General Chat

It's good to have you back, Veronica. You have had quite a year or two....hope all stays better for you.Dunno about Michael, didn't you see him in Canadian Tire a few years ago with the same result???

Sewing like crazy this week. Fair starts tomorrow. I have more aprons than you can imagine so let's hope that there are lots of sales!!

Cold and damp here, including the wood that Norm is shoving into the wood stove. Ollie's latest trick is to sit with his nose two inches from the glass door until it gets hot. Then he backs off to his favourite chair....a real toasty boy. This morning the wood was very spitty and some sparks landed on Bella....also a fire worshipper. I had to give her a good rub otherwise I might have had a real hot dog!!!

Off to the salt mine.
Lesxx

Its a beautiful morning in Dundas, cold but with a clear blue sky. A few minutes ago the Lancaster Bomber from the Canadian Warplane heritage mueseum did its annual fly by. It flys over all the local Rememberance Day ceremonies in the area between Burlington and Grimsby. What a sight and sound particularly as it echoes around our Dundas valley. Keith an I where brought up in Lincolnshire, home to many Lancaster and later Lincoln bombers so the sound is etched in our minds.

Hope all is well with everyone. I am having a very good day today.

regards

Veronica

Morning all, Blessings Veronica, how great to hear from you!!
May the new year treat you more kindly.

Fred, I pulled out all the soup recipes you sent and went on a frenzy over the week-end. Made 3 pots up and portioned it out for some of the "inmates' here. They can all have one feed now and one more to freeze for later.
Our weather has been fabulous but I see snow over the prairies so it will soon end. Even the birds are loving the warm days.
I put a suet block out and they had it gone in a week. Usually lasts much longer. They must be bulking up for the cold weather as well.

Les, my husband grew celery, planted it in a ditch and as it grew he filled in around the plants. When he pulled them up the bottom half was blanched. I think he tied them at the top as well.

Looking forward to a shopping trip to Winnipeg next week. With Christmas on it's way and no stores in our small town it will be a real treat to spend, spend, spend. Like putting a kid in a candy store hee hee.

Time to get some breakfast, so stay well all, see you soon. EdithXXXX

Hey All

I am finally retired!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sounds like you are all still cooking up a storm. Got to make that ice cream cake next time the grandkids are coming - infact they can help me and choose what they want to put in it.

Been a tough year, I will be glad to see 2010 go. Diagnosed with agressive Rheumatoid Arthritis throughout the whole body - not nice. Keith had to dress me and drive me everywhere for about 2 months until the meds started to kick in.

If that wasn't enough - the meds caused me a problem that had me house bound and after that nasty test, I was diagnosed with Ulcerated Colitis.

Now I take 15 pills a day but I can function.

I had to go to UK 5 times this year. keiths Aunt died ageed 95, the end of an era and then my mother had to go into care. Just got her settled and she had a stroke. She finally died in August. Meanwhile I had a house to empty and sell - All done.

One daughter is unemployed (aggain) and the other has seperated from her partner of 7 years. She and the 2 cats moved in today while the house she has bought gets its floors done.

Keith is fully recovered from his quad bipass and although supposedly retired has 4 contracts he works on which pay him handsomely. We are going on a Panama Canal cruise in February.

Fred - I will wave to you on December 7th as I wisk through Newcastle enroute to Edinburgh, Keith has a business trip to UK and I am going up to Inverkeithing for a few days.

Hope you are all keeping well

I saw Michael in Canadian Tire a few weeks ago, he seemed reluctant to stop and chat!

