General Chat

Morning to all ,and a Hi,to John ,nice to see him adding again,and have to say ,i know how he feels about heat ,he he ,the first time we went to Cyprus for Sean's wedding ,it was so hot that i didn't go outside much that week 35c plus is more than i can take now ,although i used to love it in The middle east ,but ,of course ,i was a looooot younger then ,lol.
Hi Dorothy ,it is hard yes ,but you couldn't let Simon suffer any longer,and you did the right thing ,in giving him the peace he was longing for.
He had a wonderful ,loving home ,as much as any one ,or pet can ask for.
I will tell you what i told our Edith,the best thing you can do after a few weeks ,is go to a rescue centre and give another cat ,or dog ,the same as you gave your other two cats ,a new loving home ,for the rest of their life.
Yep ,my car is fitted with a reversing camera ,that helps reversing in tight spaces,it was added by Nissan before i took delivery of the vehicle,i asked for a warning signal to be fitted too ,only to be told ,they are illegal in Britain ,for fitting to cars and small vans.
How stupid can the authorites be, ANY device that adds safety should be allowed ,i am sick and tired of stupid people who walk behind my car despite knowing that the reversing lights are on still persist in cutting across the parking lot right behind me ,ruddy morons that they are.
Any way ,the camera's that i have fitted rercord all that's going on ,in front of ,and behind the car as soon as the engine starts,so any daft Bu***r who does stupid things like that ,and causes an accident ,can't put in a bogus claim for damages and get away with it,the video footage is admissible in court,which makes them think before causing an accident with a claim in mind.
What a change here this morning ,yesterday it was minus 10c overnight,and last night there wasn't even a frost ,and the sun is shining ,,at least ,i think that big yellow ball in the sky is the sun ,he he ,that long since i have seen it that it could be anything ,lol.
We have the other meal of the stew that i did yesterday for dinner ,and i already have the bacon out for the Bucks Bacon Badger,for dinner tomorrow ,i may even go really posh and add some sausage meat ,and dries sage to the mix,something nice and warming for a cold day,and seeing as it's aan oven dish ,i will do a full Sunday veggie roast as well ,parsnip,Tatties,Onion [red],And sliced sweet peppers and sweet potato,so any one coming ,you have 25 hours to get your butts here ,he he.
I Am going to have a quick look out back to see it the ground has thawed enough for me to check on my parsnips ,catch you all later ,Fred

Happy New Year to all - 2011 has begun well - hot summer days plus a few wet ones thrown into the mix. Nothing happening like the floods in Australia or the snows in the UK and Europe. I think the States also have extreme weather conditions too.
We had a quieter Christmas inasmuch that we didn't go to the farm as my brother and his wife's family were all in Wellington so they went there. Christmas day for us was with Craig and his girlfriend, Mum and brother. We had a shared Christmas dinner at the Sallies - the first time our corps has done something like that for the congregation. Mum initially didn't want to go to the dinner thinking it was the free community dinner which was on the same day. In the end she really enjoyed herself. Craig's girlfriend is deaf so it was challenge trying to comprehend what she was saying, the two actually meet at a deaf gathering a few months ago and soon became a couple.
I mentioned the weather as hot - today it is hot - and I don't like too much heat as too much heat makes me queasy. Can't wait for cooler weather.

hi its 8-30 friday evening and I am sitting here feeling quite sad and lonely the place seems so empty I keep thinkin g that I see simin walking across the carpet I guess I am just feeling sorry for my self, it went well though andrew and I stayed with him while he was sedated I left before the final injection, the staff were very good the ones who had looked after him before with sasha came in to say goodbye andrew elected to stay with him till the end, though he was wearing a red ski jacket and his eyes matched when he came out, it looked like he had lost a lot of sight since sunday so I do know that I did the best thing for him , so andrew brought me home I declined an invite for lunch so we will have lunch next week when things are not so raw, I thought it was very good of andrew to stay to last as they lost 2 animal last year rocky the dog and calico the cat, everyone has been so kind to-day I have recieved several phone calls from friends my sister and anne, I think that I am rambling on too much, brenda have a nice day in bury on saturday I hope that it does not rain for you goodnight from me dorothy

Evening all,its been snowing here again today ,but it was only small smattering and was disolved in no time,and changed to rain pretty quickly.But we are still supposed to be having more,just hope they are wrong.Hoping to go up to Bury tomorrow hope the weather is dry ,don;t fancy the market in the rain,but the shops will be ok.
Have a few birthday cards and presents to get for my great neices who will be one and two next week! .It doesn,t seem like twelve months since Amelia was born or two years since Grace was.!
I use my slow cooker a lot for doing chops and braising steak and brisket etc ,had not thought of veggies,might give it a try ,Fred,
hope it was ok today(well as ok as these things can be) with Simon,Dorothy you have been in my thoughts.
Take care
brenda

goodmorning hope all is well with you and liz fred and glad to hear that the winter will not put you off your veggie gardening, I must say those camera's in the car sound like a very good idea I know that some of the cars over here have a gadget that allows you to see behind the car in a wide sweep when backing up very handy to spot children and animal that can be in your blind spot as you back up. I spent a quiet day with simon yesterday he di not eat hardly anything and I have just tried three differant things this am and only a mouthful would he take so I am not looking foreward to noon but the time has come as he is not passing much and sleeping most of the time, but we have had 18 wonderful times to-gether. brenda glad you were able to see the photo's the rockys are amazing and to think that christine can see a lot of the views from the condo in canmore it is amazing first thing in the morning as the sun come up over the mountains really is gods country bye for now dorothy

Morning all,back again after a few family problems ,nothing serious though.
Back to normal fare at last ,and i used the new slow cooker last night and threw mushrooms,shredded cabbage,grated carrot, chopped turkey breast and a few cocktail sausages in ,a pint of chicken stock,leek ,onion ,and course pepper and sea salt in ,and cooked it for three hours.
That's dinner for two days in advance so i still havn't got round to making the Bacon Badger ,so i will keep that in mind for the weekend when the grandson will no doubt be here .
The loss of the veggies is the luck of the draw and a sever winter Brenda ,we will not let it put us off ,because the pottering round the garden is keeping me mobile,and when spring comes round ,Liz will be able to get out into the greenhouse and see to the seedlings and tomato's.
Watch what you are buying for a while ,now that the contaminated eggs ,and foodstuffs have reached Britain even mayo' salad cream ,cakes and pasties arn't safe for the young ,and pensioners to eat at the moment,when will the producers learn that you can't get animals and poultry to eat animal by products with impunity,but this time it's Germany ,and Holland failing to moniter their food products properly.
I have the first of those safety cameras for the car set up ,and it's working well,so i will set the other one up at the weekend for the back end of my battle wagon,all in all ,with the extra capacity cards for the recording i spent £120,but it's well worth it for the peace of mind,the cameras ,ordered from China came via Oz,and only took a week and two days to reach me despite the lousy weather,a lot faster than our internal mail which says a lot for the Royal Mail.
Hope you get back to see your film Dorothy,and ,by the way ,the sweet potatoes sound nice ,i may give them a go instead of the way i usually do them in the oven.
Time to go and clear the car of hoar frost so that i can go and get the wifes perscription from the docs ,roll on next week when they say it will be a lot milder here ,i will believe it when i see it,pity help the poor souls sleeping rough again ,Catch you all later ,Fred.

evening all,I have received the email and been able to open the photos Dorothy ,they are really wonderful.
sorry about simon but you are right in your thinking. Been out and about today so am tired,
Hope eberyone is ok .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

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

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 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 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 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 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

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

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

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

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 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

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.