Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

lostinrates

silvercar wrote: »

Pluses of water softener - you use less detergent/ shampoos etc, water tastes drinkable, your boilers/ central heating systems/ kettles don't get scaled up.

I would love one but we've been advised that we could have pin pr1ck holes throughout our central heating system that would be exposed (ie leak) if we softened the water.

the salt kind of water softener MUST NOT enter drinking system. This of course means in most kitchens not the washing maschine or dishwasher either.,....so the life of the appliances you are trying to extend is not impacted at all.

Water softened with the salt system has already killed pets.

Hard water is also better for dental and bone health (I think!). Drawing water and leaving it in a jug remains the best MSE tip I've ever had though, for making it taste decent. (its still not as good as aqua di panna but its drinkable)

lostinrates

misskool wrote: »

thanks everyone. they were in the bin. must have chucked them away by accident while tidying.

now to dig up the potatoes while wearing them. and buying a bowl tomorrow. OH trying not to laugh.

HURRAH...feel better now? Its horrid horrid, I really do know. But when we lost ours after a few tears I concluded I'd rather lose the rings but have hung on to the guy than the other way round.

Because of my memeory problems the bowl is a HUGE godsend and saves me heart failure regularly.

lostinrates

misskool wrote: »

Oh, mine has claws (and they catch everything) which is why i take them off so much (but never again!!)

might go and see if it would be worth changing it to a different setting. then again, the ring is vintage bought from an auction on a whim so i love it.

decisions decisions.

A chain with a strong but easy catch, long enough to tuck down inside top so save to wear next to skin in lab situation/garden and off your fingers?

zagubov

Generali wrote: »

I remember visiting Yugoslavia in the mid-80s and everyone watched Italian TV. People seemed pretty relaxed about it. They weren't part of the Warsaw Pact which might have had something to do with it.
.

I visited Yugoslavia at a similar time and they had travel agents there selling Spanish and Greek holidays priced in Dinars so I think they were well relaxed about foreign contact.

In fact I seem to recall Yugoslavia sent whole villages to compete in "It's a Knockout". Inconceivable for a Warsaw Pact country to risk that- they might never return!

I changed planes in Prague during that holiday. Very oppresive. Tanks stationed around the airport etc. security everywhere. The communist countries weren't all the same, I'm realising now.

lostinrates

I want a mini digger AND a cement mixer, so there


our blackberries are good again, nice fat ones, coming through thickly now. There WAS a puff ball which I would have got for misskool but the chickens decimated it befor I'd seen it. There may yet be more, we had a few last year. If I see one I'll put a cage over it !

Davesnave

tomterm8 wrote: »

To be honest, with minidiggers, we just rent when we need them. They are only £55 or so a day. Compared to £5k and it sitting round 90% of the time decaying.

But a mixer would really be useful... because with concrete, we tend to not use much in one go, and have to wait for it to set, it never really makes sense to hire them and we end up doing it by hand.

A digger + dumper + man who knows what he's doing with it is only about £90 a day here, at mates rates, but he drinks a lot of tea!

Although we've moved an estimated 100+ tonnes of soil/stones, one of the other useful things the digger's done is remove and replant trees. So far, every one we've shifted has recovered.

If you are going for a mixer, get a Belle. I bought mine in 1987 and it lived outside until 2009, protected by just a couple of coats of Hammerite. Still going well....:D

misskool

lostinrates wrote: »

A chain with a strong but easy catch, long enough to tuck down inside top so save to wear next to skin in lab situation/garden and off your fingers?

omg, i'm in love with lir today. what a great idea.

tomorrow is chain shopping day and bowl shopping day.

silvercar

I thought puffballs were skirts!

From wiki:
"While most puffballs are not poisonous, some often look similar to young agarics, especially the deadly Amanitas, such as the Death Cap mushroom. It is for this reason that all puffballs gathered in mushroom hunting should be cut in half lengthwise. Young puffballs in the edible stage have undifferentiated white flesh within; whereas the gills of immature Amanita mushrooms can be seen if they are closely examined.


Puffball mushrooms on sale at a market in England.
The giant puffball, Calvatia gigantea (earlier classified as Lycoperdon giganteum), reaches a foot (30 cm) or more in diameter, and is difficult to mistake for any other fungus. It has been estimated that a large specimen of this fungus when mature will produce around 7 × 10¹² spores. If collected before spores have formed, while the flesh is still white, it may be cooked as slices fried in butter, with a strong earthy, mushroom flavor. It can often be used in recipes that would ordinarily call for eggplant. It does not store well in a freezer - the entire freezer rapidly acquires a strong mushroom smell.
Not all true puffball mushrooms are without stalk. Some may also be stalked like the Podaxis pistillaris which is also called the False Shaggy Mane. On the other hand, there are a number of false puffballs that look similar to the true ones."

So nice people should be careful what they are eating, as should not so nice people.

tomterm8

Er, puffballs in the UK refer to a different fungi than the wikipedia puffball which is american.

Our one is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_puffball and is easily distinguished, since it is very large.

It is very nice when fried with smoked bacon.

lostinrates

tomterm8 wrote: »

Er, puffballs in the UK refer to a different fungi than the wikipedia puffball which is american.

Our one is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_puffball and is easily distinguished, since it is very large.

It is very nice when fried with smoked bacon.

Have to admit, its not my favourite mushroom. Last year we tried slicing it and dipping in egg then bread crumbs then frying. The idea has legs IMO...perhaps as a fried mozzerella sandwich instead of using bread, or perhaps instead of aubergine in a parmigiana. But I loove aubergine too much to replace with anything else!