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Post by paperman on Mar 5, 2023 13:13:21 GMT
Good day each, grey day here in Ruritania just pushing 5 degrees.
It remains very quiet, the only ‘excitement’ I have had is that I had my hair cut this morning so it actually feels colder than the 5 degrees.
For us there was nothing on the box last night and ‘A’ had a yen to watch a couple of episodes of Lovejoy which we did, not sure I should be admitting that……
The steak last night was good and tonight we are having lamb chops (cutlets!!) traybake.
One of the guys coming up next week won’t be. Sadly he had a seizure on Thursday and was ambulanced into hospital. All very worrying for friends but also of course for his poor wife who is climbing up the wall with anxiety.
I hope others are having a more interesting day.
Take care xx
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Post by irist on Mar 5, 2023 16:54:51 GMT
Afternoon all.
And breathe ...... Our son and DiL + the dogs left at 10.00am this morning and arrived home at 4pm. They share the driving which helps on a 6 hour trek. I sent them off with a "picnic", hot and cold drinks but forgot to give them a lentil cottage pie I had prepared and frozen. It would have thawed out ready for them to put in the oven for their dinner tonight 
We've had a good time with them and they were really fortunate with the weather. We have had sun right up to today and now it's raining gently. We had a good walk around Boscawen Park in the centre of Truro on Thursday. The path runs along the river on the boundary of the park and, of course, we had to stop for a coffee and cake half way back to the car  The remainder of the time they were out and about visiting family locally, having cuddles with our three g grandchildren and relaxing - although our son did replace the security light near the back door for us and also bought me a dash cam which he fitted to my car. They are back in June but will stay with doctor granddaughter just for a weekend to give me a break from all the catering, etc.
Nothing wrong with watching Lovejoy, Chris! We used to enjoy the programme when it was first on TV. Very dated now Can't comment on Radio 2 as it's not a station we tune into.
SiL's car broke down on Friday on his way home from work. He lost all electrics but managed to pull off the road. The alternator belt had broken. The AA said it would take 4 hours to reach him!! So daughter begged a favour from one of the mechanics at the car dealership where she works who went out and rescued him and towed the car back to the workshop. Lucky to have access to this personal service! Daughter will drive my car to work and SiL will use hers tomorrow.
Well it's almost teatime but we won't need much. I cooked a mini roast (chicken breast for me and pork chop for OH) with the usual roast trimmings for lunch followed by baked apples filled with mincemeat and served with ice cream. Obviously no family Zoom call tonight so it's feet up time before tackling the laundry tomorrow and vacuuming up the dog hair.
Have a good evening all.
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Post by brightspark on Mar 6, 2023 23:45:59 GMT
Hi everyone,
It's nearly midnight, so just dropped in to say hello.
Will chat more tomorrow, so sleep well everyone, x
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Post by paperman on Mar 7, 2023 10:18:25 GMT
Good morning all, hope this finds you well. We have visitors so will be back tomorrow.
Take care xx
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Post by brightspark on Mar 7, 2023 12:33:40 GMT
Morning all - just, as it is almost midday!
Chris, I hope your chicken and herb meal goes down well - it looks pretty good to me. Shame about one of them being unable to visit.
What flavour cheesecake is A making? My go-to is lemon flavour, but I happen to have a tin of cherry pie filling, and if the cheesecake is plain, that would be a very tasty topping (love cherries!).
Iris, I hope you're feeling relaxed now that all the visitors have left. You were very lucky with the weather, weren't you - it makes such a difference to the enjoyment of the time spent.
Ooh, mincemeat-filled baked apples - haven't had that in a l o n g time. Yum.
Haha, we watched Lovejoy too, and it seems laughable when you see the 'new' mobile phones that they used - they were huge - I have this image of Lady Jane using one that was bigger than the original landline phone!
Your son-in-law was very lucky getting a tow home - the four-hour wait seems more likely in situations like that.
Do you live a distance from the family with your newborn great grandson? Nowadays we tend to have distances between members of the family - we are an hour from each of our children, so we don't spend as much time with them as we would like.
We also didn't have the Zoom on Sunday, as we had all been together on Saturday celebrating our son-in-law's birthday. It was their local Indian restaurant and the meal was great, it was so good, and the meals served were shared between us all - not intentionally, but we all wanted to try, and taste, the other dishes, so it ended up a very sharing and fun get-together. A good evening.
In fact that ended back at their house, and I had taken my millionaire's and swapped with some pieces from their cake, which was a triple layer carrot cake, daughter had coated it in a cheesecake mix, and scattered with pecan nuts. Very tasty.
