AS: Tea and biscuits and GIN, the British thread

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  • daisydaisy, fineline and Heavenlyannie: I'll be dropping by to sample your wares shortly. :smiley:

    And to steal your last corn cob Piglet. :wink:

    daisydaisy: I'm determined to use the Ship's book club to help take the daunting choices of what to pick away. So many books, so little time.

  • fineline wrote: »
    I get many cheap books from charity shops. Some sell them at four books for £1, and they are often good books in good condition. Others sell them at £2 or £3 each. I can never get my head around the differences in price in different charity shops, for books of the same quality, often the same books.


    My sister has driven a couple of times down through South Australia, across Nullarbor Plain to Western Australia, then turned north and driven over halfway up the coast. She made a point of calling in at op shops where she would buy several paperbacks to read in bed at night. 0.50 cents each, usually. They would be donated to next shop she visited, where she bought more. She does not drive as far as she did a couple of years ago but goes down to the ranges in South Australia where she continues buying at tiny shops in out of the way country town. She also picks up presents for me, just the right size pyrex dishes, the proper old pyrex, flat bladed bone handled knives which cost a fortune in Sydney and similar.
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    I also donate them back to charity shops once I've read them - or else give them to friends.
  • fineline wrote: »
    I also donate them back to charity shops once I've read them - or else give them to friends.

    That’s given me a thought. I bet charity shops sell the same book many times! :smiley:

  • Boogie wrote: »
    fineline wrote: »
    I also donate them back to charity shops once I've read them - or else give them to friends.

    That’s given me a thought. I bet charity shops sell the same book many times! :smiley:
    Yes and sometimes to the same person /embarrassed face/

  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    edited September 2018
    I recently bought a book (detective fiction), enjoyed and finished it. The next day the Library phoned me and said, "Your reservation [for the same book] has now come in". Whoops ...!

    Last night to the Opera: Prokofiev's "War & Peace". Wow!!! (By the way, top price at the opera here = £49.50. Top price at football = £42.00. So not too much to choose between them; the opera lasts twice as long and is warmer!
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    Boogie wrote: »
    fineline wrote: »
    I also donate them back to charity shops once I've read them - or else give them to friends.

    That’s given me a thought. I bet charity shops sell the same book many times! :smiley:

    Yes, The British Heart Foundation shops often have a sticker on their books, suggesting you bring it back when you've read it.

    Also, books seem to often get bought at one charity shop and sold at another - I often see a previous charity shop price replaced by the price of the current charity shop.
  • MooMoo Kerygmania Host
    My church has a yard sale twice a year, with all the proceeds going to outreach. There is always a very large selection of good books. After I've read one I frequently set it aside for the next yard sale.
  • This morning declared itself to be autumn - it was cold enough for the heating to put itself on and for me to put thick tights on. And wet enough for me to dig out a proper rain coat.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    daisydaisy wrote: »
    ... it was cold enough ... for me to put thick tights on ...
    I thought about putting a dress on today, but the dress in question was probably just a touch too heavy-weight, and at 16° it's certainly too warm to contemplate tights. As I couldn't be bothered to faff about shaving and painting my legs, I thought stuff it and put on a pair of lightweight trousers (no socks), a shirt and long linen waistcoat, and am just about the right temperature.

    @daisydaisy, your harvest arrangement is a Work of Art. <notworthy>

    @Climacus, virtual corn-cob winging its way to you!

