Chatterbox LXXXVI : Willow

[icelesley]

Good morning wild ones. Sunday again, day of rest It's raining it was windy yesterday, but nothing like predicted. I have lots of tomatoes to pick, they are all ripening at a great pace, I already have four large containers full. The next door neighbour has had some already, she is hiding so I don't pile more on to her a large batch of tomato sauce will be on the cards shortly. Last years lasted until April . The cauliflowers are coming on, as too are the bell peppers, chillies and purple sprouting broccoli

[earthmaiden]

Morning all! . I see that people were complaining that they were being delayed on ferry crossings. I would have been thankful - being on a ferry in stormy weather is definitely not on my bucket list.

My gas oven and hot plates will light with a match if the electric is off. The gas fire is more tricky but it can be done.

The calm after the storm this morning, it looks nice out there. The local Pride event took place in our local park yesterday so GD and I went to have a look in between showers, we got caught in a big one but at least we got a walk. She was really good and slept all night, waking at 7am. I had been told she never sleeps through and likes to bed hop during the night (not in this house!). Now to work out what to do this morning ....

[suffolk]

We never have problems with PSBroc. This year we’re growing white sprouting broc and kalettes DD gave us. The slugs/snails have decided they like WSBroc ... I think it must be snails as the nematodes seem to have worked on the slugs ... at least they left the lettuces alone.

[dennispc]

Back to train drivers not being able to start their engines without an engineer's help. I'm guessing that the sudden loss of power results in a hard crash in its electronics, that may mean it needs a particular sequence to start again. I'm the same with my car. I get in, insert key, turn, if it starts all well and good. If it doesn't then I tour the neighbours to see who can help!

[Ratatouille]

Morning everyone

Glad everyone seems to have weathered the storms and their consequences. It is still very hot and humid but we are going out for lunch to make up for the disappointment on the 7th. We are going to one of our local favourites where we know the food and service are reliable.

Moira I was delayed by a Windows update on Thursday which took 4 hours and yes, they have hidden all sorts of things.

My range cooker has electric ovens and gas burners too but, as long as I don't run out of bottled gas I can always light the top with a gas lighter.

Have a good Sunday everyone.

[liketocook]

Good morning everyone,
My cooker is dual fuel - electric ovens/gas hob and thanfully the gas will light manually if needed. My gasboiler doesn't work if the power is off but at least now I have the woodburner as a back up.
Yesterday turned out lovely & sunny and I sat out in the garden for a bit enjoying the sunshine, however it been battering with rain since the early hours and the bottom of my garden is flooded again. I'm so pleased all my veg is in raised tubs or I'm sure it would have been killed by now.
The first freezer got sorted out yesterday, one UFO that I couldn't relate to anything on my inventory list, the remains of a tub of ice cream well past it's BBE and a piece of elderly baguette got the heave ho. I'm pleased with the amount of space a good reorganisation has created. Freezer two beckons today .
As it's definitely a day for not straying I'm happy to potter about in the kitchen, I want to make a potato, courgette and onion gratin some of which I'll have with hake smeared with pesto and wrapped in parma ham for dinner tonight.
My tofu ramen last night was scrummy, I have crispy tofu left over which be getting popped in the oven to heat through for lunch today. My qualms about marinating and cooking the tofu were unfounded and I'll happily buy a plain block again.

[earthmaiden]

Hmmm, all this talk of Windows messing about is getting me worried . Collected my revamped laptop yesterday, all files saved, new hard drive, new battery and Windows 10 installed (from Windows 7) plus a back up hard drive. It is going to be bad enough using it as is without Windows doing anything else to confuse me! .That'll be my entertainment this afternoon after GD has gone home.

[StokeySue]

Good morning
I sat up to stupid o’clock reading my book on Kindle
While I’ve physically been able to do this for a few months it’s taken me a while to get my reading speed and fluency back up, I always used to be one of those people who read more, often much more, than a book a week, but not for years. At the moment I’m working my way through crime and thrillers, but I know I’m taking it in properly because I’m spotting the howlers (e.g. the glamorous Norwegian pathologist who, in London in 2011 recorded the cadaveric temperature in FAHRENHEIT.)
Still windy but otherwise quite nice out there
Have a good day everyone

[Seatallan]

Good for you Sue!

It's been pretty soggy here this morning (though rain has at least temporarily ceased) but we avoided the wind. Yesterday was surprisingly pleasant in fact, with plenty of sunny intervals between light showers.

Still gradually unpacking but now on the fun part (putting up pictures and ornaments as well as planning what else we need by way of furnishings ).

