General Chat

Hi Y'all

Veronica we have a small bread machine but now Norm is using the Kitchen Aid and the dough hook and making amazing loaves with no hand kneeding, the machine does it all.

Good to chat the other day JA. Hope things improve, honey. I did sell another dozen aprons and now have one more show this tuesday. Then I am not sewing until the New Year...my poor old eyes are weary. What I would really like to do is curl up with a good book in a cozy blanky and vegetate!!! We know eh!!!

Edith it will take you ages to wade thru all these posts so be careful with those new eyes. You are sounding like your old self again....fabulous.

We have friends here this weekend so will keep this short. Thanks again to Fred and Mary for keeping us going. BTW Diane did you ever get an answer to your letter.....do you want me to phone for you....pm me.

I'm off to you know where to do you know what.
Lesxx

I wore out my old bread machine a few years ago and yesterday replaced it. Canadian Tire had a Black & Decker one on sale at 50% off - how could I not get it!! really!!

Anyway the first loaf was a disaster so I went out and bought different flour today a Robin Hood Brand multi-grain one. They don't have a single breadmachine recipe on their website for this flour but under product information recommend it for use in a Bread Machine - go figure, anyway I am going to make a white loaf recipe and substitute the multi-grain flour - can't be much worse than the one I made yesterday.

Wish me luck.

Keith is doing really well, wounds are healing nicely and the energy level is getting back to more like normal, although having said that he is being very, very patient and doing as he is told.

All for now

Hugs for all who need it

Veronica

Edith so good to see you are here and know things are going OK
been praying
Sorry no phone call .VP may have told you how thigns are with the JA family -been on the phone lots to UK and Adelaide - news not the best - on standby to fly home for Mum and Dad, but torn as Adelaide calls too especailly GS whose Mum is so unwell

