The Untied Kingdom? - the British thread 2021

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  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I take it the "undergardener" is the delightful lady we met at the virtual Shipmeet a few weeks back? :mrgreen: Good luck with your concrete shenanigans anyway!
    After a lovely walk round the Palace with my sister, niece and great-nephew (and Larry, who made lots of new friends), it was steak night chez Piglet, and I think I've not only sussed out how to cook a steak to my desired degree of doneness (i.e. not very), but also just about managed to replicate David's mashed potatoes, which were the best I've ever tasted.

    And, to make a good weekend even better, my other niece is bringing Rosie out to see me tomorrow afternoon - I haven't seen them since before I moved here in October, and Rosie's changed beyond recognition.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    Cleared some more wild geraniums from a path and a raised bed - they do have one advantage in that nothing else has got a look in. And startled a toad. I had to build an amphibian ladder for him to get out of the raised bed surround, which he managed while i was out of the way.
    The next bed has a load of vinca minora which got in from next door, and will need glyphosate, so I will have to check carefully for frogs and toads before spraying. I'm not sure where the ground elder, also from next door, has got to.
    It is beginning to look like a garden again.
  • Wesley JWesley J Shipmate
    Having cleared myself from sleep, and having raised from the bed, I am currently making breakfast, or am at least thinking about it.

    We'll see what I come up with - Piglet's mashed potatoes are somehow inspirational, so I might do that as a sort of Sunday brunch, with some rather nice coffee (locally-ish ground on 1000m above sea level!), and some further goodies. Sausages might be found.

    Early next week, I will get two nice and much-longed for sets of French-made Duralex drinking glasses from the UK, thanks to eBay - apparently locally not available, or I'm looking in the wrong places. I've had some Duralex glasses and bowls for many years, and they are practically indestructible. The new ones will replace a few glasses that are very much not of the same quality! Hurray! :)

    I've also just got my first pair of proper, heavy duty outdoor (i.e. shooting) wellies from Hoggs of Fife, the first wellies I've had since, I believe, I was a child. For some reasons I may have avoided any deeper puddles since, but then of course GoreTex was invented in the meantime, which is a great thing in itself. But now, ... how to I take off the wellies?! I had totally forgotten what a hassle that could be, and shall need to promptly purchase a boot jack!

    Onwards, upwards! Have a nice Sunday, all! :)
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    It’s a good thing tulips and daffodils are hardy!

    We woke up to a good covering of snow.

    https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZQkRV8j4b7uKZ4if7
  • Wesley JWesley J Shipmate
    Impressive, Boogie! - But how's your brother's farm outdoor birthday event going to be? Rather freezing, one supposes? :( - May his laurels be hardy!
  • Hmm. Now that Ye Plague has been defeated (Hail Boris!), the pubs and restaurants reopen tomorrow - but only AIUI for outside eating and drinking...*Ale Fresco*, as the Grauniad has it.
    :wink:

    It'll be interesting to see how many of the Great British Public avail themselves of the Right To Go Down The Pub this week. The forecast here in Kent is for single-figure temperatures, and a north-easterly wind.

    I think I'll wait until it's safe and legal to eat indoors...
    :grimace:
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Goodness, Boogie - that's proper snow! There was a slight touch of frost here this morning, but it's long gone, and it's a beautiful, if rather cold day.

    I've been along the road to get essentials (orange juice, coffee and some NZ wine that was inexplicably but irresistibly cheap), and having had brunch of smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, an avocado and TOAST, am now waiting for my niece and great-niece to arrive. :heart:

    It's frightening to think that I'm the same relation to Rosie as my granny's apparently ancient siblings* were to me; I can't possibly be that old, can I? :/

    * most of whom were born in the reign of Queen Victoria. :flushed:
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    A flutter of snow last evening and a frost this morning, but I put in my Garden Time. Planted a lavender and seeds of sunflower, zinnia and wallflowers in pots, weeded the path and fed the climbers. Delighted to see the clematis that, a few weeks ago, looked completely dead now twining thread-like tendrils round the garden arch.
  • ThomasinaThomasina Shipmate
    Every so often it snows here, and all goes white, the the sun appears again and it melts. But the hills not very far beyond have been white all day.

    Supper tonight depends on what visiting daughter fancies. She came to take me for my second vaccine jab and stayed in case i had a bad reaction. Felt very off for the morning but retored to normal opeations today. That's me done, thank goodness!
  • The bushes are covered by white blackthorn blossom at this time of year, which is why it gets called a blackthorn winter - it's difficult to distinguish between the blossom and snow.

