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Post by paperman on Jan 14, 2023 14:35:02 GMT
Good day Ladies on a grey, wet and boring (weather wise) Saturday, the sun was forecast to come out this afternoon; we’ll see if it bothers.
Good to hear from you Val, sorry you are still suffering but glad you have some medication which should help. Personally yes I am still coughing, at times quite violently, but that is proving an embarrassment more than anything else.
I drove ‘A’ up to the local shop this morning but I was banned from going in with her.
Last night we had plaice & chips which was OK., it would have been better still if I could taste it!
Tonight I am cooking and am doing cauliflower cheese, I have prepared the cauliflower already just now; and again I am wondering if one can do anything with the cauliflower leaves that are cut off and thrown away. A quick Internet search shows several ideas/recipes and had I not already put them in the garden composter I would possibly have a go, next time perhaps. Has anyone here tried anything?
There being nothing that we fancied on TV last night we again went for something on Amazon Prime.
Ah ha, the sun has just made an appearance and we may grab it and go for a walk.
So, I will leave you for now, please take care and I hope you start feeling better soon Val xx
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Post by irist on Jan 14, 2023 16:26:25 GMT
Hello folks from a dismal SW. More rain, wind and chilly weather here. So I've had a start at sorting out my wardrobe. I've a bagful of clothes that are suitable for the British Heart Foundation shop and another of items which I've bought, never worn and now don't fit as I've lost weight. The latter bag I'm going to get my granddaughter to sell on Vinted and she can keep the proceeds.
Hope the medication has helped, Val and that you got your walk in the sun, Chris.
Nothing else to report so I'm off to the kitchen to start on tonight's meal. We had home made fish and chips last night so tonight we'll use up the remainder of the pork and apple casserole. I've prepared a bread and butter pudding so need to get the oven on to heat the casserole and cook the pud.
Wishing you all a relaxing evening and a good night's sleep. Bye for now.
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Post by brightspark on Jan 14, 2023 16:57:58 GMT
Afternoon all,
Chris, regarding the cauliflower leaves ... the inner pale leaves I lay beneath the cauliflower/broccoli au gratin; and the larger leaves, I strip the green from the chunky stalks, keeping the thinner parts of the stalks, and chopping them up, and use them as greens, like cabbage.
Last night, instead of the mussels, we had what I thought was smoked haddock, but Tesco had substituted with smoked Basa fillets. We hadn't tried them before, but I was quite surprised to discover they are from Vietnam !! Having now tried them, I prefer haddock !
We have had the same weather as you Chris, it is dry at the moment, but the fields are under water and the river is higher than I've seen it for a while, and you can see that it is flowing very fast.
Iris, I have oodles of infant knitting patterns from my Mum's collection, perhaps I can send you a few? I doubt strongly that I will be knitting any of them!
I have bought some Aran 100gm balls from The Wool Warehouse. Lucy "Attic24" is starting a CAL using DK, but I much prefer Aran thickness, so I have tried to match up the colours so that I can crochet-a-long with Lucy. I have most of them but some are not available in the thicker yarn - it really doesn't matter that much but I do like the 'frosty' colours that she has chosen. However, before I start on that, I now have 73 x 6" squares to sew together for the hospital blanket (I need 80, to make 5ft x 4ft), so nearly there ...
I have been cooking beef slowly for our meal this evening with onions, carrots, mushrooms - I think I shall now add some Charlotte potatoes to it - a meal in one pot - then add some broccoli to serve.
I have managed to get through the day today without having a nap, so hopefully the virus is on its way out. Hope so. Have a good evening all, x
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Post by paperman on Jan 15, 2023 10:59:42 GMT
Good morning Ladies on what is a very bright but not quite sunny morning. It was cold and moonlit overnight and at 6 degrees it feels chilly now too. In fact it has got chillier for yours truly as ‘A’ cut my hair this morning.
Val thanks for the heads-up regarding cauliflower leaves, I’ll certainly do something with them next time. Frankly I don’t know where the habit of throwing them away came from, it seems particularly wasteful in the current environment.
The cauliflower cheese last night was the first meal for the last few days that I could taste so whilst the cough persists, albeit improving, I am hopeful that my taste buds are returning to normal.
Tonight we are having roast chicken; they didn’t have any small birds at the farm when we went down there on Friday so what we have is oversize, for us, so we’ll have to be more inventive than normal as the left-over is likely to offer maybe 3 meals for the two of us.
We don’t have any plans for today but may well go out for a walk later.
