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Post by ambersparkle on Mar 24, 2022 8:04:32 GMT
Morning all, not so nice today, but it is early, so plenty of time for things to improve. Am going to get a Pot of Soup on, with some of my newly chopped Veg, and also a Fruit Loaf, I really prefer something that I can put a bit of Butter on. Fishmonger comes today, probably get a bit of Haddock, and Batter it, not had that for a while. Made Rice Pudding yesterday, so probably use that up, it is not easy cooking for One. Friend brought me the Oven her Mum does not use, It is dinky, I suspect it has been in a Campervan, but seems to work ok. Can be used to cook the Cottage Pies Son makes for me. They are already cooked, but need heating, and browning, my tiny Galley Kitchen, is filling up with Gadgets, supposedly to make my Life easier. Better make a start, so wish everyone a good Day, whatever you are doing. Love Tina x
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Post by paperman on Mar 24, 2022 11:58:24 GMT
Good morning (just) Ladies, I hope this finds you well.
Sorry Tina, the weather down here is gorgeous although the air has a touch of North East in it. Right now the temperature is 16 degrees…it was 12 when I had my breakfast outside again earlier.
I have been a bit busy this morning with a little housework and also I have started the meat part of the moussaka for this evening’s meal, which I will leave to stand for the afternoon to infuse the herbs etc..
We will be going out for a walk later and have decided on going up to Halesworth to have a nose round the shops, not that we need anything but for village people like us that represents a change and a trip out.
Interestingly enough, Tesco in Saxmundham have an outbreak of Covid with their staff and only have 2 till working resulting, I hear, in major delays and queues, too many people have given up on being careful and this is the result.
I forgot to say that yesterday I rescued a peacock butterfly from the garage where I guess it had over-wintered, the sunshine and warmth having awakened him/her, whichever.
So, I hope at least some are having the same weather as we are here and that yours has improved Tina.
Please take care xx
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Post by brightspark on Mar 24, 2022 13:55:56 GMT
Hi everyone,
We have had a lovely sunshine-y morning but have a little bit of cloud at the moment.
I have been watching the flight path of our son's plane coming into Heathrow from Dubai. The plane landed five minutes ago. What a way to spend one's birthday, stuck on a plane for 7 hours! Still, he is now on terra firma. At one point he was flying over the Black Sea and I wondered whether he could see the Russian ship on fire, but he was probably too far south over the sea.
I made another Bible quilt block this morning, a much simpler one, named Walls Of Jericho - I have now made nine so would perhaps make a small lap quilt. It has been a challenge on some occasions, but by doing them in between bigger quilts, I have learnt a few things. They are all 12" square.
I shall be making some orange curd today, as in The Sunday Times colour magazine they have a recipe for a 'Jaffa Cake Roulade' - essentially a swiss roll mixture, then spread with orange curd, and coated in dark chocolate, then drizzled with white chocolate, and some jellied orange pieces dipped in white chocolate on the top. As son loves chocolate orange, I thought it a fitting birthday cake for him!
Chris, what a lovely idea to just go and wander around some shops - makes a change from the big supermarkets, although we are still having our shopping delivered, so I haven't seen the inside of a supermarket for a very long time.
Tina, that's a good idea - having a smaller oven, I guess that uses less energy. Our microwave has a convection facility, and sometimes I use that instead of the full oven. I also use the grill facility too in the microwave, when we have cheese on toast. There are two stands that go in the microwave, so I can have the tall one for the cheese on toast, and the lower one to brown a bigger dish, say, cottage pie. The one I have in France, I have even cooked bread and cakes in it, but then the oven is huge, so having the oven on for just small things is a thorough waste of energy.
We have booked(online) our spring booster Covid jab for the end of March.
Oh well, time to have a late lunch, now I know son is back in UK safe.
