General Chat

Thanks for the pictures Mel. The flowers are lovely and that sky is such a bright blue. The fog cleared and we did get a bit of sun this morning but it wasn’t out long enough to melt the frost. One app is telling me it’s 2 degrees now and the other says 3 degrees but they both say that’s the top temperature today. I walked down the road to post a couple of letters and wrapped up really well but the cold on my face was bringing on a migraine so I was glad to get home. It eased once I warmed up again.

Better get my pork out of the oven and turn the veg over as we want to eat about 2 pm. Everything is roasting in the oven today; potatoes, carrots, parsnips and wedges of cabbage. It’s smelling good and I’m just enjoying a pre lunch glass of wine :-D

Ooh going up, 7 now.
thanks for the photos Mel!
Lovely blue sky Mel, lucky you.
Your floral displays are lovely too. I know two went on graves but what did you do with the others. did you manage to sell them?

6 degrees here now Mel but no sun. :-(

Think I have the best weather today I have wall to wall sunshine and clear blue sky and its 7 degrees. It makes you want to do things. I need to clean the girls out so think I will do that this morning or whats left of it.

I have just taken a pic so will send you some sunshine.

I think I saw Gwyn on the chit cat thread earlier Mandy, (ah that was yesterday). It is 3 degrees here now, the heating is off indoors and outside is bright but no sun. Not really cold indoors at the moment as it has been.

Morning all,

Sharp frost again no fog and the suns shining so at least it's bright so much better than those dull dreary days.

Son should pop in with Lewis today so he can have his birthday presents ready for Wednesday it will save us turning out in the dark on Wednesday as he will be at school during the day so it would mean turning out later in the day.
Dil won't come as she has a bit of a cold so thought we don't want to get it .
Son also has a sack of potatoes for us that he got from the farm in the week as its right near the other school he goes to .

Hope Gwyn is OK we haven't heard from her lately.

Hope everyone has kept warm and be careful of the paths if you have to go out today .

Morning all

There’s a heavy frost again and still some fog lingering and it’s -4 but, in spite of that, it does seem a bit brighter today. I haven’t got any plans but I expect I’ll find plenty to keep me busy. Roast loin of pork for dinner today.

Good morning Mel and all. Slept well last night, only up once about 4am then woke at about 630 and lay dozing for an hour. Bedding is in the wash. I don't think there was a frost as all the bushes were still white yesterday evening but it has all gone now and is 2 degrees. feels a bit warmer but the sky looks a bit threatening, could be snow!
Still not going anywhere, may walk down with some books for Irene if I can be bothered. still got lots of small jobs to clear up. they do mount up when left for three weeks.

Morning all,

frosty morning here and pc says 4 degrees but feels like 0.

Supposed to have the men coming today to look at what tree I want down so I am up early to get myself ready.

Cars covered in frosty patterns today and although the suns coming up its quite bright out the back and there's a funny glow to the north.

I used togo home at lunch time so it was two lots of walking to the station and catching a train and walking up to the school. It was only one stop to Gants Hill. Frank would have known that station. I can also remember going with dad to the bank in Gants Hill and I was only small cos I could'nt see over the high mahogany counters.

On the way to school there was a road that came off the road to the school and came back onto the school road a bit further on, like a crescent I suppose. Someone up there had a mulberry tree in their front garden and I used to go and pick the mulberries and eat them onthe way to school.

Yes it was Napisan as you say Annx. I used that. then there was the bottle sanitiser which you soaked all the bottles and teats in. I used to bath my son in the washing up bowl when he was really tiny. He only weighed 5lbs. 3 oz when he was born 56 years ago now. Dos'nt time fly!!!!!

Yes it was napisan And the plastic buckets with lids..
Most of my high school were bussed in to school, not many were local. We were not allowed out at lunch time either.

That's interesting about storing cucumbers AnnG. I didn't know either. Yes I remember the white bucket and lid mum had for the nappies. Was it something called Nappisan she soaked them in? It seems to ring a bell.

I like the Boursin cheese on crackers, but must try it on celery Mel. I like the packs of mini cues now as there's no waste and they keep well.

Yes it might be their dinner money some are spending as you say. At our senior school, they didn't allow us to go out of the school gates at lunchtime unless we went home for lunch. If we were seen eating at all in the street we would get a detention. I think there were a few times I would try to suck a boiled sweet in the street trying not to move my mouth!

I'm late for bed so better get going. I just saw on the PC that snow is 1km away!

Its just that where I sit at the table or my desk I lways get cold knees. I have moved the chair opposit to see if the heat comes through there but it dos'nt really. I just thought if I got a fan it would help move the warm air aroiund more.I only have the one double rad in the kitchen.

Just googled that Mel and its say no there's not enough heat from a rad like there is from a log burner ,we have two fans on our stove and they turn like crazy and certainly push the heat out .