For us, with the ending of ‘Strictly’ Saturday evenings TV has gone downhill but we did watch Chris Packham on BBC4 followed by a program about life in the Arctic Circle both of which were really interesting. I had a recording of ‘Bad Boys for life’ on my hard drive and we then watched that.
Now for my morning coffee, please take care xx
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Post by irist on Jan 16, 2023 10:18:27 GMT
Morning folks. At last we can see some blue sky and the sun is peeping out although it is rather chilly BUT at least it's not raining or gloomy! Washing is on ready to go on the line to take advantage of the brisk wind but there is a chance of a shower so I'll have to keep a watch on that. We've got Dr granddaughter calling in shortly to pick up her birthday present. She's off skiing in France with her partner and 2 friends so will be virtually passing our door on their way up country to the airport.
I hope you are OK Val and thanks for the offer of the knitting patterns. Daughter has given me a couple so my needles are clicking again.
I spoke too soon - we're just having a shower. It's rain rather than the heavy hailstorms we've been having over the last couple of days. I have the radio on and the local forecast is saying we'll have 5-8C temperatures today but in the wind it feels much colder. Apparently the showers will clear by lunchtime so not all bad.
I agree about the dire selection of programmes on TV at the moment, Chris. I've been distracting myself with other things lately as OH is fixated it seems on any war documentaries or films he can find to watch not my cup of tea. Speaking of which it's time for a coffee.
Take care all and have a good day.
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Post by brightspark on Jan 16, 2023 16:13:43 GMT
Afternoon all,
Thanks Iris for your good wishes, I'm getting there, not so much coughing but still have bursts of it. It is tiring, too.
Quite disappointing, I had a Tesco delivery on Thursday and I had ordered two nets of lemons, as son had asked for some lemon marmalade. Friday morning one of the lemons was mouldy! Saturday morning another two, despite using the Lakeland bags to 'keep fruit and veg fresh'. When I looked at the labels, there are a lot of foods now that don't have use by dates, "to save waste" - well, they're wrong there ! So, if the products have no dates on them, how will the staff know when re-stocking which ones should be used first - and this applies to the pickers who fill the orders. This seems like those picked for our delivery were obviously past their best. We have contacted them, and they are refunding us, but that's not the point is it?
I thought it best to use up the lemons - we also had some leftover double cream, so I made lemon posset, which we will try this evening. The rest became lemon curd. Son will have to wait for his marmalade!
This evening I have some turkey steaks, which will become Wiener Schnitzel, turkey-style. With chips of course (alv).
Chris, have you been watching His Dark Materials? We have, on catch-up, and we have seen 4 of the 6. Quite intense! I guess it is University Challenge and Silent Witness tonight.
I now have 76 x 6" knitted squares, so four more to go, to make the hospital requested blanket. All I need to do now is sew them all, which will take some time !
Then I shall start on my springfrost blanket from Attic24, as I mentioned.
Have a good afternoon and evening everyone, x
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Post by paperman on Jan 16, 2023 17:17:37 GMT
Good afternoon Ladies, although looking out of the window at 4:40pm it looks like evening already. Weather has been patchy today struggling around 4 degrees with frequent rain and a cold easterly wind.
This morning we went down to Ipswich to a store called Glasswells which is mainly a large, quality, furniture store as ‘A’ needs to buy a replacement for a rug she has in her day-room sadly what they had did not tick the right boxes. They also have an excellent restaurant sort of styled on a Nordic model, minimalist, very clean and bright. They have a limited menu of excellent food which, as all we were seeking was a light lunch, was just right. We have lunched there several times before and never been disappointed. Whilst there I got into a conversation with the waitress having noticed they had vegan cheese on the menu and enquired about it. I do not understand veganism at all, here they are with an opportunity to develop a whole range of new exciting and interesting flavours and products yet they insist on aping, often in an inferior way, existing products that we carnivores have been eating for years.
We got home mid-afternoon and quite honestly I sank into a chair and napped for an hour. You are right Val this cough malarkey is jolly tiring; at least that’s my excuse. It is good to hear from you that you are on the mend. That is quite a saga about the lemons, I guess we switched back to physically shopping as soon as we could after the first lockdown, fruit and veg we like to have in our hands before we decide to buy.
Tonight we will watch George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces followed by Silent Witness then something funny on one of the far out channels for half an hour.
We are having chicken curry tonight; I think it is going to be a chicken week!! Which reminds me ‘A’ had an egg salad sandwich for lunch. At least I had a bacon, brie and cranberry panini, not a hint of chicken in my sight.
