General Chat

Hi Beth, welcome to our world. Good to see everyone on here.

We also have a plum tree and it is loaded this year but they are like purple bullets, just not enough sun I guess. Plum jam makes one of the best BBQ sauces ever. You need about two overloaded tablespoons of plum jam. Put in in a saucepan and heat and thin out with worcestershire sauce. When all liquidy, stir in some finely chopped garlic and several squeezes of ketchup....to your taste. That makes enough for about 4 chicken breasts/steaks etc. It is also very yummy on ribs.

Norm and I are off to the big city today...Nanaimo....LOL!! He's going to the dentist and I'm going have a bit of retail therapy!!
More later.
Lesxx

Hi Fred...Long time no see :))

Don't get me started on tomato plants. I still haven't been able to eat any of the few that we have this year. The summer started out slow, and so did the tomato plant. Don't they know that it's September? lol.
I bought a yellow variety this year which are supposed to be delicious, I'll let you know when and if they rippen.

My plum tree on the other hand went crazy!
We have a "fruit cocktail" tree which we planted about four years ago. It consists of six different grafts all together on the one tree, mainly plums.

We had a late snow after the blossoms were out. We were worried that the snow had damaged the blossoms and we wouldn't have any fruit.
I was away one weekend (April I think) and my OH said that a swarm of bees had ravaged the tree.

Well! The poor tree had it's branches draped on the ground it was so laden with fruit.
I weighed the plums as I gave them away (I was begging people to come and get them). We had a grand total of 95lbs, mainly Greengage and another yellow plum.

You could hear the poor tree give a huge sigh of relief after the fruit was picked. It has had it's fall haircut, and is ready for the winter to come.

Over a few days, I made 48 large jars of jam. Everyone that comes over leaves with a jar:)

Hello to our Australian friends, and those in the UK of course.

Our daughter is in a suburb of Perth, Woodvale, right now. She has been gone for nearly a year, and will be back home in October. I can't wait.

She met A from Woodvale when she went to Europe two years ago. He was here for 5 months last year, and will be coming here on a two year work visa. Have any of you from Perth ever heard of a store called Jango on King Street?

Deb

Been reading this thread. Very interesting.

On the subject of moose and deer. Some years ago one of m y nephews was travelling from Queensland to South Victoria for a family funeral. Of course he was TRAVELLING! Hit a 'roo and carried it for about 100 yards down the road. Luckily he was bringing down some tyres from my son(a tyre dealer) for my car. He had tied these to the radiator of his car, otherwise he would have had a very nasty accident. Finished up with a dented bonnet but no other damage. Unfortunately the car was his wife's and she was 'not happy Jan'. (Local joke)

Beth

Just snuck in to add a few lines peeps.
Lizz had a restless night and so i decided to come back to the house to give her a long ly in this morning.
I have just checked out the house,fed the hungry one ,and made a fuss of her .
Nice to see the good start to the thread,some names familier ,such as our Deb',and i notice a new name from the black country[Staffordshire],a lovely part of the U/K which i have visited once or twice.
Hang in there Sylvia,and do try and get some rest,Liz and i are thinking of you.

.Be back Saturday ,when the son and family go up the van,which leaves me time to sort out the garden,now showing RED tomato's Edith lool,AND we now have some ffrench beans ready ,yum yum.
Fred.

WOW What a great start...Welcome all the new peeps who have popped in.. lovely to see you.. A nicer lot would be hard to find on here, and it is always a pleasant place to be.

Sylvia Sorry to hear that Norman is not to good but glad you are getting some help looking after him..

Fred.. Enjoy your little break in the van.. We want to see some pictures of all the fish you are catching,,,,hee hee hee..

Think I am coming down with a bit of something so will make this short as I am in need of a bit of lunch..and a couple of panadol..back soon..

Lotsa love Mary xxx

Hello all Where o' where did my post go??

I was in a rush so maybe it wasn't sent. Thanks for

setting the new site up Les, looks good.

Sure nice to see al the new folks!! Hope we can keep

it going like this.

See Les says I am from the middle of nowhere hee

hee. It is Nothwestern Ontario, the land that Toronto

forgot. Halfway between Winnipeg and Sault St. Marie
Met Les and Norm on a quick stop over on the Via

train going cross country.

Hugs for Mary and Sylvia.

J.A hope to see you more often you always brighten

up the day.

Back home again and looking forward to sleeping in

my own bed, always enjoy coming home.!!!

Can relate to all the bear tales as well as deer

and also skunks. stinky critters.

Have some chores to sort out before I nod off so bye

for now. Edith XXXXX

Hey Christine, visit often, this is a nice thread. Tell us a bit about you.

Hi Deb, it is good to see you on here. We were in Jasper with my Mom several years ago and stopped to look at the mountain sheep. One stuck its head in the window and tried to eat my Mom's hair....what a palava!!! We get black bears in our back alley. Only been thru a couple of times this year as we all keep our garbage cans inside until garbage day so no goodies for them.

Teresa we are going to be in Calgary in a couple of weeks time I think. PM your phone number again and maybe we can meet up and have coffee.

Another two today, you'd think I had nothing better to do!!!
Lesxx

Hello everyone!

Les, thanks for the PM.

I can vouch that deer are not a nice thing to hit, especially when traveling at 100k on the Trans Canada (Hwy 1). We hit one a few years back on our way to Shuswap Lake, just outside of Chase.

It was about 1am, and a pair of deer decided to jump out onto the road. Instead of turning back when it saw our van, one decided to try to out run the van, and we ended up hitting it in head on (or tail on in this case).

