Horse chestnuts are not a native UK species, imported in the 1600s from the Balkans (that bit I did know), unlike the sweet chestnut which was imported by the Romans. Apparently, because I've just looked it up, they are so called because the Turks used to feed them to their ailing horses.
Horse chestnuts are not a native UK species, imported in the 1600s from the Balkans (that bit I did know), unlike the sweet chestnut which was imported by the Romans. Apparently, because I've just looked it up, they are so called because the Turks used to feed them to their ailing horses.
I now have an image of the cunning Turks feeding horse chestnuts to ailing Roman horses, in order to discombobulate the said Romans, and to scupper their invasion plans....
That is interesting, CK. Someone told me they were called horse chestnuts because they poison horses, but what you say makes more sense, and is corroborated by the OED.
I have just taken a hammer to my conkers, and now have a little tub of crushed conkers. I have put some in a cup with hot water. When it cools I'll put in the washing machine and see if it does a good job of washing my clothes.
It's a dreich, rainy day here, and my feelings of summer being well and truly over are confirmed by the fact that we ate the last of the hydroponically-grown corn-cobs for today's lunch (they were delicious).
It's also Not Very Warm (12°) so socks and (horror!) a cardigan have been applied.
It's not that I don't like autumn - I really do, and most of this summer was a good bit hotter than Optimum Piglet Temperature - but it's a feeling of a season coming to an end. Now bring on all the beautiful autumn colours and the lovely warming soups and casseroles!
When the conker juice cooled, I put it in the tray for detergent in my washing machine. The website I'd looked at had suggested throwing out the conker pieces, but I decided to put them into a little cloth bag with some dried lavender, and put it in the washing machine with my clothes. I did a 40C wash, and the clothes smell lovely and clean and are now drying on my clothes horse with the dehumidifier.
I put the rest of the conker pieces in a freezer bag and into the freezer. I like this way of doing laundry - might collect some more conkers tomorrow.
We have actually had a sunny day today - should have done my laundry earlier, so I could hang it outside.
Good to know the laundry experiments are going well.
I’m off to my third and last module briefing of the year. This module is on health theory and is a replacement for one I’ve taught before so should be straightforward.
Students start back next week and are already emailing to say hello. It’ll be nice to get back to the rhythm of work again. And to get paid (I’m only employed during term time).
Annie
Just come back from a day out in Lewes - bit of a rummage round the antique shops and second hand bookshops, a very nice Welsh rarebit/steak sandwich for lunch and then a visit to the ruins of the priory (we've been to the castle and Anne of Cleves house before, so didn't bother today).
The weather was absolutely glorious, very warm and sunny, although as the BBC weather app this morning had it down as being quite cool, we had wrapped up nice and warm!
I think Ken of blessed memory sometimes went to Lewes for the Guy Fawkes celebrations. Never done that, perhaps we should. It's only 40 or 50 minutes by train for us.
Strolling back from a pub to my car through town this evening, I enjoyed the autumnal scent of apples - I don’t know if it’s been a special year for them but this is the first year I’ve been noticing this.
I can't speak for your side of the Pond, but over here, crab-apples have had a heck of a season. Some friends gave us a load, which I turned into really nice spiced jelly, and they'd already made many jars of chutney and pickles, and another friend asked if we wanted any more - we politely refused, as we'd run out of jars ...
Is it possible that the warm summer has brought them on more than usual?
It was another bonny autumn day here; I had a nice amble across the bridge while D. was playing for a wedding this afternoon. Then in the evening we took a wee jaunt to the river dam and ate a couple of sandwiches we'd brought as we enjoyed the view: the trees are beginning beginning to look seriously pretty.
Am now off to contemplate the manufacture of a potato curry for tomorrow's lunch.
It did; I'll report back on whether it was a successful one ...
It's a lovely, almost-crisp autumn day here - sunny and 11°. Unfortunately, the heating has come on in the cathedral hall, where I'm typing this in D's office, and it's bl**dy hot in here.
