General Chat

Morning everyone.
Can't believe we've now had 2 days of "proper" daylight, after many dark,dreary & very wet days we actually had a blue sky & sunshine.

It came with a dusting of snow & very cold but the sunshine made such a difference, it's the same today & just hoping we don't get anything more than just dustings of snow, anything more than that & the Snowdrops will be flattened & the Daffies that are well up will be damaged.

I just need for it to warm up & I just might be able to venture outside, not actually to do anything yet but a wander round the garden would be lovely, LOL.

Joan.

Evening All, I thought I'd pop on and say Hello and catch up with the gossip.

It's interesting reading your stories of meeting other members. I have met one fellow member, and have a plan to meet another. It's always nice putting a face to a name - unless the face is mine of course!

I did meet quite a few people on the boards in the early daysI went to meets at Droitwich, Bristol Newport, Swansea.

The are only a few still on here that I have met, Gwyn, Jude, and Sheila (I seem to remember Sheila was at Droitwich) (Webbs garden centre). If there is anyone else, feel free to jog my memory. I do see some of the others I met on facebook occasionally. And sadly several of the lovely people I met are no longer with us.

Does anyone know how Sylvia is?
I haven't seen her posting lately.

It will be great for you to be able to meet :-)

In addition to mini-meets with Florence and Sharron, like Linda I used to go to many meets in the early days of GR.
I met members in Northampton, Coventry, Newport( Monmouthshire) Portsmouth, Winchester and near Cowes, Isle of Wight.

I 'found' someone I'd known 34 years ago by contacting on these boards too :-)

How lovely to be able to meet up.
I met quite a few people in the early days of GR. Then when lots of people moved over to Family Tree Forum, I went to several of the large meets, it was very nice to meet the people you chat to on line.

I've never met any fellow-GR person before, Florence, so looking forward to meeting you!

No snow here. Cloudless blue sky and sunshine as expected, and no wind so far today. The trees are motionless - but the air is icy.

I'm heading in to town today, too. I'll be strolling across the supermarket carparks, enjoying the sunshine for a change, instead of scurrying through the rain from car to shop as fast as possible!

Good morning all

Bit of a shock as it is completely white!!!! There was a snow warning but no sign late last night.

We have to go to town today so I hope the roads are not too bad. We are going to book the ferry for the 5th mar for our next adventure to....Oban.

Found a lovely b & b which also takes dogs so poochie coming too,

And..... we are meeting up with ArgyllGran for lunch on the Saturday.

So lovely to meet another board member on here. I have met Gwyn & Sharon several years ago.

So exciting times ahead. We are away for a week and then end of April away down south for 2 weeks.

So up early today as a long list to deal with and first stop the ferry terminal because I have free ferry tickets and my blue badge which will give us a discount on the car.

Last time I tried booking online, it didnt give us a discount so easier just to go into the office in town.

ArgyllGran, your lunch was well attended and sounded like a great get together. They have similar things up here too and is marvellous for those living on their own as they get to meet with others and something to look forward too.

Well I had better get myself ready as we are leaving at 10am.

Hope everyone else doesnt have loads of the white stuff but if you do, please take care.

Florence in the hebrides

We had blue sky and bright sunshine here today. An icy wind in the open, but sheltered sunny corners were quite warm.

It looks like being the same tomorrow, which is nice.

Today we had one of our regular village lunches, with lovely home-made soups (lentil and leek-and-potato today) and sandwiches.
It was very well attended - almost 40 people - so a great social get-together.

Afternoon all

Well we just had a shower of sleet!! Snow has been forecast and its only 3 degrees so pretty cold.

Just waiting on my Tesco order and thankfully nothing missing today....yay :-D
We have 8 internal doors and 2 exterior ones but still plenty of dusting and cleaning required as 2 of the interna doors are half glass which need regular cleaning to keep them sparkling.

Very quiet on the roads here today and only seen a handful of cars which is strange as its a busy main road.

Hope everyone is well today and keeping warm.

Florence in the hebrides

Well it's damp and grey here but at the moment not raining. We had a glimmer of sunshine yesterday I think it lasted about 5mins. It would be nice to have a few dry days so we could get to tidy up the pots outside and hang some washing out instead of using the drier or clothes rack to dry everything.

Linda you sound very busy as usual , our house is only small we only have 7 internal doors and 2 external ones and that is enough for me. OH is painting the doors and skirtings at the moment and I want to clean the windows (inside) .

It is non stop rain here. We certainly won’t be having a hosepipe ban this summer.
I have just finished cleaning all of the paintwork in the house, so I am shattered.
Fourteen internal doors, plus a set of glass doors between the lounge and dining room . Two external doors, plus the patio doors, all the skirtings, radiators and window frames :-(
Next week, I will clean all the inside of the windows, then the spring cleaning will be done. Oh no, I forgot the light fittings, so they need to go on the list as well

This afternoon it is school reading, year three today which is easier than reception on Mondays because they read to me. The reception class can’t read yet, so I read to them. The first week, I let each of them choose a book from the library shelf, but some of the books had too much text, so for the last couple of weeks, I have picked half a dozen suitable books for them to pick from. I made a mistake this week because I chose Funny Bones. I am sure lots of you will know. The one where the skeletons live in the dark dark cellar. My children had it when they were little and it seems to be just as popular today. About six of the children chose it, it was quite difficult reading it as enthusiastically with the last one as I did with the first one
:-(

Daughter has the Ninja (mine is the Lakeland one, as good as the Ninja and ideal for up to 2 people. Daughter rarely uses her oven now although had to over Christmas as there were 5 of us to cook for then. whenit is just the three od us when I visit she manages the AF fine. And, as you say, they use so much less electricity.