O I meant to ask if anyone knows if a log burner fan would work on a double radiator?

I actually ruin my first cooker by boiling nappies in a preserves pan on the top element. The underneath part melted and dipped in the end. I did'nt know you shoud keep cues out of the fridge and yes mine so go soggy sometimes but the chickens get them so they are not wasted. Its much cheaper to buy a whole one than a half which is a few pence more. I like ham and cue sandwishes and cheese and cue salmon and cue or tuna and cue. If I have some sandwiches I have slices of cue and perhaps little toms with it too. I also like cue sandwiches or tomato sandwiches. I also like celery sitcks with bousin plastered up the middle, thats delish.

Not done a thing since BIL left, just sat and played on the pc. |May do a jigsaw on it now.

Ann I had three packs of cream cheese because I was going to make a cheese cake at Christmas but changed my mind so now they need eating up I might give son one tomorrow when he comes .

I don't know about others schools but the secondary schools here have cards the children use for school lunches the parents load money on the card and then they just swipe the card ,that way the school doesn't handle cash ,but after school there's no end of youngsters buying sweets snacks etc in the food places so the parents must be giving them money .

Anng I've always put my cucumbers in the fridge ,might try leaving it out and see if it keeps OK, I do sometimes leave tomatoes out as I think they don't taste as good when they are cold ,I also leave my eggs in a cupboard and not in the fridge .

As to nappies again its the throw away society, so easy to change a nappy and just throw it away .

I saw recently to not keep cucumbers in the fridge as it shortens their life and they can grow some sort of spores which is why they go mushy in the fridge. I have to say I have always put mine in the fridge so I was surprised to read that.

With the youngsters buying stuff for lunch. My daughter tells me that when she was in the 6th form and I gave her money for school dinners, she used to spend it on other things from the shops. so that is maybe what some of them are doing now. I worked in a large comprehensive part time and part of my pay was a free meal. I actually liked the school dinners then (1970s.

I do think it is the fact that it is easy to take off a disposable nappy and bin it that makes these young mums lazy about potty training. If they had to shake 'poo' down the loo and then put the nappy to soak and then (as I had to) boil/hand wash them and hang them on the line in all weathers they would soon get the children trained.

Afternoon All,

Like AnnG, a very hard frost here too, it was still -5 according to the PC at lunch time and we have fog that still hasn't cleared so I can't see over the field at the back. We decided we had enough food, can do without my paper and OH decided it's too cold for footie, (even if any were playing on artificial pitches!) so we have stayed in. It has saved scraping car windscreens as well. OH offered to go to our freezer in the garage to get out the lamb shanks we are having for lunch tomorrow and was glad to be back indoors in the warm.
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Mum soon had me and my siblings potty trained. I remember my brother and sister on their potties as there were big age gaps between us! She couldn't wait to be rid of the extra washing with terry nappies so I think the easiness with the disposables is partly to blame as well as laziness. At work we would get the disposables left on seats in the waiting room, even though there were toilets. I feel sorry for a lot of little ones I see nowadays. Those tiny little pram cum pushchairs they can hardly move in compared with the old prams and mums on their phones ignoring them.

I no longer accept, except in a few cases, that parents can't afford to feed their children either when so many, even at primary school, are overweight or obese. I think some prioritise and spend on the wrong things and will pay more rather than learn to cook even easy things. Healthy food like a jacket potato with some filling isn't expensive, but feeding children on prepacked easy junk food the parents eat and the children have become used to is. If I go to our Co-op in the morning before school time, it is full of childen buying sweets, fizzy drinks and crisps. When I wait in Morrison's carpark for OH when he has a hospital appointment, and it's at lunch time there is a steady stream of students from the college going to the supermarket and they come back laden with cans, heated pastries, sweets etc. The parents aren't short of a bob if they can afford all these snacks. Children can have foods they are picky about, as we all do, but do some parents even try these days? The brussel sprouts mum and dad grew needed coaxing with 'mash only just a small one with your mashed potato then and you won't know it's there and will grow big and strong' would eventually persuade my little brother and then we all used to get reminded about the starving children in Africa didn't we!

Vera you have been busy and got your cupboard sorted and cleaned. By the way, the dishwasher tablets didn't work very well for me with the oven racks, so I've found some adjustable ones on line that will fit instead. I accidentally left my old racks in the oven while I set it to do a 'self clean' at a high temperature and I think it ruined the surface of them.

I must get some cream cheese Mandy. I like it on a sandwich with celery cut fine, but cucumber sounds nice too and I need to start using this whopping whole cucumber Asda sent as a sub! I hope both of you feeling ok again now?

I'll have the same as Colin please Mandy.

BIL just gone and he took the chain saw to see if he's little man can get it running properly.

We had nice granary rolls with sausages in and brown sauce, scrummy and fresh orange juice. That filled him up. I did think I may get two eggs today but instead I had none.