Alas, D. disconnected the air-conditioner the other day when he found a squirrel in the exhaust tube. It's one of those plastic stretchy tubes like you get on a tumble-dryer, and a couple of weeks ago, we found a hole in it, which D. duly patched up with duct-tape. The other day, he was working in the office and heard a shuffling noise, and when he went to investigate, he found a new hole, and surprised Tufty, who had climbed up the creeper outside the window (and scampered off pretty damn quick).
Maybe next summer we'll need to get a wire mesh to put over the out-flow hole.
N.B. No squirrels were harmed in the course of this story.
I'm relieved to hear that Tufty escaped unharmed......!
Re potato curry, back in The Dear Dead Days Beyond Recall, when I worked in London, we had an Asian restaurant not far from the office. The restaurant was a vegetarian establishment, with a lunchtime buffet menu for about £3 (eat as much as you like). Run by Muslim guys, they had no problem with our taking a bottle or two of w*ne along, and there was no nonsense about charging corkage.
They did a most tasty dish, consisting IIRC of potatoes, peas, and mushrooms, in a very light sort of curry gravy (does that make sense?).
A couple of helpings of this, along with some nice naan bread, and some crispy onion bhajis, and we were well set up for the afternoon back in the office!
I made "Viking Soap" out of conkers with the North East offspring when they had school projects on the Vikings. By recollection this involved peeling the conkers, boiling them till they were mush, putting the results in a handkerchief, with some lavender flowers, and twisting the hanky to squeeze out the water and produce a "bar" of soap. The end result was pleasant and effective, but disintegrated quickly. Possibly leaving the bar somewhere to dry out slowly might have given a better result.
Our evening services attract a much smaller congregation than the morning services, and lend themselves to a more interactive style of worship. Tonight we were given paper and pen and asked to write down something that had happened to us today. I wrote "Found dead hedgehog in garden." We were then asked to meditate on how God was speaking to us through this. If God was speaking to me though a dead hedgehog, I don't think I want to know what He was saying.
NEQ, if you were to keep the hankerchief round it, that sounds kind of like the little bag I put in the washing machine, though mine is more rough and ready, and I don't bother drying it, as it will get wet in the wash. I don't expect it to last many washes though. I did another wash today and put two more crushed conkers in the bag. Maybe I will try making a soap in the way you say, and put that in the washing machine.
It has been a VERY good year for apples. I help organize an autumn fayre thingy for which my Mum makes vats of jam and chutney. We usually get donations of apples (and jars, so many jars). This year we have had shopping bags full from owners of trees, left at the back of church during the week. I keep hoping that no curtain-twitchers are watching; going in empty-handed and coming out groaning under the weight fruit is a bit suspect.
I think the "bar" of soap I made would revert to mush very quickly in a washing machine. I don't think I'd try it. Also, the whole peeling and boiling sounds a more laborious process than crushing with a hammer.
Viking soap is good fun to do as part of a school project, but I think it is too labour intensive to be an everyday thing. Though if I knew a way of hardening the soap, I might try it again.
NEQ - ah, true, the crushing with a hammer is very quick and easy.
ArachnidinElmet, I got lots of different apples today at a National Trust place that has orchards. They were selling apples for £2 a bag, and they were quite big bags. It was like a pick 'n' mix - I put one of each kind of apple in my bag, and the woman at the shop encouraged me to take more. They smell lovely.
@Bishops Finger - that sounds very similar to what I made, except mine had carrots as well. It came out rather well, and there was enough left (along with rice) to freeze for another time, possibly to be supplemented with some chicken.
I'm not bothered about it not being veggie - it's got chicken stock in it as I've always got some in the freezer, and the main point of the original recipe was that it was frugal, and used things I had in fridge or larder at the time.
This has been a terrible year for apples in our garden! We haven't had one! And we've only had one pear. We've still got lots of autumn raspberries though and we've had lots of grapes on our little vine (though most have now been eaten). But nary an apple.
(I'm sure I made the same lament earlier on in this thread)
NEQ - ah, true, the crushing with a hammer is very quick and easy.
ArachnidinElmet, I got lots of different apples today at a National Trust place that has orchards. They were selling apples for £2 a bag, and they were quite big bags. It was like a pick 'n' mix - I put one of each kind of apple in my bag, and the woman at the shop encouraged me to take more. They smell lovely.
