Get a grip woman!

themadvix

Thanks ladies re the loaf tins - will check out the 3lber.

Oh, the boysenberry sounds interesting - do they grow well in our climate? Not that I've had boysenberries, but I've read a lot about them being a Californian speciality.

Suffolk_lass

I've never tried one either but they sounded nice (and not too prickly). They are a hybrid of european raspberry, blackberry, dewberry and loganberry (itself a hybrid of certain raspberry and blackberry!) - the advice suggests full sun and good in container with a slightly acid soil. We will see. It will be in a big pot this year and hopefully the trellis we are removing will be replaced by next year and that will give it a nice sunny place to be in the ground, once its a bit bigger.

themadvix

Sounds good, thanks for the description. One for the future garden, I think. This year I'm just looking forward to my raspberries

Karmacat

That does sound good!   With being stuck at home so much, I'm coming around to growing in containers - last year, between holidays, visiting family and catsitting, I was away for 8 weeks, containers were really impractical without a watering system.

Suffolk_lass

Yesterday I spent hours, literally, sewing together a couple of bags from a sheet and some laces for my NHS neighbour, so he has a hot-wash laundry bag to bring his clothes from work home in. My sewing machine dates back donkeys years, the book includes variations for a treadle and a hand-turn wheel! Anyway, it has not been serviced since I was given it by my Grandmother when she bought her "new" one while I lived at home, maybe 40 years ago. So it was a bit of a battle.

I am kidding myself I will get the book out (which I have because my Grandfather loved attachments and instruction books - don't ask!) and do it myself. Yeah right! When Hell freezes over, as they say. Who am I kidding? It needs lubricating and cleaning. I could do a 6000 mile service and then get the 12000 mile service done by a grown up in due course.

shangaijimmy

When in doubt spray WD40 on everything that moves and hope for the best. Thats all I would have I'm afraid!

rtandon27

SL - how 'manual' and 'solid' is your machine - some of the older (less plastic) models respond very well to olive or vegetable oil on the end of a q-tip (cotton bud?) dabbed on the gears gently - RT

Suffolk_lass

Thanks both but you are talking to the woman with three cans of 3-in-1 oil - one for the travel kit, one was in my desk at work, and one in the downstairs loo on the window-sill (so I know where it is) - it will be light enough. Jimmy, WD40 is actually a solvent so removing old oil and grease, great, but not for oiling the moving parts (sorry, I know that is nerdy but it will be our 30th wedding anniversary this year and I am married to an engineer-recently-retired-resistant-materials-D&T-teacher - I have to know these things). My machine is so old it has little oil holes, covered with screws. I am hoping to just ease these, rather than have to disassemble it. The only plastic (and it might be 'bakelite') is the foot operated power to the needle thing and the lamp cover. All else is very much metal and weighs a ton. I would not swap it for a new one. It is part of my heritage 

Karmacat

Wow.  Just, wow.  Wonderful, SL!

themadvix

Suffolk_lass said:

(sorry, I know that is nerdy but it will be our 30th wedding anniversary this year and I am married to an engineer-recently-retired-resistant-materials-D&T-teacher - I have to know these things). 

I concur that this is required knowledge as wife of engineer!