    Brisk but dry and sunny down here with a very nippy wind. We walked over to check my new Adventure Lab (which is a really pretty 4 mile walk, 4 miles away) partly because one of my new caches is on the site of an old one, apparently, and the old one hadn't been cleaned away and someone who knew the old one was still there decided to put the two caches together, so there were two containers on top of each other, so not helpful! I've removed the old cache, a fake stone, for re-use somewhere else, where it will be truly evil. But it means we had cereal for breakfast, took sandwiches and grapes for lunch in the prettier of the meadows established to alleviate the local flooding. Overall we walked 11 miles.

    I'm now trying to catch up with the knit along (KAL) blanket I was kindly given for Mothering Sunday by my daughter, who wants the end result for her bed. I'm making this colourway and I'm so behind. Week 1 is done, 4/4 squares knitted, but I've only knitted 4/8 for week 2, 1/5 for week 3, 1/4 for week 4 and I'm knitting the first square out of four for week 5 before going back to week 2 and 3 to try and finish them.
  • TheOrganistTheOrganist Shipmate
    edited April 11
    Piglet wrote: »
    It's frightening to think that I'm the same relation to Rosie as my granny's apparently ancient siblings* were to me; I can't possibly be that old, can I? :/

    * most of whom were born in the reign of Queen Victoria. :flushed:

    My youngest sibling was born in 1964, our paternal grandparents in 1884 and 1870. The oldest of my great-uncles, dead long before I entered the world, was born in 1861, my great-grandfather on that side of the family being born in 1829 during the reign of George IV.

  • HeavenlyannieHeavenlyannie Shipmate
    edited April 11
    Wow, that is quite a gap and very different to mine! My eldest sibling was born in 1957 and I was born in 1969 but my maternal grandmother was born around 1916. The gap was so small because my grandmother had a fling with a soldier in 1937, got pregnant and had to get married, my mother then married young aged 19, though she was not pregnant at the time.
    One of my sisters was pregnant at 17 and a grandmother at 38. We have a photo of 5 generations together.
  • Hmm. Now that Ye Plague has been defeated (Hail Boris!), the pubs and restaurants reopen tomorrow - but only AIUI for outside eating and drinking...*Ale Fresco*, as the Grauniad has it.
    Not west of the Severn ... take-away only.

  • Hmm. Now that Ye Plague has been defeated (Hail Boris!), the pubs and restaurants reopen tomorrow - but only AIUI for outside eating and drinking...*Ale Fresco*, as the Grauniad has it.
    Not west of the Severn ... take-away only.

    Yes - sorry - I should have said that Ye End Of Ye Plague applies only to Blessed England (Hail Boris!)...
    :disappointed:
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Wesley J wrote: »
    Impressive, Boogie! - But how's your brother's farm outdoor birthday event going to be? Rather freezing, one supposes? :( - May his laurels be hardy!

    We are at the foot of the Pennines so get all the snow going. Luckily they live much further west ( near Ribchester) - no snow there so we sat on a sunny patio. ☀️

  • Hmm. Now that Ye Plague has been defeated (Hail Boris!), the pubs and restaurants reopen tomorrow - but only AIUI for outside eating and drinking...*Ale Fresco*, as the Grauniad has it.
    Not west of the Severn ... take-away only.

    Yes - sorry - I should have said that Ye End Of Ye Plague applies only to Blessed England (Hail Boris!)...
    :disappointed:

    Our 'plague' is now less prevalent than in the lands lost to the Saxons, but we remain more cautious than our colleagues in Westminster.
  • A wise attitude...
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I've had another delightful afternoon with some of my nearest and dearest, in this case my sister, niece and great-niece. Rosie is a total wee darling, and would charm the birds from the trees.

    We had planned, and were actually wrapped up and ready to go for, a walk, but as we left the flat it started snowing*, so we abandoned the project and went back indoors for another cup of tea (and in Rosie's case, a nap).

    It was lovely to put the world to rights - we've decided we'll do it again very soon.

    I'm now making a potato curry for tomorrow's supper - it'll be nice to have nothing to do except heat it up and cook some rice when I get in from work.

    * it didn't last, but we decided we didn't really want to go out for a walk in it.
  • AravisAravis Shipmate
    My oldest aunt (not great aunt) was born in 1916 and her husband was born in 1889. My brother and I were born in the 1960s so we’re very much the tail end of our generation.
  • MMMMMM Shipmate
    Thick snow falling here this morning and settling. I really feel for pubs, cafes etc that are all prepared for re-opening, outside only. They must be devastated.

