How to Get Through The Tough Times The Old Style Way.

GreyQueen

Jediteacher, that it so awful, even worse than mine, ans spitting on your daughter......I loathe it that a few vile people can ruin the lives of so many others. Hope it improves for you soon.

short_bird

GreyQueen wrote: »

Cheat recipes: I'm always on the lookout for things to serve friends which have a lot of bang for your buck, as a Canadian gal I once met so wonderfully put it. Particularly after veggie ones as I'm entertaining a "mixed" audience Sunday coming. Anyone got something simple, economical, filling, low-calorie and vegetarian I can offer them (big ask, I know.....:))

Grey, I may have said this before on another thread!
Do your veggie friends due on Saturday like or abhor stuff that is a meat substitute or meat texture? Do they like spicy stuff? Any vegans on the guest list?

I always think you can't go wrong with curries and dahls... better the day after they're cooked, same accompaniments, can be made mild or ferocious:D
Will have a peruse when I get home.

jediteacher

grandma247 wrote: »

Jediteacher. Find out if your council has an antisocial behaviour officer. They are usually police officers attatched to the council. I wrote to ours and sent copies of my diary. It is very important to keep a diary so that the police and council have evidence to evict them. They need as much as possible.
I also used to ring our local station when I considered their behaviour serious enough and got an incident number each time. Things such as banging on doors and windows,egg throwing etc. Otherwise I rang the local community officer and left a message on his answerphone. He or his pcso always got in touch. It still took four years because the child protection people kept blocking them but eventually the two worst families were evicted and at least one of the kids is still regularly arrested now he is an adult. He has not bothered us for a year now and there was only one incident the year before.
You just need to keep at it. It is very stressful but if all the neighbours complain like this on a regular basis something will be done. No one used to complain here until i started and when I asked them why they said they were afraid of their windows being smashed. I needed new windows so i didn't care. They never went that far though.

Thanks for the info. I already do all this and more. I have actually been a witness in court for the 13 year olds behavious but still nothing is done! Unfortunately other neighbours are too scared to do anything and they come to me so I log it and then pass it onto the right person. Our local police officer has been on long term sick leave and no one has replaced him so reporting anything to the police here has been a waste of time as the council have also had no one to liase with. Will keep going on complaining and logging but my husband is concerned about my health and the babies as I'm already a high risk pregnancy and has told me to back off for a bit.

Thanks anyway for the kind words. :A

joeck68

Hello fellow OS'ers:wave:

Apologies to Mardatha, as I know you're fed up with snow, but we have gorgeous weather down here in the South, in fact, apart from a few rain showers yesterday, its been wall to wall sunshine for the last 5 days. Maybe Spring really is on its way, lets hope so, and then at last my heating can go off and maybe I can save a bit of money!

GreyQueen and Jediteacher: I feel for you both, our homes should be our castles, and places where we can relax, not feel stressed and anxious. GQ, I don't know how you hold back from punching idiotboy - I'd probably be up on a manslaughter charge by now, and Jediteacher, it sounds so awful, is moving away an option? I know you shouldn't have to move, but your neighbours sound like a family from hell :mad: .

This weather is making me feel like getting on to my allotment, but the soil is still quite wet, and cold, so I think a few weeks wait won't hurt. In previous years we've planted early, and then compared results with the years when we've waited until spring is well and truly here, and there's nothing much in it - when planted later, the plants seem to grow that bit faster, and get off to a better start, than those which have to struggle with the colder nighttimes. I'm starting some seeds off in my greenhouse though. Someone (GQ?) was asking what we grow.....

We're lucky as we actually have 2 allotments side by side, so heaps of space, and a big greenhouse, so here, in no particular order, is what we grew last year:

Fruit:
Raspberries, blackberries (still eating the last of these from my freezer!), strawberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and whitecurrants. We also have access to 3 plum trees (again, still have few frozen into crumbles), and apples and pears - though its a race with other allotment holders to pick them - each year, some greedy so and so swoops in one night and completely strips the trees, rather than taking a few, and leaving some for others!. Oh, I almost forgot my beloved rhubarb, which is coming on fast.

