General Chat

Yep,we isssss here folks ,in darkest Wiltshire ,lol,just in time to do the grandson his Christmas dinner ,and the look on his face made it all worth while ,and to cap it all he got to taste his nanas ten minute Christmas pudding which he hasn't had in two years,he he ,the blissful look on his face was good enough for us.
We had a stir fry today for dinner ,and will be having our party tea today ,complete with crackers and other goodies.
Liz enjoyed the trip tp Morrisons this morning ,to fill the car up for the trip home and pick a few bits for the tea,mince pies , and party platters ,and stuff like that.
We are off home new years eve ,home in time for tea after making a fuss of Hissy and giving her her present ,a cloth mouse with a string tail ,stuffed with cat nip ,which she loves.
Hope to catch you all tomorrow ,Fred.

goodmorning brenda good to hear that ferd and liz are enjoying the visit with the grandson sounds like all is well with them, no I did not get to see the film as the theatre has about 18 small theatres and the line up was out the door by the time I would have got up to the ticket counter the film would have been in progress so I will try again next tuesday, my friends in brampton did however get to see it and said it was very good very much worth seeing. anne called early this morning to say the queen's first great grand child had arrived yesterday a little girl nice way for any family to end the year, she was going out for lunch to-day with her son and family maybe to the bluebell as her son did not want to go to the swan and cemetary though the fish and chips are very good there. andrew and bryan should be back to-day from niagra falls from the hockey tournement hope they had a good time, I am getting ready for the family on sunday have a new reciepe for sweet potato's that I am thinking of trying it involves roasting them and drizzling lemon and maple syrup on them as an extra veg, found some vegatarian chicken nuggets for laura so that should keep her happy. I think that I shall have a lazy day to-day reading and playing some of the xmas cd's that I recieved the weather is a little warmer and was foggy this am take care bye dorothy

Hi all,
Well Xmas is over and now we have New Year's Eve tomorrow to cope with. The fireworks have been going off here all week. If the police catch the guilty ones they'll get fined. They should only let off fireworks on New Year's Eve.
I still don't dare go out on my scooter because of the ice. The main roads are ok but the small slip roads are slippery.
So tomorrow it is a feast again on olie balls (sort doughnuts) and apple beignets, and on top of that my birthday in a few days time How much should I weigh? Better not ask.
Happy New Year everybody and to those who are not so well please get well soon.
Sylvia xxx

Hi all what a nice surprise to see everyone leaving messages.Glad you have hada good visit Fred ,have a safe and good journey home.
hope you are ok with hissy ?
Sylvia,hope youare mobile again soon with your scooter and enjoy your celebrations.
Dorothy sorry you did not see your film and hope you get to see it next week,my sister likes a place called the Blue bell for meals its near her in Whitefield is it where anne goes?
we might go out for lunch next week as its ages since we went out ,but everywhere puts the prices up as its christmas and say its a christmas menu.!!! so we will wait a few days after new year.
Your menu sounds great have never made sweet potatoes,must try them soon. See you all soon Take car ,brenda

well it is new years eve day and we may have rain and a temp of 10 degree's almost balmy glad to hear from sylvia her goodies sound nice I am sure they taste good, yes brenda anne did go to the bluebell and it is the one you mentioned and they had a very good lunch she said it has new owners since she took me there the last time I was home. I agree eating out is getting very expensive but a lot places in my area have some good specials year round to get the customers in. the fishbowl is as the name suggests mainly fish has a special to-morrow a all you can eat buffet for 15 dollars and it has a sliding scale price for children and seniors it is over the lunch hour, I would think that it will be very good. but also very busy so I shall give it a pass plus you needed reservations. I can send you the receipe for the sweet potatoe's if you like it is quite good with the lemon and maple syrup. well the next time I am the thread it will be 2011 so I wish one and all a very happy new year and I hope that john is ok with all the flooding not quite sure if he lives near all of that take care bye dorothy

