For those of us who hate early mornings, they can be a bit of a sore trial. As a young bloke with a lack of pocket money, or any of the other stuff my peers enjoyed, pre-dawn moments were spent at the local newsagency earning mad cash. It was brutally cold delivering newspapers in the winter months, especially when the drizzle numbed your ink stained fingers. That’s life when you’re poor and somewhat mercenary.
Most of the time the journalists doing whatever it was that they were doing, got their newpapers to me on time. You’d get off to a good start on those mornings. At other times, whilst waiting for the tardy journalists to get on with their delivery, you’d fill the minutes and very occasionally hours, reading magazines off the shelf. There were no penalties for those dudes being late, my time came cheap.
The paid exercise was good, but all those years of delivering newspapers at ungodly hours of the morning have left some scars. Mornings nowadays are at a quite civilised hour, and usually involves coffee. The drink helps bring the morning into focus. There’s also home made toasted muesli and yoghurt, plus a goodly serving of fresh fruit.
Some fruit is purchased, and some is grown here. It’s not possible to grow the yellow variety Cavendish bananas here. There may be one or two unusual banana varieties which might survive in the greenhouse, maybe. Regardless, I’m not keen to test the plants lest they grow tall enough to smash through the polycarbonate greenhouse roof. Always a risk, so bananas arrive here from the usual land of elsewhere. Earlier in the week a banana was halved, only to discover the dreaded fungus.
It’s very unappealing looking and ended up being fed to the worms. Most food scraps get fed to the chickens, but not this time. The chickens are full of opinions at the best of times, and it’s not out of the realms of possibility for them to crack the sads when presented with a fungus riddled banana.
Unless you can bring in a mountain of diverse minerals with which to continually enrich soils, it’s probably not the smartest thing to do to plant the same plants year after year in the same soils. It’s a hard lesson to learn, but I’m guessing that if the fungi is anything to go by, the banana growers might be discovering this.
Fortunately, most fruit trees we grow have an expected lifespan much longer than say, the four years cycle of an average banana plant. All the same, the fruit trees have to be fed regularly. Earlier today about five weeks of collected used coffee grounds were spread around the orchards and vegetable beds. A café in Melbourne supplies the grounds, which would otherwise end up in landfill. After a decade or longer, that’s a lot of coffee.
Still, you wont find any coffee grounds just laying around waiting to be turned into a wombats breakfast drink of choice. No way! What gets fed to the fruit trees is a mixture of coffee grounds, blood and bone meal, gypsum and Calcium Carbonate. At first it’s a heady stink, and would make a particularly unappealing coffee, but the plants seem to like it well enough.
After almost eighteen years here, it became pretty obvious early on that you can’t just plant a fruit tree and treat it as a set and forget proposition. That won’t work. The first couple of years we fed them mulch because that was the prevailing wisdom at the time. Mulch is really a sort of collection of composted green waste made with it’s origins in city bins. The mulch broke down into a nice black loam, but the trees barely grew. Mulch is minerally unbalanced.
After a few years of that failed experiment, we began feeding the trees with compost, which is a much finer material also produced from city green waste. The fruit trees grew a bit faster, but not massively so. Still minerally unbalanced.
In order to get the fruit trees to begin growing and fruiting, we had to science the poop out of the problem! And nothing beats the coffee ground mixture for getting the trees to grow fast. However, with all the mineral additives, it’s a much more expensive proposition than using mulch and compost. The take away from the experience is that productivity is generally low, things have to be maintained, and it wont ever be cheap to do so.
Recently, we’ve been heading about an hours drive north of here to have a look at some of the ruins left over from the gold rush era. That era began in about 1850 and ended around 1890, although I don’t doubt that there’d be plenty of gold left in that area. It’s probably not an economic proposition to recover. Back in the day though, the miners found an awful lot of gold in that part of the world. And they were pretty clever with how they extracted the stuff from the soil and rocks. One of the ruins was a huge water wheel which powered a quartz smashing battery.
The quartz smashing machine would have sat on the flat terrace to the right and near to the top of the above photo. There’s not much left of any machinery there either, just the rocks. And given the machinery was powered by a huge water wheel it’s notably dry there nowadays. Long ago there must have been a lot of water in the area, because across the road you can see that a high pressure water cannon was used to blast the rocks. Handy for those folks who are reluctant to dig. It’s an epic mess nowadays, and again all quite dry.
None of it was maintained though, and that’s because once it became no longer economic to recover the gold, the machinery was dismantled and presumably sold off. And then all you’re left with is the mess and some ruins. 100% picturesque, 0% economically useful.
Not far from there is an old stone miners cottage dating back to 1867. That’s also a picturesque ruin.
The cottage was quite hard to find. At near on 160 years old, it was in surprisingly good condition. At some stage the occupant had planted a pear tree, which is now quite large (and in need of a good feed and drink). There were also a couple of quince trees which had survived and the garden was surrounded by a quaint stone wall. It was so dry and there was no economic reason for anyone to live there, which is why the place is now a ruin.
As an older bloke, my time is more expensive than in those newspaper delivering days. Hopefully this reflects the sheer weight of accumulated wisdom. I’d like to think so anyway, yeah. So, getting up early, let alone to deliver newspapers is just not going to happen. Regardless, the news of the day is mostly digital and so doesn’t need physical delivering. Sometimes those bits and bytes of news reports can recount interesting facts. And if you blink, you might miss them. The oil cartel suppliers are threatening to reduce supply in a bit over a week. It’ll be a problem, because from then onwards there’ll be less energy to go around. Makes me wonder what won’t get maintained and how it will look in 160 years time?
Merry Christmas and also a Happy Solstice to everyone!
The area shown in the above photos is about an hours drive north of here. This continent is a harsh place, with impoverished soils and fickle rain. Travel further north inland again, and it gets drier. Up here in the mountains of the Great Dividing Range, the climate can be entirely different.
The past few weeks have been spent correcting one of the earliest rock walls we’d made. Experience truly does produce better results. The rock wall in the next image is over a decade old, and it’s not good. A newish ruin perhaps?
We can do better. The rocks were removed, graded, then repurposed. Most of them were so small that they ended up added to the nearby steel rock gabion cages. The top soil was recovered and relocated to a developing garden bed (with a much better rock wall). And the orange volcanic clay was excavated and used on the new low gradient path project.
A days work produced a flat excavated site where a steel rock gabion cage will soon be located.
The clay is a really useful material. After a bit of rain, the clay will rebind and over a few weeks will form a solid surface.
As well as exiting into the shady orchard, the low gradient path project also continues on the downhill side of the chicken enclosure. That aspect of the project is consuming a lot of large rocks as well as goodly volumes of the clay.
A lot of work took place this week, and somewhere in there, we had the time to make up a batch of raspberry and also another batch of strawberry jam. How good do these look?
The tiramisu recipe was revisited. This time around we used pure cream with a very high butter fat percentage sourced from Schulz Organic Dairy. The difference was extraordinary as the mascarpone cheese set perfectly. Turns out cream is complicated. Who knew?
As part of maintaining the fruit trees, not only do they have to be fed and the grass removed from the trunks, sometimes when they over produce, you have to thin the fruit lest the branches break. One of the best performing stone fruit trees here is the Anzac Peach, and sometimes it produces too much fruit. This time around I decided to remove an entire branch. The tree needs some pruning anyway.
