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gregotyn
Joined: 24 Jun 2010 Posts: 2201 Location: Llanfyllin area
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Posted: Sat Aug 12, 17 10:05 am Post subject: |
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Yes Teddy was a constant companion for me, donated by my brother, he was 5 and didn't need Teddy anymore, Mother told him.
I have just spent the last 3 hours helping a local agric. machinery company moving their stuff onto the showground, but couldn't get away for ages as the wife insisted that I had a bacon butty, then served 2 others before me so I am all behind now! I am planning on finishing the move today and doing the tidying up tomorrow with complete Grexit on Monday-when the sparks will/may fly! I might even get a result on Sunday, but I doubt the opportunity will arise though I will work on it. I plan to help take the show apart as the man has a serious problem with his back-I told him to get a trolley for his wallet!
Sorry you all seem to have computer woes abroad. I thank the Heavens for the Library girls who get me out of so many holes that I dig in the screens here.
Our benefits system operatives need updating, Cassandra, to learn to treat people as though they are not subhuman, but valid and valuable members of society. Some beneficiaries do no doubt take the mick, but for many they are often humiliated by some of the office staff. I was in my early 60's when I got made redundant-no choice there then, and they were not nice to me, only one man who I now see at his little unit making model trains and selling on the internet, was very good to me however, and I always hoped to see him but I got the dragoness a few times. I asked if she enjoyed belittling people? Not the best move, but she avoided me thereafter! I was lucky as I am the sort not to waste money unless I have got it to waste and as we had nothing when I was a child, I realised that if you want something you have to save for it, if you can justify it. To turn someone to a job and say that's it is not nice. My current boss said to me if you need money ask the girl I have sanctioned a couple of hundred to be paid back on your pay cheque next month if you need it. Good boss-likes me because I don't bother him. That poor woman has to eat fresh air for 2 weeks MR.
I must go and move! |
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15539
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Posted: Sun Aug 13, 17 6:40 am Post subject: |
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Unfortunately our government is all for austerity, particularly for those in need and vulnerable, but never themselves. Sooner or later the electorate will wake up to this, but goodness knows when. We have had several people over the last few years come to food bank in this situation, and it is so stupid. The Jobcentres claim that you can ask your employer for a loan, but nobody wants to start a job doing that if they have been out of work for a while. The only time you might get away with it is if you are a key worker, and then you would have come from another job anyway.
We had our volunteer group yesterday, and had a productive day. The active group cut up some sycamore and ash poles and loaded them on the truck and it was pretty full too. The less active group had a look at fungi. We managed to tentatively identify some, but some we had no idea. I hope one of them is going to take a picture and get an ID on one that looks a bit like a flint, but in the early stages can have yellow on it too.
After that, husband and I went up the yard with the loaded truck and unloaded it, then after lunch I made another spoon, this time with an oak leaf on the end. Husband managed to put the tractor back together, and it all seems to work all right. We then cut up the wood and dumped it by the charcoal kilns. We have some Scouts coming on Monday to have a guided walk round the woods, and then to do some conservation work, loading the kiln. We have offered them the chance to come and see it lit too, but that will be about 7am on Tuesday morning, so not sure how many takers there will be. |
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cassandra
Joined: 27 Mar 2013 Posts: 1733 Location: Tasmania Australia
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Jam Lady
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 2501 Location: New Jersey, USA
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Posted: Sun Aug 13, 17 1:05 pm Post subject: |
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New hard drive ordered. Once it arrives the old drive will be cloned onto it. Question is whether this will happen in time for me to write longer book review, two different, shorter versions of the book review, web site entry about peaches, web site entry about corn - all before we leave early Friday morning, away for a week. Some images are on hard drive but need re-sizing and naming, others are still on camera card. Life sure got interesting.
Yesterday afternoon Mr Jam Lord and I went to a local farm stand for their first ever corn fest, benefiting two local fire companies. One company was selling wine, and beer (on draft) from a local micro-brewery. The other was barbecuing ribs (delicious! and messy to eat), pulled pork on a bun, chicken quarters, hot dogs, and two "sides" - grilled corn on the cob (corn provided by farm), and cucumber & tomato salad. Soda or water included with meal. Pony rides for the children, live music, some games and face painting etc. A couple of large tents, tables, chairs - very comfortable setting. Oh, also a number of fire engines were there, which the children surely enjoyed. Very enjoyable time. |
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15539
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Posted: Mon Aug 14, 17 6:12 am Post subject: |
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Sounds like a nice idea to have a family get together to weed the plot in the cemetery. Did they come in to stand up straight after that or to find out about the local or family history? I would be interested in your group, but not sure if I would buy anything. If she imports mainly from the UK, would she be able to divert anything I ordered to me direct, as it seems a bit silly to re-import from Aus, and may also get customs on it.