Have a good afternoon and evening everyone, x
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Post by ambersparkle on Mar 24, 2022 16:13:22 GMT
Getting cold now, but it has been not as nice as yesterday, but not bad at all, been out in the Garden, so hungry, and do not feel like Fish, so got One of Son's Cottage Pies in the Oven, with Cauliflower, and Peas, put them in the Oven too, with a drop of boiling Water, and dotted with Butter, should think they will cook alright. If not a quick whizz in the Microwave will soon sort them. Made the Fruit Loaf, had not had it for Ages, forgot how good it was. At least I have reached the Age where I need to put on Weight, every time my IBS flares up, I lose more. That fresh Air has certainly given me an Appetite! Must awa and sort my Dinner. Love Tina x
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Post by irist on Mar 24, 2022 19:44:55 GMT
Evening all. Two days in a row it's been sunny so I've been in the garden as much as possible. I feel I'm gradually getting on top of things. Lots of weeding done and almost finished sorting OH's raised beds which involved loosening the soil and barrowing lots of home made compost on to them. I popped to the garden centre yesterday and got the small cucumber seed I wanted and some Chantenay carrots seed for OH. I also wanted some new strawberry plants as I cleaned last year's out from their tubs and found the dreaded vine weevils in the compost. No joy so I'm going to order some online when I've finished here. We had a very good evening at Garden Club. The speaker owns a commercial soft fruit farm in the next village and told us how he started and showed us photos of the early days and now and gave us lots of hints and tips about growing fruit in our gardens.
Well done on persevering with your quilt blocks, Val. I like the sound of the Jaffa Cake Roulade and just right for your son's birthday celebration.
Hope you find the smaller oven is successful in making your life easier, Tina. I often use the convection setting on my combination oven like Val to save putting on a larger one in my range cooker.
We have very high numbers of Covid cases here at the moment (highest in the country I have heard) so I've decided that a mask is an essential accessory again. We haven't heard from our surgery about booking our next booster jab. I'm hoping that I qualify as OH is still classed as Clinically Vulnerable.
Did you buy anything whilst wandering around the shops, Chris?
Must go and order my plants. Bye for now.
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Post by ambersparkle on Mar 25, 2022 8:58:41 GMT
Morning all, another beautiful Morning, but cold, hope I will be able to get outside, and do a bit more today. Oh Iris, the dreaded Vine Weevil, have had it a couple of times, awful little Beasts. I fell in lucky last year, my Strawberries, some of them, were next to Onions, and they seeded themselves, so had no need to take Cuttings, and they are perfectly spaced too, I always like to have a new Crop of Strawberries coming on, these are Cambridge Favourite, but have Mara Du Bois, not sure if that's the right Spelling. Anyway, want to get some Cosmos in, and do more tidying up. Youngest, and eldest Son, coming today, so will see if I can put them to any use, but doubt it, they have not been inclined so far, but need my new Airer putting up outside, going to try and save Electric over the Summer, by putting Clothes on this long Flat Airer, that I can manage to lift things off, try and save over the Summer anyway. Must make a start, no baking today, going to have lovely Scampi and Salad for Tea, yum! Have a great Day, hope it is nice where you are. Love Tina x
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Post by paperman on Mar 25, 2022 9:41:57 GMT
Good morning Ladies, I hope this finds you well.
On yet another lovely looking sunny morning I had breakfast outside, again, but it was surprisingly cold so came indoors pretty quickly when I had finished.
Last night’s moussaka was a success and if anyone is interested I’ll post the recipe elsewhere anon. I was much relieved as it was the first time I have ever done it.
Tonight, it being Friday, it will be fish & oven chips.
I have discovered, embarrassingly, that I need to do another proper shop so we will be off up to Lowestoft in a bit to Morrisons and Aldi. I say embarrased because I thought I had covered all requirements earlier this week...
We will probably go out for a walk this afternoon, yesterday’s browse round Halesworth turned out to be more than just a browse, I like to wear flip flops around the house and loafing around, my current pair have been with me now for probably 4 years and are in dire need of replacing, I have bought 2 or 3 pairs as replacements but none of them have been successful and 2 pairs ended up in the charity shop. Peering in the window of the shoe shop I saw a pair that might fit the bill and bought them in hope!!