My nieces created an amazing Saturday for my bro and his wife - celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. They pulled out all the stops and my bro rang me the following day, he was speechless, and so so chuffed.
What my bro didn't know was that my nieces were sending me photos and videos of the event, almost like a running commentary, so I almost felt like I was there. The eldest niece's son is a professional rugby player, he is 6'3" and hefty (for those in the know - he is a 'tighthead prop' in rugby), but he is an amazing guy, so generous and kind in nature. He, as their grandson, gave my bro and his wife a small gift with a card, which read "from K & L and someone else". My sister-in-law was unaware of the meaning of the words, that is until she opened the gift. That was a small picture frame with a picture of an ultrasound ... no-one at the get-together knew of this news, and there was a lot of hugs, kisses and tears (happy). K then sent me a text on WhatsApp - a picture of the ultrasound. The baby is due in September. So, guess what - I have a quilt to make!
Well, I think I have rambled on plenty! Have a good afternoon/evening everyone, x
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Post by paperman on Mar 8, 2023 9:33:51 GMT
Good morning, I hope this finds you well. 3 degrees and very grey with occasional flurries of snow yes it is a trifle cold but not as cold as yesterday morning when we woke to a light dusting of snow on the cars and grass with a minus 1 degree temperature.
We enjoyed our visitors. Eating out on Monday night and here at home last night; that chicken dish Val is probably one of the best chicken dishes I have ever done, my only amendments were that I used boneless thighs rather than bone in ones and I added a bit of garlic too. I opted for boneless as I didn’t want to risk someone swallowing a small bone and having a problem. The cheesecake that ‘A’ made was lemon and lime and mmmmm it was really tasty. The cheese and biscuits were a complete waste of time as no one had room for more.
We have a young Ukrainian family living here in the village; they have been here for about 6 months. The father is a pilot so is here intermittently and the mother has a job 3 days a week, with a young son who goes to our local school and a 15 year old daughter similarly going to 6th form college in nearby Leiston it is a privilege to have them safely here with us. I want us to put on a Ukrainian evening at the village hall and have arranged a meeting this morning with a couple of the management committee that run the hall and the young mother to see what we can put together, it is quite an exciting project if we can get it off the ground.
Apart from that meeting there is nothing planned, our visitors are leaving this morning from their hotel, we bid them goodbye when they left after supper last night. So apart from maybe going and getting a newspaper for ‘A’ it’ll be a quiet day after this morning’s meeting.
Now for a quick cup of coffee.
Please take care xx
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Post by brightspark on Mar 8, 2023 11:47:03 GMT
Morning !
Chris, I have looked again at your chicken recipe, and I am so glad I did - it is definitely one that I can and will make.
I scrolled to the bottom of the page and saw this:
thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/mary-berrys-cushion-lamb-stuffed-with-mushroom-and-mint/
As it happens, at the last CFC grab, OH bought a half shoulder of lamb, de-boned. How about that - exactly what is required for this recipe.
When our son comes (after one of his walks) soon, I shall cook this for all three of us, and he can take some home, too. So, thank you Chris, for pointing me in this direction.
Snowing currently with jumbo snowflakes, and we have a white-out across the fields, very pretty! We have a round bay laurel bush which is protecting the earth around the base from getting snowed-under - so this morning I put down some bird seed, as all the other places with the bird food has little piles of snow on them, hiding food from the birds.
OH has just made the coffee, so I'll sign out for now - have a good afternoon and evening, x
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Post by paperman on Mar 9, 2023 9:20:40 GMT
Good morning, 3 degrees grey and damp and that is the forecast for the rest of the day although at lunchtime it may climb to the dizzy heights of 4 degrees. Either way with this easterly breeze it feels very chilly.
The day has not started well, I had a phone call at just after 8 this morning to say that the friend who missed the trip up here earlier this week sadly passed away yesterday afternoon…….difficult to think of anything to say except having been friends for 50 years it’s a tough call for us too as well as his poor wife & family. Enough.
Yesterday morning’s meeting with the Ukrainian couple etc. went very well and it has been agreed that we will have a Ukrainian evening here in the village in June including taster dishes of Ukrainian food (not too much borsch I hope). It was a really interesting morning, the story of how they came to be here in this very quiet corner of England would fill a whole chapter and more but briefly they have left family back in Ukraine and his mother’s family have been without water for 3 months now and only have intermittent power. The apartment block they themselves used to live in is now a pile of rubble, he is here in UK helping with translation duties, there is as you can imagine a lot more to this story but I’ll leave it there. With their children at school here they feel they are doing the best they can in the circumstances. I think we all came away from the meeting feeling it had been a privilege to meet, sit and talk.
