Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 6 October 2019

Back home again after uneventful trip on roads - surprisingly dry, with rain only for the last mile!

Glad you had a good journey home, LINDY!
DIANE - thank you for starting us off - I think you are extremely clever to sort out your computer, I certainly wouldn't know where to start...
PAT - I need my oven when the family are here for a roast but hardly bother with it on a daily basis. My middle daughter has a halogen ' oven' which is apparently very versatile.
OG - J seems more settled with his reduced hours, I'm glad.
AQ - loved those dainty flowers. I'm still finding weeds!

Today has been rather mixed - sun then a shower and so it has been all day. Tomorrow I will have to crawl around and pick up loads of pears from the grass. I should do something with them but not fond of pears. Chutney could be made, I suppose!

Heather - Pear cider is good. Or pear crumble. Or poached in red wine. Or even plain pear juice. Never tried making jam or jelly with pears, but it works with apples ...

Wet and miserable down here, and we are promised a lot more rain overnight and tomorrow. What with that, and the fact that I had my flu jab this afternoon ... it's definitely Autumn, and winter is on the way.

Good evening. Late getting access to my PC as new printer was being installed – old one decided it would no longer print in colour – no good for most of our photos!

AQ – I see K Lily is also named Clivia Miniata and Schizostylis! Lots of similar closely related plants anyway – all very pretty. Dusting for the Trio visiting? My word, you are conscientious!

ANNETTE – Tortillas are confusing – here there are the ones like omelettes with ingredients added in, as well as the flat Mexican ones which you pile up or roll around fillings! J’s “real boss” will return at the end of her maternity leave, next summer – I think she just had the baby a couple of weeks ago. He got on okay today, had his “back to work interview”, and has even gone to the singing group this evening!

LINDA – glad to see you back home – a pity you didn’t overlap with friends who just arrived, but no fun being there in pouring rain (if it did, because it didn’t here as they said it would!)

HEATHER – can’t help you out – I don’t like Pears – except the juice. I think I would just tell the family to come and take what they want! Be careful of wasps if you are picking them up off the grass!
Dentist check-up for me tomorrow afternoon – hoping I can get there between the showers.

Good Morning. Damp here, but my OH has optimistically gone off to the golf course, where it will be well soaked and its possible they won't be allowed to play.

AQ, I like your flowers, too. Not good on their names, though.

Rosy, I'd heard of the Goose Fair but didn't know it was still celebrated.

I'm impressed that folks on here can cook tortillas, I've never tried. When we bought our latest stove, we made sure to get one with two ovens, as being just the two of us here, we often put something just for two in the smallest oven. The big one only gets used when we have company, or I'm doing a big bake. We can also use the top oven as an efficient grill, which gets used a lot. I also use our slow cooker, and casserole things both on top and inside the oven. Couldn't live without the microwave, one of the first things I bought to equip the caravan.

Heather, I prefer tinned pears, and like others, like the juice, too. My OH will gladly eat all yours!

When we got home, our internet would not connect, so I sighed and switched it all off and then on again - that seems to have done the trick. It was rather discombobulating not to have connection when in Wales, which shows how much we tend to rely on it. But it was an opportunity to read some stuff I'd taken there to discard.

Off to buy milk and bread today, and check on the washing machine which is doing a sterling job.

Hey guys, hope you are all well. Just a little update on our feeder camera. It is up and running again after a power cut, but I am not holding my breath, as the council have scheduled another power from 10-2 today. Will try my best to make sure everything is up and running again promptly!

F

Thank you, Fergus ;-)

Thanks, FERGUS.

ROSY - I seem to remember something in the news somewhere about a runaway Goose in the East Midlands - it was surmised that it was making its own way to the Goose Fair! There are quite a few old traditional Fairs still happening in various parts of the UK - much changed from their original roots, but still encouraging folk to get together and celebrate their locality. I can recommend a National Trust book "The English Country Fair" - don't know if it is still in print. (Of course, it doesn't cover the similar traditions in Scotland, Ireland and Wales).

LINDA - I wonder whether your OH has returned home disappointed - or maybe the rain has stopped there as it did here - also breezy, so it is drying up a bit now. We had double ovens for many years, but when we came here we decided to replace like with like and ended up with just one big oven incorporating the grill. Then we added a steam oven for the vegetables etc. Our combi-microwave also has roast and grill functions, but we don't use them as I prefer to keep it clean!

Need to move to motivate OH into washing up which he has been about to do for the last hour!