General Chat

Hello all,

Well back to normal now, we had visitors from far away. They were here for 10 days so a lot of catching up done. 3 we hadn't seen for 15 years (except on skype) 1 we saw 4 years ago and 1 we had not met before (in law) . When they left Britain the youngest was only 3 yrs old.so you can imagine how much they had grown. They managed to do a fair bit of sight seeing as well as seeing us most days
. After the last months which haven't been the best for me as losing 3 close members of my family in less than 8 mths has been difficult but seeing family has been wonderful.

Weather is lovely at the moment but like most we could do with a shower or two for the garden as although we have had chilly days we had no rain.

I have caught up with everything on here now so know what you have all been up to lol. Hope you are all well and enjoying the weekend .

Take care all.

Ginnie

Morning AnnG and everyone else looking in.

Well I was up early at 8am and had a cool shower and washed hair. Drying it made me extremely hot as its way down my back sitting under my bra!

Was determined to water the plants after last nights failure so jug in hand and out I went. Phew the heat at 10am hit me as if I was abroad, its warm, very warm.

However, as I reached the side of the house the wind came through very breezy and chilly as was off the sea. So depending on which area you are in its different, East or West.

Anyway all watered now. The grass is tinder dry and mostly brown with not much new growth, hence the grasscutters are leaving it for a month to help it.

We don't have any stormy weather forecast here but some may get heavy downpours and thunder, not sure where that is?

Daughter went off to town to look at windbreaks so probably a tel call soon asking for money to buy them :-D :-D

As for our main meal later, no idea. Im actually fed up with food just now so picking at little things. far too hot for a cooked meal and salad is getting boring!

Sending our sun to anyone that want's it....going free ;-)

Florence in the hebrides

Good morning up (not dressed) early, sun shining and 11 degrees. the last few days have been beautiful, sun all day, blue skies and a light breeze. Yesterday it was 25 degrees. I did manage a bit of gardening as the breeze kept the temp down a bit. The garden is definitely suffering lack of water. I am only watering pots and containers. Being on a water meter does make you careful. Most of the plants and the grass will survive not being watered.
We do get a mix of weather on this thread don't we? But interesting to note we are all equally as short of water.

Evening anyone looking in.

Well left it as late as possible before watering the plants. So large jug in hand for the smaller pots and off I ventured outside. pleasant evening, still very sunny but much cooler.

Had just started watering a pot when I felt I was being bitten around my eyes and my back. Oh my the blooming midges were awful. Thousands of them as the wind had dropped. I did the quickest water ever and ran back indoors. Im still itching around my ankles and my eyes wee blighters.

That's the thing here you cant win, you want no wind but then the midges arrive grrrr.

Joan we haven't had rain either for nearly 2 months and none coming in the week ahead. Your little deer sounded lovely, wonder where its mum was?

LInda, hope you didn't get too exhausted picking litter in the sun. I'm sure the girls love the paddling pool and will keep them cool.

Dads bloods have gone down after 2 months of increasing so that's really good news and has boosted him back up as he was a bit down last few days worrying but he needn't have :-D

Well coffee time now and then have a read online of the news etc.

Florence in the hebrides

Our weather was better today, but still a bit chilly in the shade. I did my usual weekly house clean this morning and lots of washing this afternoon

Tomorrow we are going to the Knaresborough bed race, we went last year and it was fun. Sunday is supposed to be very hot, so it will be the large paddling pool in the garden again. It is the monthly town litter pick in the afternoon, I don’t fancy that in the heat, but it has to be done

Your sunshine hasn't reached us yet Florence, lol.

I have just been outside to fill up all the bird feeders & there's a chilly wind, need to go back out & fill up the bird baths but will have to carry it from the house because my very BIG water Bowie has run dry, no rain here for a long time.

Hoping our Son in Law will manage to cut the 2 areas of grass soon as it is really long at the moment, however working on the nearby farm he isn't getting finished until well after 10-00 pm which is too late to use the mower, he's going to find cutting the grass hard work when he does manage to do it.

A simple meal today, Pizza, i'm not a big fan of Pizza but hubby requested it !

Disturbed a baby deer yesterday he/she was sleeping in the verge alonside the house road, such a cute thing.

Joan.

Phew its so hot here already :-D

Trying to do housework and getting very tired very quickly!

Making sure I drink plenty of water though and only doing short bursts of chores and as for the ironing....def not today!

Sending the sunshine to anyone who hasn't got any.

Have a good day all.

Florence in the hebrides

No alcohol at the meeting but I have a glass of wine by my side at the moment.