Luv to all

Veronica in Dundas

Well its all cooking in this house....must be a bit of an obsession for the moment and then it will normal service (whatever that is!!) On friday I made pizza sauce from scratch. It was very yummy altho not as red as store bought stuff. Then Norm made pizza dough in the Kitchenaid. It calls for a one hour rise but I gave it one and a half. Great dough!! Enough for a 14 inch deep pan pizza, then the sauce, ham, pineapple, peppers, mushrooms and anything else that looked interesting. I topped it with grated half fat cheese, baked for about 30 minutes and then we shaved a little fresh parmagiano over the top. Yummy and even more yummy.
The trick with the ice cream cake is to make sure that you have guests to eat it with you!! I only had a small slice. I think next time I would forgo the chocolate and peanut butter chips and perhaps use a couple of "Flakes" if I can find them. Might have to go to the british shop. I did use half fat ice cream...LOL....my daughter laughed herself silly over that.
Did I tell you about the bread and butter muffins??? We were having a coffee somehwere and they had bread and butter muffins. I asked for the recipe and they said....NO!! So after a bit of a search on google I found a recipe that only uses egg white....they , too, were very yummy.
Fred have you ever grown celery. I planted six. They are nowhere near as tall as store bought and very, very green......dunno what to do with it...suggestions???
The stew, BTW, was good and I think I am going to use my slow cooker at least twice a week. It is so nice to get all that prep done in the morning and then just sit back and enjoy a glass of red and a nice meal....with no effort...later on.
Mary, hope John gets some relief soon. Had to take Norm to the Emerg yesterday morning. He had severe abdominal pains. The doc tried to tell him he had swallowed a chicken bone...but hey!! pretty hard when you haven't eaten any chicken..LOL They gave him some heavy duty meds but it will be off to his Doc come Monday....and so it goes!!
Off to sew. Lesxx

afternoon all ,time to sit down at last ,been a busy weekend ,but we are both now done bar the clearing up.
We decided on Friday morning when i came back from the xray clinic ,to organise ourselves for a soup making weekend ,and so went to Morrison's and brought a lovely bacon joint [smoked] ,some carrots ,reduced to 22p per kilo, and some nice tatties.
I cooked the bacon in the oven ,in one of the big roasting tin's ,placing the bacon on a trivet ,adding three pints of water ,and sticking the lid on .
two hours down the line i put some roast potatoes in a tin with the first two of this years parsnips,a halved onion ,and a couple of sweet potatoes.
the football [large cabbage ] i took out of the veggie patch ,went into the steamer ,part of lol,there is enough cabbage left to do all next week and the weekend what's left weighed in at to and a half kilo's.
We had a nice tea with two slices of gammon,and i put the cold gammon into the fridge Friday evening.
Saturday i sliced up the rest ,four portions ,six slices in each ,and put them down in the freezer,keeping the drained juice for the soups,and made a large pan of country style soup ,leek ,carrot ,lentils ,a tad of barley, a bay leaf,and some herbs and spices,did another pan of country carrot ,and a carrot and Corriander pan as well .
The large slice of gammon left which i couldn't slice any further because of the spikes on the caving dish hitting the knife blade,i blitzed ,enough left to make a frittata for Sunday dinner ,with tomato's from the greenhouse ,a green pepper ditto .and Rosemary ,sage and parsley from the back garden ,along with fried tatties left from Saturdays lunch.
There is still enough blitzed gammon for a nice pan of pease pudding and some small pizza's made by slicing some oven bottom muffins in half ,spreading the pieces with tomato concentrate ,chopped olive and red onion ,sprinkled with a mixture of gammon and cheddar cheese with a little hendersons relish.
hows all that from a £4-50 piece of gammon ,he he ,tight assed scot's descendant ,he he ?
I was going to do the big hedge top this afternoon ,but while i was taking the rubbish to the bin i noticed that the hedge was still rather wet ,so i decided to leave it until next week,[ that's my excuse anyway] ,lol.
I should be so lucky Mary ,i wouldn't mind being some ones sugar daddy ,but i never get any offers ,too old even for that i reckon.
We were both fed up with the acer keeping freezing and generally being a pain while in Fleetwood,that we went to Curry's yesterday and brought a nice little £ gig memory ,360 gig hard drive ,Toshiba laptop on offer at £390 instead of £500,so we have an early Christmas box,the acer ? i spent tewo hours on it last night putting all our important files and documents into it ,and it is now upstairs as a backup.
Our new tumble dryer arrives on Tuesday morning ,so there will be no more wet washing on the clothes horse in the dining room to make the air damp,and having finished doing all the windows has helped no end ,this may help Liz' chest problem,which by the way seems to be improving with the new tablets ,we both had a much better night,in fact ,i was soooo ruddy tired when i went to bed last night ,that instead of waking up at 5 am ,i woke up at 8 am ,wow ,some sleep in for me.
I hope this new doc ,will finally do something for John, Mary ,it's high time you both had some good fortune and closure with his leg problem.
I was sent for an e-ray on the right hip after finally bringing it to the notice of my doc' and got a right lambasting for not going to see him a lot sooner,but ,hey ,i wasn't feeling too bad with it up until a few weeks ago.
Me too Mary ,the cake sounded lush to me as well ,but i wouldn't DARE under Liz's eagle eyes ,he he ,i would get my head in my hands to play with.
I havn't tried my new halogen oven yet ,after finding that the roasting pan for it didn't fit my model ,but i swapped it round with the one from the microwave which fits smashing .
Work is in hand for the spring too [Groan] here she goes again ,he he ,she want's all the bench tops upgraded ,and a new free standing halogen cooker [ double oven] fitted in too ,which ,fair comment will lower the energy usage ,plus ,she won't have to bend over so far to get to the top oven it being well big enough to do a meal for two or three,and big meals for company are left to me anyway which is fine.
This coming week i will get those three doors upstairs sanded and painted ,then that's it ,the decorating tools can go away until next year , yippee,the hall and stairs ,and the lounge to go ,magic.
Well,time to go and put my feet up for a change ,catch everyone later ,Fredxxxx