Of late, Ollie the Bull Arab has had his fair share of work clearing off the rather large Sambar deer which lurk in the forest. The deer are not welcome here, mostly because they can cause quite a bit of damage to the fruit trees. The wallabies (a solitary slightly smaller forest dwelling kangaroo) are bad enough on that front, but they’re tolerated. Just.
The recent heavy rains have been a real boon for the forest critters living here. At night tree frogs hang off the house hunting spiders and other insects which are attracted to the house lights. Unbelievably, more heavy rain is expected to arrive this evening and continue for the next few days.
The rains have meant that the gardens have been enjoying a decent drink, which is amazing for this summer-time-of-year. However, every day the greenhouse requires about 60L (15 gallons) of water. Only takes a few minutes to do.
Onto the flowers:
I thought that everyone would enjoy the many flowers in the two terraces containing the rose plants. Ollie is in both photos for the purposes of scale.
The temperature outside now at about 10am is 15’C (59’F). So far this year there has been 986.8mm (38.9 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 975.8mm (38.4 inches)
Hi Pam,
It’s a good film, and the modems are expensive. Hope you have a lovely Christmas.
Ruby is in the dog house metaphorically speaking. She’s not really being punished, because she came home again, that would send a bad message. However, yesterday, the little rascal cracked the sads about a minor issue, and ran off into the forest. Turns out forest life is not all that appealing, and may even have been slightly uncomfortable. She turned up back again this morning looking frightened, and concessions as to her way of thinking have been made.
Honestly, I was reminded of the return of the equally rascalous fictional Tom Sawyer.
Hope your Christmas is drama free! 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
I applaud the employment of your quiet time prerogatives during this festive silly season. Respect. 🙂 Time goes better with a good book. And I posted a day early just to allay the fears of people who might get all weirded-out if I left it until tomorrow. So did you get to the Roman British history book? And was anything of note discovered?
Read a good line today, which may apply to the early posting: Those who turn their back on trouble, are likely to get their asses kicked! How good is that one? Could it be worked onto a shield, or motto, and would it even read well in Latin?
Didn’t know that about the gene. Good luck, huh? And I absolutely agree with you. We grow lots of that variety of plants, and eat some of them every day of the year. Fortunately those family of plants can survive some extraordinary climate extremes and at least some of them grow all year around here (although the winter months is more of a survive rather than die kind of thing). Working out those patterns was one of the early plant challenges here. One sad year, we ran out of fresh greens. Talk about an attack of the vapours! Deprivation focuses the mind wonderfully.
I like the garlic suggestion, but might avoid that addition due to over-exposure when a younger lad. Step dad had lost his sense of taste through sun exposure. I’ll look into that over the next week, as the turnips are ready to harvest.
Speaking of sun burn, I ended up a little bit burnt yesterday. Ruby cracked the sads about a disagreement in behaviour, and headed off into the forest. The forest is not as pleasant an environment as the farm, and she perhaps discovered this truth of this? She turned up again this morning at first light, looking subdued as if she were going to get into trouble. It’s probably not wise to punish a dog that returns home again. Sandra and Ruby have agreed to some modifications with their interactions, and I hope that is the end of the matter. Anyway, I got sun burned whilst looking for the little rascal yesterday afternoon. That one will never be given a title. It amazes me that the blog entry was as upbeat as it was given what was going on in the background!
Yeah, exactly! I’ve done this paid work now for fifteen years, but before that, the longest I could stick with a job was maybe four years max. One of the things I could never navigate, and I’d be interested in your thoughts in the matter, was being reasonably competent and self motivated, employers continuously ask for more. It’s like they were never satisfied, and sooner or later I’d get to the point where I’d say ‘this is as good as it gets, there’s nothing more’ – and that would be met with disbelief. From a strategy perspective, it’s better just to cruise along doing the bare minimum in such an employment situation. I couldn’t do that, though. Anyway… Here I am today working for lots of people. The reduced contact per individual avoids the issue from arising in the first place. Oh well. That’s how I worked it out, but there must be a better way? Dunno.
Fair enough, people are pretty understanding about hopping from one job to another, time out, etc. these days. Things are different on that front, they had to be. I got the impression when I first began working that loyalty was expected, but not delivered upon. Nowadays things seem far more mercenary, and I guess this is the world everyone wanted.
The good Professor is learning something I realised long ago when first relying on renewable energy. And his story can get worse, you can be in the grip of a drought. The people spruiking this future don’t let little engineering difficulties stand in the way of ideology.
Thanks for noticing the pun! I thought it was pretty funny, and also has a serious meaning as well. Boom! 🙂 I get that about the seed company, but of late have been buying here, there and everywhere. Some of the stuff sold during you-know-what, was like the seed leftovers from the sorting floor.
I’ll check out the trailer!
Cheers
Chris
Hi, Chris!
The Return of Ruby . . . Ruby duly received punishment through her own (mis)adventure in the forest. And you have cemented your relationship with her by welcoming her back into the fold. Dame Plum and Ruby Sawyer – what a incongruent pair.
Merry Christmas to all!
Love, Pam
Yo, Chris – I have a rather jaundiced view of the holidays, anyway, so who cares when you post? We have a saying in AA. “What other people think of me is none of my business.” 🙂 Though that may have to be tempered a bit, given the community you live in. But I doubt many of your neighbors read your blog. Maybe.
Oh, that is a nasty looking banana. Looks a bit like the water cores, in apples. Though those are rather benign. But they are “unappealing looking.”
Having a small space, I don’t use much of it, but I have notice that the price of blood and bone meal has really bumped up. 2/3 more expensive, than a year or two ago.
The water wheel ruin reminds me of the battery of Roman water wheels, I linked to, a couple of years ago. Those were grain mills. I bet the thump, thump, thump of the quartz smasher, drove some miners bonkers.
Oh, the miner’s cottage is really nice. I could do something, with that. I wonder what the average rainfall, in that area, is?
As recently as 5 years ago, our newspaper was still delivered by a high school kid. That ended, but we still have a physical newspaper. Only the postie brings it, now. Three days a week.
Looks like you have another rock gabion, on the go, behind you in the one picture.
Your jam looks wonderful. As does the Tiramisu. The Anzac peaches look tasty. Doing anything special, with them, or just eating them out of hand.
Frogs are in the same class of cool, as ferns. I heard one, the other night, closer to the gardens than ever before. Couldn’t spot him, though. He was hiding out in a bed of heather.
How does Ollie feel, about the added responsibility, of providing scale? Oh, well. It will look good on his CV. 🙂 Now onto your epistle …
Yo, again. I consulted a few Roman Britain books, and a couple of general works on the Roman army. I didn’t find much, but enough clues to maybe do some more research. “The Roman Army: The Greatest War Machine of the Ancient World” (McNab, ed., 2010) stated that the emperor Hadrian formed the first cataphractii (armored auxiliary calvary). It was formed from Sarmatians, and called 1 Gallorum et Pannoniorum Cataphractii.
Gaul, was of course what is now France. Pannonia was around Hungary, west of the Danube River. Now Rome was at war with the Sarmatians, on and off, for a long time. My guess would be, some groups decided to throw in their lot, with Rome, and petitioned to be resettled in the above mentioned provinces. There are a couple of stone sculptures, of Sarmatian ambassadors pounding out agreements with the Romans. They’re easy to spot, as they wore long robes, rather than the usual barbarian pants. Another guess would be, in return for settlement, there was a levy of a cohort of horsemen. Haven’t found the British connection, yet (other than Hadrian), that the article about the body in the ditch so blithely tossed out. Although I seem to remember reading about cohorts of horse auxiliary, serving at some of the forts on Hadrian’s wall. I think I have a book or two, that name which units served at which forts at what times. Might take me awhile to get to them.