    MMM
  • Snow here too, but not settling.

    Most of the local pubs with gardens have marquees covering tables outside and big heaters (so ecologically damaging, so discouraging me to patronise their establishments). Other than having to roll the side walls up to give the required ventilation, there will be cover.

    It's the cafés, restaurants and pubs without outside space that are in not such a great place.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    edited April 12
    Maybe it’s a good thing that we’re having a cold snap. Imagine the crazy scenes if it were warm?

    The hordes would be out in hordes, quaffing pints, pink men with t-shirts off! 🥴
  • Boogie wrote: »
    The hordes would be out in hordes, quaffing pints, pink men with t-shirts off! 🥴

    Roast gammon?
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    I felt for the pubs when I woke up and saw snow settling on my shed roof. It's now quite sunny, if not amazingly warm.
    My grandfather was in his fifties when my mum was born in 1928. He was a professional solider and I have a picture of him in uniform with a pill box hat.
  • @Sarasa Gurkhas, Royal Artillery or cavalry?
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    I think he was in the Royal Artillery @TheOrganist. I know he got his foot run over by a gun carriage somewhere along the line. That was sorted out years later when he was in his eighties, only for him to be run over by a motor scooter a few months later. He ran away from home aged fourteen and joined the army under his older brother's name, therefore no one in the family knew if he was really a David or a George!
  • Everyone else seems to be getting our bad weather. It's been chilly but bright and sunny for the last too days. It's a pity as we could do with the deterrent for shoppers and drinkers. This corner of the Rhubarb Triangle has one of the worst COVID rates in the country and the only thing we're usually famous for, apart from Rhubarb and Rugby League, is going out and getting pissed.
  • It's been quite a barmy balmy day down here, so it may well be that our local pubs and shops have been crowded with revellers and consumers, desperate for whatever degree of *normality* they can find.

    I haven't been out at all today, though I'm looking forward to the resumption of my 1-to-1 Pilates session tomorrow in the ACTUAL REAL-LIFE STUDIO! With The Torturer IN PERSON!

    Pray for me, sisters and brothers...
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    First world problems, I know, but how are you supposed to dress for a 25-minute wait at the bus stop when it's -4° and the tramp back home when it's +9°?

    By the time I got to work I was chilled to the marrow, but walking along the High Street coming back I was really quite warm.

    Removing a layer would be all very well, but not while you're carrying a bag of groceries on your shoulder.
    In other news, the potato curry is really rather good, and there's enough to do tomorrow as well. :)
  • I went and bought non-essential things in John Lewis, cos I don’t want John Lewis to go bust. Though I doubt my buying a grill pan is going to be the determining factor.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    To quote the slogan of another, more essential but less upmarket, retail emporium, "every little helps". :smiley:
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    @piglet

    I recommend this backpack. It’s light as a feather and good for carrying layers. I use it all the time. 🙂

    https://tinyurl.com/2n6etvyu

  • DoublethinkDoublethink Shipmate
    edited April 12
    Piglet wrote: »
    To quote the slogan of another, more essential but less upmarket, retail emporium, "every little helps". :smiley:

    :)

    At least now I can paint my terrible spending decisions as an attempt to do my duty by the country’s economic future.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Quite right too. Does that mean I ought to buy that shallow casserole/paella pan I've been coveting?
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Thanks for the recommendation, Boogie - that actually looks quite a possibility. In a general way, I don't like backpacks - I'm not entirely sure why, but they seem sort of insecure to me - but for the transport of groceries, that might be the way to go.
  • I've always like a wheeled holdall for groceries on foot. It makes it much easier to buy tins or milk.
  • Leorning CnihtLeorning Cniht Shipmate
    edited April 12
    I've always like a wheeled holdall for groceries on foot. It makes it much easier to buy tins or milk.

    I remember shopping for milk (amongst other things) on a day such as @Piglet describes, back in my student days. My solution was to remove the jumper I'd been wearing to deal with the chilly morning, thread the sleeves through the handles of the three four-pint milk bottles I'd bought, knot the sleeves together, and wear the jumper-and-milk assembly slung like a bandolier over one shoulder. (The other groceries were all in a backpack, but the milks didn't fit.)

    I wouldn't recommend this solution.
  • Long day at work, loads of admin followed by essay marking. This week is a marking week, every day...
    Meat-free monday and tea was a rather nice split pea dahl, brinjal (aubergine) bhaji, basmati rice, pea shoot salad and yoghurt. Washed down with a half of hoppy IPA.
  • Piglet wrote: »
    I take it the "undergardener" is the delightful lady we met at the virtual Shipmeet a few weeks back? :mrgreen: Good luck with your concrete shenanigans anyway!