Enjoy your evening folks and please take care xx
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Post by paperman on Jan 17, 2023 15:08:24 GMT
Good afternoon Ladies I hope this finds you well. Minus 4 degrees this morning and very icy, Iris I hear it was also very bad ‘down your way’ too, which sounds like an intro to an old radio program with Richard Dimbleby. It has been sunny all day so far and has reached 2 degrees and most of the ice has melted.
Last night’s chicken curry was super and we have enough for the same again so it is now in the freezer for another day. We had chicken sandwiches for lunch today and tonight I am cooking a lamb traybake.
‘A’ has gone over to Westleton today for Tai Chi, my cough persists so I am banned. My cleaner came this morning and I went next door for a couple of hours.
Not exactly the most exciting of days perhaps so nothing really to report.
We watched Silent Witness last night and find the second instalment is not on tonight as we had expected as there is football, huh!
Now for a cup of tea and a piece of leftover cake from Christmas, I am very partial to fruit cake.
With that exciting piece of info I will leave you, please take care xx
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Post by brightspark on Jan 17, 2023 16:52:02 GMT
Afternoon all,
Ha ha Chris, we watched Silent Witness too - blumming football - why can't that be re-scheduled to BBC2?
We had the guy who installed our wood burner return today - remember I said about the inner bricks had cracked? The company said that we had been 'over-firing' ! Well, despite the fact that in the brochure it suggests oak, we have been using oak, but offcuts from a wood flooring company, as well as logs. He told us that the offcuts were actually burning too fast and that was the cause ... Hmmm - the offcuts are half the price of the logs.
I know what you mean about war films, Iris, as my OH loves them too. Although, we have been watching The Spitfire Factory, where they are rebuilding old planes - fascinating to see them coming to fruition, and actually take flight.
The turkey Wiener Schnitzels were delicious - I should've taken a photo, they looked very professional ! I floured, egged and Panko crumbed them - they had a crispy coating and were very tender.
I inherited a sewing 'chest' from my Mum, and it has what I call 'sputnik-style legs' - all pointing outwards. To be honest, I don't use it, so we emptied it today, and sorted all the threads, zips, buttons, etc, and put it up on eBay.
Our son bought me a lifetime supply of boxes from Lakeland (at Christmas) with the coloured lids - three different sizes, so I have sorted through all my much-used Tupperware boxes, and bagged them up - we will offer them to the local charity shop, though not sure if they will be worth selling, but we do have a Food Bank here, and my neighbour who works in there, told me that the number of folk using it is increasing, so maybe give them to the food bank for them. Not sure.
It will be toad-in-the-hole this evening, just fancy it, and OH loves it, so why not?
Have a good evening everyone, x
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Post by brightspark on Jan 18, 2023 9:47:17 GMT
Morning all,
A beautiful morning here, and at 07.30, I looked out and saw a lovely sky, complete with crescent moon, and thought - that needs recalling, so I got up and went to the window to take a photo, but the window was iced shut ! No photo, then!
It is still very frosty outside, I expect it's the same with all of us currently. So I will sort out more food for our little feathered companions - must be awful trying to keep warm with such spindly legs(!).
Our toad-in-the-hole was just right, except that I had defrosted five sausages, and both of us left just one sausage, so guess what - yummy sausage sandwich for lunch.
Our daughter is in San Francisco currently for work - I still wonder why Zoom can't be used instead of flying employees around the world. She told us recently that there has been another sorting out of employees, and some have been given redundancy packages - including daughter's boss! A worrying time for a lot of folks.
OH has just brought in some of our Victoria plums from the freezer - I shall cook them up, they'll be lovely to go with breakfast porridge, and maybe even a crumble, perhaps.
Stay warm everyone, it's cold out there. Have a lovely day, x
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Post by irist on Jan 18, 2023 14:44:51 GMT
Afternoon all from a chilly SW. We were lucky as we only had about an inch of snow here on Monday night but not far away they had 3 inches and on the moors about 7. There were a few nasty accidents on the roads but I haven't ventured out in the car until after the weather has "warmed" up to just above freezing! Unfortunately the wind is bitingly cold which is making it feel worse. Even I have relented and put out small amounts of food for the birds. Yesterday morning granddaughter brought Keira over to build a snowman in our field but the little one was unimpressed so they came indoors for a hot drink before going home again. At the moment we are having short but heavy hail and sleet showers but most of the snow that settled has thawed.