LOL. Or, a motto on a t-shirt? Motto of one of the seven royal houses in the Game of Thrones? 🙂
We didn’t use a lot of garlic, when I was growing up. Too foreign and exotic 🙂 But I probably chop up three to four cloves, five or so times a week, to go into whatever I’m having, for dinner. Good for my blood pressure. And, luckily, I seem to metabolize it in such a way, that I don’t stink.
Check your cookbook indexes for turnips. I see Alexander’s “The Cook’s Companion” has several recipes for turnips. Cake? Dumplings? Etc..
Maybe a deer peed on Ruby, and she thought better of life in the forest? 🙂
Oh, I’ve worked a couple of places (Library Land) where people around me did the bare minimum. And, a time or two, I was told to slow down, because it made the rest of them look bad. Not that I paid any attention. As far as the rest of it goes, as time went on, I discovered administration was not to be trusted, as far as any future plans went. Best not have too many expectations for a long future, and always have a plan “B”.
If there’s something I want to plant, and the usual suspects don’t carry, whatever, I’ll take a flyer on other companies. But I do a bit of research, first. American, family owned, with a long history is generally worth dealing with.
It was in the 30s F, this morning. But there was a breeze, so the windchill was somewhere in the 20s F.
Night before last, there were a lot of people, at the Club. Someone’s birthday meeting. A lot of little germ laden petrie dishes (kids) running about. I’m kind of holding my breath, to see if I come down with anything. How times change. I’d feel lucky, if I came down with a good old fashioned, garden variety cold. And not something else.
Staying in, today and tonight. I think it’s going to be a popcorn night. Maybe, the new Indian Jonesa movie. Just as a holiday treat, I picked up a small brick of Aussie White Gold Vintage Sharp White Cheddar. So tasty, melted over popcorn. $8.25 for a little over half a pound. Our veg store has a pretty good selection of cheeses. But, at that price, a “for special” kind of a thing.
Re: Your seed pun. Have you et my friend Scott? 🙂 Lew
Yo, Chris – More on the guy in the ditch. It’s a science paper, and behind a pay wall. However, the highlights and summary are very interesting.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982223016342
But, I don’t know. They keep pushing the army angle, and Cambridgeshire is a long way (particularly in those days) from Hadrian’s Wall. Lew
Hi Pam,
You’re spot on. Ruby learned her lesson the hard way, and with three inches of rain falling between last night and today, things could have been all that much worse for her. Last night she spent inside recovering from her initiation trial where it was warm and dry. The light and sound show from the thunderstorm was enjoyed from the correct side of the glazing.
I was wondering about that, so appreciate your thoughts in the matter. Whether she’d acknowledge the new relationship is a good point. Dunno. The message we’ve taken from the incident is that Ruby has chosen to be responsible entirely for herself – with the attendant risks that brings. It was her choice.
Incongruent indeed. 🙂
And a Merry Christmas to you and your family as well. Hope the day was lovely. We caught up and celebrated with friends Christmas eve, and it was a delightful evening.
The weather here today is right feral. Hope things are more settled on that front in your part of the world?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Far out it’s wet and cold outside. You’d think it was summer or something like that. Over three inches of rain fell since last night. It was only a few months ago city people were telling me in hushed tones: “Aren’t you worried about the hot and dry summer which is forecast?” Didn’t know what to expect was the reply. It was hard not to note that based on the really early forecast, I’d read about moves to de-stock some farms. That crashed prices for livestock, and yesterday it was hard not to note that around these parts, livestock was being moved to higher ground. Hmm.
Anywhoo, we celebrated last night with friends at the Big Shed, and had a lovely time. Took the tiramisu in the white dish in the photo, which received unsought after glowing compliments. The other one in the smaller bowl, we kept, purely for research purposes! 😉 It’s good. The food there was beyond superb and the conversation was lively, and all up a good time was had. The thunderstorm hit about 8pm last night, and along with the festivities, nature put on a good light show.
Ruby, who shall not be titled, recovered from her ordeal (perhaps it was something of an initiation into the rites of adulthood for the dog?) inside the house yesterday. The dog has been her usual cheeky self today. Well, it’s her choice I guess.
I’m not fussed by the posting date either, but you do realise that purists walk among us? Like those pod people… Can we really get enough of them? We preserved a dozen large bottles (canning in your lingo) of apricots today. Sadly, the fruit was not from here, the previous big rainstorm (ten inches that time around) put those fruit trees into shock. Sad. I know of a very good organic orchard up north (about an hours drive and thus drier) who can fill in the gaps at such times. They grow good fruit.
Yeah, I don’t much like the water cores in apples either. Those usually get fed to the chickens which are notably unfussy about such matters.
It’s funny you say that, but blood and bone meal is the most expensive component of the coffee mix. Dunno what you mean by expensive and I’d be interested to hear the number. The stuff I buy is in 55 pound bags and it’s just under a buck a pound. Not cheap, but the soils here are very low in phosphorus, so that’s how it rolls. Without the phosphorus in that form, fruit set is much reduced.
The waterwheel is the same technology that the Romans used. The quartz crushing plant may have had some advances in metallurgy, but again folks from that ancient era would have recognised the contraption for what it was. And yeah, send a person deaf – and the neighbours, and their neighbours. 🙂
A nearby large-ish town to that cottage, Castlemaine, has an average rainfall of around 23 inches. So rainfall would be around that number. And interestingly, like here, the rain is spread evenly throughout the year. I’m guessing it was very dry there in that area because the mining activities destroyed the top soil, and altered the movement of water through the land. In such areas, water has to be slowed so that it gets a chance to work its way into the subsoil.
Oh really? The postie doesn’t deliver newspapers here. The last I noticed, someone used to drive around chucking the plastic wrapped newspapers out of a car window. And they do say that we’re more environmentally friendly in these enlightened days. 🙂
The jam is a speciality and brightens up cold winter days on freshly baked bread. Yum! Do they have conserves in your part of the world or is it all jelly or jams? Not sure yet about the peaches, and will wait to see how they soften off the tree – which I believe they may.
Go the frog in the garden! The amphibian may be consuming some of your pesky slugs.
Is the Heather in the garden grown for purely ornamental purposes? Have you noticed whether the bees like the flowers? It’d grow well here…
Ollie is up for the challenge of providing scale. Ruby was egging him on to new heights of stupidity earlier this afternoon when we encountered the neighbours whilst out walking the dogs. He soon recognised the errors of listening to Ruby, and then acted the very gentleman of a dog that he is.
The paywall was not working, or I only read the summary – which was long enough. 😉 The paper sort of said they didn’t know how the Sarmatian bloke died. Did you see that the young bloke had been through two massive location changes when he was still a child? Occam’s Razor suggests the army family narrative which is I’m guessing why they’ve latched onto it, but the paper also mentioned the slave option, or even distant diplomat possibility. Tourism is likely as well. I like your suggestions as to the origins of the bloke, and they’re probably more likely. The paper said that roadside burials were quite common for people of low status from distant parts of the Empire. You’d think if he was from a military family, he’d have been buried near to the fort?
Hehe! Who’d trust any of that lot from the Game of Thrones world? 🙂 The apt question: What if they’re all bad eggs? Comes to mind.
Thanks for the suggestion as to the turnips. Hadn’t thought of that option.
