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

GreyQueen

Lostinrates I'm pleased to hear that your health drive is coming on nicely and have been very interested to read about Vitamin D/ sunshine and it's effects on various conditions.

I'm a redhead (tho greying fast ) and have that typical complexion. The sun here is only strong enough to bring out my freckles, which I only have on my face, between March and October. I'll never be a sunbather as I can get a serious sunburn in 10 minutes even in the UK. I loathe the feel of creams on my skin and cover up with clothes but I do insist on having my face and hands bare and have a light tan (insomuch as I can see my watch strap mark).

I've read that you can get sufficient Vitamin D by having your face and especially your eyes exposed to sunlight for quite a limited time per day (20 mins as I recall). Sadly, some people seem to have gone overboard with the sun protection and slather themselves and their children with cream and wear sunglasses in all 4 seasons even on overcast days.

I've long been of the opinion that a lot of low mood, and possibly some depressions, could be alleviated by spending more time out of doors and keeping our hours closer to the natural world's pattern of daylight and darkness, rather than keeping "clock time". I stress that I am not in any way medically qualified but I have noticed that this is true for me and that others have changed away from up-all-night lifestyles and found it beneficial.

RAS Thank you so much for that linkie to the Bumblebee site a few pages ago. I was looking at it yesterday and have ID'd a couple of the Big 6 which frequent my lottie but there are some others which I shall have to follow around to get a closer look at. Yup, I'm the eccentric who can't uproot the red and white dead nettles until they've finished flowering. Gardening with, for and around my beloved bumblers.

Now I better buzz off and do a few chores before w*rk!

lostinrates

GreyQueen wrote: »

I've read that you can get sufficient Vitamin D by having your face and especially your eyes exposed to sunlight for quite a limited time per day (20 mins as I recall). Sadly, some people seem to have gone overboard with the sun protection and slather themselves and their children with cream and wear sunglasses in all 4 seasons even on overcast days.

I'm outside for a lot longer than 20 ins a day but do slather on the suncream ...to the top half...and do almost always wear sunglasses!

In fact, a couple of years ago I had one of those sun damage photos done and when it came out it was hilarious. the whole face apearred black with sun dmage....apart from the area around my eyes which were like white goggles. Even as a kid I wore sunglasses. I go about the beaches from dawn till dusk in red heart shaped sunglasses and red bikini bottoms.

blackandwhitebunny

Oh Roseanna, thanks for that, those Nella Last books sound like just the sort of thing I would enjoy. I'm fighting the urge to go onto Amazon right away but that wouldn't be very moneysaving.:p

Thanks for the recipe Greyqueen, I always like to think that women we have lost live on through their recipes.

I did some batch cooking yesterday so that I'm a bit ahead for when we go back to school next week. Cooked a huge saucepan of basic mince mixture (700g mince for £2 on Sainsbugs whoopsies, loads of grated carrot £1 for a huge bag full from the market, a jar of tomato and chilli sauce - sainsbugs sold some off for 50p a jar so I bought 10) I was going to make lasagne but realised I had no pasta sheets so made a pasta bake lasagne. I've got enough left to make two lots of chilli and maybe have a cottage pie or spag bol from the other. Made extra cheese sauce and used that to make two lots of cauliflower and cheese, with bacon (£1 for huge cauli at market on saturday, and whoopsie bacon) and then used the rest of the bacon with a lump of pastry I found in the freezer to make some mini quiche for DH lunch box. I'm feeling ever so virtuous:A
The only problem is that like Mrs vegplot I'm supposed to be emptying the freezer not making more meals to fill it up.
Well - taking MIL to garden wholesaler type place to get compost this am and then helping her list some bits on ebay. wishing everyone else a good day.

kidcat

Sorry to hear about your loss GQ, (hugs).

Yellow ball is well and truly out today and I am going to see if OH will set up a lounger chair in garden for me to doze on in between tablets, still in loads of pain so relying on painkillers knocking me out, hoping the antibiotics will really kick in by this evening and I can get back to normal as have all the shopping for the meals over the weekend to do.

Thanks for the tip about Tesco and salmon will pop along tomorrow and grab some. Although apparently dad wont eat fresh salmon either so will still need to cook him something else (I swear he is as bad as the kids - I will end up cooking three different meals for Sunday!!):)

greent

Afternoon all - have just caught up since the weekend. Thank you for your thoughts on and off here re my dad. He was finally identified yesterday so the body has been released today and the funeral will be the first week in May (5 weeks after his death) It's all a bit strange (long and very complicated family relationships) but should all pan out ok. I have various bits and pieces from his flat here, some to be freegled, some sold and proceeds to an animal charity and some to be incorporated into my house - which is meant to be being decluttered! Argh! Having seen how long it took to clear his flat (3 weeks with anything from 4 to 8 people in to help at a time) I am full of renewed resolve to make my house more ordered (his paperwork was a nightmare!!) and less cluttered so that, should something happen to both of us, no-one has to go through as much 'stuff' as we did at my dad's!!

