good morning +

[suffolk]

Good morning all
Sunny here too ... our bread proved on a sunny windowsill even if it's being baked in the electric oven.
We have three chaps in the garden replacing three fence panels, some trellis and associated posts. They have been given teas and coffees in time for them to stop for Popmaster
Enjoy the sunshine everyone, as long as you can do so within current advice

[Herbidacious]

If you think I can cut the tops off, then will do that, Scully, and maybe keep back a couple in case they fail (I think I have 5.)

I can't remember - is your solar oven a homemade one? I can see instructions online (although a bit low on tin foil here...) Would be an interesting project now I have a little more time to do things. (will be doing craft stuff next, at this rate )

Lovely day. Dare I open the French windows/doors (at the risk onf not being able to shut them again? I am actually more afraid of the wrath of husband at this than the actual not being able to shut them properly He can overreact to such things.) Not got any work done yet, really. A lot of talking to colleagues though. That counts? Sainsburys now have a number to ring to register people as old etc. (my mother was not detected as such. I can't work out how anyone would be. They have never asked for a DOB.) It's constantly engaged. Got a stress headache.
Will get out in the garden at some point. Sow some seeds. Maybe a bit of weeding or potting on.

Various deliveries placed some time ago keeping having their date put back – cat food, er, Coffee Mate (!) I am hoping my Natoora order worked. I was invoiced but no delivery slot allocated.

Sue, can you order some compost for delivery? I suppose you don’t need a huge amount? Amazon will do a rip off price one. If you get desperate, I am sure we could do some window tourism into north London next weekend. (I had a lot delivered last week from Wickes. I can definitely spare some.)

[StokeySue]

I think I’m going to risk a walk to the hardware shop in the sun
Most potting compost on Amazon is “currently unavailable”
One sack will keep me going for a long time

[scullion]

[Herbidacious]

thank you!

[scullion]

i should have said that the cooking pot in the heat trap should be black (- or as close as possible for heat absorption), with it's own lid, and placed on a trivet of some type to allow reflected light to get all round and to avoid heat transfer to the outer glass bowl through the base. the outside of the cooking pot can be painted with stove black paint if you don't have a 'proprietary' black pot.

we have a proper wonder bag and a home made one (i used the you tube vid). the real one has recycled, chipped closed cell rubber foam as a filler with a base filler made of a sheet of sort of polyurethane foam. mine is filled with the polyester fibre contents of an old duvet - so i could bung it in the wash easier. the good thing about making your own is that you can make it to bigger proportions to allow for a bigger pot. i also made a liner from a couple of layers of old towel after my partner had a spillage.
they are really useful for fuel saving and for taking hot food elsewhere. they keep food hot for quite a few hours.

[Herbidacious]

Thank you!

[PatsyMFagan]

We could start our own Foodie Craft Club ... Now what could I teach

[Herbidacious]

What would that involve?

[earthmaiden]

[Herbidacious]

[Herbidacious]

Having a flash back to making pictures in primary school by glueing pasta onto card...

[Rainbow]

[scullion]

i knew some kids who would eat the glue as well.

[earthmaiden]

I saw a comment somewhere about how people never imagined they'd be feeding their children the 'rude' shaped pasta given as a joke a couple of Christmases ago but now they're glad of it .

[scullion]

good morning, all.
the sun is working its way through. more bread will be baked (i imagine today's will go in the freezer as we still have some from yesterday).
i've had an email, this morning, from the zero waste van people to say that they are only doing a delivery of pre ordered goods at the moment and that the order for thursday should be in by tomorrow. knowing how long it took to separate peoples orders when i ran a food coop i think they should really have the orders in by today. they may also find that they have to limit some of the days they come as they cover quite a large part of this end of the county.
will this see the rise of the grocery van? i don't mean the home delivery from supermarkets but the van that used to come round that was like a mini shop on wheels.
when i was little (and less little) the home deliveries were by - the bread man, milk man and grocers van. i wonder if this crisis will see an increase in milk delivery. down here our neighbours used to have a fish delivery although i haven't seen the van for a number of years - that sounds as though it might change if what i heard on the today program, this morning, is correct.
as we are running out of fresh veg i may get some exercise today by digging up a load of three cornered leek and making soup - just to see if it's nice and if we are happy to get some of our 'greens' that way. i can see that i may have to learn to like 'risotto dal giardino'.
to wean myself from spending hours of an evening on the laptop, trawling over the figures, i have picked up knitting a cardigan i started - - i have the feeling it may not fit me any more if it even gets finished. it may help if i followed the pattern!
have a grand day, everyone.

[Herbidacious]

I vaguely remember a grocery van coming round, early 70s. The fish van for a bit longer.

