General Chat

Sorry to hear about your daughter, Fred. It's good that she has a safe place with you and Liz.

We sold our van a week ago. A young couple came to see it and had cash in hand for us within an hour. Got a phone call from them this week to say they had already been off camping in it and loved it...good!!
Meanwhile we have a rental car and have searched up and down the island for vehicle that can tow a small trailer up and down all these mountains. We have finally bought a used Ford Explorer Sport. It is a 2 door which we have never had before but it is smaller than the 4 door and cute. At the moment it is in getting a hitch welded on and one or two other small refinements that Norm wanted. We might get it back today...yea!!

Last night saw Norm and I both in the kitchen, we had decided on a chinese night. I made chinese fried rice and chicken and peppers in black bean sauce. I got my first zucchini out of my garden (courgette to Fred) and popped that into the sauce as well. It was very yummy. Norm, who has more patience than I, made egg foo yung complete with the traditional "gravy" It was so good, much better than the local chinese restaurant who makes it using powdered eggs..yuk. So a good feast last night. We have lots of bean sprouts left so we may have another oriental evening tonight. Thought I might try making chow mein from scratch....will let you know.

My zukes and cukes have powdery mildew which I googled and found that it is a virus and the home cure is a mix of skim milk and water. So yesterday I cut off all the white leaves and then "watered: them with the mix. I looked out this am. and they do look a bit perkier so I will keep that up for a week or so and see how they do. My butternut squash is covered in small flowers so if I can save the plant I will have a bumper crop. My toms have taken over the green house and are at the ceiling so I had to top them yesterday. Lots of flowers, lots of baby toms but nothing remotely red or yellow at this point...well we aren't getting the sun..so what to do?

Teela's mom comes home tomorrow and I think we will mis having her furry little body around. She and Bella have settled nicely together and thanks to lots of little mats on the wood floors she has been able to wander around the house and not get freaked out. Yesterday was a sunny day, for a change, and we spent it outside with both the dogs. We filled the doggie pool and they had a good time and were pretty exhausted by supper time. Today is cloudy again...what weather!!

Edith do you have a recipe for your basil pesto?? My basil has taken on jungle proportions.

Hi Mary, hope all is well with you and John.
Later les <3

Hi everyone Sorry I havent been in much as things are declining here and I have more to do,,FH gives me a break and thanks Fred for your search as it was good and glad to be of some help,,I will send you the originals soon as that might be nice to keep..
Fred sorry to hear that your daughter is having so many problems,, Do hope the council can help and she can settle in her own place with some peace and quiet soon.. Poor Hissy.. she must be suffering from fright whenever you two go out in the car wandering if you will come home again.. :-D :-D

Les Good car hunting..have you takent the house off the market..

Edith. All those toms sound wonderful..cant wait for spring to get mine going.. My silverbeet is going well and we have had a lot of rain lately which is helping them on a treat..my citris trees are sprouting all over and should get good growth this year..must go and get my new tubs for my toms planting soon,, I know what I want just have to go and buy them..

Have a lovely weekend all and will try and get back soon..