  • Piglet wrote: »
    @daisydaisy, your harvest arrangement is a Work of Art. <notworthy>
    Aww thanks. There is a strange tradition at the church I go to that whoever supplies the flowers takes them away immediately after the service to do whatever they want with them. Seems a bit vulture-ish to me, so I’ve left them for the groups that meet midweek to enjoy. But still I came away with a huge bunch of glorious dahlias and no idea what to,do with them. First I tried the door of a lady who I got chatting to yesterday when I was carrying my arrangements to church and who I thought might like the colourful flowers, but no answer. So instead an elderly gentleman going home from the shops was able to take a surprise home for his wife - “she’ll wonder what I’ve been up to” he said with a twinkle in his eyes.
  • How lovely to give the flowers away, I’m sure he and his wife were delighted.
    My new academic year is about to start and I’ve increased my workload this year, something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. Whilst I love the new modules it is also slightly daunting as I need to pace myself because of my bipolar disorder. So I’ve restructured my week so I can balance out my time and today is my allocated day for study which I’m using to continue work on my research proposal. I think I might go for a long walk to work it out in my head.
    What’s everyone else up to on this cold, sunny day?
  • Curiosity killedCuriosity killed Shipmate
    edited September 2018
    I'm jealous you're getting out for a long walk.

    In answer to your question: dressmaking. Yesterday I made a new pair of pyjama bottoms for my daughter in brushed cotton from the fabric stash and remade the earlier pyjama bottoms to fit me (to take on winter camp with Guides). Today I'm making a red velour rugby shirt from the same stash.

    I used to live near a fabric warehouse, as in it was on one of the routes to walk to the shops in town from my flat at the time, and regularly bought remnants of fabrics I liked. The brushed cotton lasted as the patterns are cute babyish teddy bears and my daughter refused to have pyjamas made from it when she was younger. These days her attitude is "they're pyjamas" and "warm", but adult sized, so I can only (just) cut pyjama bottoms from the lengths I had available, complete with smart cuffs as hems and to add enough length.

    The velour came as two 1m x 150mm wide remnants in red and a grey-blue, which would have been plenty to make child's tracksuit, together, had this not been spurned as the "colours clash atrociously". I made the blue up into a top with some grey sweat-shirting earlier this year; it is currently on my daughter's back. It feels like decluttering the fabric stash, even if it isn't, as the pile is taking up far less room and is replacing the clothes we lost in the wave of cannabis fumes.
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    On the subject of red pyjamas… I badly want to get these but fear they are unjustifiably expensive. Baby en rouge’s favourite game at present is Formula One driver (sit infant in your lap, holding his hands out in approximate steering wheel position. Swing baby left and right while making vroom vroom racing car noises. You look ridiculous, but the baby thinks it’s hilarious). It strikes me that those Formula One overalls that Lewis Hamilton wears are essentially a giant flame retardant babygro, so now I want the actual babygro.

    Still, in the meantime he has a miniature Welsh rugby strip to be going on with (plus cuddly Welsh dragon knitted by my own fair hand :grin:)
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited September 2018
    Never mind - these visual images of bebe en rouge are quite delightful!
    :star:

    Keep 'em coming!

    IJ
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    edited September 2018
    Going back to the "blowing a hoolie" of a few days back ... I've just en reminded of the school teacher Miss Hoolie in "Balamory": https://tinyurl.com/ydg6ngzf. BTW the weather here today is absolutely gorgeous: crisp autumn sunshine.
  • All that sewing sounds wonderful Ck, I have a stack of things I really need to make and rather a lot of fabric stash. I should put my mind to it.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited September 2018
    Crisp autumn sunshine here, too, thanks be to God.

    However
    , the solid-fuel (coal or wood) Rayburn in the Episcopal Palace Has Been Fired Up.

    This means that I am now in thrall to a Benevolent Dragon until next April.....

    He needs to be fed and cleaned twice each 24 hours, but, in return, he rewards me with a most pleasant ambient warmth, cooking facilities (O! Those PIES! The Quickly Ready SOUPS! And Roasts! And Baked Spuds!), and hot water, not to mention the nice warm radiators in the Palace Bathroom, and the Palace Office.....
    :flushed:

    I feed him from time to time (just to keep everyone happy) on reconstituted logs, or sustainable wood sources, or general Rubbish, rather than coal....