My air fryer just has the one large drawer, which it is why it takes chickens. Like all electrical appliances, it is just as safe as the person using it. It was on a timer, so switched itself off before any real damage was done. It saves so much time and electricity compared to using the large oven and normally when it is just the two of us, I prefer to use that. My son came for dinner on Sunday and as I was doing roasties and stuffing as well as a chicken, I did use the large oven.

You sound like you need some gauntlet type gardening gloves Florence. Not the type with the very thick hand part as they are no good for feeling what you are doing, but the type with the normal thickness on the hands, but they come up towards your elbow to protect your wrist and arms. I was scratching myself when we were taking the hedges out and it happened to be my birthday coming up, so I asked my daughter to get me some. I sent her a link to show her the type of thing I wanted, but unfortunately they chose some different ones which they thought were prettier. They turned out to be the very thick ones so you can’t bend the fingers. I ended up buying myself a second pair of the thinner type. They really protect my arms, especially in summer when I am just wearing t shirts

Yes Ann, you are correct, many are caused by human error. Daughter just felt the oven was safer to use for her plus, the oven is so much bigger to cook 3 racks of food together. Her AF was a small one and not good if you have loads to cook.

I have to say Florence the risk of fire with air fryers is often the humans who use them. For example there is a risk of fire if you run the AF off a socket on an extension lead. Or of you allow the contents to touch the elements (And there is the same risk if that happens with anordinary oven.
Another risk is if you ignore advice and add oil or some sort of fat to items in the expectation it will help them cook/crisp up. Add No oil at all. And if you cook sausages they should not be high fat ones as they spit and can cause a fire. Also you should make sure you keep the inside of the air fryer clean, and also the baskets.
Of course accidents will happen but I think most fires are not due to the actual AF. I do switch mine off at the plug, and when I remember I also remove the plug from the socket.

Afternoon all

bright and sunny and no wind so it feels like a lovely spring day!

I have looked at my bulbs i put behind our bin area and....I have 2 daffs in bloom, tulips well up and others also growing very well. But... i think this is a bit too early for daffs??

So was busy moving the pots around to the front garden to catch the full sun now.

I had an argument with a rose grrrr. was just gently moving the soil with a small fork and 2 thorns cut me. The blood was awful and now have savlon on 2 plasters on my wrist and boy its stings. Should have left the rose alone I guess!

As for the air fryer, my daughter bought a small one last year to try but after a few weeks, she couldnt be bothered with it as was easier putting all at once in an oven.

My friends daughter had one that went on fire and destroyed her kitchen!! She had to move out for 6 weeks so it could be redone and decorated so I think they do pose a fire risk!

Right off to do some dusting as the sun lovely as it is is showing all the dust!!!!

Have a good day all

Florence in the hebrides

good morning all. Grey here but dry so far and 7 degrees.
I bet you are pleased that the smell has gone Linda. I have roasted a small chicken and also a Pousson in my air frier but it has two compatments side by side and I don't think the largest one would take a joint unless a very small one. As I am on my own most joints are too big foe me. Last night I roasted a large chicken leg and that cooked nicely in the ait frier.

The kitchen is fine now Ann. I always use the air fryer roast function for my joints, even large chickens, I hardly ever use my oven. The beef joint wasn’t very big, just an odd triangular shape. I did think when I closed the drawer that it might touch the top, but I stupidly, didn’t check it after a few minutes. I usually turn it over part way through the cooking, but I got sidetracked and didn’t

I have had a busy few days, my son in law went away on Friday and isn’t back until today, so we have been ferrying the girls around. Typically, Esme got one of her stomach migraines yesterday morning and the medicine they have from the hospital didn’t stop her from being sick, so she had to be admitted at teatime and spend the night in hospital with her mum of course. They hook her up to a drip, give her an anti emetic and some fluid. She was fine by this morning, she woke me up at 8.10am to tell me that she was waiting for her breakfast. They had to stay until after lunch to prove she was eating and drinking before they would let her go home. As daddy was away, we had to bring Eve here to spend the night with us, but that was no problem .
They are back home now and when I took Eve back, Esme was having a second lunch

:-)

No snow here either and this morning at 7am it was 7 degrees so relatively warm. wet of course and probably windy so another gloomy day. However I am going with friends to see a glass engraving exhibition by the late Michael Faibairn who was a copper-wheel glass engraver., so that will fill the morning then there will be lunch at the museum (Nature in Art).

Florence that was a lot of stuff in your filing cabinet, I bet that led to a pile of shredding. I really ought to start on mine, ages since I sorted files in there.

Lindaa, the black smoke sounds horrible and I can imagine the smell. But I think you may have been lucky it didn't cause a fire. I have not actually roasted a joint in the air fryer although I have cooked most things. I hope you can eliminate the smell from the walls.