Love Mary xxx

Hi all ,yep ,the old pest is back ,pretty tired with all the work getting ready for the families arrival tomorrow ,but satisfied that ,now it's done we will manage okay.
Mary ,i have now managed to find the Elusive Patrick Larner in Galway Ireland ,just managed to find him before the free half hour on an irish geneology website ran out :-D,but i don't think i will go any further back with him ,it would cost an arm and a leg he he.
We got stuck into a lovely roast dinner yesterday,using three sorts of beans ,and a cabbage out of the garden ,along with some spears of asparagus ,and calabrese.
I even made some home made stuffing ,and yorkshire's to go with it all,the beef and pork taken out of the freezer.
We need to get the freezer down in a hurry now ,we have loads of stuff to blanch and get down in the freezer.
Nice one with the car Les you isssss moblie again ,lol,and will be looking for a small trailer to go with it i'll be bound,one with a one piece roof [no leaks],hey ,you may even find one of those collapsible ones ,that are a lot easier to tow,and opens up with the help of inbuilt gas arms to take the hard work out of the erection.
I saw one of these at a caravan park three months ago ,put up by a young lass ,on her own ,in ten minutes,and getting inside it was a revelation ,no way could you tell it wasn't a rigid model.all mod cons inside ,toilet, cooker ,i wish i could afford one ,lol, even i could tow one of these ,and erect it :-),
'Ere Mary old buddy ,any chance of any Bartletts in London?,i have a connection there now with an alice Bartlett born 1878 who married into the Barnes family around 1905.but can i find her parents ,naaaah , :-0
We have a treat today when the son takes us to Asda this afternoon to do a shop using his family discount card ,we might save a good few pennies there he he.
What you up to Edith? ,still embroiled in finding uses for all the herbs ,and tomatoes,you could do with opening a Pizza parlour ,with those ingredients, you could make a fortune.
Well i think i had better go and get some work done,time stands still for no ,one .
Take care all ,Fred.xxx :-D

Morning all, I have been busy with our Blueberry festival. Family came to visit and take in some of the events so a taxi driver was needed :-)
The weather has been so hot, and with the humidity it is warmer here than in Barbados :-P Not my kind of day for sure.
I was happy to see the rain this a.m. but when I opened the door the heat pushed me inside again. It is actually steamy outside. Will have to rethink my day now and find stuff to do "inside".
The forest fires around us have slowed a bit but with more thunder and lightening they may well start up again.
Hope this crazy weather stops soon and I am looking forward to an old fashioned snowy cold winter. I think the heat has rattled my brain as well heehee.
Hope you got the recipe o.k. Les. My basil is still growing like wild so will make some more pesto when it cools off. Enjoying the toms as they are ripening daily now so it's a B.L.T every day for lunch :-D
The sage I put in the garden downstairs is also going nuts so I will have to give a lot of it away or make lots of dressing!!!
Time for my breakfast so it's bye for now. Edith <3

Hi Everyone,

Don't fall over in shock, it really is me!! Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to the thread, time is my enemy these days. I do sometimes have a quick read of the thread when I am home for my half hour lunch but don't have time to reply.

The greenhouse is finally slowing down after the busy spring/early summer sales. I still love what I do but am really tired when I get home. I should have been doing this job in my thirties not now when the sixties are fast approaching.

We had a lousy spring with lots of heavy rain but now are in the hot time of the year, have had upper 20's and even a couple of 30 degree days. I don't like the extreme heat when working outside but at least can come home to air conditioning!

Bob has been on Chemo pretty much the whole time since early Feb. He feels fine but the doctors are experimenting with different treatments for him. His blood counts are not far from normal ( or at least normal for him) but his lymph nodes continue to swell especially in his neck giving him a chipmunk look. He is now in a clinical trial with a drug that has not yet been approved for use. He takes the iv infusion once a week for 8 weeks and this Wednesday will be half way. All of the stuff he has taken this year is antibodies not really Chemo according to the nurses. He is lucky with still not having any side affects. I am not sure if it is wishful thinking on our part, but we both think his lymph nodes look smaller. The doctor says that ultimately he wants Bob to have a bone marrow transplant and they are already looking for a donor. This is scary obviously, especially when Bob looks and feels healthy. But, apparently age will become a factor at some point where they won't do a transplant. Bob will be 60 in December.

My garden is doing fantastically with lots of tomatoes ready to harvest and beans too. The deer have eaten all the tops off my first crop of peas so have started again...grr. Yesterday, I looked out the window just in time to see a red fox grab a mouse that was lurking around the compost bin. Sunday there was a moose in the field behind us, such fun to live in the country!

Time to spend my day off in the garden.

Love to you all, I love to see all your news!