Enough of that

Hi everyone hope all is going well. Veronica, that Keith is continuing to improve, I well remember when we were concerned for Fred of Totteridge Lane, and as we know he came back a Badger full of life and vim and lovely recipes and tales which bring joy to us all
~~~~~~~~~~~~to everyone else
Did you sell much more VP?
It takes a while to sink into this thread people, but it happens as we all get to know what goes on so keep posting please :) And many firm friendships have come out of us knowing eachother so hang in with us. There is always lots of support form around the world, as well as lots of fun (and yes I am a lousey typist, sometimes more than others when I am tired but as VP would say, what the heck :)

JA

Something was nagging at me about this thread ,and though i was busy on family history ,i thought i had better have a look.
Yey,welcome back Edith ,cor ,you ain't half been missed lady.
Glad to hear you have your headlamps back,and in working order too ,brilliant,they will soon settle down ,and you will be off jogging again he he.
At the very least ,you will be able to watch for your tomatoes turning red next year.
Well ,things here are hotting up,i won my little battle with the boss ,and got my lantern, christmas tree lights,only thing is ,they come in bits and have to be put together.
Thought they would be ideal too ,for Hissy,low voltage in case she attacks a wire,and waterproof for the same reason.
The weather is taking a turn for the worst here,minus 3 to 4 tonight ,so it looks as though the winter is a little early this year,never mind though,it may just mean an early spring too.
I don't mind anymore ,it isn't as though i Have to go out in it to work,only trouble is ,i have just bought some Bluebell bulbs which need in ,sharpish,but i will have to wait till the ground thaws out a bit.
The missus is making two big pans of country soup up,one to split between the two sons ,and daughter,and one for us for the freezer,and i can smell the ham shank from here [yum],there,should be enough of meat left for me to make pea and ham soup for tomorrows tea.
Hope everyone is looking forward to the weekend folks,make the most of it he he ,we are then into december and santi' claus lol,all my grandbairns are getting exited already.
Catch you again tomorrow.Fred.

Welcome back Edith.. So good to see you here again..Don'T overdo it and take your time getting used to things again..A little at a time.
Big Hugs...

Veronica What a great time you have had.. I have found a connection in Worcester who is helping me,,She is a great help..I was stuck and she came to my aid with a answer...now I can move on a little..

Hoping to get a little holiday near Christmas.. Will wait and see how John is and take it one day at a time..May be going up to Orange to the daughters and stopping off here and there on the way..

Hope all are well and keeping out of mischief..

Love mary xxxxx

Welcome back Edith - don't do too much reading especially from the computer screen.

Veronica

Hello all, Like Arnold I'm baaack.
The surgery went well except everything is very bright now. Also my right eye is adjusting to having help again so I get quite wonky from time to time. Feel like the song"with his one eye on the pot and the other up the chimney".
Look forward to getting all the stuff ready for Christmas now that I can see what I'm doing. !!!!!
Haven't had time to read back yet but will try tonite. Hope you are all well.
See you soon. Edith

Hi all

I have spent the whole day doing research. My cousin Gwyneth who lives in Edinburgh and I have been emailing backwards and forwards and even called each other twice.

Had lots of luck with 3 of our grandfathers siblings.

William Brown Macdougall was an artist and illustrator

Robert Ernest macdougall & his wife Kitty seemed to have lived in Shanghai and sailed backwards and forwards to Vancouver/Seatle in the early 1900's

John Cyril Macdougall shows up twice on ships lists into New York from Scotland and into Vancouver from Shanghai the later giving his wife who I didn't know existeds name and their address in Shanghai.

Quite the day and it has kept me out of mischief for several hours.

Now I need to find the birth record of a child who appears to have been born in China/Hong Kong in about 1912 - Any Ideas.

Wet and cool today so what a better way to while away the hours.

V

Hello everyone, we had snow yesterday in Durham it was a bit of a shock to the system, global warming... ha bring it on I say... Pleased your sewing days have paid off for you Lesley, its kept you out of mischief??? Just started a little christmas shopping, can't seem to get into it yet, I'll have to get a move on!! Hope everyone is keeping well. Take Care

hi lesley glad you had such a good time at the xmas fair two of the ladies in my building do a craft sale about three times a year I envy you all who can do crafts my talents are in reading only failed sewing at school many years ago, I have a baby dress that I was supposed to smock and it it is still not finished 52yrs later, the wood stove sounds like a great thing to have, the weather in barrie is cold wet and more snow later to-day, the ski hills opened on the week-end and where very busy I am sure they are hoping that they will pick up more business with the cost of travelling across the country that more people will come their way bye for now dorothy