    :grin:

    IJ
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    It's a bit crisp and autumnal here too: the weather website says it's 16°, but it doesn't really feel quite that warm. I am, however, loath to start putting the heating on, partly because it's forecast to go back up to 20° and feeling like 26 tomorrow, and partly because I want there to be a wee while when we don't have to pay for either cooling or heating.

    Spring this year was a bit of a non-starter - we seemed to go straight from needing heat to needing air-con, with little respite in between, so I've decided we need a nice autumn. To this end, socks and a lightweight sweater have been applied, and a little amble might well happen later.

    CK, I'd be happy to wear a night-shirt with teddy-bears on it ... :smiley: 🐻
  • I am making baby clothes for the first landlubber grandchild. Naturally, I am not using up any fabric from my stash, but am spending too much money on irresistible additions to it.(I'm also freezing cold as the plumber has just disconnected the boiler. The new one should be arriving at 8 am tomorrow. Watch this space.)
  • We have learnt to fire up the woodburner at Chateau S, and oh what joy it brings on these cold evenings! In order to help light it we have acquired a brushwood licence, which means you can pick up fallen wood (no more than a metre long and no more than some nominal figure in diameter, and you must carry it out of the Deep Dark Woods unaided - no trolleys, only bags, permitted) So, the wood won't really feed the Burning Fiery Furnace much but will provide kindling :smiley:

    Cost of four years of said brushwood licence = approx. 100 12 inch logs (excuse the mixed metrics, but here in the Deep Dark Woods the butcher still sells meat by the pound <killingme>)

    Mrs. S, who was today making owl-shaped cakes with the Intrepid Grandson, in ounces!
  • I hope CK, Mrs S, Landlubber and la vie en rouge adopt me so I can get some nice pyjamas, clothes and owl-shaped cakes. :wink:

    There is something about a fire... There is a pub up in the hills here that has a gorgeous fireplace which I frequented in the winter just gone. It is marvellous. Enjoy.

  • "... a gorgeous fireplace which I frequented in the winter just gone ..." - I hope there was no fire burning in it, else you'd have got a singed backside.
  • The owl-shaped cakes (tawny owls as they were flavoured with Hotel Chocolat flakes *mmmm*) were yummy, @Climacus, so a virtual one is winging (see what I did there?) its way to you :grin:

    And you are so right about the fire...

    Mrs. S, wishing it were alight right now
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    Making clothes is an idea. However, I fear most of my fabric stash is a bit girly for baby en rouge.

    It was so hot this summer that we spent about a month confined to the house without being able to go anywhere. As a result baby en rouge is the proud possessor of a huge collection of knitwear. He now has as many jumpers as ever a child could wear, which is why I moved on to making cuddly toys – the aforementioned Welsh dragon, and also a very fetching cuddly cow. I still have the pattern for making a sheep, but I think I’m soon going to have to calm down on knitting until he gets a bit bigger.

    Wood fires are banned in Paris on account of our appalling air quality. I kind of miss them (plenty of old apartments, including ours, still have working chimneys).
  • It was so hot this summer that we spent about a month confined to the house without being able to go anywhere.... but I think I’m soon going to have to calm down on knitting until he gets a bit bigger.

    Wood fires are banned in Paris on account of our appalling air quality. I kind of miss them (plenty of old apartments, including ours, still have working chimneys).
    Knitting so much paints a lovely picture.

    Sadly (because it gives such a feel good in the Gloom of winter) it’s been found that domestic wood burning is the biggest cause of Nasty Emissions, including some worrying fumes. But the good news is that wood burning stove technology is catching up, and new EU laws will require certain standards soon - but after we’ve left the EU so I wonder where that will leave us. I dream of a wood burning stove, but the current abode means I’ll carry on with the crackling fire screen saver on my television.

  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited September 2018
    It's a bit of a bummer, isn't it, that burning wood (a renewable source of energy) is more harmful, seemingly, than burning fossil fuels?

    The answer lies in the Knitt Ing of which many of you speak. Let everyone be provided, like baby en rouge, with multiple pullovers, cardigans, scarves, hats, socks, blankets, and so on (in tasteful colours, of course), and the domestic Heat Ing will no longer be required...