Teresa :-) :-)

Hey Teresa, really great to catch up with you. Glad that Bob is doing OK.
Edith I got the recipe. I guess I thought that maybe it wouldn't have pine nuts in it....I am fearfully allergic to them, my mouth swells up...nasty. Do you have a recipe that does not use pine nuts??

Yesterday we bought a small vintage trailer. It is 13 feet, has a toilet, small kitchen and is very cute. We towed it home, a first for us in the towing department!! We noticed that the trailer really bounces on the hitch when we go over a bump and are not sure if it should be quite that noticeable. What do you think Fred? At the moment we have it parked out front. Today I am going to clean it thoroughly. Yesterday we hauled out all the junk that was inside...the folks we bought it from left everything in there, even their ratty old blankets. I found a small area of mould in one of the cupboards near the door and I am going to varnish the wall inside the cupboard once I have cleaned it and then Norm will caulk. It looks like water has come in from where the back bumper is bolted to the back wall. Anyway an easy fix. At some point I will take pics.

Even tho I have been spraying my zukes and cukes with a milk solution the mildew continues to spread. I don't want to use a fungicide because I know that we would not eat the veggies after.....too weird using chemicals. We have to move one tomato plant out of the greenhouse as it got too big. We have it near the fence, protected from the wind, and it seems to be doing OK.

That's me for today. Les <3

Hello all, Another hot day in Ontario :-P Edith is yearning for winter!!
Les, you can leave the pine nuts out. I have when I don't have any.I just add more parmesan. Tasty!!!
As long as you peel the cucs etc. they should be edible. A few years back I had some peppers with mildew and I grilled and peeled them with no bad results.
Great to hear from you again Teresa, often think of you and wonder how you both are. We too have a problem with deer. The folks who live outside of town are always trying some new tactic to scare them away. No moose reports tho". Country living is the best I think.
Hope Fred and Liz are not too busy with family and take some me time for themselves :-)
Time to water my plants before the sun wilts them all.
Back soon. Edith <3

Hi Les,

Here is the organic recipe we use to control powdery mildew in the greenhouse.

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 quart water
A few drops of liquid soap

Mix and put in a spray bottle. Be sure to spray underside of leaves too. Some recipes call for cooking oil as well but we don't usually have that at work so this is our take on it. You should remove the mildew leaves too.

Teresa

Morning everyone ,from a muggy Newcastle where we are expecting thunderstorms and heavy rain later today ,so i need to get out in the garden later
Hey there Les' way to go with the combo.the trailer looks amazing ,and should last you years with a bit of care ,lol,my son would be straight underneath with a brush applying underseal over the floor and chassis to protect the underside from all weather damage and then checking all the body seals.
The trailer is tapping on a bit ,and it sounds as though the towing cup is worn badly and needs replacing,you can't afford to have the tow bar coming loose on the move ,especially in the mountains.
A new Ball will only cost around $50 and can be fitted without any difficulty,by yourselves, as long as you have the right tools :-).
Nice to see you again Teresa ,sounds as though you are as busy as ever ,i cheat with the fruit and tomatoes though ,using a liquid pest and fungus control at the same time adding liquid feed to the mix so doing everything at once ,busy fella me ,with no spare time to make my own stuff up .lol :-P.
I use mine on all my veggies too ,to keep mildew away and the dreaded spider mite,and earwigs .
That email you sent me regarding the group of women Edith ,he he ,creased up i was :-D,even the wife loved it .
No Problem here with Deer,one shows up and bang ,in the freezer lol,but the nearest wild life we have ,[apart from the missus when i hide her puzzle book] is a good few miles away on the moors so the worst we tend to get is the odd rabbit,which Hissy scares off anyway.
Things are settling down okay and we are all getting on with our lives,
Managed to get the mortar/ cement mix ,and a grinder at B,& Q yesterday and will get the son up ,to repair the gate pillars sometime early next week ,and then take the remainder of the cement along with said son back home so that he can concrete in the new rotary line to replace the old one that he burned doing the B B Q last week ,lol ,suprisingly the snags and burgers didn't taste of plastic :-(.
Time i was off and picking these beans and a cabbage for the dinner.,Catch you later all ,Fred.xxx :-D