Jam Lady, hope your hard drive arrives in time for you to get things going. Is it for a desk top, or a lap top that you can take with you if all else fails for deadlines? Your corn fest sounds lovely. Are your fire brigades private companies then? I am glad to say they haven't tried that one yet here. We used to have it, in fact a lot of old houses in towns have 'fire marks' which are small plaques stating which fire/insurance company was responsible, but that died out in the 19th century I think.
We went out to the Devils Punchbowl at Hindhead yesterday to do one of their walks. It was a lovely day, and we went right to the top of Hindhead Common on the trail we took. We could look right out north and east from there, and on the other side, a bit lower, over to the west. We then dropped down into a series of sunken tracks, some of which could be very old, and down past what might have been a hammer pond. These were a series of ponds down a valley to supply power to an iron works or trip hammer to convert the cast iron to wrought iron. There are a lot of them on the sandstone to the north east of us where they also get iron in the sandstone. The furnaces were powered by charcoal which was made from the local coppice.
On the other side of the ridge, in the Punchbowl itself, there are broomsquires cottages; men who made besom (witches) brooms, so nice to go to a place where traditionally they made some of the same products that we are still making. Is there a female equivalent of the term 'squire' as I make them and have never come across a suitable title.
When we got home we did a bit in the garden. Husband mowed the lawn and main path down into the vegetable garden and I transferred some more wood chippings from one compost heap to the one he is using for the grass. Hoping it will heat up well and give us some good compost.
Today I am giving some visiting Scouts a guided walk in the woods, talking about conservation, and then they are going to come and help us fill the kiln. |
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cassandra
Joined: 27 Mar 2013 Posts: 1733 Location: Tasmania Australia
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Jam Lady
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 2501 Location: New Jersey, USA
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Posted: Mon Aug 14, 17 1:50 pm Post subject: |
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Working onward towards our departure on Friday. Doing what? Making jam, since the computer issues have put constraints on some activities. Mistress Rose, I would not bring the laptop. Cannot exactly do the web entries as laptop does not have the necessary programs. What I use for HTML is not installed on laptop and is probably out of date anyhow. What I am doing - will be interesting to see if it works - is writing myself a lengthy e-mail with the longest book review, including the coding. IF it works as I hope (crossing fingers makes it difficult to type) I might be able to do a copy-and-paste into Arachnophilia and it will all be good for final tweaking and upload.
Did write the brief version of the book review for the mushroom society (they want it for the upcoming newsletter before our September fungus fest) as a straight e-mail, no coding. Gave them the e-mail address for the PR person at the publisher and gave page number + description of the pictures to ask for. Be interesting to see how it all works out.
Awkward to do peach picking and corn fest until I can see the pictures.
Fire companies are - not by neighborhood but each has a district. Some are all volunteer. Others have paid firemen. They often have fund raisers in the form of dinners - Quakertown fire company, who did the barbecuing at the corn fest - has had an Octoberfest for several years. Mr Jam Lord and I are planning to go.
Back to the jam making - I did get a couple of quarts of blue plums. Last night I pitted, cut up coarsely, tossed with a little sugar and refrigerated. Will head out this morning to see if I can find ripe elderberries. If yes, I'll simmer and juice them (their tiny seeds get stuck in my teeth, annoyingly so) for a plum elderberry jam. Regardless of elderberries or not, I do have a small bottle of St Germain liquour, which will be added.
And the white peaches I picked last Thursday are now ready to be turned into white peach with lavender jam.
Also, a friend is having surgery on his fractured leg - if he's lucky they can pin it. Otherwise it is a partial hip replacement. So I need to cook a couple of meals for him and his wife (she's a good friend from garden club and knitting, doesn't like to cook, and besides, better she spend her energy in cossetting him.)
So you can see from this lengthy missive that I am getting used to the laptop. But I will be SO HAPPY to get my PC back, and with a blazingly fast solid state drive too! I'd put the relevant bits of this message in the IT matters section but that's too complicated for me. So if one of our computer gurus strays over here my situation might be good for a chuckle or two.
Off to look for elderberries. Of course, I'll bring my camera. Lordy knows how many images of who knows what are cluttering it up by now. |
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15539
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Posted: Tue Aug 15, 17 6:07 am Post subject: |
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As you say, President is slightly better than treasurer or secretary Cassandra, but not much. I am Chairman of our Trefoil Guild, and I find I have to co-ordinate things rather more than I am keen on. Luckily one of the Vice-Chairmen, while being rather self effacing, is a very good background worker and had everything under control for the next meeting that I was rather worried about. I didn't realise how slender a majority the party with the politician with dual nationality had, as I have been just noting your FB posts on those politics rather than reading them fully I am afraid. Enough politicking in the UK without going deeply into Aussie politics too I am afraid. Look forward to hearing about your wool group. Also, glad your neighbour didn't manage to burn anything on your property.