    Yes, some form of Cook Ing will still be needed, but only at certain times of the day, perhaps.

    Come to think of it, that's how our ancestors managed!

    IJ
  • mrs whibleymrs whibley Shipmate Posts: 30
    Going back to the "blowing a hoolie" of a few days back ... I've just en reminded of the school teacher Miss Hoolie in "Balamory": https://tinyurl.com/ydg6ngzf. BTW the weather here today is absolutely gorgeous: crisp autumn sunshine.

    I have located said hoolie, which is currently blowing around Athens in general and the Acropolis in particular. My hair is now full of dust which once filled the sandals of Aristotle and Plato, and the bits (of hair) which were silver are now sort of blonde! I have some time here following a work conference so am keen to make the most of it. Of course, tomorrow it is going to drizzle all day and I go home on Friday.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Our weather seems to have temporarily gone back to Summer Mode: it's 21° and feeling like 27. I haven't resorted to the air-con (except when I was drying my hair and getting Hot), but socks have once again been abandoned.

    It's a dull, heavy, headachy sort of day (I woke up with a bit of a headache, although it's mostly gone now), and I'm spending it making bread and doing laundry (and messing about on here, obviously).
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    Sounds like my day, Piglet. I've done laundry and hung it outside in the sun, and made some easy flatbread out of yogurt and flour and spices, and then made it into a pizza. I am feeling heavy and headachy too.
  • Yesterday was a glorious day, sunny but not too warm. Husband and I did the next stage in the Capital Ring walk that we've been doing over the last few months. Yesterday was Highgate to Stoke Newington. I'm amazed at how much green space there is still left in London.
  • I want to do the Capital Ring walk and the LOOP - the list is currently getting longer and longer, although I did get out for a walk on Tuesday evening in the dark and to Guides last night.

    It's going to be another glorious day today, it looks so pretty out there.
  • I was thinking of you when I posted that CK. I know how much you'd have enjoyed it. Maybe a London walk or two when the weather gets less sunny?
  • Curiosity killedCuriosity killed Shipmate
    edited September 2018
    I'd love to get back walking. I think London walks would be great, if we can get them up and running again.
  • The capital ring walk sounds great. When my children leave for university, my husband and I intend to do more holiday walking, coastal paths, that sort of thing.
    My day off today so yoga class this morning, followed by coffee with the ladies and then a bit of a tidy. I might get some more work done on my research proposal too.
  • That walk sounds wonderful. I love a nice wander.

    I checked Wikipedia just then to confirm, but I remember reading 40% of London was green space. That is a lot!
  • It's been a generally fine and sunny week in this corner of Ukland, including Stoke Newington - which is where I was on Monday with my sister, a-visiting our Auntie in her convent! (She's an Aged Resident, not a Nun, BTW).

    The Wash Ing is done here, too, so time to get out the clothes pegs.

    IJ
  • My Best Beloved has, alas, been confined to barracks with a Mystery Lurgy. This is a shame as the weather has been good and today is gorgeous. Sheets, clothes and a towel gaily fluttering on the line, and the flowers dazzling in the autumn light. Autumn days like this are, for me, the crowning glory of the year.
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    I love the sunny autumn days. I have been picking up conkers in the woods, for no reason other than they are nice and shiny and I like them, but today I have discovered they can be used as laundry detergent, like soap nuts from India, so I might try this. Has anyone here tried it?
  • MMMMMM Shipmate
    I've never heard they can be used as laundry detergent, that's intriguing.

    I use them to deter spiders in our very spidery house. I know all the research shows that it doesn't work, but fortunately no-one's ever told the spiders in our house that.

    MMM
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited September 2018
    Hmm. Don't deter all the spiders, as they do have a most useful way of Eating Up various buzzy, bitey, stingy things....