Day three of trailer ownership....LOL It is amazing how many people walk buy, look in and want to buy it. Norm looked underneath, Fred, and it has been well cared for. We get the electric brakes put into the truck next week and then will tow the trailer over to the rv place to get all the propane appliances tested and the propane lines replaced. Today I am going to do a little varnishing and Norm is going to fill all the many holes where previous owners have attached something to the walls.
Meanwhile the sun is shining and it is hot. We are supposed to go into heatwave mode next week. It will be time to hunker down in the basement and keep cool.
I have booked myself in to 2 artisan fairs and must get sewing pretty soon. Lord the year whizzes by eh?
Thanks for the mildew tip, Teresa, and thanks for the pesto, Edith. We will get on both of those today I think. I have more basil than I know what to do with.
Les <3

Hi everyone.. We have lovely sunny spring weather at the moment..yyaayy

Waiting on Grandaughter to ring and say she is ready to be picked up from the station ,,She is on the bus from Canberra at the moment to spend the weekend with us before she heads off to Spain for 12 months..

Teresa Lovely to see you again and glad Bob is doing well.. big hugs..

Les Love the van.. You done well and I can see you two off into the wild blue yonder in it.... :-D

Fred... I GOT BARTLETTS IN LONDON.SURREY AND GREENWICH KENT.. :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

Edith Are we reaping a crop yet... ;-) ;-)

One more specialist to see for John.. this chap is a neuro professor, and charges $450 for the first visit.. 1 hour so not to bad as we get back about half from the gov. I feel he will be the one to tell us the good or bad news....probably will have to wait 2 months to get to see him..unless our doc can speed things up a bit..

Have a lovely weekend all, have to g pick up darling grandy..

Love Mary xxx <3

Morning to all ,and a nice one it is here too,and Fred is chuffed to bit's for Les' and Norm, :-) and i am thinking again of the old saying ,[Good things happen to those who wait] ,don't forget the pic or two of the inside when you are both finished ,please :-D.
Mary ,yep ,i had noticed that you had Bartlett's as well .
Just found my connection in the marriage of a Barnes ,to a Bartlett last week ,so i havn't tried to see if we have a connection there ,but ,i live in hope.
Finally i have managed to get my road angel up and running again ,after the update provider moved their service from windows X P and put it onto windows vista and above,again chuffed to bits .
The garden is going very well now ,with my lovely plums stating to turn red at last ,oooooooo,i can feel the crumbles coming on ,yummy. ;-).
Time to go and get some work done ,but i will be back this afternoon.
take care all ,Fred.xxxxx

Morning all, Another day of sunshine and heat. The forests around us are burning up at an alarming rate. All of them started from lightning.
We could sure use some of your rain Fred :-)
Our Blueberry festival winds down to-day for another year. Next year our town is celebrating 100 years and the Festival will be 30. Lots of reunions etc. planned.
All the sunshine is causing my toms to ripen so fast I can't keep up to them. I guess it's sauce making time :-D
My freezer will be full of pesto and sauce, so lots of pasta dishes for winter!
Good luck with your new Doc Mary, Hope he can help John and make your life a bit easier.
Time to head out for a Blueberry breakfast brunch. They have a lot of very fresh ideas on how to use that little berry so must go and see what they have this year. :-D
See you soon, Edith <3

Good afternoon, Whooohoooo, the rain is coming down in sheets and Edith is running around her balcony enjoying it!!! We need it so badly to wet down the forest and the lawns.
Everything is so very dry and the rain will really help.
Hope you are all well and thanks for the pic Les a lovely view of your town.
Back soon Edith <3