[cyprusmoira]

Good Morning Wild Ones, quiet here yesterday evening.
I was woken at dawn by helicopters flying over, which was odd. The National Guard do not get up that early, the fire fighters tend to circle over the dam.

Edited to add that they were the fire fighting helicopters
Moira

[earthmaiden]

Morning all! . Whilst I know they enable wonderful work to be carried out, I hate the sound of helicopters - gives me the hebejebes.

Nice day dawning. No rain is forecast, not sure if I believe that. Lots to get on with this week. Lovely to have the laptop back but took some sorting out last night and all my 'stuff' needs adding again, all needing little-used passwords of course. Haven't quite finished tidying up after GD's visit either, some paperwork took priority after they had gone (after staying to an impromptu lunch which appears to have used every utensil and china from the depths of cupboards!).

Have a lovely day. Seatallen, I envy you that lovely setting up time when everything in the house is there because it is useful or believed to be beautiful .... I envy those who manage to keep it that way .

[icelesley]

Good morning wild ones. Sue the Sun is out at the moment, there are clouds but there are also lots of blue patches. More tomatoes to pick this morning, I had so many yesterday I made a batch of tomato sauce for pasta to go in the freezer, six bags to be exact

[suffolk]

Good morning all
I woke to the sound of yaffling green woodpeckers outside ... didn’t see any but there were several out there ... lots of ants in the lawns around here
OH is going to cut the grass today

[Badger's mate]

When we got the kitchen done, maybe 12 years ago, I looked at numerous appliances. The top-of-the-range Neff hob at the time had a number of safety features such that it could not be lit manually in the event of a power cut. One of the reasons for choosing a gas hob (induction were quite fashionable then) was that we wanted a back up.

[Ratatouille]

Morning everyone

I woke up this mroning to the sound of a concrete mixer lorry goming to pour the new swimming pool in a neighbours house. He is the son of a long-time hameau family and was about 3 when we first came here. Now he has built his own house and is adding a pool. He is a senior firefighter with the local sapeaurs pompiers and a lovely lad.

We are promised rain and storms today but as of this moment the sun is shining. Thankfully the temperature has dropped so all doors and windows are open.

I wonder if it was quiet here last night Moira because everyone was watching the fantastic Prom? The final item was Mozarts Requiem which Mr R and I have both sung a few times. I thought the chorus were particularly good and they did it all from memory
Hope the helicopters are not dealing with anything near you Moira and that it is soon extinguished wherever it is.

[scullion]

I hate the sound of helicopters

we hear helicopters quite often - hearing blue light sirens is as rare as hens teeth.

[cyprusmoira]

The helicopters were not flying for long, The fire must be under control, I haven't been able to find out where it was yet

We watched the John Wilson Prom on Saturday, it finished too late for us on Friday. Fantastic, from Korngold to Williams and some amazing bits in between. I had not realised that Korngold had been a pupil of Brahms.

WE know all about the cement mixer trucks here. All houses have to have a reinforced concrete bass, anti seismic regulations, so they are very busy. The supporting house pillars have also to be reinforced concrete or a special steel. A house is being built just down the road. The pillars were poured, then there were a lot of men looking at the pillars, humming and hawing. Then to our surprise the pillars were knocked down, we think that it was poor quality concrete. It is created by a chemical reaction and if left too long before pouring "goes off" Deb's previous employment at a local property developer comes in useful for off bits of knowledge like that.
The house will be two stories, not a bungalow, you can tell that by where the drainage pipes are sited. It is amazing what you can learn

The helicopters are flying again, the fire brigade has just whistled up the main road. This one was from the Sovereign Base (different livery) so the fire has either reignited or it is a different fire, probably the latter.

Moira

[StokeySue]

Good morning
We often get the blues and twos backing up the helicopters, or possibly vice versa, the sounds of the urban jungle

It’s much cooler today but the rain has not yet arrived, though I shan’t be watering any plants until I’ve seen what happens naturally. I sadly had to throw out my 15 year old patio rose yesterday so I might go downstairs and see what the flower stall has to put in the empty pot, which is a rather nice Thai one

Have a nice day everyone

[suffolk]

We often hear helicopters ... the big hospital is only a mile or so away as the chopper flies and we’re at the top of the A 11 so sadly the air ambulance is a fairly frequent sight

Speaking of which, I read that Prince William found piloting the air ambulance a difficult experience emotionally ... I just wonder whoever thought it would be a good idea for a young man, whose mother was killed in road traffic accident, to take on a job where he would be seeing lots of RTAs There seems to have been a remarkable lack of insight

[StokeySue]

My understanding is that William chose it himself, as he wanted to do something unarguably useful that used his pilot skills. Whether he appreciated just how close the pilot gets to the carnage I don’t know, he may of course have wanted to help other families suffering the same trauma but found the reality even tougher than expected I suppose we’ll never know. But I don’t think he was pushed into it from what he has said in the past

[icelesley]

Hi OH has washed the car and the windows so it is bound to rain The sky is clouding up already.