    How do you use them as spider-deterrent? I have this silly image in my head of you shooting conkers to and fro with a catapult, squishing spiders from time to time.....

    IJ
  • MMMMMM Shipmate
    edited September 2018
    I like the idea! but, sadly and much more boringly, we just put conkers on windowsills and some furniture.

    MMM
  • I see, but what is it that actually deters the spiders?

    Any spider worth her salt would simply cover the conkers with her web (well, the spiders I'm acquainted with would do so....there are quite a few in and around the Palace at the moment).

    And, backing up a bit, how on earth do you use conkers as detergent? Presumably you have to peel them, cut them up, or something?

    IJ
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    If you google "conkers as laundry detergent" you'll get fairly comprehensive instructions. I'm not sure that I'm completely convinced, and if it only keeps for a week I don't think it'd be worth the hassle.

    It's a bonny day here: 16° and sunny, and our sunflowers are still looking lovely, despite getting battered by wind and rain last night.

    Those London walks look lovely, Sarasa - I always enjoy a leisurely amble round London when I get the chance (especially if said amble is followed by supper somewhere like Côte or Café Rouge). <sigh>

    CK, how long do you reckon it'll be before you can go out in sunshine without damaging your skin?
  • I was told a year wearing sunblock and/or clothes in the sun. The NHS site says a year to three years. I reckon that the UV levels might be down enough in November to risk going out without sunblock. I did try on a couple of the grey dull days we had recently, still wearing a hat and scarf, and sunburned my cheeks, so not yet. The problem is that the sunblock dries and cakes on my skin, then rubs off and stops working, and I burn. I can do about a maximum of about 2 hours with it working, without blowing my nose, touching my face or rubbing sweat from my brow or I have to reapply the goop, so walking becomes less of an option.

    Today, as part of tidying away the remnant scraps from recent projects, I have been cutting holly leaves out of the scraps of dark petrol-coloured fleece left over from my daughter's dressmaking. So far there is a wire circle wrapped in the strips of selvedges, a pile of cut out holly leaves and some red velour scraps to make berries from some of the remnants from the rugby shirt. It's gone into the pile of things to fiddle with when watching TV as a replacement Christmas wreath for the front door. I also cut out some red cotton into a set of stocking shapes for the linings with the biggest velour scrap as a cuff and a couple more holly leaves. This is for my daughter to make a replacement Christmas stocking. The petrol fleece did well: my daughter bought 2 metres @£9/m, and used it to make a roll-necked sweater, baseball jacket, hat and mittens.
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    Piglet, yes, I found websites explaining how to do it - I was just curious if anyone here had done it. It's something I'd not heard of before. You can freeze the crushed conkers, and then just take a few out of the freezer when you want to use them. I'm going to try it. I've tried the Eco Egg, and the Indian soap nuts, so I'm curious how it compares.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    TBH I don't know if we have the right sort of trees here; I've seen things on the ground that look like conkers, but whether or not they're the real thing I've no idea. Having grown up in Orkney, my innate knowledge of trees and things that fall off them is necessarily limited ... :mrgreen:

    Besides, I have enough trouble making space in the freezer* for food, let alone conkers!

    * It's the top third of a standard North American fridge, and not hugely capacious.
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    Yes, I was wondering how common they are in North America. When I wrote about conkers on Facebook, my North American friends didn't seem familiar with them - they thought they were the same as sweet chestnuts, and were telling me I could eat them, and one person wasn't believing me when I said they weren't edible! Now I think of it, I don't think I saw any horse chestnut trees or conkers when I was in Canada.

    My freezer is the bottom half of a fridge freezer and pretty packed, especially with all the blackberries I've picked lately. But I figure I can squish things up and fit in a little bag of crushed conkers. I don't have that many, really.
  • Remember, conkers are poison to dogs.

    Luckily they don’t usually try to eat them, Spencer has picked a few up on our walks - our park is full of them - but he’s never chewed on one.
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    Poisonous to humans too, if they would try to eat them.
This discussion has been closed.