I can see that with your experiences in the world of library. The very last job I applied for with the public service many decades ago now, I got the distinct impression during the interview that they were scared of me. Perhaps they didn’t really want the change they so desired? 😉 I’d been working in the private sphere for too long and might deliver on the requests. It was at a gallery, you may have heard of it.
Yeah plan B’s are solid items to have ready to hand, just in case.
Folks you can talk too with seed purchases, probably makes for a better experience all-round. The mob I get most of our seeds from are a gardening club, set up I believe by a bloke who’s family had a background with seed selling – and he wanted to do things differently I guess. Their stuff is usually pretty good, but they only sell what they trial, and for other stuff, there is the wonderful land of elsewhere. 🙂 Hey, as an odd side note story. You know how I was mentioning how we were trying to grow Canary Island Foxgloves from seed? Well, earlier in the year I visited a nursery that was fairly new and bought what I thought was the more usual foxglove. Nah, they’d stuffed up the labelling and it was a Canary Island Foxglove instead. Saves me a bit of trouble – by sheerest of chance. The seeds didn’t germinate mostly because this growing season has been very cool, so far. Things could change, maybe.
Brr! That is cold. Pea Soup outside now, but not cold at 57’F. Crazy weather. 🙂
Hehe! Oh man, I dunno. Look, sorry to say, but over the past half year, that has been my experience as well. Try working with people who are clearly ill. It’s a crapshoot out there. Someone recently was recounting to me of their fears of catching you-know-what, and yet there they were coughing away and happily shook hands. Didn’t know what to make of that, but what doesn’t kill you and stuff.
Yummo! Hope the film was as good as the popcorn cheese combo? How good was the original film?
Scott is clearly an inspiration to us all! 🙂 Hope you had a lovely day.
Cheers
Chris
Chris:
Ho, ho, ho – it’s foggy here. Had a whole bunch of birds come to the back porch begging with Junior the white squirrel for Christmas. Unusual.
I wasn’t allowed to have a job until I was 16. That immediately flopped and I was discouraged from trying again; school was everything to my parents. I did not have another job until college.
For breafast I eat:
A banana
Some chicken broth
A bowl of mashed sweet potatoes with cooked greens and a soft-boiled egg in it
A small bowl of oatmeal
Two fishsticks
Hummus
Fresh greens
That’s, umm, my biggest meal of the day. And – eew – I have never seen that particular fungus.
What tidy, happy Christmas trees.
Yeah, drystone walls on a slope eventually head down slope. I have had that trouble myself. It’s funny – we have orange clay here, but I don’t know of any nearby volcanoes . . .
The jams DO look good! I bet if you had tried to whip that first cream it would have just sat there like soup.
Naughty deer. Maybe that’s what scared Ruby.
You know what? I had never figured in the water for your greenhouse, coming from your precious supply. That’s quite a bit daily?
Rose terraces, on a sunny day – what a pleasure. Thanks!
Pam
Merry Christmas!
Here we have a cold and sunny and windy day, with family coming over.
Thanks for the Tiramisu picture. Looks great.
Decline is when newspapers are delivered a few days late by the post man. It happened to our area, this year in November. We live just 2 km outside of a small town, and since a month the morning delivery of the newspapers is a mere memory. They refer to their online alternative. I prefer paper.
We have upped the game to catch water voles (tree root eating marauders). Two kinds of Swiss made steel traps are now placed around the fields. Two voles were trapped the first two days, but I suspect that there are another ten or so to go. (Or a hundred? How do we know?)
Peace,
Goran
Yo, Chris – Well, our forecast for today is “Soggy Christmas.” Might get up to an inch of rain. But for the next week, it’s drizzle, every day. But not much. 1/10″ per day, forecast. So, the next week will be our pretty typical winter weather. Overcast skies, drizzle, on and off. No freezing temperatures, and daytime in the 50s.
So now that you’ve conquered Tiramisu, how are you going to top it? 🙂 I’d suggest … individual lemon meringues. You’ve got the eggs for it. I actually found a recipe that used the same number of egg whites (for the meringue) and an equal number of egg yolks for the lemon filling. That appealed to my sense of thrift 🙂
Yeah, Ruby is probably sitting around thinking “Well, that wasn’t so bad.” How soon they forget. H sure was hyper, yesterday. Lots of tearing around, and yipping. Maybe she heard Santa flying over? She has a bad habit of bolting her water. And then urping some of it up. We’ve been working on that. I don’t yell at her, but just say her name. This morning, four times. Maybe, she’ll get a clue. Slow down on the water intake, and I won’t be hacking and choking.
A three pound bag of blood or bone meal was about $5. Now it’s $15.
Prices might come down, a bit.
So, with care and work (and water tanks) the miner’s cottage and garden, could probably be brought back.
OK. I had to dive into the rabbit hole, to figure out the difference between jam, jelly and conserves. “All conserves are jam, but not all jam is conserves.” Conserves are a mixture of fruit (so, I guess my current / dried cranberry mix, is technically, a conserve), and may contain raisins, nuts or citrus. Shreded coconut was even mentioned. Nope, not big on conserves, here. If you go to the grocery, you see lots of jams and jellies. Not any conserves, that I’ve noticed. Can’t say the word is in common use.
I heard that frog again, last night. To get where he is, he’d have to cross a road and a good bit of lawn. A lot of frogs live in the ditch, on the other side of the road. They usually sound off, later in the year. He may be a different species. The heather is decorative, but the bees sure like it. Particularly, the bumble bees. There were a lot of them, around, this year.
Usually, when I get a bunch of vegetables, that I might not use too often, I sit down with three or four of my major cookbooks, and just check out the indexes. Might put ideas, in my head. 🙂
Being the holiday, and all, I made a double batch of popcorn. With a lot of that Australian cheese. Settled in with the new Indiana Jones movie. It was pretty good, though a bit long. Car chase, train chase, airplane chase, boat chase (did I miss one?) across three continents. There was time travel, involved.
I also watched some more episodes of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” season two. Some surprises, there. One episode started off with the animated characters from “Lower Decks,” checking out a supposed to be dead, time portal. Poof! Two of the brash young people are 120 years in the past, just ga-ga over all the history they’re witnessing. And trying not to cause any temporal anomalies. But when they go into the past, they’re not the animated characters, anymore. They’re the actors who do the voices for “Lower Decks.” It was a playful episode.
And, an episode I’m sure you would have liked. 🙂 We have a new kind of anomaly. A harmonic anomaly. A rift in space that they thought might be useful for subspace communication. But, it had a bad side effect. It caused the crew to sing, everything. And, it spread through the fleet and half the Klingon Empire. Yup. An all singing, all dancing episode. 🙂 I’m sure you’d like it. Lew
Hi Pam,
Fog seems to be the way of things at this time of year. Same here this morning as well, with a little difference later on. Cloudy for most of the day, then about 2pm it got dark, which is weird for summer. Thunder cracked, and Bam! Just as I’d finished the last bites of lunch, a super cell hit. Did I get wet or what? Almost two inches of rain fell in about twenty minutes. Headed outside with the umbrella and kept the filters on the water tanks from overflowing, but there was a lot of water – everywhere. Hours later, the water was flowing over the land. It’s early days but I suspect that there may be flooding elsewhere.
Do you normally feed the birds and junior? It may simply be the time of the year? But it may also indicate an overall lack of available feed. Yeah, I always use changed behaviour as an alert that something weird is going on.
