pies and I was pleased they still did them. They are puff pastry and cushion shaped and I got 2 with asparagus and gruyere cheese filling for me and 2 with mushroom, stilton and pine nut filling for OH. I also bought a couple of pieces of salmon fillet and a couple of cod fillet, also frozen, some weedkiller, a birthday card and a jar each of rhubarb and ginger jam and dumpsie dearie jam. Don't you just love that name? There were also a few plants that weren't doing very well and were for sale at 50p each. I got a lovely little fuschia which I am trying to rescue. I think it's just been scorched in the sun though it could have either a fungus or a bug attacking the leaves. It was certainly very dry. I've trimmed it up a bit and repotted it in completely new compost in a slightly bigger pot and given it a good soaking. If it doesn't survive it will only have cost me 50p. Oh, I forgot to say it's called Diva, Cherry and White.It only grows about 12-16" tall and has pretty red and white flowers.

When we got there we walked round the shop and I decided what I wanted but as some of it was frozen we went to the restaurant first before making our purchases. OH ordered a beef lasagne which came with green salad, coleslaw and a couple of slices of garlic bread. I decided on ham, egg and chips. It was delicious but what a plateful! The ham was from home reared pig and each thick slice covered half of the large plate. There were 2 slices, one on top of the other, two eggs on top of that and the rest of the plate was filled with golden chunky chips, the sort that look as though someone has actually peeled potatoes and cut them into thick bits. I struggled through one slice of ham, the eggs and half the chips and OH ate the other slice of ham. We had a pot of tea that did 4 good cups and the whole lot came to £29. Before we left I asked the girl at the counter if I could have requested a smaller portion. The answer was that they would happily give me one slice of ham, one egg and some fries on the side if that was what I wanted. So that's what I will do next time we go there.

I think I'll get myself a nice, cold drink now and then have half an hour with a book or the crossword.

25 degrees here. Just back from the U3a meeting.
It was quite warm and it was quite a long talk that would have been better if it was about half the length as it was interesting and, because it was a lot to cover, it was a bit rushed at the end.

It was called royal Gloucester and was how Royalty were/are connected to Gloucester and the kings buried in gloucester. Trouble is there was so much information that I didn't absorb much of it. Nice to see a lot of friends there anyway.

We have had a little rain this morning and into lunch time and the sky is grey and no wind.

Cooked some veg for the freezer this morning and so I should have enough for three days and for when Stu comes. Not herd from him so I should'nt think he will come tonight but maybe tomorrow. Its very warm but supposed to be only 19 degrees but feels a lot hotter. Must be humid after the rain.

Done a bit of tidying around the kitchen and diner and chased the female pheasent off the decking many times. I bet now I have come in she's back again and won't go till I corn the chickens when she gets her bit.

For those of you who know they have hedgehogs about please put out a shllow dish of water when its so very dry. If you do put food out for hogs make sure its only chicken or fresh meat definately NO pork or fish.

Morning all just,

Fell sleep again after a visit to the loo, I thought I would just lay for a few minutes and then get up, bad move woke at 10.45am after a strange dream about fish getting out of the pond and next doors hubby buying a big fish aznd leaving it in a poly bag in the garden and not in the pond. Needless to say it died and he threw it over the field.

I don't know yet if Stu is coming today or tomorrow if at all as his girls dad is in hosp with cancer and he's had covid while in there.

I think I my have a parcel arriving today so better get myself together.

As to shell fish I did try one of oh's mussles once but did'nt really like it and it was a garlic one thats the only thing I tried it for as I like garlic. Don't even like fish pie but used to make it for oh.

Good morning all. sunny and 13 degrees here, hope it will stay cooler today.

We were lucky with the weather yesterday. It rained while we were travelling to Gretton but stopped while we had lunch. (I had flatbread with parma ham, garlic and mozarella cheese, it was served with leaves and balsamic vinegar, very tasty. And it didn't rain all the time we were walking round the very large garden that is kept natural with a large lawn and beds leading out to wilder areas, lots of little touches, mirrors, obelisks and old small buildings turned into places to sit. It is a very old big house, apparently bought a few years ago by a couple, when it was in a bad state and the garden left to go wild covered in brambles etc. Obviously it has suffered as all our gardens have, with the lack of rain so not really any flowers to admire but lovely to wander round. After tea and cake, as we left, the rain started again really heavy there. when we got home we had just had a bit of drizzle. so still no real rain to soak the garden.And looks like no rain overnight either. so, back to watering again.

Mel, I remember reading now that Lythrum is a good plant for pond margins. It also said that in winter it looks like dead twigs but ours just disappears totally. I make the most of the flowers while they have a bit of colour but cut the spikes off as soon as they are finished so that they don't self seed everywhere. I wonder if I could try collecting some seed. I might need your advice on the best way to do that Mel.

Your crab sounds delicious Mandy. I wish I could eat it. I see Mel and Annx don't eat shellfish either. Is that because you don't like or fancy it or are you like me and become very ill if you have even a tiny bit? I'm not sure whether my problem is classed as an intolerence or an allergy but within an hour or two of eating even the tiniest bit I get violent stomach cramps and then start being sick and it can last several hours. I love fish pie and pubs often have it on the menu and I'll ask if there is any shellfish in it. Last time I asked the chef came out to speak to me. He said there was no shellfish in his pie and he explained how they made sure shellfish and other fish were prepared in different areas but advised me not to risk it as he couldn't guarantee what happened at the fish merchants before he bought the fish. A lot of Chinese or Thai style dishes contain fish sauce which is made from shellfish so I have to read menus very carefully. Oh well, it's just an irritant for me. It must be 100 times worse for people who can't have eggs or wheat or other everyday things.

We've had a bit of drizzle and one fairly heavy shower tonight but it hardly wet the ground. I'm hoping we might get some more rain during he night. We are in bad need of it. I'm off to my bed now and will either watch something on iPlayer or read for a while. Sleep well ladies.

Mel I have answered your email. I have been looking on the auction site near here that's on the way to the shop. It's held in the sheds of what was the mushroom farm mum and I would visit once I learned to drive. They would pick your mushrooms while you waited and they were so delicious! I'm thinking we might be able to sell off some of the things in the garage especially heavy things we can't carry now as they will collect. OH would get someone to take everything to the tip, but there are new drills, a sawbench, motor etc and it would be good to make a bit of money from them. I must ring them and get more details.

I bet you enjoyed your crab Mandy and so would OH, but I'm another who doesn't eat things that have shells. You've brought back a memory of when Jane and I had lunches with Fitz and he used to love mussles and other seafood and neither of us could fancy them.

I'd better get to bed. I was hoping for a lie in for a while, but just remembered I need to be up early as the man is coming for the skip. Hope we all sleep tight till morning without having to get up too often.

What a twonk I should have known that plant Vera as I had it as a pond plant and it grew all over the top garden never did manage to get it in the border too dry for it I think.