Hi everyone.. We have a lovely COOL day and a bit of rain which the garden can do with..

Les That icecream cake sounded lovely ..but I am afraid I would pig out if I made it and my figure cant stand that effort.LOL

Had a funny message from Facebook yesterday,,Some young man sent me a message that he had fallen in love with me and would I write to him..pmsl... I answered back that I thought he was a idiot and to get a life..got a reply to say that he loved older women and he loved me...I then told him he was a dick head and deleted him,,,Now how stupid can some people be,,did he think I came down in the last shower..pmsl...ppppp

I dont go onto facebook much as I dont understand it much but it has been useful with my grandies away in europe and the uk and Ireland ..I could keep up with their movements and see some of their photos..and chat to see how they were going..my grandson comes home on monday so it will be lovely to see him again..a lovely boy..he has been away about 8 weeks and had a great time..

Well having a nice quiet weekend..John has had a couple of falls in the last 2 days so I dont like going to far away..roll on the next specialist..cant come fast enpough..

Have a lovely weekend all and keep warm,

Love Mary xxx

Morning all, Les I chuckled when you talked about Nigella. My eldest son watches her cooking show and has 2 of her cook books.His wife says he is besotted with the lady !!!!He is a very good cook however and has made a few of her dishes.I too have been on the "stew"as it does taste really good at this time of year. Made my oven "maple" stew last week and as usual all raved about it.
Fred, I have your soup recipes at the ready and will get one started for next week. Have a few "old boys" in our complex and they enjoy a bowl of hearty home made soup during the winter.
Tonight is our British Pub night at the Senior centre so will be helping with that most of the day. They decided on roast beef etc, for the meal so will man the salad section and later the yorkshire pudding.
Hope you all got the Walmart e-mail, hard to realise what some folk get up to. I'm sure they must take those pics during the night as I have never seen that stuff during the day. hee hee
Our weather is still very nice for November but we are not our holding our breath as the white stuff is sure to get here.!!
Going on a bus trip in 2 weeks so hope it stays like this, will be so much better without big boots etc.
Time to go. Be back soon. Edith XXX

Hi Guys,
I have been busy with a million things!! Okay I have to tell you about the ice cream cake. I actually got the idea from Nigella Lawson (sexy chef!!). I used a container of half fat ice cream, let it soften and then stirred in milk chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, chocolate cookies, crunchie bar-smashed, crispy crunch-smashed and salted peanuts. I wacked everything to try and make it a bit smaller, then I packed into a lined (saran wrap) cake tin with a removable base- old fashioned kind, not a springform). Shoved it back in the freezer until the next day. Wow!! is all I can say. I served it with chocolate fudge sauce. I only had a small piece but everyone else pretty much inhaled it!! And the plum strudel was to die for and I plan on making that as my plum pudding for xmas....it was that good.

Now today I have a beef stew in the slow cooker. I did use a recipe for a change and I have cloves and paprika as some of the seasonings. It smells very good and we will pig out in about an hour or so....will report on this.