Hi Edith ,glad you got the rain i sent ,if you want any more there is plenty more i can shove your way ,we are nearly flooded out already ,and more on the way [groan]. :-\.
Made a lovely bread pudding this morning ,to keep the bairns happy ,done in my biggest tin so that i can cut it into decent sized squares once it goes cold.
We got a big piece of brisket beef out oof the freezer yesterday afternoon ,and i am pot roasting that for todays dinner along with roast peppers ,sweet potato,red onion ,and .of course roast potatoes.
I already have the home made batter mix done for the yorkshires ,and made some horseradish sauce up as well,the gravy i will make up once i have the beef out of the roaster so that i can use the juices from the meat.
I loved the pic of the town too Les .in fact ,it is now my background pic on the laptop.
If our prime minister dosn't soon get the rioting nipped in the bud ,and stopped ,if we have any trouble in our street and they try to get in here ,i will protect me ,and mine any way i have to up to ,and including peppering someones butt end with buckshot,if the police can't protect the public ,i will do it myself and hang the lot of them.
no one ,but no one is raiding MY veggie patch ,lol :-P.
Hey ,we may even get a break in the weather this week ,long enough to get the B B Q fired up and an al fresco meal done up ,with a lovely home grown salad to go with it all.
I found a lovely half side of salmon lare tast week ,so that is earmarked for a cheese sauce ,like the one that Les' described a week or two ago ,yum ,there was a huuuuuge ,swordfish loin there too ,but it was a tad too dear to buy ,pity that because Fred loves that fish above all others :-\,but ,there are signs of the skate coming into season ,and that is well tasty too ,lol.
Hope everyone is getting over the weekend by now ,but make the most of it ,i see the Christmas toys and cards are being put into the shop windows already ,meaning all the young ones will be starting the usual whinging he he ,okay for us two ,no kids at home now to keep harping on ,for this and that ,lol.
Well ,time to start the rest of the dinner,so i will shove off for now.
Have a nice day everyone ,Fred :-)xxx

PLEASE would someone on this delightful thread write on Now Known as...which is a new thread for peope who schose to live in a country which is not where they were born OR whose ancestors moved some years ago. Currently we have people from Spain, Switzerland, Cairo, Boraders of France. and others but none for, Australia, Canada, and many New Zealand.

We promise to to keep bothering you but would like to stay in touch from time to time.
I am crossing my fingers and my toes that when I look at the thread tomorrow at least ONE person will have written their views. I will look up where some of my family lived when they went to Australia a long time ago and see if anyone on here knows the areas.

Thank you

Bridget in Spain, time 13.37 hrs

Hi Guys, yesterday was yet another really hot day. On the weekend we were up in the low 30's but yesterday I think we were at about 26 which is OK for me. I made potato salad and a greek salad and home made sirloin burgers...yummy!!

The kids and Rhian are coming this weekend. My son tells me that Rhian has already said that she wants to sleep in the trailer. I shampoo-ed the trailer cushions on the weekend and then yesterday took them to get new foam. Well, as always in this house, life does not go according to plan, some of the zippers would not open and the tugging ripped the vinyl covering on the bottom. It was the original cushions and the trailer was built in 1978 so not surprising I guess. So now we are getting new cushions made. I can hardly wait to take it in and get the propane apppliances and gas lines checked....I can just see us having to buy a new fridge and stove...bugger!!!

I dunno about those riots, Fred. You probably got some news of the ones in Vancouver after we lost the Stanley Cup (ice hockey). I think that times are getting tough for lots of folks, rising prices for food, gasoline, household heating etc. Some folks just cannot survive. In Canada now we no longer have a middle class really...just rich and not rich. I think that we will see lots more rioting all over the civilized world and it is up to the governments to get working on levelling out the huge profits made by greedy corporations so that everyone can have a decent living. My rant for today!! :-S

Still having problems with the mildew and also we seem to have a bit or a virus attacking the toms. One of the toms we took out of the greenhouse and put it in the shade of the fence outside and it is doing really well. We may try and move the others altho they are very tall and bushy.
That's me for today. Les <3

