It's cold and (I think) quite crispy here, but as I haven't been over the door, I really don't know.
I took the advice of @TheOrganist, and I now have two new dining chairs (I think I'll leave the other two until tomorrow). There was a modicum of swearing, but he was right - a cup of coffee and the instructions, and it really wasn't rocket surgery!
And so far, I haven't had any bits left over ...
I trust you will shortly be following @TheOrganist's advice in full, and having the "post assembly" drink... (quite possibly with dinner )
We ate smoked haddock fish cakes with Swiss chard treated as two vegetables, followed by rhubarb stewed in a slosh of Rochester ginger*, served with yoghurt. Both the smoked haddock and rhubarb were acquired adorned with yellow stickers. The haddock also made kedgeree for two yesterday.
I'm now drinking my share of mulled ginger in the hope the freezing fog will stop trying to ease into everything;
* non-alcoholic ginger drink I bought in for New Year and we didn't get round to drinking, it mulls nicely with mulling spices.
... I trust you will shortly be following @TheOrganist's advice in full, and having the "post assembly" drink... (quite possibly with dinner )
I am indeed. As I'd had a nice long Messenger chat with a friend in Canada at about the time I'd have been cooking supper, I thought sod it, and got scampi and chips from the Golden Chip, which I washed down with a nice glass of NZ Sauv Blanc.
Our Place have just finished a Week of Prayer so Mr Nen and I were up for the last 6.30am meeting of the week this morning. Consequently it now feels as if it should now be at least midnight.
I took the advice of @TheOrganist, and I now have two new dining chairs (I think I'll leave the other two until tomorrow). There was a modicum of swearing, but he was right - a cup of coffee and the instructions, and it really wasn't rocket surgery!
And so far, I haven't had any bits left over ...
Well done! Glad to be of help. If you do find you have spare screws, lock-nuts, dowel keep them, they could be useful as/when/if you come to make more stuff and come up short of the relevant item.
It’s a grey and drizzly day here, but at least most of the ice has melted. I went for a long walk with the pup and felt better for it. He’s having a long snooze now.
My new crayons have arrived ready for the doodle tomorrow.
PM me if you’d like to join us - it’s a nice way to start the week and to put a little routine into life in lockdown. All you need is a pencil/crayons and a paper/colouring book. (11am on Zoom every Monday, strictly half an hour long).
As our sn*w has obligingly buggered off (it was 6°, and I didn't need my gloves on the way back), and I'd forgotten to get eggs and smoked salmon during the week, I had a very pleasant little amble to Tessie Cohen's and back before brunch, and tackling the other two chairs.
They are now complete, and still no leftover bits (except for four Allan keys - each chair had its own wee bag of nuts and bolts and its own key). There's also a bag labelled "spare parts" and four spare plastic "feet", which will be filed in the toolbox.
I'm really rather chuffed with myself, as I'd never attempted anything like that before, and from first trials, they feel really comfortable - they seem to be very supportive to the back.
Inspired by Nenya, I found a fairly easy-looking recipe for chicky fricky on the electric interweb, so I'm going to give it a go for supper (accompanied by a glass of post-furniture-construction WINE).
I see quite enough of 6:30 a.m. during the week, thank you but no thank you!
I completely understand that. I would feel the same if I were still working. While it was grim having the radio alarm go off at 6.20, there was something a bit special about falling out of bed into a track suit and Zooming with a small group of people (always a small group at that time), bleary-eyed and track-suited like oneself. The really organised ones had got up in time to make themselves a cup of tea or coffee. The Nens were not in that company.
Well done indeed for finishing the chairs, you've earned that glass of wine. I hope you enjoy your Chick Frick. Mine is based on a can of mushroom soup; I'm sure yours will be much more sophisticated.
I've been for a grey, chilly walk, as has the world and his wife and family and dog. Now holing up at home for the rest of the day.
... I hope you enjoy your Chick Frick. Mine is based on a can of mushroom soup; I'm sure yours will be much more sophisticated ...
Not much more - it was a recipe from Tesco's that I found online. It had chicken thighs, mushrooms, garlic, half a shallot, a slosh of white wine, veggie stock from a cube (as I didn't have any chicken stock), tarragon, a bayleaf and some crème fraîche. As I put too much liquid in, I had to rescue it with a buerre manié, but it came out really quite nicely - I think I'll do it again.
Nothing like a cold wet day for the central heating to pack up! Nice man came out last night, managed to get it going again, but alas, it died a couple of hours later.
Daughter, happily was here and dealt with the matter, and the nice man. Then she drove home, fetched an electric heater and a fan heater, and I already had the gas fire on, so was really toastie!
