Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 9 July 2017

Lindybird said:

Here's today's pic:

I know I'm exotic!!

Thanks, Clare!!  -- I was beginning to wonder what it was, myself!  He's certainly special, with his unreal looking crest.

Just settling down to watch some of the tennis. My OH painted some walls while I was out shopping, as some of the bigger furniture has not been moved since we last wallpapered, and then some years later, subsequently painted over that. So there are patches of unpainted wallpaper here and there. It will all match now, hopefully.

Have thrown out a set of 4 dishes made specially to hold corn on the cob. I still have two in another design, for when just the two of us indulge!  (I love it smothered in butter)

Love corn on the cob too, LINDY and just as you describe, lots of butter which dribbles nicely down the chin when eating! When I came here to live with OH lots of years ago, I found lots of dishes and gadgets which seemed very popular in the fifties and sixties. For example, prawn cocktail dishes. The bottom part filled with ice and then the prawn cocktail glass fitted into it. Also a dish with egg shapes around the edge. I gather that was for some sort of devilled hard boiled eggs. The interesting thing is, the old, often crystal, dishes etc would only hold a third of what people would consider to be an adequate portion nowadays. My mother's stemmed dessert glasses (can't remember what she used to call them!) seem very tiny. They look fine in the cabinet but that is about it!!

I remember being taught in school how to scoop out the middles of hard boiled eggs, and jazz them up before refilling. Can't remember the exact recipe, now, but I do remember seeing pictures in publications of eggs cut open that way, and a sprinkle of paprika on top! Also remember large dishes being on sale with egg shaped indents all around the edge, with spaces in the middle of the dish for mixed salad.

I've still got some large platters my mother used for buffet entertaining, and some of her champagne shaped glass dishes for either prawn cocktails, or dessert!  I also have some small pretty leaf shaped and painted grape leaf type serving dishes which I bought as presents for my mother when in Greece, many years ago. I can't bear to part with them even though they rarely come out...

Hello on a wet Saturday!  Yesterday OH achieved his aim to tidy the bed at the second end of the decking – now just many containers to move back into place!   The perennials bed won’t actually be completed until we can move some of the plants in the autumn, as they are in full bloom right now, but we seem to have planted some in gaps without taking notice of their relative heights!  Today he is taking advantage of the rain to catch up indoors again, and this morning I peeled a lot of our tomatoes to freeze for winter use.

Dibnlib – when our dining chairs were re-covered, we took them to the local upholsterer two at a time, so we always had somewhere to sit!  Last time, we decided the frames were getting wobbly, so we actually commissioned new chairs from a workshop in N Yorkshire, but chose the fabric locally and sent it over there.  OH had to fetch the chairs on his own as there wasn’t room for me in the car!

Annette – I am sure M can’t have climbed into the box on her own, I thing GD-in-Law must have put her there!

Heather – good to see that you were beginning to feel better and found something non-aggravating to eat.  I agree about the sizes of sundae dishes etc – no wonder we all eat too much!

Wendy – I hope Daisy is coping through the weekend.

AQ – the people we met from Oz at the Kelpies last year were from the Yorke Peninsula, but I think they lived at the southern end.

Linda – pleased the water problem was temporary.  Well done your OH for recycling carpet pieces.

Harelady – lovely to see a post from you, and know that you are beginning to get straight in your new home, with the help and encouragement of family and friends; are you still in Snape?  How lovely for you to have family visits coming up this week – and two baby grandchildren at the same time!

Clare – well done finding the ID of the “Rainbow Bird” (as I still think of it!).  Good to see you posting – I hope the three of you are all well.

OH is now wanting to vacuum in the study, so I won’t hold up the good work!

"All the elements of a long final" says John McInroe, and I think he's right. These two tall girls are going to battle it out all afternoon.

LINDA - I seem to remember hard-boiled eggs being regarded as an essential in salads when we visited people many years ago - and when I ordered salad in hospital earlier this year, it included egg, until I requested having it left off.

Morning all:

Lindybird/Clare: Checked out the Turaco - from Africa apparently.  Very exotic. Looks somewhat prehistoric...   I'm glued to Wimbledon too. Would like to see Venus and Roger win the finals - especially as they're considered "oldies." :-)

Harelady: Good to hear that the family will be visiting, especially with kiddies.  How long have you lived in the house? Were you already planning remodeling? I can understand taking out the palm trees; assume they're the small ones. The fronds can be quite pokey!   We have the usual tall ones. Property owners often leave the old fronds, which are ugly, just sort of hanging down the trunk, but they provide Orioles, our lovely summer visitors, handy temporary homes.

Heather: I have some lovely etched glassware  and some gorgeous hand painted Limoges bowls that I hardly ever use. Oddly enough, used to use them more when the grandkids were smaller. Now things seem a lot more casual.

OG: Morning. New chairs. How nice. As I've said before, we're waiting for Lightning to be done rubbing against ours before we replace, but they're getting lower and lower - and are fast approaching "tatty."  

Venus is having to work hard against her younger - and as one commentator noted - "very hungry" competitor.