We’ve all been there. Go on, what did you do with the job flop? If it means anything, after years of working with the local Tandy Electronics / Radio Shack, a new boss took over and sacked me as he wanted his previous assistant to do the role. I was gutted – and also suddenly broke. A new experience for me. Who knew there was anything to all that talk about saving mad cash for the bad times?
Dunno, but I hold some serious reservations about taking on College / University student debt these days simply due to the lack of return on investment. And I went to such places as well. The salary just doesn’t compensate for the debt load. It takes a lot of bad mojo for dreams to die.
Breakfast is also the biggest meal of the day for me as well, although at home I’m a vegetarian. Your brekkie would sure keep you fuelled for the day. Hope you never get to see the fungus, but candidly the odds are not good in that regard.
Yeah, it’s neat isn’t it? Some years the fire risk is off the charts, so keeping things neat is a good way to reduce consequences.
Well, here there are some similarities to the Appalachian mountains which kind of went off at around-ish the same time as the super volcanoes down here did, but many long millions of years ago. You and I are seeing the results of such massive extinction events today in your orange soils. Both of our soils probably have lots of unusual minerals, they just need the extra added Calcium assistance for the plants to access those minerals.
Thanks, and the jams are super tasty too. Yum!
Pam, I’m shamed to admit that I had no idea that gelatin would even be added to low grade cream in order to solidify it. My friends of the big shed fame explained the entire situation to me, but then they have milking cows and know such things. My only excuse is that milking cows would not work here due to me not wanting to get up so early in the morning. Hope you understand! 😉
Ruby went through a trial and is now her own boss. She has to take on board the risks which come from that escapade.
There’s not much of a plan B here with the water supplies, so I have to be careful there with the resource. The water tanks near to the greenhouse store a year and half supply, so that should be fine. Systems have to be simple enough that they work under the worst case scenario. Actually the greenhouse uses very little water, but that is true of the entire property.
Glad you enjoyed the photos of Ollie and the Roses. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Göran,
And a Merry Christmas to you and your family as well. It’s a great time of year for catching up with friends and family and enjoying a good shared meal.
Thanks. The higher quality cream made all the difference to the mascarpone cheese used in the tiramisu, and the feedback (which I did not seek out) was excellent. My friends are very much into quality food, and so I was a bit nervous about taking the dessert. But, I needn’t have worried.
Sorry to hear that about the local newspapers. I prefer reading books and physically printed words as well. What do they say: You can’t fight progress. Except as you so note, progress in this instance looks a lot like decline. 🙂 I’m always amazed at the little changes here and there which take place right before our very eyes, which reduce the overall costs of running a civilisation. Few people seem to notice.
A super cell storm hit here this afternoon. 48mm of rain fell within 20 minutes. It was utter mayhem, and I was out in the rain trying to keep the drainage systems working under extreme conditions – which they did but only with my help. Crazy weather, but the ferns and trees are enjoying the plentiful water.
Well done with the good work involved with hunting the voles, and they can really damage your fruit trees root systems. Dude, sorry to say, your guess of a hundred, is probably correct. 🙂 There are a lot of predators who will eat voles, you just have to work out some way to introduce them to your property. Like say, owls need big trees, maybe with hollows for them to nest in – or at the very least – nesting boxes.
We have a similar issue with the rats here, but Dame Plum is all over that business, and the rats are nervous and in retreat. Finding balance in an eco-system is one of the most difficult things I’m working on here. For example, foxes visit the farm, and I leave them to do their work of cleaning up the rabbits. Nobody is happy, but it sort of works. Owls are likewise very common here, mostly because there is housing and stuff for them to eat. It truly is a very complicated dance, and so good luck.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Did the days work out as soggy as the forecast suggested they’d be? The good Professor suggests that king tides are likely along the coast, as well as big surf. Not good for beach erosion and surf wipe outs, but there you go. The weather was quite exciting here today, like in a bad way. The day was going fine, cool, cloudy and very humid. But by around 1:30pm-ish it began getting really dark as thick clouds rolled in. Then you could hear the thunder. My thought was that the storm would travel north of the mountain range. But just as I finished the last bite of lunch, the rain began. And it’s something else to experience two inches of rain in about twenty minutes! I reckon it was a super cell storm, which are very localised. So I was out in the rain (under an umbrella) clearing out the drains and filters, and there was water everywhere. Completely nuts! It was like the ultimate game of whack a mole with the extreme weather just trying to keep all of the systems working. I ended up drenched, and felt quite cold by the end of the storm. A couple of hours later, and the water was still flowing across the land.
What? Can’t I simply rest on my laurels having conquered the mighty tiramisu? 🙂 But now you mention it, I cracked open the Stephanie Alexander magnum opus of a tome (at your wise suggestion), and will attempt to roast turnips tomorrow. Already the book has yielded good advice – peel the skin prior to roasting. Hadn’t known that the skin produced a bitter taste.
I like where you are going with the lemon meringues. 🙂 Did you know that with the tiramisu, the yolks are used with the mascarpone cheese mix, whilst the whites get used in the lady finger biscuits? It’s pretty clever to use everything including the squeak. I abhor waste in the kitchen as well.
You can only hope that Ruby learnt her lesson. She’s wilful that dog, and if not careful, may come to a bad end. With the dogs, I can only provide guidance and sound boundaries, but if they don’t accept that, it really is on their heads. The Editor and I have had some heavy discussions about this matter – and all being well, they’re both off to dog obedience school in early February. My hope is that the situation improves, or at least isn’t repeated at some future time.
Holy carp dude! Wow, that is expensive for the blood and bone meal. By comparison at a dollar a pound, I shall desist from whingeing in future. Phosphate deficiency in soils is a real problem, and down here it is no good at all. Hopefully prices for you do come down. Fertiliser prices went up due to geo-politics, wars and stuff. But also resource depletion. It’s kind of a necessary mineral additive.
Absolutely, the entire area could be brought back to life with a bit of care and attention, although this is equally true of much of the planet. I have no doubt this will eventually happen from sheer necessity.
Oh, I thought that conserves was a form of jam which had chunks of fruit, turns out the official definition is exactly as you describe it. But no, the jams we make are a single fruit, but in a chunkier although still spreadable style. You learn something new every day. I did like the descriptive of ‘posh jam’. 🙂 I’d like to think so about our jams, yeah. And yours definitely fits the description with the variety of fruits. The word was more commonly heard when I was a younger bloke now that I think about it. It is very possible that the definition has changed over the years.
From what I’ve observed, tree frogs will happily cross the road during wet weather. Mostly they make it to the other side of the road. I agree, the frogs do quieten down during the winter months. I really don’t know enough about their life-cycle, and it is weird they can be here without standing above ground water. Some toads live in the soil, although I don’t get that story at all.
Good to hear about the bumble bees. It’s been so wet and cold this summer that I’m yet to see a single bumble bee. Watched a very pretty butterfly pollinating some of the blackberry flowers this afternoon (after the rain). Insects do a lot of good work, and providing feed for them like with that heather is a real boon for them.
Speaking of cooking! 🙂 Bottled another dozen jars of apricots this afternoon.
Hehe! Go the double batch of popcorn. Yum! You may have noticed the two tiramisu’s? Only one headed off the property… 😉 That sure is a lot of chasing around with the film, and glad to hear that Indiana Jones still has what it takes, although I believe (from memory) that a young lady played the characters daughter? Or has my memory failed me there?
The series sounds like a lot of fun. Hmm. Might look into that. Did your mother ever say how cheeky you are? 🙂 I’d heard all about that particular musical episode, and promptly had an attack of the vapours. It would have been fun and silly, but also probably quite good. Even the Klingon’s though? Far out.