Hi Fred and Mary,

Great that you are keeping us all going.

I am exhausted from 3 days at the Christmas Market but it was a great time. Lots of nice folks, made some good sales....great fun. This was the first year that they opened the Mill site and allowed crafters in the old cottages. It was set up as a turn of the century village....very cute. Everywhere was covered in lites and we had hay rides and carol singers, even a band on saturday. The steam train ran from the Mill out to the winery and did two trips a day. We all waited eagerly as the tipsy's came back!! 'cos we knew they'd spend a little lolly. Great weekend!! Now I thought I'd be finished with this sewing malarky for now but the Local Christian Women's assoc. asked me to be a vendor at their xmas bazaar which is next tuesday....I am shackled to that bloody machine!!! and I still need to sew the apron for Edith's granddaughter.

And speaking of Edith, she had her other eye done today so say a little prayer for her. I know that she will soon be able to be back on here, just a-raring to go.

They called for snow today but so far it has held off. We will need to get the winter tires on pretty quick just to be on the safe side. Because we were gone everyday for those three days the house cooled down. We have been keeping it toasty with just the woodstove in the basement but of course we weren't here to stoke it. So today Norm has been force feeding it and the heat is just belching out...nice and warm again.

Short and sweet today. Hi to everyone.
Lesxx

Hi Fred... I have my Tom Tom and very pleased I am with it to..I am thanking our prime minister for it and did what he said,,go and spend it,,so I did...lol...Have programmed it into my puta and picked a nice mans english voice..so that I can pretend that I am on hols in the UK.......lol..

Had a busy day today so now all my chores are finished I am gonna rest..We are working on a new add for this retirement village and want to sell all the remaining units that are for sale.There are not that many but the village operator is anxious as we dont get our money till they are sold..so they are a liability..not an asset..

Might do some FH so see yaall later..

Love to all..Mary xxx

Moring all ,And Mary,who says she is buying a Tom-Tom,and i thought you werere happy with John he he,,Yes ,the tom tom is a very good make ,but i think they take the water with their prices,far higher than all the other makes,but ,no mater Old chum,it will prove a boon to you,PROVIDING you set it properly.
A mate of mine set his away to go to some little village inLincolnshire,put the wrong area code in and went to another place of the same name 150 miles away lol,which isn't much of a distance to you oz crowd ,but it made him three hours late .
I see your weather in NSW has gotten even worse than it was ,with unseasonable snow and freezing temperatures in parts as well as howling gales.
It isn't so bad here ,i put the temostate up 1 degree last night,and battened down the hatches because we have the white stuff too.
After a life time of getting up early in the morning ,i can't stay in bed now ,so i was up at five again,and did a couple of hours of family history,beforer getting the cat her breckie ,and still she wound herself around and between my legs,'till i suddenly realised that i hadn't given her her milk that she gets every two mornings [who says cats are daft]?
I opened the door for her to go out and do her usual visit to the boyfriend,she stuck her nose through the portal,saw the snow ,and shot back into the dining room,sat under the table to sulk for a while ,before joining me as i was doing the family history on the puter.
Ten minutes ago ,i opened the blinds to reveal a whiteout ,with it still snowing ,Hissy had a quick look and shot back upstairs to bed with the missus.
With the weather today i think something nice and warming for dinner,bacon badger comes to mind ,along with bubble & squeek made with the last of the cabbage ,and potato from yesterday.
I think i will slope off now ,and attempt to order a marriage certificate for one of my Bird family,hoping that this will allow me to link him up with a ;long line of birds from Stokenchurch oxfordshire.
I have a few from the bucks area too ,and hope this certificate will give me the connection i am after,aas once i know his fathers name i can order the birth certificate too,and get the info on both of his parents.
I will ttry to get back later ,once the wife ,and Chris have had enough of my puter for the day.Fred.

Hi everyone We have had some beautiful days but I feel sorry for the Brisbane ites who have had some terrible storms and gale force winds and rain and hail,,Many homes lost their roofs and trees falling on houses damaging them beyond repair..It seemed to make a path through certain suburbs and others were not touched,,Weather is funny some times,,

Fred you certainly sound like you had a great birthday..Now that the summer is over you can now relax a bit and let the garden freeze up..lol.. until next spring that is..lol..I am very proud of how you have managed the corned beef,, you are a very brave man,,It could be that we have it all dont for us and are amazed when someone decides to do it themselves..The Aussies are very spoilt...That freezer sound like it is chockers and will last you right through winter and next spring..well done..