Plumber arrived fairly early, did things like blew tons of air out of my radiator (which I had asked him to do a couple of times before), and said, there you are, let me know how it goes.
So far, so good. But now we have mysterious water which runs from inside the architrave down onto the kitchen windowsill. We are still trying to trace the source. It comes and goes.
Daughter has decided to come and stay with me for a bit, says I need looking after.
She is very good at dealing with plumbers!
A possible reason for The Water Of Mystery - condensation? Or, and rather more sinisterly, a slight leak from a concealed pipe...hopefully NOT. I know some people like to have pipes hidden, but I prefer to be able to see 'em (and they can easily be painted).
The recent cold snap may have summat to do with it, but I hasten to add that I am not a plumber/surveyor etc. etc. etc.
A possible reason for The Water Of Mystery - condensation? Or, and rather more sinisterly, a slight leak from a concealed pipe...hopefully NOT. .
I have suffered both in my time. Certainly a sudden warming-up and a wet day, when external walls are still cold after a cold snap, can produce a remarkable amount of condensation. Conversely the rapid changes in pressure caused by necessary Tinkering About with the System can cause leaks.
The Ark (being basically a steel/iron box, lined internally with wooden panelling, mostly Dutch tongue-and-groove*) does naturally suffer from condensation. This is rebuffed somewhat by the lovely ambient warmth provided by the Dragon (the solid-fuel Rayburn, which is connected via an electric Pump - and Pipes - to three radiators).
However, if it's really cold outside, drips of condensation find their way through the deckhead (ceiling) panelling, and inevitably fall either (a) onto my Head, when I am in my berth comfortably asleep, or (b) onto the desk where my computer used to live.
(*very deep grooves, and very wide tongues, to take into account the natural movement of wood panelling in what might seem to be rigid metal ships. They aren't rigid at all - they flex...and sometimes make quite loud creaky and cracky noises whilst so doing!).
I am waiting for someone from the water board to call me about replacing the lead supply pipe to the house. Chez Dragon was built in the very early thirties and the pipe after the meter sprung a leak just before Christmas, so the other part is probably also on the way out. If that goes it would have some more spectacular results as it's routed above the electrical cutout fuse for the house!!
I've assembled a shoe rack - metal frame with extension rods. A couple of problems. The vertical parts needed synthetic rubber tops put on them. They needed to be warmed to stretch to fit, and lubricated with hand gel to slip over the metal. The other was my fault. The ends were not symmetrical as the shoe supports sloped to the front, and I put one end on the wrong way round, so had to undo and redo. But my hall now looks much neater as I have corralled the other persons muddy things into a neat structure and swept up all the dried mud.
My teacher when I was 9 would always go on about "A place for everything and everything in its place", which so depends on the first part of the phrase. It's particularly important when dealing with someone who has come from a place which was not run on those lines.
I'm finding that I need to have a place for everything, as this is by far the smallest place I've ever lived. As I was quite ruthless about what I didn't bring with me when I moved back from Canada, I don't have too much Stuff to accommodate, but I'm discovering a tidy side to my nature that I didn't really know I possessed. (David, bless him, wasn't naturally tidy, and I used to despair of tidying up after him).
It was a much milder day here today - it even got up to 10° - but it's set to be colder again tomorrow and they're talking about ice and sn*w for later in the week.
Supper chez Piglet was pasta with green things (broccoli, green beans and peas) and very nice it was too.
Spent the entire morning trawling through a folder of Mr RoS's medical history for filling out the DVLA form to renew his driving licence (he has to do this every three years due to nocturnal epilepsy). He's just replaced the car, so I hope they let him have another licence!
Lunched on crab paté, toast and salad.
Dinner was roasted cauliflower florets and sliced leaves, red onion and chickpeas with a tahini sauce and flatbreads, followed by a pineapple sponge pudding - to use up a can of pineapple chunks with a sell by date in 2020.
Dinner was roasted cauliflower florets and sliced leaves, red onion and chickpeas with a tahini sauce and flatbreads, followed by a pineapple sponge pudding - to use up a can of pineapple chunks with a sell by date in 2020.
I don't think you have to worry too much about 'use by' dates on cans. Or at least, I hope not, as the can of tomatoes that went in the casserole yesterday was dated for 2016.
Dinner was roasted cauliflower florets and sliced leaves, red onion and chickpeas with a tahini sauce and flatbreads, followed by a pineapple sponge pudding - to use up a can of pineapple chunks with a sell by date in 2020.
