The Garden Fence - proper Old Style support and chat!

MrsCD

Polly, I still make soup the old way in a pan. I make enough to last us a few days, but if I want smooth soup I have a hand stick blender which only cost a few pounds ages ago.
I can see how a soup maker could be useful though.
I've just finished the ironing, the sheets are blowing on the line and I'll be popping up to Dad's shortly to do his cleaning and see how he is after his trip to hospital yesterday.
We have a lot to be thankful for.

LameWolf

I use a similar soupmaker to Mar's. In fact I got it a short while after she got hers, and seemed so pleased with it.

Best thing I ever did. I can't safely lift a pan of soup now, and it's just a question of saute the onions (in the soupmaker), then chuck everything else in, switch on, and let it do its thing. We now have soup on days I'm feeling too rough to cook a meal from scratch.

Someone was asking how to get rid of rats.... I recommend a Greyhound. This chap is named Noah, and he very nearly caught a squirrel when he stayed with us recently!

pollyanna_26

MrsCD said:

I mentioned bunting,  but we can keep it for burtha's hen party, then if we're having a party for the Queen's Jubilee. 
My exercise yesterday came about because my dad had to go to hospital for some treatment,  so DD drove us there,  we dropped him at the unit, then went on to Roker beach. We walked along the promenade then had a cuppa from the flask I took with us. By then Dad had rang to say he was almost done so we picked him up and got home by tea time.
It was a beautiful day and the water was perfect, just lapping on the shore.

ZolaBuddy said:

Well the sun has most definitively got his hat on today. Have had a most splendid day thus far, and now we're enjoying "high teas" on the patio with the sun beating down and not a cloud in the skies.

It's brief moments like thus where all my troubles are put to one side, and I am so glad to be where I am right now. 

Life is good, and so is this forum

Hope your dad is well Mrs CD. Lovely you got to Roker. I think good days are valued a lot more nowadays than in the past when we just expected them.

Since her most recent delayed until the Dentist had recovered from Covid treatment she's only been out once to a medical appt.

They decided to have a gentle amble down the road to the sandhills. A spot most tourists are unaware of but it's got a lot of flora and fauna and some good views.

Soup and breadmaker are gonig to make life easier for her.

. The sun had his hat on  here for a few days Zola. Chilly evenings and frosty nights and early mornings spoil it a bit but we enjoy what we can.

Those times when life feels good for whatever reason help. Sunny days with blue skies.The birds returning in relays from their winter hols in sunnier climes.

Spring bulbs ,tree blossom early little Welsh primroses  recued many years ago from railway ballast when my young son and died too young  1st husband were on their annual visit to work as volunteers on a prserved steaam railway in Wales.

They both prefered to travel by train so all those tiny cream primroses came home to me wrapped in damp newspaper . Al these years later the memories live on and they'll flower soon.

I need to get a drink and take a couple of painkilers 

pollyx

MrsCD

I have memory plants too. The drumstick primulas from one of Dad's eccentric friends, the creeping Jenny and pulmonaria from a teacher at the local school, who died far too early and was one of DD's favourites, various plants from Mam and Dad's garden, a weigela which followed us from FILs garden to our first house then here, etc etc. 

pollyanna_26

MrsCD said:

Polly, I still make soup the old way in a pan. I make enough to last us a few days, but if I want smooth soup I have a hand stick blender which only cost a few pounds ages ago.
I can see how a soup maker could be useful though.
I've just finished the ironing, the sheets are blowing on the line and I'll be popping up to Dad's shortly to do his cleaning and see how he is after his trip to hospital yesterday.
We have a lot to be thankful for.

I always made my soups in pans. The Gary Rhodes one was the  best pretty well every vegetable was in the garden. Not Celery Dad and the Grandads had grown it but whatever I tried it didn't do well.The pans were original high quality  Prestige before they sold their brand .

1 big saucepan, 2 medium ! small and a milk pan. The most useful item was a matching lidded steamer  which rested on the medium pans. I could have sliced carrots cooking in the pan and chopped white cabbage with a sprinkle of white pepper slowly steaming above it.

I still have the pans but in recent years I've struggled to carry or drain  heavy pans.

The Chef has a glass liquidiser which does get used but the thing with the Gary Rhodes soup is I don't want it smooth. One of the things I like is the mix of veg that don't lose their colours or texture and keep their flavour. So  wondering is  whether rather than putting everything in I can add in stages not blending at all.

Don't want to ask youngest to try it she's tired after her walk to the sandhills and back and needs to rest for her Dental appt.

She's already offered to restore my missing homepage which is very annHe was very good with the Dell dilemmas.

Your mention of the washing on line reminded me I don't really notice itnowadays.Living alone recently I don't do the huge amounts of washing of the past all the bedding ,clothes and everything. It used to feel like a laundry. Summer of 76 inslalling the fences we'd be ducking under washing driyng in the heat very quickly.

pollyx

burtha

bunting for the wedding is on my list of things I need to finish when I'm home ,  mostly cream but using a mix of old shirts for the mix of colours flags.. its a bit different lol . 

soul making machines I can see advantages of if big pans and lifting is a problem..  I use a stick blender when I need to .. love  doing JO spicy parsnip soup  .

home tomorrow  fingers crossed the kids have remembered to water plants and house won't be upside down .. 
worked out how much our 10 days away has cost us ..the only real expense was fule . 40p price difference in some areas .. apart from that 1 food shop before we left , , eating out treats was some chips and a couple of cakes 

realise we are very lucky . 

on the down side the heating/ boiler broke 2 days ago in the van .. 
pan of water to get washed in   hey ho .  
frog has been looking at parts to fix it , fingers crossed. 

x

pollyanna_26

MrsCD said:

I have memory plants too. The drumstick primulas from one of Dad's eccentric friends, the creeping Jenny and pulmonaria from a teacher at the local school, who died far too early and was one of DD's favourites, various plants from Mam and Dad's garden, a weigela which followed us from FILs garden to our first house then here, etc etc. 