I’m jealous. I eat a lot of apples and supermarket apples are tasteless. Only yesterday I was googling to try and find a source of proper apples - no luck yet. 🍎 🍏
Well, that was a lovely weekend, blending the best of a late summer with the best of early autumn. Warm sunshine, beech masts on the ground, the air still buzzing with insects. Highlights have to be meeting a very docile donkey that me let me stroke it, spotting a grass snake and having a lovely chat with an old bookshop owner.
Oh, that takes me back! My mum, God rest her, was a great one for singing round the house and that was one of hers. Also, a song which has been running through my mind for days - Among My Souvenirs.
Well, that was a lovely weekend, blending the best of a late summer with the best of early autumn. Warm sunshine, beech masts on the ground, the air still buzzing with insects. Highlights have to be meeting a very docile donkey that me let me stroke it, spotting a grass snake and having a lovely chat with an old bookshop owner.
That all sounds wonderful.
I’m having a very frustrating first day of the academic year as my pc has crashed constantly, including in the middle of an online meeting. Consequently I have spent the afternoon writing a PowerPoint lecture on my son’s gaming computer, complete with huge widescreen, clunking gaming keyboard and hyperactive mouse. I am not feeling refreshed and relaxed. My other half thinks it is a hardware issue and will be purchasing me a new pc, ASAP I hope as my online teaching schedule starts in 2 weeks and I need a reliable computer.
Off for a walk now to get over it.
I’m having a very frustrating first day of the academic year as my pc has crashed constantly, including in the middle of an online meeting. Consequently I have spent the afternoon writing a PowerPoint lecture on my son’s gaming computer, complete with huge widescreen, clunking gaming keyboard and hyperactive mouse. I am not feeling refreshed and relaxed. My other half thinks it is a hardware issue and will be purchasing me a new pc, ASAP I hope as my online teaching schedule starts in 2 weeks and I need a reliable computer.
Off for a walk now to get over it.
Hopefully, you'll soon have a nice new PC. There's nowt worse than Machinery Which Doesn't.
He has no choice - no pc=no job. Almost all my work is online, including direct teaching and all my marking.
Besides which, he owns a technology business and his staff wouldn’t have to put up with computer issues. So I put my foot down hard.
Here's to happier computing, Heavenlyannie - there are few things in this world more frustrating than a computer that doesn't work.
One of the first (of many) calls on any money that comes from my dad's estate will be a new computer: our current one is so slow it goes backwards, and on several occasions has come within a hair's breadth of being flung out the window.
It's another nice day here: 13° and sunny, so I think a little amble will be in order later.
He has no choice - no pc=no job. Almost all my work is online, including direct teaching and all my marking.
Besides which, he owns a technology business and his staff wouldn’t have to put up with computer issues. So I put my foot down hard.
O dear. And there was me thinking what a Good Egg he seems to be!
(I'm sure he is, anyway - and I hope he comes up with a state-of-the-art gubbins. It's a good thing to have someone in the family with the necessary technical savvy, these days).
We used to have a lovely farm shop in Suffolk which sold - loose - about 12 types of apple, some of them "rare breeds". We have a tiny apple tree in the garden, planted this year, with two types of apple on it. It's given us about 4 apples so far, and there are four more almost ready to pick.
He’s not as bad as I make him seem! He’s a scientist and can be absorbed within his own work so it is best to be firm with him I’ve got a work bonus coming soon (I took voluntary redundancy from a module) so that will pay for a new computer and, as you say, at least he knows what to buy.
His tech firm is a start up making a dog activity monitor, a sort of fit bit for dogs. It is called Pit Pat.
Our local botanic garden does apple days and there are lots of farm shops round here.
I seem to recall you came down this way to pick up puppies. Next time, pm me. We have Bramleys and some variety of Laxtons. You can borrow my apple picker!
I remember going to Harlow Carr (RHS garden near Knaresborough) near apple day and being encouraged to eat the display. There were about a dozen different kinds of apple that I'd never heard of.