Cheers
Chris
Hello Chris
I do love that miner’s cottage, The walls look extraordinary, I am surprised that it is still standing. The 17th century cottage that my husband and I lived in had stone walls for the ground floor but brick above that.
Have just seen Son who has been staying away from me because he had a cold. I asked him about turnips. He said that he just puts them in stews.
Inge
Chris:
Yesterday, I was hopping up and down while I read your essay and tried to do other things at the same time. I missed the part about the gold mining area, which is especially a shame, as historic stuff is one of my favorite things. The first photo reminds me of Machu Pichu – where I have never been, but I think you have? The cottage is so nice and cosy. Is there a chimney? Can you see inside?
I think I am glad that I am not in your spot in those days of rain, though I can see the benefits. I would say “Look to the tree frogs.” but, then, they were born with raincoats and a yen for bugs, and maybe you have a raincoat, but I don’t know how you feel about bugs.
I feed Junior the White Squirrel every time that he asks, which is about three times a day . . . This is a tradition, started with his mother Charlene the White Squirrel. Just in case they happen to be sacred (and I guess I have made them so), though Charlene is gone now, and anything that acts less sacred than Junior might be hard to find. After all, he is just a tree rat.
The birds come when Junior does; they’re no dummies. But yesterday there were a really unusual amount of them, in the mild weather. And there seems to be plenty of food around for all species right now (except for the bear at my mother’s assisted living place in town). I just decided it was Christmas magic.
Well, you have learned to save mad cash!
I am in the Appalachian Mountains and did not know that they were volcanic, though possibly the 5.8 earthquake we had a few years ago might have alerted me?
Maybe if you put your cows to bed late, they wouldn’t wake up so early?
Pam
Yo, Chris – Yikes! That is a lot of rain! I ran across an article, last night, about warming trends and climate change in the US. Not enough chill nights. Agriculture will be affected.
http://www.cnn.com/2023/12/21/weather/us-winter-temperatures-climate-change/index.html
I also finished “The Best American Food Writing, 2023.” Besides the article on olive fungus, there was another one, “There is No Such Thing as Italian Food.” (John Last, Noema magazine? Website?) Sort of about how “classic” Italian food is made up of a lot of transplants. Tomatoes and corn from the Americas. Wheat, for pizza, from Canada. But there were some parts of the article that were very concerning. Italy is the third largest producer of Kiwi. Or, was. Starting in 2012, some mystery disease began killing half the crop. Jujubes, which made their way from China, to Italy during the time of Augustus, are in trouble. African swine fever is killing wild boars, and spreading into domestic pigs, threatening Prosciutto and Parma ham production. “This last summer, half the citrus crop in Sicily was claimed by Cascola.” 70% of the island is threatened with desertification. But, for the first time, coffee has been grown in Sicily. Demographic and climate is shifting Italian cuisine.
Oh, and by the way, I was looking for that term for when cultures develop something, that looks similar, though the cultures are widely spread apart. Pyramids in Egypt. Agricultural revolution in China, Egypt, the Middle East and the Americas. It’s called “parallel development.”
Ah, but you have to make the Lady Fingers, from scratch, to use up the other part of the egg. 🙂 I wonder how many old, but a bit more labor intensive recipes, developed to use up extra ingredients?
Dog owners, and their representatives, also need sound boundaries 🙁 . They kidnapped my dog! Christmas day was rather quiet, and I had took a nap and set my alarm for 4:30. H and I were going to head for the Club. At 4:20, there’s a knocking on my door. It’s Elinor’s daughter, and they want to take H to visit Elinor. My response was “NOW!!!???” There I am, still half asleep and disoriented, starkers, and they want to throw my whole day into chaos? I told her to go cool her heels, as I needed to get dressed, get the dog dressed and walked, and then I’d give her over. Took my time about it, too. When I gave her over, I said to drop her off at the Club, as I wasn’t tossing those plans out. So, I went to the Club, and two hours later … I know I shouldn’t be paranoid, but, frankly, wouldn’t be surprised if they gave H to someone else.
Blood and bone meal would probably be cheaper, if I bought larger quantities. And, I suppose I could store it in the Master Gardeners storage room. Something to think about.
Why did the frog cross the road? It was being chased by a chicken. 🙂 I once saw some chickens attack a frog, at my friends from Idaho’s place, here. It was brutal. Vast panorama of nature. Red in tooth and claw.
In this Indian Jones, there were references to a son who had died in the war. There was a god daughter, who was all grown up.
Over the years, there have been several references to Klingon opera 🙂 . I finished the second season of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.” There were some interesting “firsts,” reflecting the cannon. The first time Spock meets Kirk. Kirk is still a lowly lieutenant. Scotty, the engineer makes his first appearance. Rescued from a Gorn infested planet. Season two ended on a real cliff hanger. Lew
Chris,
Cool! You’ve been jamming! Hard to beat raspberry jam. Or strawberry jam. Good stuff.
I rarely buy bananas now. We used to eat them regularly. No fungus issues, but the quality keeps decreasing.
Isn’t that the way of fruit trees? Experiment with them until just the right mixture of soil additives is found. Then the trees do remarkably better. Hmmm, that’s true of the vegetables too…
Nice miner’s cottage. Tiny, but it would work well in this area barring leaks for wind or water. Snug in the winter, but small enough to cool in the summer. Cute, too.
Your old rock wall sure shows entropy in action. Which means that maintenance would be an energy draining experience. The rock gabion cages look to be a fine solution. More work up front, but easier to maintain.
Sambar deer? Looks pretty big. I know people who would wet themselves upon seeing deer that size, but not for the same reason the deer wet itself upon seeing Ollie. No, wet themselves from drooling over the possibility of venison steaks. Lots of venison steaks. Or maybe dried venison, dried on a screen over a slow fire. It’s tastes great and is actually an enjoyable process.
Turnips have some flexibility. In addition to stews, I’ve had good success cutting them up with other vegetables and roasting them. Also, cutting them about the same size as potatoes and frying them, either with some potatoes or instead of potatoes, a 50/50 mix seeming to work well. I’ve also tried mashed turnips, but the flavor just doesn’t work for me.
Hmmm, are there ANY trustworthy Game of Thrones characters? Perhaps. Maybe Arya Stark. Just don’t irritate her and definitely don’t harm her, her friends or her family and then she seems like a decent sort. Otherwise, get on her bad side and she’d “stick you with the pointy end” of her trustworthy sword, Needle. Anybody else I would run from as fast as possible, maybe go north of the wall and try living among the Wildlings.
The Princess was needed through the holiday in Toppenish. She’s not sure exactly which day she’ll be able to return this week. Cousin invited Dame Avalanche and me for a wonderful dinner Friday. The food was fantastic and we had a nice relaxing visit. Well, the humans did. Dame Avalanche and Killian played and wrestled and played and wrestled nonstop for 6 hours. Both of them spent most of Saturday sleeping and recovering from brutalizing one another, blood free fortunately.
Avalanche was due a vaccine this morning, so we went to the vet. There was a skiff of wet, soggy snow overnight, but the roads were either slushy or mostly bare and wet. We went there and back again in a decidedly unpleasant drizzle at +1C. Staying in and drinking tea.
Oh, many years ago, one of my cousins did her PhD thesis on Llewelyn the Last of Wales. She had to learn fluent modern Welsh as well as obtain a working knowledge of Middle Welsh. Then she spent a year or two researching in Wales. My endeavors to learn Welsh allowed us to text in Welsh at various parts of Christmas Day. We both enjoyed it.