Tina if you could take back this cold air but leave the sun here we would be really grateful.
That’s it ladies, please take care xx
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Post by irist on Mar 25, 2022 20:13:44 GMT
Evening all. A successful day here. OH's friend B arrived at 8.30 am to put our plough back together. OH had started renovating it prior to his fall in September and hasn't been able to finish the job. Not only is the plough reassembled but B painted it too. So I've taken a photo of it and B's granddaughter (who stores here tractors here) took some photos of the tractor last weekend and a video of B driving it around our field. Now I've got everything in place to advertise the tractor and plough for sale. Just need someone to come along and take both off our hands now. Fingers crossed.
I've been out in the garden for several hours again this afternoon. I've finished fettling all OH's raised beds now and started on weeding the flower borders. The forecast is for the weather to cool (quite significantly at night) over the next few days so I've brought some of the more tender seedlings back into the house tonight. I'll need to do some housework tomorrow to catch up indoors (:
Be back tomorrow. Off to watch Gardeners' World.
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Post by brightspark on Mar 25, 2022 21:06:25 GMT
Evening all,
Iris, sounds like good news for the tractor and plough - good luck with the potential sale. OH has contacted the local auction house to sell his car - a stress and worry-free way of selling, but have to hope that it doesn't get a poor deal! After all your fettling, you should sleep well tonight!
Chris "Tonight, it being Friday, it will be fish & oven chips." Have you resorted to the easy option ? Were your flipflops the good buy this time, after all? Chris I tasted aubergine once, and cannot remember how it was cooked, but it wasn't to my taste, and since that time I haven't ever bought another, therefore I haven't tasted moussaka. As you have enjoyed it, maybe it's time for me to give it a go. So, yes, if you would post the recipe soon. Thank you.
Tina, I have one of those airers, and I reckon they are great - very useful - even if it has to dry indoors. We have a small balcony, south-facing with French doors, and in wintertime, and behind the glass doors, the sunshine does the job very well drying the wash-load. The last time we grew strawberries, we lived on the edge of the farmer's field, and we had visiting squirrels that didn't know to wait until they were red, but picked them anyway and buried them, and forgetting where! Mmm scampi, ay? I made do with jumbo fish fingers this evening, as OH had the mussels. With a la Val chips, of course.
I made two more Bible quilt blocks today - really quite enjoyed doing them, that is if I can find an easy way to assemble them !! This morning was the quilting group get-together, but OH and I discussed the current Covid issue and decided that it would be better not to put myself in that position, as there are frequently 20+ quilters there. I'm also not keen on wearing a mask for two to three hours.
It looks like I have missed Grayson's Art Club this evening, so will catch up later. I love seeing what other people come up with, and I'm quite envious of Grayson and Philippa's set-up.
Have a good evening, what's left of it, x
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Post by ambersparkle on Mar 25, 2022 21:52:05 GMT
Just popping in before Bed Time. Got my new Airer up and it was great, that should save me a bit of Money over the Summer. The two Boys were here this Morning, and eldest Son, went away with three Quarters of the Fruit Loaf, he rang me up later to tell me, he had eaten four Slices! Greedy Hound. I will make him some of his favourite Rock Buns this Weekend, I like them too. Must try and get the last of the Raspberries out of the Freezer, and jam them. Told Son, to look for Cookbooks in the Charity Shops, and he came back with four, two Keepers, One of Cheese Recipes, from a very young Mary Berry, it is the youngest I have seen her' It has lots of lovely Recipes in it. Potatoes are in, could not find them, kept on telling them, they are in the big Cupboard, Youngest Son brings the Pack through, and say's, "since when are you calling your Bedroom the big Cupboard!" Was a bit short on Tatties, so made up the difference, with a couple of mine that were sprouting. Am awa to my Bed, Night, Night, all. Love Tina x
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Post by paperman on Mar 26, 2022 8:57:15 GMT
Now in 2022. Thanks Tina xx
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