I don't think you have to worry too much about 'use by' dates on cans. Or at least, I hope not, as the can of tomatoes that went in the casserole yesterday was dated for 2016.
Cans don't have 'use by' dates. They have 'best before" dates.
These shouldn't be confused; exceeding the former, which are used on perishable goods, could carry health risks; the latter are just a quality issue.
Agreed for tinned stuff. I never worry about Best Before dates, as long as it smells and looks ok. Use By is another matter. Yesterday I discovered an unopened pack of Brie, well out of date. It grieved me to have to throw it out.
It happened because our delivery comes to the garage door and things get put into the fridge there before being taken through to the kitchen fridge. How it got overlooked is beyond me.
Some things I still use a week past their use by date - yoghurts for one. I figure it's "off milk" anyway, and if it still smells OK we should be fine. We haven't died yet.
Last night we had a fish pie - a block of frozen colin and a block of frozen salmon, plus leeks, mushrooms, onions and courgettes in a tub of Cancoillotte* with a sweet potato/potato mash. Good but underseasoned
* I need to go to the practice thread to remind myself how to put in links. You can google/encosia/duck duck go it yourselves!! Sorry!!
@Piglet my son and family live in a tiny place - two rooms and a bathroom. They are super tidy and minimalist, a place for everything and everything in its place. Just like my Mum used to be.
This ability has skipped a generation - mine. I work hard at it but never achieve it!
There’s a bit of sun here this morning - hurrah! ☀️
Excitement here as our neighbours have had tree surgeons in. It's easier to get into our garden from the street so we were happy to give them access. One tree was shading our flowerbed but no longer. They did an amazing job, and the little boy across the road was fascinated by the shredding machine.
I did my early supermarket foray this morning and wondered whether there would be gaps on the shelves (when I last looked at some Soshal Meeja it was implying there might be) but everything seemed to be present and correct and I got all I needed.
It's another grey miserable day here and I'd like to hole up at home, but we have a Man coming this afternoon to replace our (20 year old and very noisy) central heating and water pump and to service the boiler, so I think I might leave Mr Nen in charge and head out for my daily exercise.
We had a supermarket delivery here this morning. Only three items unavailable, and none of them urgent - although I have been trying to get the same particular pack of batteries since before Christmas. It is still on their product list, but this is the third time I've ordered it without success.
Because of the delivery today is easy meals day. Chill-cabinet spiced parsnip soup and walnut bread for lunch, and for this evening we have gammon with apple and blackberry glaze that just needs popping in the oven.
It's a bright, if cold, day in Embra; as I've run out of blueberries, I think I'll drop in to Marks & Sparks on the way home, and possibly get something nice and easy for supper. (I also forgot to take anything out of the freezer before I left the house, so that's my excuse).
They're probably stuck in a container on a ship which, having failed to get into Felixstowe, is now on its way to Distant Parts and won't be back for weeks.
UPDATE: according to a well-known online reference provider, Fray Bentos is now owned by Baxter's and their pies are made in Aberdeenshire. Clearly Ms You-know-who at Holyrood is wanting to teach those accorded English a post-Brexit lesson and has banned their export.
Lots of meat products missing on my wander through Tesco's last night, Not that I was bothered. I wasn't particularly looking but there were obvious empty fridges where some of the meat should be.
Successful quieter wander this morning with reduced numbers of other people. We managed to time it to be after the before work runners and dog walkers and before most of the other walkers came out. We met a few slightly later joggers and dogs, and as we left, the children arriving with buggies and wellies. Afternoons are busy as are weekends.
Our house buying and selling seemed to be progressing nicely till this afternoon when we were told the person whose house we hoped to buy had died. We're waiting for further details from the estate agents, but it's all a bit of a bugger.
No idea the state of our local supermarket as I haven't been for several weeks but the organic meat and veg arrived this morning and included muntjac saddle, which will be saved for a special occasion.
Cauliflower cheese pasties for lunch, no idea what tea will be as I will be busy teaching.
Productive day, I had a telephone tutorial with a student, prepped for this evening's lecture/tutorial (social relationships and health, an interesting one given lockdown) and then an afternoon studying an ethics module for my research study.
@Sarasa how frustrating for you - I hope things restart soon.
Happy day - my car passed it’s MOT and came back washed and tidy.
While waiting for the car I transferred the contents of one rain barrel in the back garden to another in the front (not connected to a down pipe) ready for the forecast rain to refill the now empty one.
I am enjoying being hejukated by the Beeb - Macbeth this morning and the delicious Brian Cox this afternoon.