I've got the slow cooker bubbling away cooking a beef casserole which will keep us going for at least a couple of days as there's no let up in the cold spell here until the weekend and beyond. I'm guessing it's much the same for all of you. We had leftover pigs in blankets in a roll for lunch. The pack was taking up space in the freezer and kept tantalising me so we had to eat them! Tonight I'm going to use up some eggs to make mushroom omelettes served with air fried chips and a selection of veg to add to the 5 a day. Will probably make some individual low fat lemon and ginger cheesecakes for pud. We'll see
Seems like we all have Silent Witness to watch tonight! Like others I'm not sure that "real" forensic scientists have time to get as personally involved in their cases as in the programme but it makes good viewing.
I don't envy your daughter flying across the world regularly for work, Val. Especially so given the extreme weather the USA is having. Our Dr granddaughter was lucky today. As I mentioned she's gone off skiing in France but flew to Switzerland so not over French airspace or she could have been held up. Strikes, strikes and more strikes everywhere.
I'm now off to write to an accountant who was recommended to me. Unfortunately he and his team are not taking on any new work until after the end of January tax deadline but his receptionist told me to email him and he might be able to give me an immediate answer to a couple of questions. Once that's done I'm back to my knitting - as you can tell, nothing exciting happening here!!Take care all.
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Post by brightspark on Jan 18, 2023 19:08:27 GMT
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Post by paperman on Jan 19, 2023 11:49:26 GMT
Good morning Ladies on what could be termed a brisk sunny morning. It was -2 degrees when I woke up at 7 o’clock and has now moderated to +2 degrees, it is very frosty and very cold. The birdfeeder is the centre of activity, first thing we had a mob of long tailed tits at the fat balls but now it has settled to the usual suspects and welcome they are too.
Coincidence Val, we too had salmon last night but I like the look of the recipe you used and we may try that another time.
Yesterday we went up to Lowestoft to Morrisons, Aldi and our fishmonger which is when we got the salmon for last night. We also visited Dunelm as ‘A’ needs a new rug for her day room and we also need some material for Claris as I need to replace the roller blind material which after 30 years is beginning to show signs of wear. The rug situation looked quite hopeful if 'A' had remembered to bring the measurements however they do not sell blind material. My search for that continues.
We had lunch out, Pizza Hut do a good deal for lunches at £9.99 per head and their salad bar is excellent, all help yourself to however much or little you want.
I had thought my cough was getting better but it seems the cold air yesterday fired it up again, including through the night…..very annoying.
Last night we watched SW followed by something to make us laugh on one of the outer channels.
Not sure what we will do this afternoon, we are having liver casserole for supper.
Now for a cup of coffee, please take care xx
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Post by brightspark on Jan 19, 2023 16:19:08 GMT
Afternoon all,
After sorting out some things for the charity shop, we ventured into town this morning. Firstly for a check-up at the docs for me - I have regular 3-monthly blood tests due to the particular medication I take. Then into the charity shop - we had four bag-loads(!), but the lady was happy with all of it - that was something we wondered - Tupperware boxes, and unused bits of fabric that I didn't want, plus a mountain of clothes, but she was pleased with it all. Thankfully.
Chris, as I type this, we have the flock of long-tailed tits around the feed station, too, among others - I have put out some feed on the ground beneath the bay laurel bush, and the dunnock, chaffinch and blackbirds seem to appreciate the convenience of it. All the varieties of tits and the robin tend to use the feed station - off the ground.
Iris, I don't blame you not going out in the car while it is icy and so cold. We called in to a car wash this morning where some Polish guys have set up a hand-wash facility for the cars. They do an amazing job, their attention to detail too is excellent. This morning though the guy using the hose on our car, stepped backward and promptly slipped on the ice. I don't know how they do it, their hands must be frozen. Kudos to them.
I treated myself to some black cherries in the supermarket - and apparently they are good for me ( ) as they contain potassium, and I am short of potassium, apparently. So with that and the banana accompanying our sandwich at lunchtime, I had a dose of the good stuff.
OH has just made a cuppa - so I'm off to enjoy that, so have a good afternoon/evening all, x
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Post by brightspark on Jan 20, 2023 15:50:47 GMT
I guess it's a resting day for all !
Nothing much to report here either.
Last night I cooked pork florentine, and again I used up some Charlotte potatoes and roasted them - this time painted with olive oil and smoked paprika mixture. Very enjoyable. Tonight it is OH's mussels - though not sure yet what I will have.
I have started sewing up the squares for the hospital blanket, though still short of a few, but I'd like to get some of the blanket made up before knitting some more.
Is anyone watching Winterwatch this week?
Have a good late afternoon and evening, x
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