Fred and Liz are back home and ensconced in the front room with a hot drink ,car washed down ,unloaded ,and are now spoiling Hissy rotten ,after the welcome home she gave us she looks to have missed us as much as we missed her,so ,maybe tonight with her curled up behind my knees ,i may get a good night's sleep.
Hi Sylvia,nice to see you again ,hope you enjoy your New Year as well as you have your Christmas.
this time next year sean will be having a good time ,his wife ,Marta ,finished with the University for good,home with her degree in bio robotics,spending her first Christmas at home with her hubby,i just hope this year flies by for both of them.
Have to go and get tea ,posh one today ,jackets,with a tomato and cheese filling ,and tomorrow a really nice dinner ,back to normal fare ,fish and chips ,with mushy peas [home made of course].
Catch you all tomorrow ,happy new year everybody,Fred & Liz.

Hello everyone,we have a very miserable day for new years eve,went to get a few groceries and you would have thought there was going to be a seige or something the amount of stuff some people had.
I am glad you and Liz got home safe and sound fred and enjoy the fish and chips tomorrow.
we as usual are not out tonight we stopped going out a few years ago ,
We have nothing planned for tomorrow ,just a nice roast lamb dinner ,which will leave some for sunday .
May I wish you all the best for 2011 and thank you for all your help in keeping this thread going.Love and hugs ,take care,Brenda

Mornin' to all,bit damp and wet here ,but well above freezing for the moment ,a gateway for me to check out back before the frost and snow come back next week.
It looks as though the water butt may still be sound and watertight ,but i have opened the drain tap to let the water come out as it thaws,so i will have to see how it goes.
I have def' lost all the parsnip and carrot,them both turning to mush in the boxes with the sever cold and snow ,lol,time for a rethink ,putting earlier crops in perhaps that mature before the sever weather sets in ,i may be able to find an earlier parsnip,but i know there are earlier carrot and onion ,so all is not lost as it were.
I will have a long hard look at options though ,something tells me that the winters are only going to get harder ,and possibly longer in the coming years.
We are now back to the usual fare thank goodness ,all the rich food is finished for this year ,apart from tea today at the daughters,but nerxt year it's all change ,no going out to the bairns at all ,we is staying home,time after all these past twenty years for others to come to US ,lol ,so a home Christmas for us two God willing ,others can do the running around from now on.
Glad to see that everyone seems to have managed a good time in spite of the hardships ,and weather ,even the peeps from Canada ,and oz Off the other thread ,with the terrible flooding ,storms ,and fires ,the world is going mad methinks.
I am off to get the fish out for the dinner ,yum ,two nice pieces of Haddock ,with wedges ,and home made mushy peas .
Catch you all later ,happy New year all,Fred & Liz.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL good morning I am up early as due to a change of plans dinner is to-day not to-morrow as bryan has a hockey game at 5-30 on sunday andrew called yesterday to see if i could change things around, so the turkey is set to go into the oven shortly as it is a frozen stuffed one it has to cook for 6hrs done this before and they are good, so I shall pop it in around 9am. it is pouring down rain at the moment so the snow is being washed away in the parking lot and I don't mind that, fred the fish and chips sound very good along with brendas lamb, I was in bed by 10-30 last night so I am not sure if it was rowdy around here or not though I think I heard the fireworks at midnight but could have just been dreaming well time to get moving we shall eat around 5or 5-30 so I hope it all goes well take care bye for now dorothy

Evening all sounds like everyone had a good start to the New year,hope it continues for everyone.
Dorothy hope the family dinner went well sounds good,so does the fish and chips Fred.The Lamb was greatso was the veggies but i had bought a frozen weight watchers dessert which someone put in the fridge in error yesterday so it was a wee bit sloppy and not really fir to eat !!
We will be having the lamb again tomorrow with new potato and green beans ,like Fred said back to the simple stuff.
Weather was just as dismal and grey as yesterday ,but not half as cold.
Hope you all stay happy and healthy in 2011,Love brenda