Yesterday afternoon we did almost nothing.
Today we have some shopping to do and tonight we are having chilli con carne with a jacket potato, we had a simple pasta dish last night so that will be 2 nights running of easy food.
Val you won’t be sorry if you do that chicken dish and well done about the lamb recipe you found.
That’s it for now, I feel a cup of coffee is needed whilst I think some more about my friend.
Have a good day and please take care xx
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Post by brightspark on Mar 9, 2023 13:20:52 GMT
Hi everyone,
Chris, so sorry to hear the news of your friend. It was so close that you nearly had a good get-together with long term friends. Very sad.
I will be trying that chicken recipe, Chris, probably at the weekend. When I cook a batch of beef mince, it does last for three+ days, and although we could freeze it, I just prefer to use it, but in different dishes. We've had cottage pie, pasta and mince with cheese sauce (au gratin); and a chili con carne. Tonight will be the last, and I have some puff pastry to make a sort of Cornish pasty. Then tomorrow, of course, is Friday - fish night.
I will also be making a cake of some sort today, as we have now finished the last one; but if I have some pastry left over from the pasties, then I shall make a few Eccles, too.
We have a plant known as a Christmas cactus, which is very 'leggy', but the flowers are amazingly beautiful. Now it never seems to flower at Christmas, more usually in November. I found one of the leggy branches had broken off around Christmastime, and I broke the branch into several smaller portions (they seem to have a few root-like hairs at the bottom of each 'leaf'), and then planted them into a tiny amount of soil and set it on the kitchen windowsill. Pretty much all of them have taken. Today it has given us its first beautiful flower.
I also have many Clivia plants, and they are sending up their flower stalks. A strange thing with Clivias - they have to get very cold during the winter, to ensure a flower. They are very large plants, and each year send up new plants, so this year we have five, and one of them has not been in a cold room, so no obvious sign of a flower, but the other four are exhibiting two of them with one flower, and the other two with two flowers each. Their flowers are nothing short of spectacular. (They are native to South Africa, also known as Natal Lily)
See here:
www.thompson-morgan.com/p/tropical-clivia-miniata/wkb4547TM?source=aw&affid=143466&utm_source=AWIN&utm_medium=affiliates&awc=2283_1678367832_f4ba2c20c6cdc7487af4a328e87a487a
I better get on with my baking, so I'll say bye for now, x
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Post by irist on Mar 9, 2023 19:59:48 GMT
Evening folks.
Hope you are all safe and warm. We have missed the snow - in fact it was 11C here at midday yesterday. We're just getting rain and it's going to get windier.
So sorry to hear about your friend's passing, Chris. Such a shame you didn't manage to meet up. My thoughts are with you and the other members of your group. What a lovely idea to hold an event for the Ukranian family in your village. True community spirit.
Have had a lot going on yet again since I last posted. It was Carers' Club on Tuesday afternoon and we had a very good vocalist entertaining us. However, when we got home OH discovered he had lost the "business end" of one hearing aid. Too late to go back so I contacted the Secretary of the group yesterday morning. After that I had a hairdressing appointment so took advantage of being in town to do a quick shop. I got a message at 9.45pm to say that the Hall caretaker had found the missing hearing aid part.
This morning OH had a visit from his Community Nurse Practitioner for a six-month check up. After an early lunch, we collected the errant hearing aid from the hall Caretaker. Phew. Saved us a fortune!
Tomorrow morning OH has his Warfarin blood check at the surgery then perhaps I can catch up on some housework!
Feet up time now. Take care.
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Post by paperman on Mar 10, 2023 11:54:24 GMT
Good morning all on a cold snowing day, we have -2 degrees apparently feeling like -6 in the strong wind.
We have been out to get a paper and the snow is beginning to stick on the roads.
This afternoon we have Tai Chi and then back home to the warm.
I said about our Ukraine project and I attach a poster we have ‘knocked up’ for it in case you are interested:
Sorry to be brief, it is Friday so no prizes for knowing what we’ll be having tonight.
Take care and stay safe and warm xx
Attachments:
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Post by brightspark on Mar 11, 2023 0:02:29 GMT
Late again ! almost midnight !
It started out to be one of those days today. I overslept, and got up about 08.15.
Rushed downstairs to make my lemon drizzle traybake (it needs 45 mins cooking, so had to get on with it!). While that was cooking, firstly I prepped breakfast, then I had a quick shower, and came down just in time to put the final lemon juice and sugar topping.