Tomorrow I really have to hit the sewing machine and make a few more aprons. I am in a three day show in 2 weeks time and I think too many aprons will be better than not enough.

Ollie went for his annual check up and shots today, so he is feeling a little "delicate"!! But he still manages to stuff his face...such a lad!! Bella is on a diet as she is having a hard time getting into her harness....oh! those big brown eyes it breaks my heart but it is no treats for the moment.

Wonder where Christine is??? am a bit worried actually. And Veronica and Teresa?? hope all is well.

My last genealogy class tomorrow. I managed to get a bunch of free stuff from ancestry and findmypast and Archives Canada so my students will be pleased.

Off to the kitchen. More later. Keep well.
lesxx

Evening Mary,Edith,and anyone else who turns up over the next few hours ,lol,after which time Fred will be by bye's he he.
Have to agree with Mary Edith ,French Scientists ,working on weather symptoms ,say that the gulf stream is getting ever weaker ,and will stop altogether before much longer ,resulting in a new ice age,something that happens every few thousand years ,and so is about due.
My last window is about finished Edith ,and already the warmth in the room is far better ,not suprised seeing that when i started to fill the gaps in ,i pushed the foam nozzle deep into the gap and the end of the tube went to infinity and beyond ,lol.
I have reached the stage now ,that tomorrow ,i will carry on ,using a silicone mastic ,and reckon three tubes will finish the job,yippee ,snug room here i come he he.
Tomorrow it will be time to dig out one of my parsnip plants to see how they have done ,but not one plant has gone to seed ,so things are looking good,if they are a good crop ,i will be well set up for a good two months with lots of stuff Liz can use for soup making [smacks lips] in anticipation.
We did pull out a tub of soup for tea ,and by 'eck ,i did smack my lips after we had scranned it ,lol,the first bowl of this soup,[parsnip & Citrus] beutiful is the only word to describe it,i think it may be the right time to reopen Liz's soup page .
I am still hoping the missus will make a little Christmas pud for me ,the one that takes 10 minutes to make ,and stores in the fridge overnight,and cooks in the mic in a few minutes on the day itself ,the best tasting, moist pud i ever had.
Hope your new doc does the trick for your hubby Mary ,it's about time you both had better luck,and he could def' do with a cure for whatever it is.
Think i had better go and see to the washing up before the wife plays hell ,unusually for me ,i have left the dinner dishes with the intention of doing the whole lot together ,because i was busy upstairs after all.
catch you all later troops,Fred.xxxx

Morning all, Mary don't know about you folk down under but us here in the north are definately getting warmer. We have less snow, more warm days in winter, more hot days and less rain in summer. !!!!!!!
As for the windows Fred, the men make sure they are well caulked and the foam is all around inside and out. These are triple-pane filled with argon gas between panes so will be much warmer than the old 2 pane ones. Even the trim around the inside is all caulked in.
As they are all white it sure brightens up the apt. the old ones were dark brown.
Fred, I too love Wensleydale cheese on my 2nd trip over there I brought a whole wheel of it home. We get it here but only the apricot one.
Some day soon I hope to get over there so I can enjoy it again.
Have a busy day ahead so will say bye for now. Edith XXXX

Hi everyone.. We are having the coolest spring I can remember for a long time.. All this global warming is a lot of rot and they just have to look at the temps for the last couple of years and see its cooling now..some people are stupid..

Fred. You make me laugh talking about christmas puddings,, A friend of my daughters said to her ,,,dont make a pudding as I have done one for you..so daughter didnt make one but I had already bought a large one in a tin in case we didnt have enough as Daughter is inclined to invite all and sundry to Christmas lunch..so glad we did as when we cut into friends lovely gift of a pudding it wasent cooked inside and we couldnt eat it..so we just opened the tin and it was yummy...not as good as a home made one but it did the trick..

Well we are off to another specialist first week of december...hope this bloke can do summit for John..the last one got the sack as no good..LOL..

Better get my A int G as I slept in today and have things to do..

Hope all are well and keeping warm..