I seem to recall you came down this way to pick up puppies. Next time, pm me. We have Bramleys and some variety of Laxtons. You can borrow my apple picker!
Many thanks!
And I’ve just thought - my son lives in Bristol and we are visiting him soon, duh!
I’ll get him to source some for me - it shouldn’t be hard in his trendy, millennial area!
If you are still looking for local and old fashioned apples then you might find some at a Country Market (used to be WI Markets).
Over the last few days I have been clearing the ground under Lord Lambourne (apple) and John Downie (crab apple) for the first time since I planted them about 10 years ago, and have dug up enough daffodil and tulip bulbs to fill 3 buckets - and I only planted about 24, so that’s a pretty impressive yield. I’m replanting under the trees, as well as elsewhere because it’s so lovely to be greeted by a yellow hello when I go to the allotment in the spring.
This morning I fulfilled a childhood dream by joining a cheerleading class although it was “for the over 60’s” and “for seniors” but 60 is hardly old and I was the youngest by around 15 years I think. Huge fun, great exercise and I shall be going back.
Well, I guess it's getting close to planting time....
Yes, I know - it's still autumn (and looking lovelier each day around here), but spring is only 6 months away, and well worth looking forward to!
We are indeed blessed in the UK, in that both autumn and spring are lovely seasons in their own ways. My sister, immured in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and surrounded by maquis and garrigue (the local scrub, inhabited mainly by wild boar), really does miss the English seasons...
She and my BinL are, however, in the process of selling up, and moving to Montpellier. Not sure if they have seasons there, but they have nice trams.
I wondered if the Brogdale Trust might be any use for your apples, if you happened to be down Kent way. I don't know if they do anything by mail-order though.
It's another dreich, cool day here, and as it's started to rain, I don't think there'll be any ambling - I really don't get any pleasure from walking in the rain.
I’ve had a profitable day, I’ve made appointments for telephone tutorials for some new students and have researched and written another 1000 words of my research proposal.
I then made squash and chick pea curry, having been tempted by earlier discussions on the thread. I made a cherry tomato and onion curry to accompany it and served it with poppadums and yoghurt.
When we moved into the new Chateau S, one of the joys was a patch of fruit garden with strawberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, a blueberry (in a pot, brought from our old chateau) and three smallish apple trees. We've just harvested about 80 from the Braeburn (I think!) and there are half a dozen on the James Grieve and maybe 20 on the Worcester Pearmain. I'm delighted with the last one - as a teenager I used to pick apples (for money!) and they were always my favourite, but hard to come by now - I don't think they keep well.
A very strange thing happened yesterday - we had a visit from an old schoolfriend and her husband, who now live in Oz, and as they were preparing to leave - putting the postcode into the satnav and so on - I popped upstairs to choose a birthday card for another friend, from the selection I always keep in one of my bedroom drawers. In among the birthday cards were two photos, about 15 years old, from a reunion which included me and said schoolfriend, and two others. Now if you had asked me to find those photos I would have had no idea where to start looking, and for them to materialise just as my friend was leaving struck me as extremely bizarre. I know we moved house, but really?!
Comments
I now have an image of the cunning Turks feeding horse chestnuts to ailing Roman horses, in order to discombobulate the said Romans, and to scupper their invasion plans....
IJ
I have just taken a hammer to my conkers, and now have a little tub of crushed conkers. I have put some in a cup with hot water. When it cools I'll put in the washing machine and see if it does a good job of washing my clothes.
It's a dreich, rainy day here, and my feelings of summer being well and truly over are confirmed by the fact that we ate the last of the hydroponically-grown corn-cobs for today's lunch (they were delicious).
It's also Not Very Warm (12°) so socks and (horror!) a cardigan have been applied.
It's not that I don't like autumn - I really do, and most of this summer was a good bit hotter than Optimum Piglet Temperature - but it's a feeling of a season coming to an end. Now bring on all the beautiful autumn colours and the lovely warming soups and casseroles!