DJSpo
Hi Inge,
The miners cottage is a very sweet building, yes. It’s funny you say that, but I took a long hard look at the walls and particularly looked closely at the mortar used. At a guess, the builder had mixed a good quantity of lime in with the local clay, and the mixture has set rock solid. I doubt, either of us will look as good after 160 years! 🙂 The foundations probably weren’t deep enough because there was a crack in one wall near to the chimney, which always adds a greater load upon the structure due to the sheer mass of the thing, but other than that, it was remarkably sound.
Lovely! Buildings which survive the centuries are usually well made in the first place, and in my travels in distant countries you can see such sound history. We visited the 12th and 13th century Cambodian building Ta Prohm in the mid to late 90’s and had the place pretty much to ourselves. It’s amazing what our species can produce of beauty for the long haul if they but put their minds to the task. Mind you, the building itself did not halt the decline of the Khmer Empire.
Some of the older Victorian era buildings in the big smoke are similar to what you describe in that they use granite (bluestones similar to Stonehenge materials) for footings, with brick sitting above. The stones provide a very good damp proof course.
Thanks for asking your Son. We roasted the peeled turnip cubes up today. The plan is to try them out over the next few days. Report to follow! 🙂
It only rained here 1/25th of an inch today. That’s something of a relief.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
It’s been said before that distractions are distracting, and perhaps your experience suggests the absolute truth of the matter? 🙂 No worries, life intervenes, and that’s how things roll. Hope you are keeping on top of all the little things which need being done? My experience with that is: Sometimes yes, sometimes no, but eventually things get done.
Machu Picchu has far better stone work. 😉 As for terraced gardens, that epic Peruvian place is an inspiration. Yeah, we walked four days to get there at sunrise, and it’s a good way to beat the tourist hordes. I learned that there were many Inca Trails leading to that sunrise ending. There is a stone chimney attached to the cottage, and it’s a sweet little building. Inside the cottage was an old bed, although you were unable to enter the building. It was an interesting cottage and also very difficult to find, yeah.
Thanks for asking, and I’m cool with bugs, although hopefully they decide to feed on something else other than us. Always a risky proposition if only because they don’t tend to be all that careful as to what or whom they decide to dine upon, and nobody wants the resulting itchy bites. It only rained a little bit today, otherwise I can report that the ground is completely sodden. Hopefully a couple of days of sunshine will dry up the top layer of soil because we have to put away the firewood soon before the next bout of forecast rain in under a weeks time – and the seasoning firewood is very wet as of today.
Always wise to look after the sacred animals, like Junior and Charlene. Rest assured, the parrots and other critters living here are enjoying their fair share as well. Rats have their place as natures little clean up crew, although I’d appreciate if their twitchy nosed little antics don’t involve vehicles and/or infrastructure. A risky proposition for the rats to do so. Plus, stay away from the chickens seems like wise advice. And Dame Plum is there to curb the worst excesses of that lot.
Holy carp Pam! A bear in town? Yikes. Probably not a smart idea for the hungry bear, although there may be easy feeds in an urban environment. I’d not want to encounter such a creature, in such a state (hungry), whilst on an otherwise relaxing dog walk. It’s pretty late in the season for a bear to be hungry.
Hopefully your mountain range is as dormant as this one? Fingers crossed anyway. And yep, those sorts of earthquakes are no joke. How did the house hold up to the shaking?
I’ll suggest that keeping up late bovine option to my friends. It might work. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Yeah, man, we be jammin’. How good was Bob Marley? We made a batch of Apricot jam today as well. After bottling, there was still 3kg of the fruit left over. Better to do something with the fruit before it goes off, as it does quickly.
Bananas had more flavour when I was younger, although there is a school of philosophy which suggests that a persons taste buds die over the ageing. However, many years ago I tasted a Red Banana, and the flavour took me right back in time. My gut feeling suggests that in a few decades time, bananas will look very different than the sort of things we consume nowadays. Hey, I gave up purchasing pineapples for similar reasons as to what you wrote. Either sold too green, or way over ripe, but either way – no good.
It’s the way of soil, yeah. It’s funny thinking back how I believed that just adding mulch would be a cure-all for any soil deficiencies. It’s like the food forest concept, it may work somewhere else, but just not here. Nowadays, I’m happy to test out growing practices, but they have to work, or else. I even got serious about pruning the tomato plants this year with a ‘take no prisoners approach’. The plants seem to be responding well to the pruning.
DJ, sadly I’m used to far more living space than the cottage provided. It’s a relative concept which some guests from Germany last year pointed out. And this house is smaller than the average home, but not where they’d travelled from.
Forget about the deer, I know people who’d wet themselves if they encountered Ollie! 🙂 There’s no season here when it comes to deer. You’re right too, they are a good source of feed and I’ve enjoyed the venison I’d consumed in the past. Had such a steak many long years ago at the Kevington Hotel which is an old 1862 pub on a road up in the distant much taller mountains way off to the east of here. Good fun.
That is exactly how the turnip was roasted up today. It was peeled, then diced, and added to a bunch of vegetables roasted in the oven. Can’t say I’ve consumed turnip before, but it’s got a nice taste (and yes, I took a photo this time!) which is kind of like a sharper roast potato. I get the impression that root vegetables were traditionally frowned upon because the areas where they grow well generally can’t support the more usual grain growing suspects – such as wheat. And that means in some respects growing the tubers takes away the market opportunities for distant grain growers – and then there were the sheep. Hmm. Frying them seems like a good option as well, although I’d need to experiment with them in the kitchen a bit more. Had the turnip on a pizza this evening, and I could not tell the difference between the roast potato and the roast turnip.
Yeah, Arya is definitely one not to annoy. 🙂 Arya was my fave although maybe Tyrion Lannister was my fave. What about both as faves? I’m still wondering if Mr Martin may hire a competent ghostwriter at some point, and just finish the darned series off? I can’t bring myself to watch the series, although it was well loved. Oh my, the bloke is under siege and I do hope he stays away from err, the hashtag filter free websites. The opinions some folks have, far out! Alas the author is working on the penultimate book as distinct from the concluding volume. It sounds like a burden to me. Well done Mr Martin, and I do hope he can enjoy the more amusing aspects to the situation. I loved the story the author wrote in his ode to the Jack Vance fictional universe. What a great collection of stories that was.
Hope your lady has good weather for her travels. And you and Avalanche have been left in fine hands, clearly! Dogs would love that visit, and glad to hear that the food was good.
I trust Avalanche was on her best behaviour at the vet? Far out, your weather sounds cold, brr! The weather here is completely nuts, but oh well, I deal with things as I encounter them on that front. We’ve got a brief few days of sunny weather before the next forecast rain, so I might have to bring in the firewood, or else.
Hehe! Well done both of you, and it’s good the language is being used. I’m coming around to the idea that language is a reflection of the underlying culture.
Did paid work today, but am finally on my brief break. Yay! Will now turn off the phone and emails on that side of things. 🙂 One can only but do their best.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
The weather this season has been nuts. At least it only rained a little bit today. 🙂 I note that the 25% decline mentioned in the article was for the situation in 75 years time and not in the immediate future. Fruit tree chilling hours from my understanding are any accumulated hours of winter temperatures below 45’F. It’d have to be a very moderate climate to not get a lot of those sorts of hours, so it’s a pretty easy to achieve target. However some varieties of fruit trees like a lot of those sorts of hours, e.g. 700 hours plus per winter. Mind you, this problem has occurred in some parts of this country during particularly warm years.
