Breaking Through, Travelling On

Karmacat · 20 April 2017 at 10:22AM

Hi Watty! Somehow that reminded me of dandelion leaves! Must go for them too.

ZTD · 20 April 2017 at 11:08AM

Karmacat wrote: »

It means set me up for a fall - parade me on *her* version of Circles of the Strange. Given the religious funding, possibly as a heretic? Satanist? Who knows!

I don't really see the problem with wishing to be smooth and glossy with a supple structure. Oh no - that's a Satinist - my mistake...

Karmacat wrote: »

I like the Circles of the Strange :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: all my interests lie there, except for genealogy and cats but everyone else there is mad, except me

Most of my interest lie in the scientific end of the spectrum - and there's the con-artists, the fruit cakes and the vacuous there too...

Karmacat wrote: »

Not a problem! You can do apple rings (though I'll wait to experiment with that till the apples are ready later this year, there are dozens round here that go begging each year). My ambition, though, is to dry different "greens" - lemon balm, nettles,

Just be aware that the folk name - "piddlybeds" is there for a reason...

Karmacat wrote: »

blackberry leaves, rosemary, hawthorn, chives, good king henry, anything and all thats **green** and end up making my own salsa and pesto - must get some basil plants going very very soon!

I'm chuffed at the response to the email enquiry from the journalist. My anonymous email is now *fully* anonymous, I finally figured out how to change the name its sent from, to the pseudonym I chose for my kindle books, feel very happy about that.

You should have just asked...

Karmacat wrote: »

And KnitWitch - I blanded my response right down, stopped editorialising, basically, just "please send me your questions and we'll see".

And now you'll be asked if you've ever followed the teachings of the Reverend Sun Yat Moomin...

Karmacat · 20 April 2017 at 9:43PM

Evening all! I took a loooong time off in the middle of the day ... I'm retired, I can do that! But it had consequences. Still:
- got the yahoo email anonymised, as above, still chuffed.
- distracted myself by writing lots of the questionnaire also discussed above, oops.
- made portions of lentil mix, covering a few days - *so* easy, why don't I do this more?
- more weeding. Box hedge, some brambles that weren't dug up in February, just cut back, and lots of grass - my blackcurrant bush can breathe more easily

- sorted out, once and for all, if I could double my storage space by getting one of my blogs hosted on weebly for free, since my old work website will be taken down in August and technically there'll be a spot opening up. They've changed the options over there, a site with its own domain name would no longer be free. At least I know. Minimum option from them would cost US $120, over two years. Two years at my present host would currently be £30 for two years, and even if I increased everything five-fold, it would only be £70.

I really wanted to do a bit more, but so it goes ...

EatingTheElephant · 20 April 2017 at 9:54PM

You have attracted some interesting emails, most of my strange emails are boring ones trying to get you to click on something and hand over all your details.

Karmacat · 20 April 2017 at 9:57PM

Boring can be good! It gives me time to write blog posts! And I could really do without the freegler ... if the premium bond people ever want to send me an email, though, that'll be fine

EatingTheElephant · 20 April 2017 at 10:18PM

Many years ago I spoofed an email from Father Christmas to my Mil to show her she shouldn't believe that emails were from who they said they were from. I'm not sure it really sunk in though, but she does often ask us now if she isn't sure of something she receives which is good.

Karmacat · 21 April 2017 at 8:55AM

Oh thats good! I think one of the most powerful instruments I've ever learned to guard against fake emails is something Martin wrote: if you see something in your email listing and you're not sure, **hover** over the listing about who its from: it will show you who its **really** from. I do that a lot nowadays.

I'm actually going to a food shop today :rotfl: I do that very rarely, but needs must. Unfortunately, it will be Waitrose, so the absolute minimum will be bought :rotfl: after that, its back to the to-do list for this week.

edinburgher · 21 April 2017 at 12:25PM

KC - can you give me some pointers on how to restore a flower bed?

It's currently covered with gravel, weeds and some ratty looking landscaping fabric. I'd like to plant a bed of forget me nots and some nice bulbs for next year. Can you point out any missing/unnecessary steps?

Remove existing gravel
Take up landscaping fabric
Weed as required
Turn over the soil (can I use a fork for this?)
Put down some compost (not sure if I need to, but soil has been covered for years, so might be a bit inhospitable for plants?)
Plant stuff
Water

Karmacat · 22 April 2017 at 9:02AM

Ed, that sounds fine, and using a garden fork and adding some fresh soil will help things do well, I'm sure. The only extra steps I'd put in are these:
- let it "sit" for a while before you plant, just a couple of weeks or so - when you work the soil like that, seeds that have been dormant for ages may suddenly sprout up, and if you can nab them immediately, it helps.
- use your own form of weed suppressant. Bark chippings? From any DIY store - I actually got some bags delivered recently, along with soil and a few non-garden things, from Wilko (£4 with ridiculously long delivery schedule, £8 for planned time). Your planting will look sparse at first, before your plants mature, and if you don't take precautions, your flowerbed will be covered with weeds all over again.

What's the site like? Will forget me nots like it there? Do you want bulbs that bloom at other times of year? I understand you may not, if I follow what you're thinking.

HTH

Karmacat · 22 April 2017 at 1:55PM

Just read a very interesting article in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2017/apr/22/save-40-a-week-retirement-which-report
Basically saying that to get to what Which call "the average spend of £26,000 a year in retirement (!!!!!!??? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:) that when the state pension is taken into account, a couple only need savings of £152,000 to achieve this (they say spending falls in people's late 70s, so will spend less).

Hmmm! Since I haven't earned £26k for an awfully long time, let alone need a *pension* of that much, and I have other monies to come not currently included in my calculation of Net Worth (i.e. my French apartment, my inheritance, and equity release on my current house) - then the difference between the above £152k and my current £122,188 is **sucks teeth** £29,812.

And of course I only have one state pension, not two, because I'm not a couple :rotfl: But as I get more free of the backlog of tasks on the house and garden, I might see my way clear to that new target. I think I might up the target in my sig to remind me of this.

:j

Off to do the garden now - I just love edible planting

Breaking Through, Travelling On

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free