    Delightful? Are we talking the same person?

    (sound of loud slap)

    Yes, that's the one!

    Got well over 3/4 of the concrete lifted, and at least half of the rubble given away, which is fantastic going. It's also as therapeutic as any job that involves undue violence with big metal tools can be.
  • @Heavenlyannie have you come across the lady on Fartbook who is posting as, I think, Memmo the Cavewoman? She's doing flinty things at Kentwell.
  • @Heavenlyannie have you come across the lady on Fartbook who is posting as, I think, Memmo the Cavewoman? She's doing flinty things at Kentwell.
    I haven’t been on FB for a while but I belong to the Kentwell pages and am guessing who you mean, as I know someone who does that role in the Through The Ages week who also does Victorian. (That’s a week where we are invited to volunteer any period in history and the cavemen/women appeared a couple of years ago.)
    Obviously I’ve not been to Kentwell for 18 months, my last event was December 2019 for the Dickens Christmas (surgeon’s wife, with added evangelical social reformer). I’m considering doing a Florence Nightingale for a War and Peace weekend when we return.
  • #2 son's leave has finished - we waved him off at 6am after a Good Breakfast.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    edited April 13
    Piglet wrote: »
    Thanks for the recommendation, Boogie - that actually looks quite a possibility. In a general way, I don't like backpacks - I'm not entirely sure why, but they seem sort of insecure to me - but for the transport of groceries, that might be the way to go.

    I use it for the layers. Wrap up warm, lightweight backpack in pocket.

    Hat, scarf, gloves, coat, jumper - each layer taken off and put in the backpack as necessary. 🙂

  • Wesley JWesley J Shipmate
    edited April 13
    Boogie wrote: »
    @piglet

    I recommend this backpack. It’s light as a feather and good for carrying layers. I use it all the time. 🙂

    https://tinyurl.com/2n6etvyu

    This backpack is ideal for celebrating the moment when your former partner has finally left; ... or at least that's what its name seems to suggest! :D
  • Husband has been trying to get a over 45 vaccine slot this morning but they are going fast and he can't book a first slot as no second slots are available! I suspect he is going to have to keep re-visiting the site throughout the next day or so.
  • @Piglet knowing you're built on a similar scale to me, the problem with most commercial backpacks is that they are designed for longer neck-waist lengths and wider shoulders than I possess. The adult backpacks are designed to fit average men with around 17" back length (mine's 13"). I did a mischief to my back carrying a too long backpack on the Pennine Way as it distributed the weight incorrectly. And I had to pad the shoulders so the straps didn't slide off. If you want a backpack it's worth getting properly fitted.
  • SojournerSojourner Shipmate
    I've always like a wheeled holdall for groceries on foot. It makes it much easier to buy tins or milk.

    Otherwise known as a Nanna Trolley in Oz

    Love mine!

  • I haven’t been on FB for a while but I belong to the Kentwell pages and am guessing who you mean, as I know someone who does that role in the Through The Ages week who also does Victorian. (That’s a week where we are invited to volunteer any period in history and the cavemen/women appeared a couple of years ago.)

    Having *finally* got to Kentwell a few years ago (one of the perils of going to boarding school for nutters was that it was in Kent, which is rather a long way away, and I'd never been with primary school) I wish I lived a lot closer - we thoroughly enjoyed it, and I got to see Pepper's Ghost in the flesh (Ectoplasm?) for the first time.

    I wonder if I can make some time to go to Essex and do "Me" things, instead of gofering for Mum? Visit the museum at RAF Wethersfield before it gets built over... explore the coast... visit Kentwell again... you get the picture.

  • HeavenlyannieHeavenlyannie Shipmate
    edited April 13
    We've done the shopping trolley discussion before but, if I remember correctly, Piglet was not keen. I've had one for 14 years, ever since my youngest grew out of a pushchair. It is modern is style and has bright green swirls, and made my pre-lockdown shopping far easier as I do not drive.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Actually, @Curiosity killed, although I'm vertically challenged, my proportions are a relatively long (and broad) back and short legs, so perhaps a standard-sized backpack would be OK.

    As for carrying milk, I'd rarely carry more than a pint carton, as I can't use more than that before it would go off; I've started buying skimmed because even semi-skimmed wasn't lasting. It's OK for putting in tea but I wouldn't use it for coffee or cereal.
    Leftover curry for supper this evening, so no need to cook. :)
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