[suffolk]

You’re probably right Sue ... he’s always seemed to me to be a well meaning young man
... however I cast my mind back to the sort of interview we had when joining certain social work teams in order to ensure our own personal resilience and wonder whether the air ambulance service ever weighed up the circumstances of his own experiences against the benefits of having a royal ‘on board’ and perhaps felt unable to turn him down when another chap with a similar family history might not have been taken on.

[scullion]

apart from the air ambulance, we get the search and rescue helicopters plus ones that fly round every so often that check on the electricity lines and gas pipeline - the latter to make sure that no-one digs it up, i think! plus the private ones that go into newquay and the very low flying, military ones that, i think pop in to nancekuke (raf portreath).

[scullion]

one would hope there was adequate psychological supervision for him and the other pilots, as there is for other members of the emergency services who have to attend distressing situations.

[StokeySue]

one would hope there was adequate psychological supervision for him and the other pilots, as there is for other members of the emergency services who have to attend distressing situations.

Well, yes
I think it’s hard to tell how it will affect people until it does, but one hopes he had good support all the way through

We have rain but not much as yet. If will doubtless wait until I am ready to leave

[aero280]

We are not far from Northwood. Everyone blames the helicopter traffic on the RN HQ there, but we found out that there's a navigation beacon on the hill that all helicopters entering the London airspace from the NW are required to pass over it, report to air traffic control, and get clearance before flying onwards into London. We also live close to the flightpath into Elstree aerodrome. Summer Sunday evenings are often quite busy.

[earthmaiden]

Oh gosh, we only usually get the police one hovering overhead when they are trying to follow someone on the ground. You can set your watch by the one that flies over Cromer every day taking workers to and from the oil rigs.

I feel sure that HRH was treated the same as other workers in the field, any of whom could have had difficult experiences earlier in life. It can't ever be easy but thank goodness people are prepared to do such harrowing jobs.

I am getting nowhere fast today. I have spent much of the day making lists. I have also discovered that I can colour code entries in my phone diary .

[cyprusmoira]

The first fire was at Kivides, the next village up the road, that is out. We can now see the smoke from another fire further up the road between Pachna and Malia, it is mainly scrubland burning but there is a strong wind. The road up to Troodos is closed.
All the local villages will be cooperating with fire fighting, all villages have a truck with a water tank and other equipment, the Souni truck will have been up there since lunchtime.
We are staying inside in the cool.

Moira

[PatsyMFagan]

We are not far from Northwood. Everyone blames the helicopter traffic on the RN HQ there, but we found out that there's a navigation beacon on the hill that all helicopters entering the London airspace from the NW are required to pass over it, report to air traffic control, and get clearance before flying onwards into London. We also live close to the flightpath into Elstree aerodrome. Summer Sunday evenings are often quite busy.

I'm close to HMS Warrior too, but in Harefield, we have the Heart hospital, so get the helicopters landing with patients for emergency surgery. Until recently the HEMS helicopter used for London emergencies was based at Denham Aerodrome (a couple of miles away) so would fly out every morning and back at 6 pm every evening, also other helicopters (including Harrods' own) were garaged there (or hangared ?). With Denham Aeredrome being so close our skies on weekends are quite busy with privately owned planes and helicopters

[cyprusmoira]

Good Morning Wild One, the fire continued late, there were great columns of smoke, we could smell it here, about 5 kms as the crow flies, I have attached a report from the local paperhttps://cyprus-mail.com/2019/08/12 ... -district/

I forgot to mention that it is a holiday week here, family businesses such as the vegetable shop are closed for the week

Moira

[suffolk]

Good morning all

It won’t let me open that link Moira ... it says it’s invalid

Another lovely morning here ... blue skies and sunshine ... I’ve been padding around the garden in dressing gown and bare feet ... I’m amazed that my feet aren’t more beautiful, the amount of morning dew they get
A jay took exception to my presence and squawked angrily from the ash tree at me for a while before flying off in a huff.

[icelesley]

Good morning wild ones. It's raining I might pop over to the garden centre today, see if there are any bargains to be had

[earthmaiden]

Morning all! . It's lovely and sunny and the forecast says it's staying that way. A few chores to do this morning then off with a friend for lunch, a natter and maybe a walk. Finally making visible headway with the never-ending list. Rather nice to think there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

Just been reading an interesting article about the recent power cut incident and general resilience. The gentlemen spouting his mouth off about everything they were doing wrong is familiar to me as someone who wasn't greatly missed when he left the water industry .