Happy New Year to you all. It has been a while since I have spent any time on here and I have missed reading your messages.
Still having a problem with sleeping, some nights (like this one) when just cannot seem to drop off even for an hour or two. Apart from that I am feeling quite well - didn't realise that I had been feeling unwell for so long until it all became an emergency. Anyway all recovered now, tummy still a bit tender at times but not a problem.
All our snow has gone now, washed away by the rain - it was pretty but became very dangerous as everywhere was so frozen.
Stay safe
God bless
Love
Kathleen

hi everyone well it is a lazy day for me after the familys visit yesterday the dinner went well everything turned out well and they ate up most of it I have some turkey and stuffing left and I shall feast on that to-day with some nice buns just sandwiches to-day for me, nice to see kathleen back we have had snow showers to-day and it is cold but the snowing is not sticking. the children are back to school to-morrow along with lindy so life gets back to normal for all of us but the holidays have been good ones. my sisters 3hr hike in the mountains behind her went well she sent me a photo of her husband and the dog looking down from the top where they stopped quite the view I will see if I can pass it on to brenda and fred bye for now dorothy

Good Morning all,nice to see you Kathleen,hope the sleep thing gets sorted,I know how it feels Hope you have a happy healthy new year.
Dorothy I got the picture it was lovely,well done them!!.
Fred the new year emails were very good I got something similar from someone else.On my own at the minute John is playing golf and david is at work!! was watching a film on tv but it seems daft now,Have put some washing on and have some ironing to do so will do that when i have done my emails etc. Simple tea to day sausage chilli and rice ,See you all soon,Take care Brenda

goodmorning well brenda the weather must be good if john is playing golf it is only 8-30 am but the weather looks cold but other wise ok, glad you got the picture of wayne and the dog , another lazy day for me to-day as not all the shops are open and no post to-day and the library is closed I could take down the decorations but I usually wait till 12th night, your tea sounds good I don't think I have ever had that must try it sometime, I am just going to give anne a ring she was having all the family over on sunday so I shall see how it went bye for now dorothy

HI to all ,nice up here today ,and after scrapping all the cabbage in the patch that the sever weather knackered ,and checking the brussel plants[all survived] i am indoors for the day.
When i was chopping the cabbage up for the bin ,i noticed that they had frozen from the inside ,not from the outside in ,wow ,it must have been really severe to freeze that way .
the ground is still frozen so i can't get to the Parsnip to see if they survived ,but we need to have a rethink here as to the veggie patch ,wether to grow the same brands of brassica and just plant a lot earlier .or go for hardier sorts such as Stonehead,about as frost hardy as you can get.
Tried the neew Halogen cooker today and must say i was very impressed with it,i did a 3 lb Chicken ,roast tatties ,roast parsnip.and onion for two ,in 70 minutes,spot on too ,everything done to a turn.
What with the new pot roaster ,and new electric frying pan with lid that can be used for rice dishes' curries ,and even B B Qs we no longer need the big ovens unless we have company,and saving on a lot of energy too.
The new king size quilts are on both beds ,complete with new covers and matching pillow slips and light shades tray posh ,he he ,a lot to be said for buying presents for each other ,for the house ,lol.
The missus is sat here taking the batteries out of the Christmas toys ,and getting ready to take the old tree down for the last time ,it is too big for us to put up now we are on our own ,so we have brought a smaller one for next year,the old one will be given to the younger son when he comes on Wednesday,it will be ideal for his family and has a few good years in it yet.
Have a good first week of the year all,and ,take care ,Fred

goodmorning well fred the new cooker sounds like it works a treat all that cooked in 70 mins. and the new quilts should keep you nice and warm, anne phoned me at 9am this morning to say they have snow in bury and I said so do we just a snow shower of the lake I think should not amount too much, I also just go with a small tree these days I gave mine to a charity shop as the family always go and chop down one. and this is the week that all the real tree's get picked up and recycled they make mulch out of them so they don't go to land fills. was thinking of taking down the decorations but will wait till thursday. andrew set up the areo garden he gave me so I should get started on the seeds soon the first lot of seeds are for herbsfred if you want info on what a areo garden is this is the web site www.areogardensupport.com they come from the states and I think for people growing things inside ie. a condo or apartment it should be good after the herbs cherry tomato'swill be next on my list so we shall see how I get on with this. bye for now dorothy

