AS: Tea and biscuits and GIN, the British thread

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  • PigwidgeonPigwidgeon Shipmate
    For those of you dealing with thunder, lightning, rain, and wind, I shall happily send some virtual sunshine from Arizona. But please send some rain our way. Almost five months into the year, and we've had rain only once in 2018.
    :yikes:
  • Not too bad in South Dragonland. Hot yesterday (we went to the National Botanic Garden), less nice today with a drizzle just started and thunderstorms possibly later.
  • I am quite happy with rain, really. It cuts the UV levels down.

    Not sure everyone else is ...
  • Gath fachGath fach Shipmate
    Not too bad in South Dragonland. Hot yesterday (we went to the National Botanic Garden), less nice today with a drizzle just started and thunderstorms possibly later.

    I really ought to visit the national Botanic Garden sometime, as I only live 14 miles from it
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited May 2018
    CHOCOLATE hedgehog for me, too, please (are the spikes CREAMY?).

    The liquid sunshine (O you lucky Dragonlandians) has been replaced by somewhat drier conditions, albeit still cloudy, but at least the bl**dy leaks have stopped.

    Tea-time soon - cold roast beef, a green salad with low-fat French dressing, and possibly a glass of nice Polish ALE (our local Co-Op does a nice line in such beverages from Foreign Parts).

    Meanwhile, I continue to hobble around with Twisted Bones, but I've been practising at Church today with our very own parochial wheel-chair. I have a funeral to conduct next Thursday week, and I'm determined to do it (the deceased was an Awkward Old Sod, too).

    I might just have to delegate the trip to the cemetery, and the actual burial, though the thought of joining the AOS Down Below is slightly appealing...
    :anguished:

    IJ
  • Any chocolate hedgehog left?
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    edited May 2018
    I don't think I've ever eaten chocolate hedgehog ... but I have eaten real porcupine (in Africa)! Not recommended - it was quite fatty.
  • I could imagine it would be! There is a very, very squished hedgehog on the grass verge just round the corner from our house at the moment. Icky.
  • DarllenwrDarllenwr Shipmate Posts: 47
    It is ironic, reading of Baptist Trainfan's adventures at the Botanical Gardens - we were there yesterday as well, Priscilla melting down with the heat.

    Now, before anybody starts thinking along the lines of, "You really cannot describe 25 degrees as 'heat'." (as our Texan guest observed), I should point out that, thanks to the MS, Priscilla has a working temperature range of maybe 3 degrees C. Anything outside of that and she seizes up. And turns grey. We were forced to retreat to the car just before 14:00, not really having properly toured the site, and seek cooling breezes in Swansea Bay. I will say this for it, Swansea Bay is a pleasant place to be on a sunny afternoon. And following up a stroll to Mumbles pier with supper at Verdi's made for a very pleasant end to the day.
  • PriscillaPriscilla Shipmate
    Sorry to have taken a while to reply, Baptist Trainfan , but we were out at the National Botancal Gardens at Llanarthney and then Mumbles to cool down.
    Calan are 5 very talented young people - guitar, 2 fiddles, accordion and harp (oh, and step dancing, bagpipes, pibgorn and whistles too) who sing in Welsh and English. They play traditional music, but also tunes they have written themselves, such as the wonderfully titled Deportation Selfie, which deals with the problems they had trying to get into the US to perform when they found there was a problem with their visas!
  • We have occasional purple clouds, but no rain. Lovely gardening weather

    No cake either, but we do have some very ripe new season Indian mangoes in, to be eaten with a sharp knife and sheaf of kitchen roll.

    I'm off to Dewsbury open market tomorrow in the hope of other fruit in jam-making quantities, fingers crossed the wash-out doesn't move north in the meantime.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I'm almost embarrassed to tell you that it's currently 24° here at nearly 8 o'clock at night ...

    A friend who lives in the Highlands posted on Facebook today that it was 29° in Fort William. If that's not proof of global warming, I don't know what is. <eek>

    I can't offer any virtual CAKE, but a friend gave us some rhubarb the other day, and I've just made up a batch of crumble topping, so they'll be introduced to each other in the quite near future. Virtual portions (with your choice of cream or ice-cream) will be dispatched forthwith.