We did a 180 on the hwy and ended facing the direction we came from.
Someone was watching us that night, as we were a foot away from an embankment that had a railway line below. A train came along the line a few mins. after.
Needless to say, the van was out of commision with a broken radiator. People stopped to help and drove us into Chase.
If anyone knows Chase, it was a one horse town a few years ago. We went to the local RCMP to report it. We decided to call a taxi to take us to the cabin a few miles down the road in Sorrento.. No such luck! The taxi service ended at midnight, and the friend we were going to didn't have a phone. This was before cel phones.

To cut a long story short, the RCMP officers that were on duty that night, got a little fed up with the noisy chatter that was coming out of us city folk, and drove us to the lake.

I'm sure that it didn't help that I was convinced that I had seen one of the men on the " Canada's 10 most wanted" posters in a pub a few days before :))

So, that was my one and only ride in the back of a police car :))

The RCMP officer was no fun. I wanted to surprise our friends but he wouldn't turn on his light and siren when we arrived at the lake. :)))

I'll save my bear stories for anther time.

The deer died by the way ;(
Deb

Hi Christine,

Yes moose can do a lot of damage to vehicles. If you hit one with your car though you will usually come out the worst for it. Every once in a while someone is killed when hitting one of them. Here in Calgary, we have a very big urban park that is just down the road from me. There are two black bears living there who occasionaly wander into the city. Two years ago we were stopped from leaving the local safeway store as there was a bear in the parking lot! We have also had them wander through the garden center that I work at as it edges the same park. When that happened, the wildlife officers were out in full force looking for it and found it wandering down the road just a short distance from a school. The bear was tranquilized and moved back to the mountains.

Teresa

Hi Everyone!

Great name for the new thread Les, thanks for emailing me the title.

I have a few days off work right now as we start to slow down in the perennial department. Next week we start preparing the Christmas shop! Seems way too soon. Anyway, I am taking the time to sort out my garden before the first frost comes.

Angie and Stephanie are back from Vietnam and by all accounts seem to have really enjoyed themselves. Stephanie has gone back to Saskatoon to start her second year of Law studies. Angie has a job interview today so keep your fingers crossed for her.

The weather seems to be turning cool already so I am not sure if we will have an Indian summer this year, hopefully we can hold off winter for a while yet.

Bob and I took a drive into the mountains this past weekend and very nearly came face to face with a grizzly. We had taken a short hike to see if the larch trees had started to turn colour when we turned around to look back at the parking lot. There, two cars away from ours was a bear sniffing around. We stood stock still and watched as it ambled its way across the parking lot and off into the woods on the other side. Then we made lots of noise as we went back to our car, luckily didn't see it again.

That's my news in a nutshell!

Mary, I hope John is feeling better now.

Sylvia its good to see you here. Make sure you take some time for yourself each day. It must be such a worry for you with Norman being so poorly.

Fred, I hope Liz feels ok now after her dentist visit.

Love to everyone else.

Teresa

Hi Y'all,

Well what a great start. Old friends and some new ones.
Jen R and P..yes I still owe you a good lunch when you get here, you can even come for a visit. My Rhodesia family are settled in the S.W. USA and I have even met up with them...another big thanks.

Deb in Van...say, you need to be on here more often girl..you always have lots of good things to say.

cmd and Christine...welcome. Dunno about the horseshoes in Ontario. I am on Vancouver Island and Edith is in the middle of nowhere in Northern ON.

Good to see you Sylvia. Sorry to hear about Norman. Hope you are still managing to find a little time for yourself.

And hugs to all the regulars.
Today Norm is going to finish tiling the sunroom floor. I am keeping well away!!! Might sew altho it is a lovely Fall day I should probably just laze in the garden!!!

Took Bella for her walk this am. and walked thru the fair grounds. The Fall fair opens this weekend and the rides are just setting up. Wow!! what a lot of junk. Funny how it always looks spectacular when all set up with the music and the lites. Anyway I won't be going on them....scardy cat!!!
Have a great day.
Lesxx

Jen sure that there is a rain check for that lunch
I am off to bed as late here - spring on the way so some sun, no doubt soon we will be complaining of heat -but send your rain please
~~~~~~all and Edith too
JA

:-)

Thanks for the welcome, JA.

I helped VP find someone a few years ago and she was going to buy me lunch when/if I came over!

x Jen

welocme Jen and Christine. keep posting and yes our Les is VP!
JA

Long time no see, Lesley - if you are Velvet Paws, that is!

Also hi to Michael in Dundas who once sent me a red and purple flower photo. :-)

I still haven't planned a trip to Vancouver yet and now I have to include Montreal as there is a dress in the McCord from a 1763 wedding of my OH's ancestors, cool eh?

x Jen

and the Canucks do not mind me lol - even though I live in the antipodes lol
JA

Coal miners daughter you are welcome anytime to this thread - I am a coal miner's great grand daughter - my miners were Deanes from Barnsley
JA

A bigger eerrr
I have just sussed it..

Can....canada
uk...uk...

yes i really am that thick.....
had a stressful few months,,,thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!!!
cmd xxxxxxxx

Err
can I ask? what does Canuck stand for?
I ask because... I live in a place called Cannock Chase.....and thats how a lot of locals pronounce it...Canuck...
just asking?
cmd x

Champange corks popping to welcome in the new thread, thank you VP, some of us from the antipodes have been around you lot for at least 4 years, so many great friendships made which will last for a long time. So much room for others to become friends.Edith how goes things, the chairs and ironing board are just great. How goes the radio show -what tunes?

Hugs for you Sylvia - sounds like a tough time. mary hugs for you and John and your bros
Can smell the sea from here Badger - love to Liz
Veronica, Teresa Joan and others please pop in
Miss Frisky so pats go to Bella now
Love to all
JA