All ye oul wans and oul fellas out there! Wakey wakey, rise and shine!

Jellybaby1

Have they made 'garden' a verb now? Ooh, what am I doing here? I should be........not here!

looksee

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Have they made 'garden' a verb now? Ooh, what am I doing here? I should be........not here!

Of course to garden is a verb! Its a very active verb. In fact I pulled up armloads of montbretia and crocosmia even if it was just coming into flower, as I had a skip to chuck it all in. Dratted stuff. Pretty but dratted.

Rubecula

looksee wrote: »

Of course to garden is a verb! Its a very active verb. In fact I pulled up armloads of montbretia and crocosmia even if it was just coming into flower, as I had a skip to chuck it all in. Dratted stuff. Pretty but dratted.

I kicked a dandelion over today. Does that count as garden work?

Jellybaby1

looksee wrote: »

Of course to garden is a verb! Its a very active verb. In fact I pulled up armloads of montbretia and crocosmia even if it was just coming into flower, as I had a skip to chuck it all in. Dratted stuff. Pretty but dratted.

I tend to avoid the verb, 'garden' completely, but I sometimes leave my house and visit the noun, 'garden'. By the way, are Montbretia and Crocosmia the same thing, 'cos I have tons of what I thought were Crocosmia. I leave them alone as they fill in empty spaces. They shouldn't be surviving living with me but they have been growing here for decades, because I ignore them.

Rubecula wrote: »

I kicked a dandelion over today. Does that count as garden work?

Depends on whether you kicked it intentionally, or accidentally. If you kicked it intentionally then your secret is out, you are a gardener! Eat yer heart out Monty Don!

Alice1

Rubecula wrote: »

I kicked a dandelion over today. Does that count as garden work?

Rubecula: The Accidental Gardener

Rubecula

I have brambles and roses too so it will never be "The Naked Gardener"

Poor Uncle Tom

We really need a thread titled 'Gardening Porn'.........

A good starting point.....

Rubecula

Poor Uncle Tom wrote: »

We really need a thread titled 'Gardening Porn'.........

A good starting point.....

And here we see Miss Allotment 1998, you will notice her all over carotene coat,and her unkempt appearance .... I fear she has had her chips ... :cool:

Samaris

"Draw me like one of your French salads."

looksee

Samaris wrote: »

"Draw me like one of your French salads."

(shows ignorance) Wot?

OldGoat

Internet meme, "Draw me like one of your French girls".
Talk of naked and gardening conjures image of louche lettuce.

Google search will give you the idea. Careful though, might be some NSFW images included in the results.

Samaris

Started off as a line from Titanic between the two main characters right before they got the ship sunk by distracting the lookouts :pac:

Jellybaby1

I'm totally mystified, and happy to be, too. :):)

Alice1

I'm joyfully mystified too. Joyful mystification.

looksee

What are you all mystificated about?

Rubecula

I am sweet and innocent myself so I am lost for words with all this suggestive talk about salads and vegetables

Jellybaby1

looksee wrote: »

What are you all mystificated about?

Samaris wrote: »

"Draw me like one of your French salads."

That!

Samaris

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

That!

:pac:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI2BgDpp_9w (Perfectly safe!)


http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/draw-me-like-one-of-your-french-girls

Jellybaby1

I saw that film Titanic, hated it, never remembered any of the script afterwards. All I remember was not being able to get up off my seat at the end because the film was so long, and my knees had stiffened up. Music was good though.

looksee

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

That!

Oh yes, that confused me too. I can't cope with all these memes!

looksee

Mod: ok folks, enough with the suggestive vegetables. I'm having difficulty justifying censoring a parsnip, but there have been objections so lets leave it at that please.

Poor Uncle Tom

looksee wrote: »

Mod: ok folks, enough with the suggestive vegetables. I'm having difficulty justifying censoring a parsnip, but there have been objections so lets leave it at that please.

We can't have that, I've removed the offending veg...

Rubecula

rude parsnips are really not for consumption of the O&O's Broccoli on the other hand ...... If you don't eat your veggies you get no pudding ... by order of Matron.

Jellybaby1

Rude Parsnips.......wouldn't that be a good name for a rock band?

looksee

*pokes thread with a big stick so see if there is any life. Wanders off muttering to make a cup of tea*

Does anyone care that I have been poorly sick for three weeks now, with a cold. A cold for 3 weeks. Ridiculous. Went and got some antibiotics finally for the chest, doc says 'you sound as though you smoke 40 a day'. Hmph. Never smoked. Getting bored with it now.

Rubecula

*Offers looksee a fraternal hug. then changes his mind to avoid catching a horrible Viking Lurgy Curse.*

Get well soon looksee

looksee

Thanks for the nearly hug Rube, I appreciate the thought, don't blame you though, apparently its a virulent bug.

Jellybaby1

Get well soon Looksee. Himself has had the same thing for the last couple of weeks. Surprisingly no-one else in the house caught it from him. We obviously kept our distance. He is presently receiving succour from his Fisherman's Friends.

looksee

Thanks JB, I caught it from a briefly passing snuffly grandchild. I have been polluting the house for 3 weeks with himself who has stage 4 COPD and is on 24 hour oxygen, and all the little germs have (fortunately) slithered past him, not so much as a sneeze!