    I have several bits and pieces in the fridge that could do with using up, and am contemplating turning them either into SOUP or possibly into some kind of sauce to have with pasta; as the temperature's set to remain in the mid-high 20s for the next few days, SOUP might not be the best option.
  • Goodness me! Thunder and lightning and big rain in the night!
  • ThomasinaThomasina Shipmate
    I for one am heartily glad to see the rain this morning! Unlike our southern friends, its been bone dry here until this morning, when, praise be! it rained!!

    I've had to hose, but (and be warned, fellow Shipmates) I have one of those crinkly hoses that expand when you turn the tap on. Trouble is, you don't get any water out until the whole of the hose is filled. It being a rather long hose, to suit our rather long garden, it looks like a bucket of snakes as it fills, and the coils come out, crawling all around! So then I have this very long hose to manoeuvre up and down the steps, round the rose arch, and generally trip up over! Now,a nice ordinary one starts spouting as soon as the tap is turned on as the hose itself, neatly coiled round a round thingy, is full of water. Hey Presto! trying to water pots a mere 10 ft away, I uncoil 10 ft of hose. Simple!

    Anyone want a retracting hose?? :)
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    A couple of thunderstorms here as well.

    Baby en rouge now weighs three whole kilos. He had his oxygen goggles off for six hours today and I'm quite hopeful he'll be able to get rid of them altogether soon. And in exciting news, he's finally decided that sucking is a fun thing to do (when one is a baby, it is a good thing to suck :wink:) He drank more than half his ration this morning through a "straw", i.e. a little tube taped to someone's finger. Being able to drink all his milk independently is the last stage before he can come home. Fingers and toes crossed...
  • That's really good news, la vie en rouge. 3kg is a pretty good size - lots of full term babies born at that weight. My daughter was just over 2kg when she was born. Definitely fingers crossed.
  • daisydaisydaisydaisy Shipmate
    Way to go, bébé en rouge!

    A nice cool day today, suitable for being more active than of late - a friend came and was determine not to let a broken leg get in the way of a hectic time. Nice but hectic, during which time I got to ride in 3 different wheelchairs (being a total control freak I don't appreciate being at the mercy of someone else's whims but do appreciate no having to hop on crutches) and (bliss) a mobility scooter at a nearby Garden.

    Now for a snooze!
  • WildHaggisWildHaggis Shipmate
    I'm freezing here in Cardiff (well I suppose it's subjective). Oh for 25 degrees!!!!! Went to Welsh conversation at the cafe in Roth and enjoyed it. But it was wet. I'll either be like little weed and grow tall or like a woolly jumper and shrink. I'm in Wales, so probably the latter!

    The snails will be out in the garden today.

    I was at the National Garden on Mon. Enjoyed the uke orchestra. I didn't feel that warm though.
  • Wonderful news about bébé en rouge and the straw! Excellent.
  • <votive> for Baby en Rouge's increasing independence. 3kg seems a nice handful.

    No fruit-buying today for various reasons (not least a particularly moist morning), so went to the Hepworth Gallery instead to see 'Solid Light Works' by Anthony McCall. The best bits were pitch black rooms containing projectors shining against a plain wall and a fog machine. The beams of light look solid, but with shifting smoke patterns and spectators casting weird shadows, it's like adult shadow puppets and great fun.
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    Brillaint news on the Baby en rouge front. May he be home very soon.
    We've taken to going for walks these light evenings, partly because it is a nice thing to do and partly so my husband can break in his new walking boots before a walking holiday with his friends in ten days time. We are very good and deliberatly go out without any money or cards so we can't get waylayed by any pubs on our way.
  • Yay Bébé en rouge!
  • How wonderful, LVER. Love and prayers sent from down here to your (not so) little one.
  • Piglet wrote: »
    Indeed it is. As someone much cleverer than me once said, without music, life would be a mistake.

    That was Rostropovich. I had it as my sig for a while.

    I should get my cello out. It would be good for me.

    Actually, Nietzsche beat Rostropovich to it.
  • I welcome the hosts to migrate this thread if they deem it more appropriate elsewhere, but this is probably best answered by our UK shipmates.

    I'm looking forward to my confirmation, which will take place on the observation of St Michael and all Angels. Once upon a time, roast goose was the traditional feast on St Michael's. I'm of three minds on this: (1) cook it myself and serve at room temperature; (2) have my local pub cook it; (3) and, lamely, just have the pub cater, sans oie.