I have, though, come away with some plant pots, a virtually new yard brush & half a large bag of compost for my garden I also dug up a small clump of bluebells from his garden. There were carpets of them, so I don't feel bad!

Thanks for the tip reIKEA bags - I was going to get some more potato bags, but have used 2 IKEA bags today instead - fantastic!

Am loving this weather - washing is drying so quickly. However, the bright light is highlighting all the grime in the house and areas for redecoration, so I need to tackle those too!

Am another one who needs to empty the freezer (but I did bring home my dad's small tabletop one with me, so I can move some stuff into there when I've cleaned it!!) but Tesco have had some fantastic fresh meat whoopsies recently!

kidcat

Greent - good that things are moving on now for you. I found clearing out my grandads place took ages and made everyone consider getting their own house in order unfortunately for me that meant my giving me all the stuff she took from my grandads with the argument " you will inherit it all anyway - this just cuts out the middle man!):rotfl::rotfl: of course she considers that she still owns the stuff so I cant get rid of it.

DD5 has come home with a note to say that school are celebrating the royal wedding with a special school dinner of .... wait for it...... sausage and chips!!:rotfl: I have no idea what they are thinking - I would be happy to ignore the wedding totally but feel if they plan to celebrate they should at least make it more special. DS7 on the other hand is having full blown street party next week to celebrate.

My courgette plants are now taking over the kitchen so tomorrow I am thinking I will have to try them outside in tubs. Running low on compost now though so am looking for a decent deal to buy more.

greent

kidcat wrote: »

Greent - good that things are moving on now for you. I found clearing out my grandads place took ages and made everyone consider getting their own house in order unfortunately for me that meant my giving me all the stuff she took from my grandads with the argument " you will inherit it all anyway - this just cuts out the middle man!):rotfl::rotfl: of course she considers that she still owns the stuff so I cant get rid of it.

DD5 has come home with a note to say that school are celebrating the royal wedding with a special school dinner of .... wait for it...... sausage and chips!!:rotfl: I have no idea what they are thinking - I would be happy to ignore the wedding totally but feel if they plan to celebrate they should at least make it more special. DS7 on the other hand is having full blown street party next week to celebrate.

My courgette plants are now taking over the kitchen so tomorrow I am thinking I will have to try them outside in tubs. Running low on compost now though so am looking for a decent deal to buy more.

LOL @ your mum!

Re courgettes, I have always grown them in tubs or grow-bags. Last year, however, I decided to try 1 of the same sort in each of a tub, a growbag and in the flower border:D The ones in teh border went crazy - bigger plants and far, far, far more courgettes on them, so I shall be planting all my courgettes into the ground this year - anyway, all my large pots will be full of potatoes and the smaller ones full of tomatoes, so no room for any courgettes :D

Athome1

lostinrates wrote: »

Oh dear....we do that. we get military planes occasionally and we wave and they fly backward and forward and we like to think we are useful as pretend target practise. ''Bomb those annoying people who keep waving from their garden'':o

we have beautiful weather again and all the animals are loving it.

Am a bit of a lurker but had to say this made me laugh out loud!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

kidcat

greent wrote: »

LOL @ your mum!

Re courgettes, I have always grown them in tubs or grow-bags. Last year, however, I decided to try 1 of the same sort in each of a tub, a growbag and in the flower border:D The ones in teh border went crazy - bigger plants and far, far, far more courgettes on them, so I shall be planting all my courgettes into the ground this year - anyway, all my large pots will be full of potatoes and the smaller ones full of tomatoes, so no room for any courgettes :D

I will be potting them in Ikea bags - next year they will go in the ground but with the house move I am limited to pots and bags. Got eight good sized plants and only me really eats them so am not too fussed if they dont go too wild this year
Need to break the news to OH that I want a raised planter building for next year - they are selling on ebay for £70:eek: I swear we could make one with all the bits of wood we have in the garage.

mardatha

Re vit D and 20 mins a day being the optimum for keeping your levels up - this means 20 mins a day per day all year. Not possible in the UK ! Personally I never use sunscreen ever, because if I feel like I'm starting to burn I just come in. I read that children are getting rickets again because their mothers are slathering them in sun block, which I think is totally mad. I think sunbeds are very bad -and too long in a hot foreign sun is bad but I dont think we can get enough sun here, let alone too much Like everything else, people need to keep a balance eh !