Love Mary xx

Morning Edith,your forgot glasses email you sent had us all in stitches,and i just had to pass it along to some family members to give them a chuckle too.
I hope your window fitters remember to fill the gaps to the plaster on the inside before putting the trims on ,lol,my fitters didn't,and neither did they measure the frames on the outside resulting on my windows being over an inch short all round,no doubt because they were too lazy to get the ladders out and measure the outside as they were supposed to.
If the house had been mine then ,i would have condemed the lot and made them start again.
No matter ,the frames were sound ,and well secured ,so i brought expanding sealing foam,builders caulk ,and silicone sealant and did the job myself ,and now have the second bedroom to do today when we come back home from the doc's and the weekly shopping,and that's the last of the original windows sorted.
I spent yesterday clearing out the greenhouse of all the old plants apart from the peppers which are hanging in there ,i pulled all the runner beans too ,and cleared a load of the old veggie haulms,and trimmed the lawn edges,resulting in the garden recycle bin being chocker and so heavy the wheels are creaking .lol,the bin men will love me tomorrow,when they come to empty it.
Please Father Christmas ,can i have a garden incinerator for Christmas this year ? pretty please,he he ,it's all i want ,and would give me tons of lovely potash for my veggie patch.
I have done very well this year.the brussel are doing great ,i have loads of red onion waiting to be lifted and put into the greenhouse as soon as i have fumigated it with a bomb to kill any nasties that may be lurking there.
My two kale plants will be ready come the back end of this month,the potato barrels are full to the brim,and even my spinach plants seem healthy so all i will have to buy for the festive season is the odd cauli, and calabrese .my own being about finished now ,apart from a few side shoots ,good enough for a couple of stir frys'.
I can't make up my mind as to what to do for dinner tomorrow ,wether to try the new halogen cooker ,as soon as i pick up the crisping pan ,skewers and cook book which i ordered last week ,and are now awaiting collection at the post office .or to get the trusty slow cooker out and do a hot pot ,maybe i should ask the second cook what she fancies.
I really miss one of my old favourites. a lovely moist fruit cake with a big chunk of Wensleydale cheese ,but Liz dosn't make cakes any more because there are only the two of us at home now ,and cakes just go to waste.
Maybe i will get her to do one of her quick Christmas puddings that you cook in the mike' ,that will do for after lunch on the big day.
Have to go now ,time to get ready to go out as soon as the washing is out,seeing as it's a good drying day,catch you all later.
hope everyone has a good week,Fred.

Hello all Sorry I haven't been able to get on here. We are having new windows put in all the apartments, so I have had 2 0r 3 workers in and out most of the week. They still have trim etc. to put on but have returned home for the week-end. Amazing the clutter they can make. The boss is very good tho" and makes sure the men cleanup before they leave for the nite.
We had a few snow flurries but nothing stayed on the ground, lots of wind and cold temps, just getting us used to the winter ahead. hee hee
Good to hear you and Liz are enjoying your trip Fred.
Must get this place sorted out a bit so will say bye for now. Edith XXXX

Hi everyone.. We have lovely weather..sunny and mild..

Edith.. You should share the cat and enjoy its antics in your place..LOL.. Sounds like your winter is well on the way.. keep warm. and put the bikini back in the closet..LOL

Fred.. Boy that van sounds lovely and warm,,So glad as I am sure Liz will be a lot better in the warm..Love vans as they are so compact and easy to manage re cooking and cleaning etc.. loved my van.. still miss it..

Les.. Hope you make lots of money for your Christmas presents.. Are you making jam with those plums..love plum jam...

Well we are off to another specialist if our doc agrees.. I am going around in circles and should soon meet myself coming back..LOL..

Hope all are well and so glad Liz is doing better on the new pills..

Love Mary xx

Morning all, The weather has cooled and the four letter word(snow) is in the forecast. Time for gloves, hat etc.
I see the west coast is in for all kinds of nasty stuff. The city of Vancouver has ordered snow plow trucks for the first time ever!!!!
Les, our genealogy club has a photo restorer coming to opur next meeting and we can take one photo to be restored. I have one of my 3rd gggrandmother so am really lookoing forward to it.
Up very early this a.m as my cat"pal" next door had a game of football or something in the bathtub and what a racket. Made me jump out of bed, sit dazed for a few minutes until I figured out what was happening hee hee.
She is a lovely marmalade color and is really active. Her Mom does not hear all the noise as she is a heavy sleeper. Will get my chores finished early and go out for tea so all is not lost.
Time to get breakfast out of the way, so bye for now. Edith XXXXX