I had a telephone tutorial with a student, prepped for this evening's lecture/tutorial (social relationships and health, an interesting one given lockdown) and then an afternoon studying an ethics module for my research study.
This afternoon I took Captain Pyjamas to the hospital for his regular follow-up appointment. (Former preemies are monitored very closely until the age of seven.) It was very wet and I would have preferred to be at home.
Having been running down the freezer against the arrival of a new fridge/freezer on Monday, I now need to restock fresh produce. But tomorrow looks icy and our ungritted side street could kybosh getting as far as even the local shops.
Curses be upon ice and snow (and ungritted streets)!
In fairness, the Powers That Be in Linlithgow seem to be quite good at keeping the pavements relatively safe for ambling piglets, but I'd rather they didn't have to.
Captain P is fine, although still not in a hurry to talk.
How old is the Captain now?
Don't worry, once he starts to talk you won't be able to stop him - the Why Years await!
[One of mine didn't utter anything other than (rarely) his brother's name until he was nearly two. It was obvious he understood what was being said but no speech. When he was c 20 months old I heard sounds from the night nursery and discovered it was the "speechless" one pronouncing words and phrases. We reached the conclusion he didn't want to talk until he felt he could say it right - and of course having an identical sibling with whom he had the ESP thing common in young twins he didn't have to say anything because his brother did it for him.]
Comments
I trust you will shortly be following @TheOrganist's advice in full, and having the "post assembly" drink... (quite possibly with dinner
We ate smoked haddock fish cakes with Swiss chard treated as two vegetables, followed by rhubarb stewed in a slosh of Rochester ginger*, served with yoghurt. Both the smoked haddock and rhubarb were acquired adorned with yellow stickers. The haddock also made kedgeree for two yesterday.
I'm now drinking my share of mulled ginger in the hope the freezing fog will stop trying to ease into everything;
* non-alcoholic ginger drink I bought in for New Year and we didn't get round to drinking, it mulls nicely with mulling spices.
Our Place have just finished a Week of Prayer so Mr Nen and I were up for the last 6.30am meeting of the week this morning. Consequently it now feels as if it should now be at least midnight.
Well done! Glad to be of help. If you do find you have spare screws, lock-nuts, dowel keep them, they could be useful as/when/if you come to make more stuff and come up short of the relevant item.
My new crayons have arrived ready for the doodle tomorrow.
PM me if you’d like to join us - it’s a nice way to start the week and to put a little routine into life in lockdown. All you need is a pencil/crayons and a paper/colouring book. (11am on Zoom every Monday, strictly half an hour long).
They are now complete, and still no leftover bits (except for four Allan keys - each chair had its own wee bag of nuts and bolts and its own key). There's also a bag labelled "spare parts" and four spare plastic "feet", which will be filed in the toolbox.
I'm really rather chuffed with myself, as I'd never attempted anything like that before, and from first trials, they feel really comfortable - they seem to be very supportive to the back.
Inspired by Nenya, I found a fairly easy-looking recipe for chicky fricky on the electric interweb, so I'm going to give it a go for supper (accompanied by a glass of post-furniture-construction WINE).
Well done indeed for finishing the chairs, you've earned that glass of wine. I hope you enjoy your Chick Frick. Mine is based on a can of mushroom soup; I'm sure yours will be much more sophisticated.
I've been for a grey, chilly walk, as has the world and his wife and family and dog. Now holing up at home for the rest of the day.
Daughter, happily was here and dealt with the matter, and the nice man. Then she drove home, fetched an electric heater and a fan heater, and I already had the gas fire on, so was really toastie!
Plumber arrived fairly early, did things like blew tons of air out of my radiator (which I had asked him to do a couple of times before), and said, there you are, let me know how it goes.
So far, so good. But now we have mysterious water which runs from inside the architrave down onto the kitchen windowsill. We are still trying to trace the source. It comes and goes.
Daughter has decided to come and stay with me for a bit, says I need looking after.
She is very good at dealing with plumbers!
The recent cold snap may have summat to do with it, but I hasten to add that I am not a plumber/surveyor etc. etc. etc.
Well done, Daughter, though.
However, if it's really cold outside, drips of condensation find their way through the deckhead (ceiling) panelling, and inevitably fall either (a) onto my Head, when I am in my berth comfortably asleep, or (b) onto the desk where my computer used to live.
(*very deep grooves, and very wide tongues, to take into account the natural movement of wood panelling in what might seem to be rigid metal ships. They aren't rigid at all - they flex...and sometimes make quite loud creaky and cracky noises whilst so doing!).