Gonna buy myself a Tom Tom Fred.. got the one I want and am getting it tomorrow,,A bit dearer than your In Car navigation but as our dear Prime Minister is giving us pensioners $1000 Christmas Present I though why not as it is one of the best we can get in OZ and we might pull ourselves out of a deeper recession..hee hee hee hee ..If the Prime minister says spend..who am I to say no..especially when he is giving me the money to do it with..

Veronica Glad to hear that Kieth is ok,, Tell him my brother who has just had a bypass is still getting a little back pain but that is normal..I suppose that if they cut you down the middle to open you up its gotta affect the back as it is all connected in one piece..time is the main healer so tell him not to get impatient..and done overdo it..listen to Fred...
It must be getting cold now if you are getting snow...bbbrrrr,,give me my lovely Sydney winters..love them...

Les.. Have you saved enough to come over to OZ yet..keep sewing..what ya doing reading this...get back to that machine...pppp,,, pmsl...Luv ya..

Edith I suppose that you find it hard to read this,,If you can big hugs ...


Deb Thanks for the little chuckle.. Lovely to see you drop in...

Diane,, How is the cake,, I am lazy and buy mine.. We have a charity who makes them so I think I will kill two birds with one stone..get a nice cake and donate to charity at the same time...lol


Hi to Christine and Dorothy...Hope you are all well and getting ready for Christmas..Gosh it comes around fast..Only seems like a few months ago that it was Christmas..I bet that on the day after Christmas the shops bring out Easter Eggs,, They must have a timetable that is the same every year..Do your shops do that also..I get quite angry as they commercialise everything these days.

Sylvia Hope things are ok with you and Norman is not to much of a problem,,Big hugs..

Have a nice weekend all and hope all are well and hugs for them that are not to good..

Love Mary xxxx

Morning Veronica,,we have the same club over here lol,so Keith has a bigger membership than he thought,tell him the tirdness does wear off,and so long as he dosn't go daft ,he should go on fine.
I am back to doing my garden,and so long as i take my time it's okay,but four years on ,if i overdo it i still get pains across my back and shoulders ,it's just a matter of knowing your limitations,no track running ,or heavy lifting he he.
Liz and i still were a little stuffed yesterday evening so we decided to leave that tail of corned beef for today and had a bowl of noodles each for tea,and very nice it was.
I have sliced the whole joint up this morning and have it down in the freezer for meals later on.
Cor ,Mary ,you started Liz and me off on a mission with our own beef ,not out of a tin,which is called bully beef over here.
This batch old buddy ,is spot on,a lovely shade of pink this time ,and tastes divine,i even found the juniper berries for it this time ,and proper cinniman sticks,not the powder,you would have been proud of me ,and i had to taste a morsal to insure it was kosher,mmmmmmmm,even hissy scranned the little crumbs that were left from the carving.
I may just get a couple of panninies out of the freezer,get the press out ,and shred some beef ,and add the usual bits and pieces including emmental cheese and do panninies for dinner with a few chips ,instead of a roast,i could even then freeze the rest of the tail for another day.
The weather here this morning is really naff ,the snow clouds are gathering ,and i reckon we are due a real blow too,but they do say we could be into blizzards.
Not too botherred ,i have plenty of stuff in,and if we lose the powere we have gas heaters on standby,and our camping stove in the shed,and hell ,if it comes to the worst,i can put on me cap ,coat and scarf ,and do a B B Q
on the patio ,and stuff the weather.he he.
Edith ,you hang in there petal,we are all thinking of you,and are praying for your swift recovery,and return to the fold.
Veronica ,i heard from the other thread about kieth,and his membership to the club,he is now in good company lol.
It will be about three months before he is fit to go skating again,but if he behaves himself he should be soon back to normal,heck ,i am digging my garden again,fishing ,doing the houswork ,whatever.
He will of course even months ahead get maybe ,shoulder ,backpain if he over exerts himself ,but that is just a bodily warning that he is overdoing it,and as soon as he slows down a tad ,he will be okay.
In the meantime get him under the thumb to make sure he will do as he is told he he.
Gonna slide out into the garden now ,to get a bit of veg' out just in case we get a white out lol,see ya all later.Fred.
P.S my zip has all but gone ,so it Kieth is a bit iffy about it,they normally fade after a while.

Morning Veronica,,we have the same club over here lol,so Keith has a bigger membership than he thought,tell him the tirdness does wear off,and so long as he dosn't go daft ,he should go on fine.
I am back to doing my garden,and so long as i take my time it's okay,but four years on ,if i overdo it i still get pains across my back and shoulders ,it's just a matter of knowing your limitations,no track running ,or heavy lifting he he.