Ebay Les ,Ebayyyyyy,lol Get your bits for the trailer From Ebayyyyy.,no need to buy new both the fridge and the cooker you can buy for a few $s compared to new ,carriage paid ,though it will of course take a little longer.
You could even cheat a little you know ,go for electric hook ups when you go out on walk about and get a dual fridge .
Yep ,we had to renew the cushion covers on our last one too but we had a place who do them ,and reproofing for tents ,not three miles away so we scored good time .
That grand daughter of yours knows what she likes he he ,and why not so long as there are safety measures in place re roaming wildlife and nasties ,i used to do it myself ,lol,spend the night in the van ,while there was a perfectly good bed indoors he he ,and make myself a cuppa without leaving the van using the hookup and the electric kettle,you know ,i still miss the little critter :-\.
Your tomatoes could do with a spray of a fungicide which kills mildew of all sorts ,red spider mite ,which spreads them ,and the other nasties that attack greenhouse grown stuff,and come the back end of the growing year ,clear all of the stuff out ,empty the pots ,and stick a bomb in there closing the door on the way out ,the resulting fumes given off will kill all the spores in the greenhouse that would otherwise overwinter in there and start off again next year :-).
I noticed last night that the troubles over here are spreading over to Manchester where i have family ,a worry indeed ,and while i agre with you as to many of the causes it is no excuse for it ,i had a low wage all of my life ,and now have a low pension along with a lot of other people ,and had to support loads of people on the dole ,people on child benefit,job seekers allowance ,immigrants and asylum seekers through taxes without causing mayhem on the streets,and i wonder ,why start now?:-S.
The weather is still the same here ,lol ,rain ,rain ,and more rain ,and i think i will mooch out the back to the greenhouse ,,sit down there with a cuppa and pretend that it is sunny ,warm ,and pleasant ,and try to encourage MY tomatoes to start turning red ,other wise ,i will have to take them indoors and wrap them all in newspaper ,which will sort them out ,but ,what to do with the insiped looking cucumbers ,grrrrrrr ,what a season :-\.
catch you later all ,off to sulk ,he he.Fred.xxxxxx

The problem with ebay, Fred, are the huge distances in Canada. It would be great to find a fridge say in Calgary but astronomical to ship it here. Locally we do have Craigslist and Kijiji and we would definitely give them a whirl. Now we are just waiting for the cushions so that we can sit in there and have a nice glass of red. In fact I am going to invite my three neighbours (gals) to bring a glass and come and join me...almost like a girl's night out....LOL
Mary I sure hope the motor neuron guy is able to help. This has been so frusrating for both of you and it would nice to get a little help. Norm's arms still bother him a lot which is one reason why we got a small trailer as I will have to drive as well. There are many days when Norm just cannot drive. He has had all kind of treatments and has now given up on the accupuncture as the benefit only seemed to last a day or so and then nothing!!
How's the weather Edith? Are you out of the extreme forest fire rating?? Southern Vancouver island is now rated extreme and even tho it has been cloudy now for a couple of days it is still quite warm. What a very strange year!
We are off to the big smoke today (Nanaimo...LOL) Going to get some fabric to make new curtains for the trailer and also do a little grocery shopping at Costco. Then a quick trip into Parksville for Norm to get his teeth :-D
Later Les <3

Morning, Looks like another sunny day only not as hot as it has been.

The fires have slowed but not out. Apparently some of them have gone

underground and are burning in the roots. This is really bad as the

trees will not regrow. The soil is actually sterilized!!

My wee garden is going great guns and the toms are ripening faster than

I can eat them. So sauce making is the order for to-day.

Hope your shopping trip was succesful Les.

Thanks for the rain Fred, we made good use of it and can now breath

a bit easier. Time for me to get busy so it's bye for now. Edith

<3 <3 <3 :-) <3