I am having a mare with work. They are trying to roll out a new system that normally takes several months in the space of a week. Ironically I was all nicely stet up to use access the network remotely, as were quite a few others, but we are shifting way from this to a company dropbox system. Spent all morning trying and failing to set it up, inlcuding a one hour 'webinar' (I hate that term.). I have a headache.

I did post earlier but must have crossed posts. Probably not very interesting though...

I might go and sit in the garden for a bit. If my head explodes, at least it won't mess up the settee out there. (Unless it's highly projectile brain goo.)

[Busybee]

We still have a Ringtons tea van that comes round weekly selling, tea cakes etc. Actually, I’m not sure what they sell, they might have a fairly good range - a neighbour of my parents have used them fir years.

BB

[Herbidacious]

Scully if you PM me your address, will walk to the post box tomorrow (without your cuttings) as my daily allowance of external existence!

[PatsyMFagan]

[Herbidacious]

No it was about a friend who used to eat things she shouldn't as a small child. For example, one always knew where they crayons had been... (covered in tiny tooth bites.) Plasticine and second hand chewing gum too... I am sure she did the latter for shock value (and probably only really did it once.)

[Seatallan]

Honestly compels me to admit that I have a habit of absently chewing on things. I've been trying to get the better of it for years and have to be especially careful now. The most embarrassing occasion was the time I consumed a bus ticket. I was completely unaware I'd done it until an inspector randomly boarded the bus and made me pay again when I couldn't show him my ticket. I did explain I'd eaten it but unsurprisingly he didn't believe me .

[earthmaiden]

it's a bit like 'the dog ate my homework', isn't it!

I was awful for chewing pencils and pens at school (but not now). I once chewed through the bottom of my fountain pen so you could see the cartridge . Thank goodness it wasn't a refillable one. I got into quite a bit if trouble for that.

[Seatallan]

[Herbidacious]

My husband is a chewer. Pens, bits of paper...

Goondess that is extreme re the fountain pen, em

We used to dare each other to drink ink at school... (School provided a bottle of ink per class room which was filled up from a Quink bottle that lived in the vestibule near the ferocious secretary's room.)

[earthmaiden]

We had the big bottles too. Ink wells were filled by the ink monitress, a coveted job usually given to the neat and tidy sort of girls (i.e. not me!).

[Pepper Pig]

I remember sucking a biro at school once and getting a mouthful of ink. I only did it once,

[Herbidacious]

Morning.

Sunny out but frosty. It's been frosty every morning I think so may still be able to sit out with bare legs and short sleeves later.

I was woken up early by Basil. I had put a heavy weight against the door to stop him coming in the room and pestering me but he managed to push it and a stuck claw up my nostril and meowed loudly in my face, so it was a bit of a fait accompli. I thought since I clearly had to get up to attend to him, I would see if I could get through to Sainsbury's. But they don't open their lines until 8. Sooo.. I have put some coffee on. I had a delivery of four (quite small, it turns out) bags yesterday that had been roasted and ground the day before. Husband put the bread machine on timer last night so there are some nice smells wafting out of the kitchen.

I could do with a cabin hook to stop Basil getting in...

I ended up doing that thing of working on and off from about 8 till half five yesterday without much of a break, although a lot of it was concerned with the new tech they have rushed in. I fear it involves taking over our home computers for work purposes, installing their software etc. as they want to migrate from remote connections to a semi-cloud based platform. This would surely be a problem for a lot of people given how little hard drive space modern laptops tend to have these days. But maybe not if they don't mind using the reduced function cloud version. Also now not allowed to use certain things on our home computers anymore for fear of compromising work stuff. In normal times this would not really be acceptable. It would be a bit like telling you what you can watch on your tv?
Not managed to install the new stuff properly yet, so not even got started the fun and games of getting to know the new system.

Ah well. It keeps us busy.
But going to try to stick to proper office ours today more or less.

I sowed quite a lot of seeds yesterday. I soaked some others to sow today. I am sowing too many really. Not sure where they will all go as they are growing, assuming they germinate

Right. Off to shower.

I hope everyone's day goes well.

[scullion]

good morning, all.
sunny. yesterday's sun didn't quite get to us. there was a thin veil of cloud all day.
there's a double load of dough to be cooked today - one for eating, one for the freezer.
'more or less' is an interesting listen this morning. worth listening to on catch-up.
nothing planned except some washing and 'teddies'.
have a lovely day, everyone.

[suffolk]

Good morning everyone

Yes, we listened to More or Less

Bright and sunny here if a bit nippy ... a sharp frost first thing. Plans for this morning include a lot of re-potting of container plants etc.

Have a lovely day all

[StokeySue]

Good morning
Cold and bright here too, will go out soon as playing backgammon online later, we have to finish our matches by mid plight, I wanted to finish before I went to Ireland but my opponent spent over a month in Cyprus
Have a good day everyone