[Ratatouille]

Morning everyone
We are on orange alert for forest fires too becausea stronh Mistral is forecast. However if that forecast is as accurate as yesterday's when we didn't have a drop of the promised haevy rain Hope the fires in cyprus are under control Moira.

It looks as if you are beginning to get the hang of retirement em

[StokeySue]

Here’s Moira’s link, just had a space missing

https://cyprus-mail.com/2019/08/12/fire-breaks-out-in-limassol-district/

We have had overnight but currently sunny, so having put the laundry on I’ll go fo my walk soon

Have a good day everyone

[suffolk]

Thanks Sue

Oooh Moira ... that looks nasty

[liketocook]

Good morning everyone,
I live a few miles from HMS Gannet and also on the flight route between Arran & the main hospital for the area so helicopters flying over are far from unusual here. I don't particularly notice them anymore unless there is a lot of activity.
AWOL yesterday as was out for lunch with friends and then as the weather was so lovely (what a change from Sunday!) I spent the rest of the day outside. Lunch was lovely, we went to the newish tapas place which thankfully seems to have got over their service blips which was clunky to say the least when I went just after it opened. The place was fairly busy for a Monday but not so busy that we couldn't enjoy a leisurely lunch and a good catch up. The food was excellent and the bill for the five of us was £71 + tip which was really good value. I was still full yesterday evening so just had some toast before bed.
It's not quite as sunny today but still a half decent day, I've a couple of errands to run and then I'm going wash my windows which are filthy after all the rain & wind and do some gardening. It looks as though rain is on it's way again tomorrow so I want to get as much done outdoors as possible while it's dry - the housework can wait.....

[cyprusmoira]

Thank you for sorting out the link, Sue, I thought that I had done it correctly. It seems that what is referred to as crops are grape vines, I had forgotten that that area is part of the so called Wine Villages. Some terraces of local varieties have been destroyed plus a lot of Cabernet Sauvignon vines, they belong to the KEO winery, they have been producing a very acceptable Cab, Sauvignon for the last couple of years. If you are travelling up that road you pass a number of wineries. Winery crawls are a popular local excursion, in a minibus of course.

Moira

[Ratatouille]

I've just had a wildly excited GD on the phone because she has just passed her driving test. She said she wanted her gandad and I to know firt because we gave her her fist driving lessons for her 17th bithday. Another step acchieved , now it's A level results on Thursday.

[StokeySue]

Well done Rats GD! Fingers crossed for Thursday, but I’m sure she won’t need that


Just done something I should have done years ago - got a proper pull handle for the bathroom light switch to replace the little pblastic bobble. Why do these things not happen, just put up with something awful when getting it right takes 5 minutes and costs little,?

[suffolk]

Congratulations to your granddaughter Rats

[Grasshopper]

Ellow peeps.
The rotten weather we had recently has claimed a casualty in the garden - our archway
We had 2 archways one behind the other, for the climbing plants to .... er .....climb up. But it fell down. It had ivy on, which is quite heavy, plus, it was a bit rusty and made out of quite thin tubular steel. However, we now have a new, single archway, which we are just going to use for clematis, which are lighter than ivy.
We are now harvesting toms by the bowlful, the plum ones are best cooked We also have a happy pepper plant which is producing jalepenos as fast as we can harvest them.
First time we have successfully grown a pepper!!!!!!!

Grasshopper

ETA - we had a couple of bluetits perching on our new arch today.

Grasshopper

[Grasshopper]

Hopping off now - younger Sis's B-day tomorrow.
Nit nit

Grasshopper

[StokeySue]

We had a lovely day all day
Not what the weather forecast said
Cooler and breezier than recently, but quite sunny and no showers after sunrise
Good night

[suffolk]

Good morning all

It was a lovely day here too ... but it does look as if we’re likely to get rain today ..

[cyprusmoira]

Good Morning Wild Ones, you were up early Suffs. Nothing special planned for today, I do have a load of washing in the machine, that should be ironed by 11 00

Moira

[suffolk]

Yes ... for some reason I was wide awake ... I’ve written a shopping list ...

[cyprusmoira]

I’ve written a shopping list

Could you remind me to buy bin bags, please

Moira

[icelesley]

Good morning wild ones. It's raining again the plants and the weeds are loving it the beasts are not. They had to be tipped out through the door for a wee this morning

[suffolk]

Will do Moira ...... ‘remember to buy bin bags’

Oh dear ... a small portion of chips is ‘small’ and ‘tastes of potatoes’ ... https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/uk-w ... es-3208156