Hi all,from a snowy manchester ,yet again,mind you it does not appear to be sticking and has mainly disapeared .I expect it is still on the hills.
Did not feel the cold this morning as I was busy sorting out some things in the bedroom for the charity shop have two bags filled with some curtains I don't use anymore and some night wear ,as I have some that I have had a while and think i need to start using .!!!
Will have a sort out of my books next week and take them as well,We are going to move the book case back into the living room so i need to "thin "them out.
Also going to sort out some of my bedding as I have loads of pillow cases I do not use,and a couple of quilt covers so I am going to send them as well,did offer them to the family as they have hardly been used,but they did not want them for differnt reasons,.
Might have a walk round Bury on Saturday,as long as its not snowing again.
Glad you are all sorted with your bedding Fred ,we bought a new King size quilt a year or so ago but find the Tog too warm for us ,its only used when its really cold which it is looking like it will be soon enougth.,
Shame about your veggies must be very dis- heartening,we have not decided if we will do all we did last year ,John feels just the Tomatos and potatos should be ok ,but is thinking about the carrots and onions etc.We will have to get a new cover for the "greenhouse" before we can do anything!!
The sausage chilli thing was easy to do but have to admit it was a packet sauce,but would be easy to make up .by yourself.Using the sausage in place of mince beef.
John and david enjoyed it so I will do it again
Hope to see some friends for lunch tomorrow,but it is not set in stone so it might be off.especially if the weather is still snowy,
Better get on with the tea , See you all tomorrow ,take care, Brenda.

goodmorning from a winter wonderland the snow stopped yesterday but started again overnight so I awoke to a very pretty site especially if you don't have to go out in it, the plows are out and the highway 400 was closed due to a big rig ending up sideways across the north and southbound lanes in the early hours between exit 88-89 a lot of accidents happen there for some reason, but all the tree's are looking pretty as they are covered with snow I shall at some point have to go and clean off the car but may wait till to-morrow as the snow is showing no signs of slowing down, brenda hope you get out to have lunch with your friends that is always nice, and it sounds like you had a good time sorting out things for the charity shops,I still have some sheets and pillow cases from my grandmother irish linen no less I don't use them but for some reason can't part with them as yet makes no sense I know, I have sent an e-mail that was sent to me by my friend in brampton that show some of the wonderful views my sister see's driving from calgary to their place in canmore and what I saw on my visit to them, one of the views is off lake louise and the glacier it made me cry it was so beautiful, if you get to bury I hope you have a good look around especially at the market I can see it all in my mionds eye, just came across the news from the bbc that the royal wedding will start at 11am your time so that means I shall be up at 5am coffee pot on blankets and pillow on the couch to watch it on the living room tv as it has a larger screen, well time to get this day in motion I think that I shall make steak and onions with some lovery mashed spuds for dinner this evening I fancy that and some mixed veg bye for now dorothy

Hi Allmanaged to get out and have lunch with my friends,it was really heavy rain when I went out but it had stopped by the time we meet up.Had a little walk round Marks and Spencers but didnot see any thing in the sales that I wanted!! My friend works at M&S and said they will have the spring/summer lines in on Jan15th.Could not open the email you sent ,think its my end not yours as I could not open a few others as well.
Could you send it again please?
Have a funeral to go to tomorrow,and then might do my food shopping ,but might leave it till friday.
Take care ,Brenda

hi brenda I will try and send you the e-mail photo's again if I have not deleted it late yesterday I had to make a decision re simon he has been failing the last few weeks and since sunday has not really eaten slept a lot not much output and howling in pain at times, so after talking to andrew and the vet I have an appointment on friday at noon to put him to sleep it was not an easy decision but he is skin and bone under all the hair and not grooming himself any more so I have to cut out the matts, I thought I would like to-day with him but if he appears to be in pain again then we will take him sooner, as the vet said he is 18 and had a good life but I do think that he missed his brother very much since sasha dies last june life was not the same for him, as my friend isobelle said to me last night if it makes it any easier just think he will be reunited with his brother as we both believe there has to be a place for animals in the here after. so that is it for me to-day bye for now dorothy