    Questions: (1) Advice? (2) Have you a favourite recipe? I have over 60 cookbooks, so I have no shortage of possibilities, but something different is always welcome. Methods? Stuffings/dressings?(3) The tentative guest list is eight to eleven adults and two to four boys, aged nine to twelve. Can I do that with one goose? I don't think so. Leftover goose is never a bad thing.

    Feel free to offer advice on anything I should have asked and have not done. FYI I'm a dab hand with duck.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Advisory hostly oink
    @Pangolin Guerre - While I'm sure there will be suggestions offered here (and why not?), I'll copy your question to the recipe thread upstairs in Heaven, where I'm sure someone will come up with some good ideas.

    Piglet, AS host
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    La Vie, that is excellent news - well done, baby en rouge! :smiley:

    Things are definitely warming up here: it got up to 23° today with brilliant sunshine - even the birds must have been feeling too hot to eat, as D. filled up the feeder this afternoon and they've hardly made a dent in it. I took a stroll over the walking bridge late this afternoon, and this time went right across and back - about two-thirds of a mile. Not much by many standards, but for this somewhat unfit little piglet, it was a very nice amble.

    We've got a Special Weather Statement for tomorrow, as it's going to be 31°, with a Humidex value of up to 36. (I really need that <eek> icon). I think the porcine air-conditioning will have to be deployed ... :sweat_smile:

    Mercifully, things are supposed to get back to a semblance of normality at the weekend!
  • daisydaisydaisydaisy Shipmate
    Woke to an E.M.Forster looking morning, the sort that makes me think about Howards End - warm, with mist that is thinking whether or not to become drizzle, and the garden is dripping roses (I promised myself I'd never grow them and now here I am happy with masses of different pink ones). I feel the need to go all Edwardian, with a long skirt, trug and secateurs. And it's probably not even remotely like anything in E.M.Forster's novels! Still, I'll see if I can fight my way through the underplanting to cutting some roses for indoors.
  • ThomasinaThomasina Shipmate
    Great news about bebe en rouge! May he keep growing and growing and sucking and sucking!
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    Adding my cheers of delight and encouragement for bébé en rouge.

    From the balcony of a villa in the south of France celebrating the son-in-law's 30th birthday. :sunglasses:
  • DormouseDormouse Shipmate
    Chapeau!! for Bébé en Rouge. Keep on growing, little Chou.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Daisydaisy, you put me to shame - gardening with a broken leg! :smile:

    The threatened heat has materialised (it's currently 30°), and air-con has been deployed chez Piglet - although I turned it off before we left a wee while ago for choir practice - there's no point in having it blasting away when we're not there to appreciate it.

    More of the same tomorrow, apparently to be followed by thunder (yipee!) and more sensible temperatures after that.

    Phew ... :sweat:
  • Mist here again today, and a message from SiL (on his way to work with the Intrepid Grandson and Miss S) to say that he knew sheep were not famed for their intelligence, but really, when you were white and woolly, sleeping in the middle of the road in fog was not funny, and not clever

    Mrs. S, woken by the sheep outside at 5.30 grrrr
  • We were woken by the binmen, but that was at about 7.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Seven binmen! We only get four - and two are binwomen :smile:
  • DormouseDormouse Shipmate
    Our binmen (waste collectors?) usually arrive at about 3.30 am. It makes me wonder what time they clock off.
  • LothlorienLothlorien Glory
    edited June 2018
    One thing I won’t miss when I move is the noise from the trucks emptying the skip bins from service station and McDs. When I first came here, they were emptied about 11:00pm. For a long time it has been between 2-4:00am. Sometimes quiet, well relatively, but sometimes it sounds as if truck is playing pingpong with the bins.
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    daisydaisy wrote: »
    Woke to an E.M.Forster looking morning, the sort that makes me think about Howards End - warm, with mist that is thinking whether or not to become drizzle, and the garden is dripping roses (I promised myself I'd never grow them and now here I am happy with masses of different pink ones). I feel the need to go all Edwardian, with a long skirt, trug and secateurs. And it's probably not even remotely like anything in E.M.Forster's novels! Still, I'll see if I can fight my way through the underplanting to cutting some roses for indoors.