Today I cracked open a blue squash and made a squash and chickpea curry (yum) and squash muffins.
My teacher when I was 9 would always go on about "A place for everything and everything in its place", which so depends on the first part of the phrase. It's particularly important when dealing with someone who has come from a place which was not run on those lines.
We had squash and chick pea curry too, made with thai red curry paste and coconut milk. Made by Mr H and very good too.
Busy day, Monday morning admin, co-ordinating and writing shared tutorials and a bit of marking.
It was a much milder day here today - it even got up to 10° - but it's set to be colder again tomorrow and they're talking about ice and sn*w for later in the week.
Supper chez Piglet was pasta with green things (broccoli, green beans and peas) and very nice it was too.
Lunched on crab paté, toast and salad.
Dinner was roasted cauliflower florets and sliced leaves, red onion and chickpeas with a tahini sauce and flatbreads, followed by a pineapple sponge pudding - to use up a can of pineapple chunks with a sell by date in 2020.
I don't think you have to worry too much about 'use by' dates on cans. Or at least, I hope not, as the can of tomatoes that went in the casserole yesterday was dated for 2016.
Cans don't have 'use by' dates. They have 'best before" dates.
These shouldn't be confused; exceeding the former, which are used on perishable goods, could carry health risks; the latter are just a quality issue.
It happened because our delivery comes to the garage door and things get put into the fridge there before being taken through to the kitchen fridge. How it got overlooked is beyond me.
Last night we had a fish pie - a block of frozen colin and a block of frozen salmon, plus leeks, mushrooms, onions and courgettes in a tub of Cancoillotte* with a sweet potato/potato mash. Good but underseasoned
* I need to go to the practice thread to remind myself how to put in links. You can google/encosia/duck duck go it yourselves!! Sorry!!
This ability has skipped a generation - mine. I work hard at it but never achieve it!
There’s a bit of sun here this morning - hurrah! ☀️
It's another grey miserable day here and I'd like to hole up at home, but we have a Man coming this afternoon to replace our (20 year old and very noisy) central heating and water pump and to service the boiler, so I think I might leave Mr Nen in charge and head out for my daily exercise.
Because of the delivery today is easy meals day. Chill-cabinet spiced parsnip soup and walnut bread for lunch, and for this evening we have gammon with apple and blackberry glaze that just needs popping in the oven.
(They're made by Fray Bentos, which I thought was an Argentine firm, and therefore possibly not affected by Brexs*it).
UPDATE: according to a well-known online reference provider, Fray Bentos is now owned by Baxter's and their pies are made in Aberdeenshire. Clearly Ms You-know-who at Holyrood is wanting to teach those accorded English a post-Brexit lesson and has banned their export.
Successful quieter wander this morning with reduced numbers of other people. We managed to time it to be after the before work runners and dog walkers and before most of the other walkers came out. We met a few slightly later joggers and dogs, and as we left, the children arriving with buggies and wellies. Afternoons are busy as are weekends.
Cauliflower cheese pasties for lunch, no idea what tea will be as I will be busy teaching.
Productive day, I had a telephone tutorial with a student, prepped for this evening's lecture/tutorial (social relationships and health, an interesting one given lockdown) and then an afternoon studying an ethics module for my research study.
Happy day - my car passed it’s MOT and came back washed and tidy.
While waiting for the car I transferred the contents of one rain barrel in the back garden to another in the front (not connected to a down pipe) ready for the forecast rain to refill the now empty one.
I am enjoying being hejukated by the Beeb - Macbeth this morning and the delicious Brian Cox this afternoon.
Ethics? Very geographically convenient for you!
And is that the weather we're getting tomorrow and Thursday? Because I'm not sure I want it either.
In fairness, the Powers That Be in Linlithgow seem to be quite good at keeping the pavements relatively safe for ambling piglets, but I'd rather they didn't have to.
If you do have to be out, Firenze, go carefully. <groan>
"What's ethics?"
"It'th the bit below Thuffolk"
Thanks for asking
Captain P is fine, although still not in a hurry to talk.
I aim to please.
I just usually miss.
How old is the Captain now?
Don't worry, once he starts to talk you won't be able to stop him - the Why Years await!
[One of mine didn't utter anything other than (rarely) his brother's name until he was nearly two. It was obvious he understood what was being said but no speech. When he was c 20 months old I heard sounds from the night nursery and discovered it was the "speechless" one pronouncing words and phrases. We reached the conclusion he didn't want to talk until he felt he could say it right - and of course having an identical sibling with whom he had the ESP thing common in young twins he didn't have to say anything because his brother did it for him.]