Hi Everyone, we are visiting friends in Nanaimo and wont be back until later tonite. Heather and I went around all of the junk stores yesterday...lots of fun. We got all kinds of toys for the babe and a couple of cook books.We have spent the weekend cooking, eating and drinking wine.....I will need a rest when I get home.
If you can imagine there was a hurricane sailing across the pacific ocean headed for the coast of Vancouver Island.....winds up to 150 k....wow!! luckily it veered north and was swallowed up by another weather system....even BC ferries quit running yesterday evening. Whoda thunk it!!! We never ever get hurricanes!!!
OK off to the rest of the day.
Lesxx

Good morning all ,from a veeeery cold Fleetwood in Lanc's,our first morning here and i got up at five to turn the heating on for Liz ,and set the timer for the rest of the week because it seems we are in for an icy blast from the arctic by Tuesday resulting i more snow in Wales and the North east,so i hope we can get home okay at the weekend.
This van is fine ,once the owner of the van we hired knew that Liz wasn't too well ,and suffered a lot in the cold,he changed the proposed van to this one which has full central heating and double glazing,so
we should be nice and snug.
With the weather the way it is ,i don't think we will get out and about much using the buses,but we will make the effort to get Chris out on his tram run to see Blackpool lights which he has never seen.
I have a couple of Spinach plants growing well Les ,so i may give your Pie a shot if i can have the recipe please.
We will be using the car to go to Fleetwood later this morning ,would you believe we went to Morrisons there yesterday and forgot the tea bags ,and coffee ,and oh the sugar yet ? he he what a
downer ,lol.
The new tablets seem to be working already and Liz's breathing is getting better already thank goodness,but if it gets ascold here midweek as is promised ,there is no way i will take her to Bury ,and the biggest open air market in europe,that may have to wait until our return at the back end of March next year,when hope fully it will be warmer.
Time to take the missus her tablet with a cuppa,so i will come back later,this new T -Mobile dongle seems very good,and reception is so good i don't need to go to the owners lounge to use the wi-fi,Fred will be cooking brekkie in the caravan this morning,he he.
Catch you all later ,Fred.xxx

Morning all From a town shrouded in fog. Any travellers will have to be alert to the moose on the road this a.m. This is a sign our weather is
getting colder so will get out some heavier clothes etc.
Fred, you and Liz are welcome any time. As long as you don't choose June
as that is major mosquito season here.
Fishing is great and a trip around the lakes in a big covered boat is fun. Liz could relax in luxury and watch the eagles etc. A sunny day on the lake promises a sound nights sleep hee hee.
Mary, sorry to hear you still can't get John's problem resolved. The bears will surely head to bed after this cold spell, but some will stay at the trash dump all winter as there is a lot of food for them. Fred
See where your government has finally clamped down on all the welfare
so perhaps you can rid yourself of all the immigrants who are sponging off your system. Wish ours had the guts to do the same.
They come here for a new life ????and then want to change our laws to suit them. Oh, well off the soapbox and on with the day.
Les, I have a cat next door who plays in the bathtub in the middle of the night. Her owner tried to lock her out but she opens the door and drags all her toys into the tub. Some times I think there is war going on.
Animals gotta love them !!!!
Time for breakfast. Edith XXX

Hi Everyone, just a quickie from me...again. I have just started my teaching session at the college and that will keep me out of mischief until early November. I have 12 in my class this time...genealogy is very popular.
On the weekend I made spanakopita from scratch. It took 2 lbs of fresh spinach which had to be washed and chopped....what a job but the pie was amazing and so very yummy.
This weekend we are off to visit friends. I am taking dessert so am making a strudel and an ice cream cake...that will be fun to transport!!!
Then I will need to get back to the sewing machine the first xmas show is in mid Novemeber.....how busy does a retired person need to be....well I guess Fred could answer that one.
Every night at the moment the racoons come for a nosh in our plum tree. Although we picked all we could reach there are still some plums left. So in the middle of the night Bella goes beserk, whining and fretting to get outside but we don't let her. Racoons can be spiteful.
Be good. More Later
Lesxx