Jellybaby1

The last thing your chap needs are bugs. He must be spraying you every time you enter the room!

looksee

Not much I can do about it really, been staying out of the way a bit, but he seems to have cast iron resistence!

Chucken

I've been down with coughy, sicky, sleepy disease for ages now. I'm sick of it

Jellybaby1

Sorry you are so sick Chuckie, it just like Looksee's germs too. Himself isn't too great at the moment either. He's never sick, it's odd to see him so coughy. Wonder what germs are going round these days. Are any of ye experiencing sweats too?

Chucken

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Sorry you are so sick Chuckie, it just like Looksee's germs too. Himself isn't too great at the moment either. He's never sick, it's odd to see him so coughy. Wonder what germs are going round these days. Are any of ye experiencing sweats too?

Oh, have the sweats but I'm delighted to say it's not down to the aul menopause...My blood work says I'm officially over it

looksee

Yes, it sounds like the same bug, all those symptoms, including mad attacks of sweatiness. The tired thing is the worst though, and the cough. I am much improved on most fronts except the tiredness, it has dragged on for nearly 4 weeks though, as Chucken says, you'd be fed up with it.

OldGoat

I made jam!

looksee

Goat jam?

OldGoat

Bumper harvest of blackcurrants. I made my usual few bottle of crème de cassis for christmas but had loads left over. It was my first time making jam, a role that was my mothers and woe betide anyone who dared try to interfere with her. Admittedly it's a little more syrup than jam but it tastes wonderful.

looksee

OldGoat wrote: »

Bumper harvest of blackcurrants. I made my usual few bottle of crème de cassis for christmas but had loads left over. It was my first time making jam, a role that was my mothers and woe betide anyone who dared try to interfere with her. Admittedly it's a little more syrup than jam but it tastes wonderful.

Sounds as though you did not bring it to setting temperature, or keep it there long enough. Did you do the 'wrinkle' test? If you really wanted to you could re-boil it, or use it as pour over for icecream etc. It may not last as long as jam if it was not brought to boil sufficiently (could go mouldy).

Do we get to test the créme de cassis (yes that's a fada)? And how do you make it?

OldGoat

It really depends on your own tastes and how ripe the berries are. I'm not font of overly sweet liquors so I tend to go light on the sugars. A rough guide is for every kg of berries use 750ml brandy (or vodka if you like a cleaner taste) and 150ml water. I'd only use 150g sugar with that but you could easly double the amount of sugar.
Like sloe gin I find that a vanilla pod in there helps too. This receipt works wonderfully with blackberries too which are just coming into season.

Wash the berries, and put into a large jar/jug/container and cover with the booze. Leave this sitting somewhere dark for months...about 6 or so. For the first couple ow weeks shake the jar to get everything well mixed.
After this initial 6 months mash the berries into a pulp and strain the lot to get as much juice as you can. The oul pillowcase tied to the back of a chair and over a basin overnight is still the best filter I know of.
Dissolve the sugar into the water and let cool. When it's cool you can add the fruit syrup to the sugar syrup and decant the mix into bottles. Note, if you add the fruit juice to hot sugar syrup you'll just burn off the alcohol.
Now comes the hard bit. Put it aside for another 6 months.

You CAN shortcut the times but (trust me on this) you realy want to allow the flavours to develop. I'll be drinking last years batch this Christmas and this years harvest next year. It's beautiful in champaign (kir) or on it's own. Add it to any desert especially ice cream. Sip it on it's own. Rum and blackcurrant is an old favourite and do you remember the days when people (wimmins usually) would add a dash of blackcurrant to their Guinness for that bit of sweetness?

looksee

*sigh*

Jellybaby1

What a man! What comes next after jam making? The blackberries are on their way, I chomped on some last weekend, not ready yet though. Got to get back to them before the boidies get them all, or the worrims! :eek:

Rubecula

I have made marmalade, and I wassurprised to find you actually added s knob of butter to the mix to prevent foaming. Iam diabetic so I gaveit all away. Everyone wanted more of it,so it must have been ok.

Jellybaby1

Wow, another superman there making the marmalade!

Rubecula

I do make wondeful pies too lol

oh and cakes I make cakes too lol lol

Jellybaby1

Do you knit too, or crochet, or embroider, or make quilts? Sure, 'tis multi-talented you are, so you are!

Rubecula

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Do you knit too, or crochet, or embroider, or make quilts? Sure, 'tis multi-talented you are, so you are!

Would love to, but never learned those skills.... I can throw a mean dart though lol :pac:

Jellybaby1

We are all very impressed, aren't we ladies? Ladies? Sorry Rube, nobody else around for you to strut in front of.

Steve

Wait, what ??

This forum needs a testosterone boost!!

We need a 'garden shed, men only' thread... but, of course that would be sexist, so we'd need a 'hoovering' thread as well to balance it all out with the wimmenz... yeah, that would work..

Jellybaby1

I think a forum for a Shed is a great idea. I think I already started one for the Ladies ages ago but everyone just seems to congregate here in the Waiting Room. So what's the plan for the Shed then? Rube will you sew up a few curtains for the Shed?