Jam Lady, I hope your computer is sorted soon. You certainly seem to be making the most of your time. Our elderberries aren't ready yet. We are in the middle of the blackberry season, but rowan are ripe now by the looks of it, and we have had Mirabelle plums for a little while. I nearly always use a laptop, as I don't have a desktop computer of my own, but sometimes use my husbands if it is more convenient.
Gave the Scouts their walk round the woods yesterday, then they came up to the kiln site, had their lunch, and helped us fill the kiln. It was the fastest we have ever filled it, which was really good. The small ones trotted backwards and forwards between the log pile and the kiln, and we put the logs in, with help from the Scouters and one of the older Scouts. Luckily one of the Scouters was very tall, as we managed to build the kiln well up above the top of the ring, and he was able to put logs directly on the top, then help son get the lid on top. Husband has gone up to light the kiln now, and will be back for breakfast when it is lit and going properly. Today will be a minding the kiln day for me, so I will probably make another spoon or some more spatulas and butter spreaders. Will take a book too. Let's hope it goes better than last time and we finish earlier. |
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cassandra
Joined: 27 Mar 2013 Posts: 1733 Location: Tasmania Australia
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Posted: Tue Aug 15, 17 7:56 am Post subject: |
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Haha - the pyromaniac has had another go today - presumably before the wind picked up or she would have burnt down half the village!
There are benefits and disadvantages to the Presidency. There is a lack of will to make decisions despite the frequent comments that we must get around to it. So today I had Steph in and we went through about 6 levels of shelves out the back and threw out copious amounts of empty folders past their use-by date, empty picture frames, christmas decorations and so forth with the result we now have several empty shelves and some empty boxes into which we can store stuff.
Part of what we found belonged to Graeme who you might remember died a few years back now. His family came from Ireland and he and his sister were the last of the line. As a consequence we have inherited all manner of things, some of which are rather (very) valuable. The less valuable (though no doubt expensive at the time of purchase) things include a pin-striped suit and tails, stiff shirt fronts from Moss Bros and various other signs of 'good connections'.
We have put the valuable stuff to one side so we can see if there is someone who might like it - photos of several generations, a miniature portrait (unframed) and so forth. Definitely too good to go on display unless behind glass.
We also inherited a large proportion of his office so I rang the relevant government department and have arranged for them to collect that lot as it is covered under the Government Archives Act and so we shouldn't have it. That said, we have pinched various rubber stamps that are just local town names or property names, a home-made stamp stand and various government posters of which there were multiple copies. These are now safely stowed away out the back pending the arrival of the officials.
If we can keep this up, we will have shelves so we can declutter the displays, and so be able to circulate items in and out for more interest for returning visitors.
I was particularly thrilled to find a modern movie poster of no particular merit as I was wanting something for the back drop of the 'going to the movies' window display I will hopefully be able to mount on Thursday.
Having Steph as my partner in crime means I am reasonably protected from potential backlash from hoarders, but really, nothing was thrown out that might be of any interest to anyone. We have also started a 'garage sale' heap of superfluous stuff that may have some value to someone.
We have also started to stockpile Queen Elizabeth portraits and memorabilia pending the day.
I am, however exhausted and I imagine Steph is too. She is going back tomorrow to sooth ruffled feathers and sort through some of the paperwork we felt warranted a closer look. I will be putting my feet up at home, haha |
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gregotyn
Joined: 24 Jun 2010 Posts: 2201 Location: Llanfyllin area
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Posted: Tue Aug 15, 17 1:29 pm Post subject: |
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Blackberries coming out of my ears I think I keep picking and eating as I go to the house.
The move should be completed by the weekend. I haven't got much left in the caravan-food, a bed and a few bits and pieces mostly packed, but am not hurrying, and he has been leaving me alone for a day or so, even being polite when our paths cross-first time he has been civil for some time. I have a few bits to tell you when it is all over but don't want to elaborate until I have gone!-no plans to jeopardise what I want!
I hope the computing sorts itself out for you Jam Lady. I don't understand how they operate and am grateful to the librarians who get me out of my self induced problems.
I hope the pyro maniac in Tas. is kept out of the way once the weather changes to hot or you will lose the whole island, Cassandra!
The local show that I went to on Saturday was ok I went to help set up in the morning with my friend and to help take down at about 4pm-which lasted till 7pm as they were imbibing in tongue loosening alcohol
meaning that they were not clearing up as fast as I wanted!
My boss offered to lend me some money if I needed it MR, when I started. I didn't ask for any or need it, but I thought it was good of him to offer if I was in need, but no wife and family to support, and I live frugally anyway. I am not noted for wasting the hard earned, though I do indulge in an ice bun now and then! I hope some of the scouts came to the lighting ceremony for the kiln, and also to help with unloading, for the experience of getting dirty!
Did the broom squires make the brooms for the witches or did the witches make their own brooms? |
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Jam Lady
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 2501 Location: New Jersey, USA
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15539
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cassandra
Joined: 27 Mar 2013 Posts: 1733 Location: Tasmania Australia
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 45377 Location: yes
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15539
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