    My mother in law invited E M Forster to speak at their literary society when she was at university. He told her to carry a rose and he'd have one too when she went to meet him at the station. She also got drunk with Seamus Heaney once, but that's another story.
  • That's a brilliant story, Sarasa
  • I like E.M.Forster even more now, thank you Sarasa.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited June 2018
    Sarasa's MIL must have been a lady with a great deal of style!
    :smiley:

    IJ
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    I invited a very famous (my lips are sealed) poet to our school, where I was acting headteacher. Lots of children’s poets do afternoon workshops at schools. He really was excellent. Afterwards I thanked him in the car park as he was leaving and he came on to me! He gave me a paper with his address on and invited me to stay for the weekend at his cottage! :dizzy:
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    My MIL is still a lady of great style. She gets very muddled about a lot of things, but talk about literature and she's brilliant with the literary analysis.
    I've met a few author's in my time, it's interesting seeing how the differ (or not) from their written work.
  • Boogie - I think We Need To Know The End Of The Story.....

    Sarasa - good for MIL, long may she continue to be stylish! Apologies for assuming that she had perhaps been Promoted To Glory - I had forgotten that Forster died as recently as 1970....

    ....I'll put me spade down, I'll stop digging a deeper hole, and I'll get me cap.
    :confounded:

    IJ
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    The story ended there! I pretended I’d misheard him and said ‘Probably not, but I’ll see if my husband and I are free and we’ll give you a call.’ :lol:
  • The weather round the cattle-crossing for the last few days has definitely been interesting. Yesterday was a day so humid none of the washing on the line really dried, followed by an evening of sheet lightning and walls of water. This morning we had a heater on at one end of the office for a couple of hours to bring it up to 19/20 deg C (there's a genuine problem with the heating/cooling system in there, and one of my colleagues starts at 6.30am).
    I have a Calan t-shirt saying "Super Calan are Fantastic Celtic and Ferocious" from seeing them some years ago :grin: @Priscilla and @Curiosity killed - you might also like Blackbeard's Tea Party if they're playing somewhere you can get to. Reminded me of Bellowhead for the way they were enjoying themselves on stage as well as the musical style!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    ... I have a Calan t-shirt saying "Super Calan are Fantastic Celtic and Ferocious" ...
    Guess where they got the inspiration for that? :mrgreen:

    I particularly remember that headline, because we were on our way to Orkney from Belfast to celebrate my dad's 75th birthday, and saw that headline as we were getting on the plane. We were delighted by the result too, partly because we like it when the little guy wins, and partly because I was born in Inverness.

    It's been a very hot, somewhat (but not horribly) sticky day here: the threatened Humidex value of 37 did materialise, but we just avoided being out in it for any longer than necessary.

    D's organ recital today had a slightly bitter-sweet tinge: he finished up by playing a couple of pieces in memory of our friend George, who died last week - a serenade by Brahms and Master Tallis's Testament by Howells. I hope George was listening from Heaven. :cry:

    After that we had a saunter round Costco, and felt rather pleased with ourselves that for the expenditure of less than $150 we'd got in enough food to last us for quite a while. We were feeling so pleased, in fact, that when we got home we turned some of it into a beef casserole for tomorrow's lunch (he chopped, I cooked). The weather's supposed to go back to somewhat below normal tomorrow, so a spot of comfort food should be about right.
  • Yesterday's entertainment was an evening trip to ZSL London Zoo. In June they open from 6-10pm on Friday evenings for Zoo Lates, adults only, some talks and feeding of the animals, fun fair and food stalls, which we avoided, and the noises as the sun went down. I went last year too. This year was lower key, and we aimed to prioritise a few things to see, rather than tour the whole site. We also spent some time in the shop checking out the soft toys - they sell a wide range of soft animals and I'm totally in love with the lemurs and squirrel monkeys. We didn't buy any as they were all weighted to stand up.
  • CK, ZSL has been on my "must visit" list forever, and these late nights sound great - I'll move it higher up the list for next June.

    I've been enjoying watching my garden grow from the perspective of a comfy chair by the patio doors, but today I celebrated new wheels (an all terrain knee scooter) and went into the garden from the back gate to retrieve something from the bike shed - oh my what a different garden I saw then - more like a jungle! But then grass and weeds only grow so high, so it'll be no worse when I finally can tackle it! Meanwhile, I'll carry on enjoying it from my comfy chair -'the climbing roses are particularly gorgeous.
  • The other thing I noticed last night was that all the high walks were accessible with ramps alongside the steps up and down. There is an amazing lion enclosure that I liked last year and again this year.
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