Veggies
Masses of potatoes - we only just finished eating them at the end of January, and will repeat this year
Onions and shallots, plus garlic
carrots, parsnips, swede and turnip
Cabbage (spring) and brocolli (purple sprouting)
We also randomly sow salads and spring onions, leeks, and beetroot. I do grow some of these at home too, so they are close to hand).
We also have masses of lavendar and rosemary, as we have 4 beehives sited at the allotment, and I like to think we're helping the bees out.
We grow masses of beans, as we love them, runner, french and broad, and we also have a couple of courgette plants - I make a lovely courgette cake which takes care of them! We sometimes grow peas, but the last few years have had problems with pea moths, so gave them a miss last year. Might try again this year though, we'll see
We also grow butternut, pumpkin and pattypans

In the greenhouse
Masses of tomatoes - had a huge glut last year, and still have lots in the freezer in various guises.
Peppers and chillis

We also experimented with artichokes (made us windy!! :eek:) and kale (not keen). And on top of all that, we also grow sunflowers, and there's a bit of an informal competition to see who grows the biggest, we won last year when ours topped 11 foot!

Right, now I have to get back to work, I'm in my 5th year of an OU degree, and trying to produce a 3500 word essay:o

Hope everyone has a lovely day

Jo

dollydaydream07

Hi all,


have been reading but not posting, been too busy trying to figure out where all our money is going!!

i have lots of food in, but no idea what to make with it all, a lot of it is proccessed carp as we went on a bit of a binge at farmfoods, no wonder i've been feeling really tired and lathargic and a bit depressed just as well we have lots of food in as i only have £20 left out of my £100 for the month

still need to get the car booked in for the MOT and buy the home insurance(which it looks like we have to do monthly)

on another MS note, i start weightwatchers on wednesday, have got it for free for 12 weeks after getting a referral from the nurse at my gp surgery

((hugs)) to anyone who is needing one

mama67

kitschy wrote: »

Bit miffed

Got me a bright purple Dylon machine pack (and the salt), followed the instructions to the letter, and very disappointed with the results. At first, my dressing gown (pale pink) went a really vivid purple in the washer - yippee, thinks I. Now it's on the spin and it barely looks any different to when it went in

I bought the dye to save buying a new dressing gown, but it looks like it might have been a false economy.

I used 2 packs to do my white one and have got the same sort of deep Violet that was on the pack.

Did you wiegh the dressing gown first as the more material to dye the lighter the colour.

hth

redlady_1

Hey joeck68...mardartha will take the kale off you. She LOVES the stuff!!! :D

joeck68

mama67 wrote: »

I used 2 packs to do my white one and have got the same sort of deep Violet that was on the pack.

Did you wiegh the dressing gown first as the more material to dye the lighter the colour.

hth

Another thing could be whether you use fabric conditioner when you wash, as this can sometimes affect the way a fabric absorbs dye - I always give stuff a really thorough wash with some soda crystals before dying - mind you, I usually want a more subtle colour and end up with it being too bright :eek:- so I have the opposite problem!

joeck68

redlady_1 wrote: »

Hey joeck68...mardartha will take the kale off you. She LOVES the stuff!!! :D

Hmmmmm - I'm sure I've seen something elsewhere that would suggest you're not entirely being straight with me, redlady!! I know she loves sweeties, but I think Kale makes her come over all faint :eek:

ginnyknit

Mardatha, hope the warm front that we have finds its way to you soon

I have a line full of bedding and the throws off the beds drying happily. Feeling much more like my old self today, think the sunshine may have helped. When I was in a CS the other day a young lady was cleaning a tapestry couch with babywipes and it came up really well, so last night I attacked my suite with them to get rid of Dgs's sticky dribbles and wow it looks like new. Just got to wash the cushions and its another tick on my list.

Have planted lots more seeds today and repotted some seedlings. Hoping to do squashes this year, tried last year but just got lots of foliage. Going to do more courgettes this year, planted them in old tyres last year and it was very successful as the fruit rested on the edge of the tyres and didnt get eaten by beasties!