When the conker juice cooled, I put it in the tray for detergent in my washing machine. The website I'd looked at had suggested throwing out the conker pieces, but I decided to put them into a little cloth bag with some dried lavender, and put it in the washing machine with my clothes. I did a 40C wash, and the clothes smell lovely and clean and are now drying on my clothes horse with the dehumidifier.
I put the rest of the conker pieces in a freezer bag and into the freezer. I like this way of doing laundry - might collect some more conkers tomorrow.
We have actually had a sunny day today - should have done my laundry earlier, so I could hang it outside.
I’m off to my third and last module briefing of the year. This module is on health theory and is a replacement for one I’ve taught before so should be straightforward.
Students start back next week and are already emailing to say hello. It’ll be nice to get back to the rhythm of work again. And to get paid (I’m only employed during term time).
Annie
The weather was absolutely glorious, very warm and sunny, although as the BBC weather app this morning had it down as being quite cool, we had wrapped up nice and warm!
I think Ken of blessed memory sometimes went to Lewes for the Guy Fawkes celebrations. Never done that, perhaps we should. It's only 40 or 50 minutes by train for us.
MMM
Is it possible that the warm summer has brought them on more than usual?
It was another bonny autumn day here; I had a nice amble across the bridge while D. was playing for a wedding this afternoon. Then in the evening we took a wee jaunt to the river dam and ate a couple of sandwiches we'd brought as we enjoyed the view: the trees are beginning beginning to look seriously pretty.
Am now off to contemplate the manufacture of a potato curry for tomorrow's lunch.
It's a lovely, almost-crisp autumn day here - sunny and 11°. Unfortunately, the heating has come on in the cathedral hall, where I'm typing this in D's office, and it's bl**dy hot in here.
Alas, D. disconnected the air-conditioner the other day when he found a squirrel in the exhaust tube. It's one of those plastic stretchy tubes like you get on a tumble-dryer, and a couple of weeks ago, we found a hole in it, which D. duly patched up with duct-tape. The other day, he was working in the office and heard a shuffling noise, and when he went to investigate, he found a new hole, and surprised Tufty, who had climbed up the creeper outside the window (and scampered off pretty damn quick).
Maybe next summer we'll need to get a wire mesh to put over the out-flow hole.
N.B. No squirrels were harmed in the course of this story.
Re potato curry, back in The Dear Dead Days Beyond Recall, when I worked in London, we had an Asian restaurant not far from the office. The restaurant was a vegetarian establishment, with a lunchtime buffet menu for about £3 (eat as much as you like). Run by Muslim guys, they had no problem with our taking a bottle or two of w*ne along, and there was no nonsense about charging corkage.
They did a most tasty dish, consisting IIRC of potatoes, peas, and mushrooms, in a very light sort of curry gravy (does that make sense?).
A couple of helpings of this, along with some nice naan bread, and some crispy onion bhajis, and we were well set up for the afternoon back in the office!
<drooly smiley>
IJ
Our evening services attract a much smaller congregation than the morning services, and lend themselves to a more interactive style of worship. Tonight we were given paper and pen and asked to write down something that had happened to us today. I wrote "Found dead hedgehog in garden." We were then asked to meditate on how God was speaking to us through this. If God was speaking to me though a dead hedgehog, I don't think I want to know what He was saying.
Viking soap is good fun to do as part of a school project, but I think it is too labour intensive to be an everyday thing. Though if I knew a way of hardening the soap, I might try it again.
ArachnidinElmet, I got lots of different apples today at a National Trust place that has orchards. They were selling apples for £2 a bag, and they were quite big bags. It was like a pick 'n' mix - I put one of each kind of apple in my bag, and the woman at the shop encouraged me to take more. They smell lovely.
I'm not bothered about it not being veggie - it's got chicken stock in it as I've always got some in the freezer, and the main point of the original recipe was that it was frugal, and used things I had in fridge or larder at the time.
(I'm sure I made the same lament earlier on in this thread)
MMM
I’m jealous. I eat a lot of apples and supermarket apples are tasteless. Only yesterday I was googling to try and find a source of proper apples - no luck yet. 🍎 🍏
Oh, that takes me back! My mum, God rest her, was a great one for singing round the house and that was one of hers. Also, a song which has been running through my mind for days - Among My Souvenirs.