The cake came out of the oven at 09.30. At 09.50, my friend, Fran, stopped to take us both to our quilting group, and getting in the car, I dropped the cake box* - on the gravel by her car. Half of it landed on the baking parchment, the other half was thrown over the wall for the birds. What a mess. Fran insisted we took the remains to quilting. So, embarrassingly I did. But it all went! I was gutted to drop a lovely warm traybake on the floor, after all the care I took to make sure it was done in time! 😢
*The box had two lock'n'lock-type of handles, and when I opened the car door, I knocked the box on the door, and one of the 'locks' opened, which is what happened.
Every time I think about it, I get cross with myself for relying on the handle and not having my hand beneath the box. Grrr.
Chris it has been pretty chilly here, too. Wrap up warm and face the elements if you have to go out, though I prefer to stay in the warm.
Iris it was amazingly fortunate to have found the piece for the hearing aid. I hope the Warfarin check went as well as it could do, and you can get back to the warmth of the house. Not good weather to be out, especially hearing about the 11-hour queue on the M62 near Manchester.
Now just past midnight, so I'd get better some beauty sleep. 
Sleep well everyone, x
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Post by paperman on Mar 11, 2023 8:57:37 GMT
Good morning all, yesterday no sooner than I had posted here the sun came out and it became a cold but bright day. This morning it is grey and 0 degrees with quite a heavy frost (or is it just frozen wetness?).
We also had Tai Chi yesterday and as we were the only ones there it was like a private lesson.
We are off on Monday for a couple of days, 3 nights, down to Gunwharf Quay (Portsmouth). Each year we go away for our birthdays and this is the second year I have chosen this place with its plentiful restaurants and retail opportunities. It also gives us an opportunity to meet up with some old friends who moved away from Suffolk down to Gosport a few years back and we will be having lunch with them on Wednesday.
Val, sorry to hear about your cake disaster, at least you managed to salvage some of it and I bet the birds were very happy.
Iris I agree with Val that was very fortunate regarding the hearing aid, no doubt if it was me the part would be lost for ever.
Today we need to go up the wood-yard as we are out of logs and kindling also we need to do a little shopping including ‘A’s newspaper.
Tonight I am being very lazy and we are having cauliflower cheese, in fact it is the second dish I made from the big cauliflower that I used before and it is defrosting now.
I feel a cup of coffee coming on, so please stay warm and take care xx
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Post by brightspark on Mar 11, 2023 23:54:34 GMT
Another late night here - but happy birthday for Tuesday, Chris, and also for A whenever her birthday comes around!
Your quest for logs Chris seems to be contagious ! When OH phoned for another delivery of wood, he was told it will be another four weeks before the wood can be delivered  . Our next door neighbour is also trying to find a supplier. So many folk have bought wood-burners that the supply is being stretched.
Anyway, a bit late now, so off to bed - sleep well everyone, x
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Post by paperman on Mar 12, 2023 15:58:25 GMT
Good day all, at 12 degrees it might be very grey but it isn’t cold (or that warm either!!).
Nothing going on today. As we are off for a couple of days tomorrow we’ve been sorting out what to take etc. and I’ve been scanning the internet for discount voucher codes for the restaurants. I am a member of a discount club and we are OK for Monday night at Café Rouge and for Wednesday at Carluccios as they accept my club membership, however Loch Fyne do not and I was unable to unscramble the hoops they want you to go through to get whatever discount they are offering so we have settled on Brasserie Blanc as they are offering a 25% discount, which’ll do nicely and having eaten there before can vouch for the food..
Logs Val; luckily we don’t seem to have a problem over here. Our local man sells them in girt great sacks (pretty heavy although he heaves them about in two’s!) and for collection they are the same price as for bulk deliveries loose off the truck, so we collected 4 sacks yesterday which he loaded into the boot of the car and I half crippled myself again carefully lifting out one at a time when we got back.
We are having a chicken traybake tonight being that it is easy.
We hope to leave around 11 tomorrow morning so I may be a bit scarce for a couple of days, we’ll see.
That’s it, please take care xx
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The remainder of the time they were out and about visiting family locally, having cuddles with our three g grandchildren and relaxing - although our son did replace the security light near the back door for us and also bought me a dash cam which he fitted to my car. They are back in June but will stay with doctor granddaughter just for a weekend to give me a break from all the catering, etc.
. Our next door neighbour is also trying to find a supplier. So many folk have bought wood-burners that the supply is being stretched.