I need to be careful just been replying to Wolfie via her quote and the Laptop had a Hissy Fit and I had to close it down for a while.

IIt took a while to realise I had memory plants in the garden. Mum loved Sweet William and Dad one of the Grandads or sometimes all three would bring her bunches from their allotments. I grew Sweet Wiliam too. The Pot Marigolds are the memory of Dad andt the Grandads  telling me to scatter the seeds when the flowers were withering . So they flower here each summer.

Mum also loved lilac so there are three different coloured lilacs.

 One for mum ,one for a fellow teacher who died too young and third became in memory of Terry Pratchett. youngest still wears the lilac on wear the lilac day.

Different coloured Rosemarys were planted over the years. One for Ollie Mog on his final resting place. One for his and our beloved Freddie who'd gone before and one for my favourite who Auntie taught me so much and probably saved my life when she ran for the Doctor.

The odd thing about those tiny pale Welsh Primroses was they used to flower aound his and DD1s  August birthdays. We came home after his spring funeral and they'd started to flower . I'm not really a believer in an afterlife the bad religious expereinces put me off organised religion in my teens.

It was the visit to the Cathedral my non religious husband uesd to pop in to as he loved the architecture and feeling of peace that helped the healing. One quietly spoken man in a dog collar who asked if I was ok. no I wasn't I was angry at something pointless and unfair happening to someone who didn't deserve to suffer and had his life ruined the night of the attack.

Quiet gentle words started to make sense. Could I have prevented it , changed it.No. Did I wanted myself and the children to live with anger and bitterness. No. I felt a sense of relief. No one can change the past but they can remember the good times and be grateful for those memories.

My husband lost his ability to remember things after that night but remembered all the years before and the good times.

I have watched that man many times in the last few years since I recognised him on the Tv news.

Talking about loss worry those struggling to manage and mental health difficulties including his own. I'll never know what made me visit rhat cathedral for the first  time though we'd walked past it with mum many times visiting the Georgian Quarter.

I like the idea of memory plants. When I planted my surprise  Nye Bevan rose I was thinking of when I used to listen to my parents and aunts and uncles discussing the memories childhood  and all way through WW2 and the aftermath.

I was also remembering my mum complaining she and dad had to pay the Doctor  and Midwife for my home birth a few days before the NHS went live which seemed to be my fault.

As i planted the Rose I said there you go mum  complain to Nye.

pollyx

pollyanna_26

It's the chucking everything in that's the problem Wolfie.Soup makers are quick so I can't see how can make the add things in stages one after the other.

When heavy pans became a problem I tried making the soup in the combi microwave it didn't work well a lot of lifting the pyrex dish in and out putting it on a worktop to give it a good stir a number of times but some veg was overcooked some under.

Things like Tomato and Basil, Carrot and Coriander and others would be straightforward but I think the much missed Gary Rhodes  put is heart, soul and a lot of veg into that soup.The most straightforward  bit is adding finely chopped parsley near the end.

Probably best I ask a few of those who've asked for the recipe or bought the book over the years if they've tried it in a soupmaker without blending managing to add things in stages.

I like the look of Noah but don't like rodents.and steered the offspring towards rescued kittens and cats.

It's nice to see the pics again Wolfie.

pollyx

mothernerd

I used to have 5 washing lines - everything went out and I'd pick what came in, usually the boys' school uniform. I was happy to leave sheets and towels out and if they got rained on, that was extra rinsing. Having damp washing all over the house depresses me.  Mum used to drive me up the wall by putting washing out and if a cloud appeared 5 mins later, it all had to come in again. In the days when she still could, she'd be up and down the yard all day.

DS2 came back from uni one summer with mountains of 'clean' washing. Unfortunately he and his housemates were smokers and I couldn't stand the smell and had to rewash it all then rig up makeshift lines (car tow rope from the post to one of the fence posts) to hold as much as possible until the fresh air overcame the roiling smoke smell.

Think that was the year I phoned DS1 to ask when he might be coming to collect his stuff. He'd moved out a year before (he and his then gf had moved back in after their rented cottage flooded with run off from the fields) but all his furniture and some belongings was in the biggest bedroom. He was very huffy with me but my problem was that I wanted 3 tonnes of top soil delivered and I had visions of him trying to move furniture out of the house, DS2 moving uni stuff back in and me trying to deal with the topsoil mountain in the middle. 

LameWolf

Polly I loathe and detest cooking,so I steer clear of recipes that need attending to multiple times during their creation. I prefer to stick with things that you just chuck everything in together, bung it in the oven (or microwave, or soupmaker) and leave it to get on with it.

I know a lot of people say they find baking soothing, and enjoy doing it; I'm afraid even that is done because I HAVE to, not because I WANT to. (I refuse to feed DH ready-meals and shop bought desserts).

There you go - each to their own. I wish I did enjoy cooking and/or baking, but I don't.