I’m having a very frustrating first day of the academic year as my pc has crashed constantly, including in the middle of an online meeting. Consequently I have spent the afternoon writing a PowerPoint lecture on my son’s gaming computer, complete with huge widescreen, clunking gaming keyboard and hyperactive mouse. I am not feeling refreshed and relaxed. My other half thinks it is a hardware issue and will be purchasing me a new pc, ASAP I hope as my online teaching schedule starts in 2 weeks and I need a reliable computer.
Off for a walk now to get over it.
Hopefully, you'll soon have a nice new PC. There's nowt worse than Machinery Which Doesn't.
Full marks, BTW, to Generous Other Half!
IJ
He has no choice - no pc=no job. Almost all my work is online, including direct teaching and all my marking.
Besides which, he owns a technology business and his staff wouldn’t have to put up with computer issues. So I put my foot down hard.
One of the first (of many) calls on any money that comes from my dad's estate will be a new computer: our current one is so slow it goes backwards, and on several occasions has come within a hair's breadth of being flung out the window.
It's another nice day here: 13° and sunny, so I think a little amble will be in order later.
O dear. And there was me thinking what a Good Egg he seems to be!
(I'm sure he is, anyway - and I hope he comes up with a state-of-the-art gubbins. It's a good thing to have someone in the family with the necessary technical savvy, these days).
IJ
I can’t find any within an hour’s drive.
I’d love to find a place to buy tasty, proper apples online. They must exist.
🍎 🍏
His tech firm is a start up making a dog activity monitor, a sort of fit bit for dogs. It is called Pit Pat.
Our local botanic garden does apple days and there are lots of farm shops round here.
Expensive, but I might treat myself
Many thanks!
And I’ve just thought - my son lives in Bristol and we are visiting him soon, duh!
I’ll get him to source some for me - it shouldn’t be hard in his trendy, millennial area!
Over the last few days I have been clearing the ground under Lord Lambourne (apple) and John Downie (crab apple) for the first time since I planted them about 10 years ago, and have dug up enough daffodil and tulip bulbs to fill 3 buckets - and I only planted about 24, so that’s a pretty impressive yield. I’m replanting under the trees, as well as elsewhere because it’s so lovely to be greeted by a yellow hello when I go to the allotment in the spring.
This morning I fulfilled a childhood dream by joining a cheerleading class although it was “for the over 60’s” and “for seniors” but 60 is hardly old and I was the youngest by around 15 years I think. Huge fun, great exercise and I shall be going back.
Yes, I know - it's still autumn (and looking lovelier each day around here), but spring is only 6 months away, and well worth looking forward to!
We are indeed blessed in the UK, in that both autumn and spring are lovely seasons in their own ways. My sister, immured in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and surrounded by maquis and garrigue (the local scrub, inhabited mainly by wild boar), really does miss the English seasons...
She and my BinL are, however, in the process of selling up, and moving to Montpellier. Not sure if they have seasons there, but they have nice trams.
IJ
😇😇
I wondered if the Brogdale Trust might be any use for your apples, if you happened to be down Kent way. I don't know if they do anything by mail-order though.
It's another dreich, cool day here, and as it's started to rain, I don't think there'll be any ambling - I really don't get any pleasure from walking in the rain.
Laundry and bread-making today, methinks.
I then made squash and chick pea curry, having been tempted by earlier discussions on the thread. I made a cherry tomato and onion curry to accompany it and served it with poppadums and yoghurt.
A very strange thing happened yesterday - we had a visit from an old schoolfriend and her husband, who now live in Oz, and as they were preparing to leave - putting the postcode into the satnav and so on - I popped upstairs to choose a birthday card for another friend, from the selection I always keep in one of my bedroom drawers. In among the birthday cards were two photos, about 15 years old, from a reunion which included me and said schoolfriend, and two others. Now if you had asked me to find those photos I would have had no idea where to start looking, and for them to materialise just as my friend was leaving struck me as extremely bizarre. I know we moved house, but really?!
Mrs. S, puzzled