Liz and i still were a little stuffed yesterday evening so we decided to leave that tail of corned beef for today and had a bowl of noodles each for tea,and very nice it was.
I have sliced the whole joint up this morning and have it down in the freezer for meals later on.
Cor ,Mary ,you started Liz and me off on a mission with our own beef ,not out of a tin,which is called bully beef over here.
This batch old buddy ,is spot on,a lovely shade of pink this time ,and tastes divine,i even found the juniper berries for it this time ,and proper cinniman sticks,not the powder,you would have been proud of me ,and i had to taste a morsal to insure it was kosher,mmmmmmmm,even hissy scranned the little crumbs that were left from the carving.
I may just get a couple of panninies out of the freezer,get the press out ,and shred some beef ,and add the usual bits and pieces including emmental cheese and do panninies for dinner with a few chips ,instead of a roast,i could even then freeze the rest of the tail for another day.
The weather here this morning is really naff ,the snow clouds are gathering ,and i reckon we are due a real blow too,but they do say we could be into blizzards.
Not too botherred ,i have plenty of stuff in,and if we lose the powere we have gas heaters on standby,and our camping stove in the shed,and hell ,if it comes to the worst,i can put on me cap ,coat and scarf ,and do a B B Q
on the patio ,and stuff the weather.he he.
Edith ,you hang in there petal,we are all thinking of you,and are praying for your swift recovery,and return to the fold.
Veronica ,i heard from the other thread about kieth,and his membership to the club,he is now in good company lol.
It will be about three months before he is fit to go skating again,but if he behaves himself he should be soon back to normal,heck ,i am digging my garden again,fishing ,doing the houswork ,whatever.
He will of course even months ahead get maybe ,shoulder ,backpain if he over exerts himself ,but that is just a bodily warning that he is overdoing it,and as soon as he slows down a tad ,he will be okay.
In the meantime get him under the thumb to make sure he will do as he is told he he.
Gonna slide out into the garden now ,to get a bit of veg' out just in case we get a white out lol,see ya all later.Fred.

Hi All

Brr - we had the first snow of the winter today, just a bit too early for me.

Les - I can highly recommend both the M & M beef or turkey meatballs, they are a life saver to have in the freezer.

Keith is doing well and is encouraged by the contacts he has had from friends welcoming him to "The Zipper Club" a cute name I thought and very appropriate once you look at the scars.

Its amazing how many people we have come across who have had the same surgery.

Off to clear the snow - we have found a man who comes on our street to clear 3 other houses and signed him up for the rest of the winter.

regards

V

Morning peeps[just]sorry to take so long this morning ,but i am a busy bunnytoday.
We had a very enjoyable laid back day yesterday,and i got twelve cards in all,which we put on the table as we sat down to our meal.and i found a card on the net from Mary that made my day.
This morning getting back into the routine ,i was out back early getting the last of the stump rot carrot out of the tubs,and cleaning ,cutting them ready for the boss to make a huge pan of carrot and corriander soup for the freezer.
I have been getting the meat into the slow cooker ,and the corned beef is now under way,it being ready for the fridge as soon as it cools down this evening.
Tomorrow morning when it has firmed up i will slice it and get it into the big freezer ,where it will stay till we fancy a couple of slices.
The joint was too big for the cooker so i sliced the tail piece off ,and put it in a saucepan,which i will cook for tea tonight with a couple of chunks of cabbage put in the pot in the last hour of cooking.
I will also add the tatties at the same time.with celery carrot ,onion andparsnip,so ,i am looking forward to it lol.
Still a bit stuffed from yesterday ,so dinner is a bowl of veg' soup with a slice of wholemeal bread,tea will be late lol ,very late ,he he,and the rest of the small piece of corned beef will do for tomorrow.
I still have a clamp to put together to take the maincrop carrot,and there is tons of veggies out back that will keep us going until early spring,so ,we won't starve.
I have to go now and get the soup on,so ,ta ta for now,have a good weekend all.Fred.

Hi Gang,

Glad that Keith is doing OK Veronica. Yup I agree, only a Mom could pull that off. Haven't tried M&M meatballs but some of their other stuff is great too.

Deb, thanks for the chuckle. I always liked living in Vancouver, we were in Kits for many years.

I am still at it but the end is in sight. I have to set up on Thursday afternoon so that will be the end of the sewing....hopefully.

'lo to the rest of you. Glad to see that most of you are keeping out of mischief. Short and sweet today.....off to the "machine"!!!
Lesxx

Goodness me Deb -hope dem is not rools lol
Good to see you pop in
~~~~ãll been travelling for work today so off to bed
Veronica glad things are going Ok
Hugs for the seamstress lol and the cook and bottlewasher and all the rest of us

JA