I am Linda, but what I would do for a glass of Pimms ;-) ;-)

Tut Florence, dancing encouraging the consumption of alcohol. I thought that we were all strict teetotallers on here ;-) ;-) ;-)

AnnG, hope you have a large jug of Pimms to make the meeting go with a swing lol :-D :-D

hi all, Yes thanks Florence I am ok, just a bit busy, was out all over the weekend so been trying to catch up with the garden since as I have a meeting here this afternoon of our U3a gardening interest group. there will be nine of us today, better than the 12 it could be as it is going to be too warm for too many bodies. Just blitzed the kitchen and now going to sort out the conservatory

Linda, I do make lots of soup during autumn/winter but not today as its already very warm. I have all the windows open and having just stripped my bed, I am now roasting!

Gonna put some cans of juice in the fridge for later and a bottle of flavoured water.

Kitchen looks like a bombsite lol so that's my next task for the morning.

Hope everyone ok and well today who looks in

Florence in the hebrides

The recipe is a Slimming World one, it is so easy because it is just open the. And tip them in. I just use a stick blender to blitz it smooth
I love homemade soup, I make lots of different types. I had spicy lentil and carrot today

Great recipe, Linda!
Thanks for posting that.

It sounds similar to Jack Monroe's tomato and bean soup:

https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2018/03/03/tomato-and-haricot-soup-15p/

Ty Linda. Gosh baked beans? Never put them in a soup before but good to try something different for a change. I know the little onions, we used to have them at xmas or a buffett. I shall put them on my shopping list next time.

Gosh its more exhausting putting everything back then taking out lol.

Lady on her way just now to take old carpet away ...yipee :-D :-D

Tomato soup makes four portions

Ingredients –
Two tins of chopped tomatoes
One tin of baked beans
One tin of carrots with the water ( 300g size)
Four tiny silver skin pickled onions ( not the normal large type)
One vegetable stock cube in 1/2 a pint of boiled water

Cut the onions into small bits, put everything in a pan, cook for 15 mins, then blend
Or you can blend it when cold and then cook it

The secret ingredient is the silver skin pickled onions. The first time I made it, I didn’t read it properly and used large pickled onions, needless to say, it didn’t taste good.

Good morning all.

Well the carpet has been relayed in daughter's room and now the work begins to transfer all her furniture etc back into her room. The new carpet is really black and makes my old carpet look dark grey although its not!

They were here less than an hour and tidied up the scraps into a bin bag. They also carried the heavy chest of drawers into the room from the lounge which was so kind of them as we struggled yesterday moving it out.

Cloudy but sunny day and quite warm again and set to get hotter as the week goes on and noo sign of rain at all.

Last night, I decided to cook 2 salmon fillets with new potatoes, home made slaw and green salad, was a nice change and we enjoyed it.

Now as to what we are having tonight is another matter???

Linda, can you tell me your tomato soup recipe please, sounds delicious.

Well I had better see if the washing is ready now to hang out and then have some toast.

Have a good day all

Florence in the hebrides

You are lucky with your weather Florence, it is cloudy and cool here.
I washed all the unit doors in the kitchen this morning

We have to deliver library books to the elderly this afternoon,but that won’t take long, so I am going to make lots of soup for the freezer. I will make some tomato, incredibly easy and tastes very like Heinz,plus some leek and potato and some carrot and butter bean. I have lots of the microwaveable soup mugs to put it in

Afternoon everyone from a gloriously sunny village.
Yep its brilliant sunshine and quite warm with a little breeze.

I am feeling sooo hot because I have just ironed a basket including a super kingsize duvet cover, the valence sheet can wait another day as I was feeling a bit lightheaded.

So I'm sitting with a coffee and having a break.

Daughter back this afternoon and then the fun begins moving her bed and mattress to the lounge. I so hope I do not get any unannounced visitors before Friday as it will take that long to get the rooms back to normal lol

Joan, your baby hare sounds delightful and obviously well behaved lol as he's not eating your plants thankfully.

Dad saw a fox sunning himself on his decking on Monday afternoon but the animal digging holes in his new veg patch is none other than a grey squirrel caught red handed!! He has put out garlic cloves and vinegar to deter animals from coming too close.

The local fire brigade went zooming past again an hour ago and have not yet returned. Hope its nothing serious as the moor is tinder dry and the slightest spark will set it alight really quickly.

Well a bit of paperwork to see to and then decide what's for tea but in this warm weather a salad with a jacket potato will do me, anything else is too much.

Florence in the hebrides