Thanks for mentioning the article. Now those are some immediate climate challenges. And to think the Italians even have a food philosopher. That’s a new one to me. The bloke growing coffee in Sicily might be onto something there. Europe would have been pounded in the last Ice Age, so little wonder that so many plants were brought in from far distant places. It’s when they claim those plants as their own, that origins can become overlooked don’t you reckon? Most of my diet is comprised of plants with origins in other countries. But massive plant troubles like that depicted in the article are perhaps indicative that there are problems with the management of the soils. Yeah, I hear you about the shifting tastes, and necessity will force that outcome sooner or later.
Makes sense that the climate and opportunity would produce similar outcomes in different parts of the world (parallel development). People are plenty smart enough to be looking for an edge or advantage, like agriculture, and then run with it. Of course, as a species we have a long way to go before the practice is perfected for the longer run planet wide. And even then, we have to hope that at some point in the future, the past isn’t reinvented for short term gain. And around and around the music goes, where it stops, nobody knows!
I doubt much food wastage was part of kitchens in the past. Like, when I was a kid my grandmother used to boil up tripe for my (other) grandfather’s Sunday lunch. It smelled disgusting, but the meal itself represents far less waste than nowadays when everyone wants to eat prime cuts of meat. Hey, makes you wonder if slow cooking cheap cuts of meat won’t make a come back shortly due to the harder economic times a coming? That’s my prediction for 2024, slow cooking and cheap cuts of meat.
Heck yeah dude! 🙂 The Editor had some local blokes dog jump on her the other day. The bloke had left his kid holding the dog, and clearly he wasn’t strong enough to do so. The father got some good advice from me that morning, yeah.
But your story takes the cake, so to speak. Whatever do they have in mind? The last time this happened with H when Elinor was indisposed, if I recall correctly, they did dump her back with you in the end. It’s hard on the dog such too-ing and fro-ing, not to mention the effect it has on you. Not sure there really is much you can do about the situation. Is Elinor at risk of losing access to her place?
Hey, the thought just occurred to me that if everything including the squeak was used in the kitchen, blood and bone meal would be even more expensive than it is. You read it here first! I reckon storage of the stuff is risky because it attracts rats. I tend to only obtain the stuff when it is almost ready to be used. There is something to be said about reducing the amount of materials stored. On Christmas eve I was talking with a neighbour of the big shed dudes place, and the bloke discovered a snake underneath a compost pile. The reptile was clearly keeping both warm and fed (on mice presumably). Not a good find.
Very funny! Oh yeah chickens are dinosaurs, no getting around it. They will eat any mammal (or amphibian) they can take down. You don’t survive an Everest plus sized monster rock hitting the planet surface at speed by being a fussy eater!
Cool, a sad addition to the story, but then if Indiana could travel back in time, surely temptation to rescue the ill-fated son may get the better of him? That story line just popped into my head.
Oh yeah, I forgot the Klingon’s appreciated high culture. Quite the fan of the bard as well from memory. General Chang was a great Klingon character in Star Trek VI who had quite a few lines of the bard as part of the storyline, although you always knew things were going to end badly for him. It was the Enterprise after all. Apparently the story goes, you’ve not heard the bard, until you’ve heard the reading in Klingon.
Did paid work today, but am now on my short break – that’s the plan anyway. It’s dodge work time, otherwise known as Smoko!
Cheers
Chris
Hi everyone,
If you’re interested, here is a brief article on the causes of the recent storm activity down here: Severe thunderstorms hammer eastern Australia during Christmas and Boxing Day.
Cheers
Chris
Chris:
Sometimes yes, sometimes no, but eventually . . . I don’t know about eventually.
There is a spider with a web by my bathroom mirror, so that I can easily watch him. He catches all sorts of things that I deem bad. Yesterday he caught a mosquito. I never bother spiders in the house. We have one that lives in the basement – a wolf spider – that looks a bit like a tarantula. I’d say that Fred is a good 8 cm. I see that you have a similar one in Australia.
https://australian.museum/learn/animals/spiders/wolf-spiders/
Our log house on a steep slope held up splendidly in the earthquake (and 2 years of aftershocks). If only log houses weren’t so badly insulated . . .
Pam
Yo, Chris – I’ve seen a few articles, here and there, about reduced chilling hours, impacting crops. Just episodic little bits and pieces. But they seem to be increasing. The state of Georgia, which is known for it’s peaches, comes to mind. A warm winter and two late frosts in March, pretty much did in their peach crop. I noticed that blueberries have overtaken peaches as their top crop. With early, mid and late varieties, all your eggs are not in one basket. 🙂
Well, the Italians created the slow food movement. Actually, it’s always been around, but, they kind of codified it, and spread the word. Yup. Let’s all slow down and pay attention to what we’re shoveling in.
Someone may be cooking up tripe, here at the Institution. Every once in awhile, there’s a reek in the hallways that just about knocks your socks off, and makes your eyes water. I always think it smells like someone is baking a chicken with the feathers on. There’s been several articles here, about using slow cookers and cheaper cuts of meat, as a thrifty move.
Speaking of cooking up meat, here’s an article about a dairy barn fire, down in Texas, in which almost 18,000 cows died. It’s a bit on the long side, a 20 minute read. But there’s quit a bit about bio digesters.
http://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-nearly-18-000-cows-111028259.html
As long as you pay the rent, your apartment is yours for up to six months. After that, you get a 10 day notice to vacate. No ifs, ands, or buts. Elinor is not anywhere near that deadline. But there are other deadlines. Her insurance has run out, to keep her in the rehab. Though there may be an extension, or two. Maybe. Being poverty stricken, here in this great country, they must find her a bed in another living situation. The problem is, they are few. We were at this point, once before, but the nearest available bed was up in Auburn, outside Seattle. And, she flat refused. She may not have that option, this time. If she did come home, she’d need 24 hour care. Which no one wants to take on, as she’s so difficult to deal with.
Congratulations on your mini-break! A well deserved respite.
Sounds like your having fun, experimenting with the turnips. But on pizza? So, on to parsnips? They’re really good treated like French fries. Some people fry them, but they’re just as good, baked.
Nope. A snake is not something you want to find in your compost heap. They’ll seek anywhere warm. There are stories of people discovering rattle snakes, cozied up to them in their sleeping bags. 🙂 That ought to give you the fantods. Lew
Hello Chris
Are you sure that the old cottage has any foundations? My old cottage had no foundations beneath the original 2 up 2 down cottage. At one point it had been turned into two 1 up 1 down homes. This suggests dwellings for the poor to me. The result was that we had 2 staircases. We kept them because the original one was dangerous but fascinating as it wound around the huge original chimney. My husband fell badly down it one night and the children were banned from using it. There was a later chimney added for the second home and this had caused a crack in the wall too.
At one time there had been an added porch as my husband found its foundations when he built a porch.
Inge
Hi Lewis,
Thought you might be interested in this ‘blue zone’ article. The results are apparently in, although I note regular stretching was not mentioned: You can’t reverse the ageing process but these five things can help you live longer.
Cheers
Chris
Chris,
Yum Apricot jam. Extra yum! It is amazing how quickly ripe apricots go to beyond over ripe, isn’t it? They don’t last very long.
The Princess got home Tuesday evening. She’s glad to be home. I’m glad she’s home. Dame Avalanche keeps snuggling up to her. We’re all happy.
I agree about the bananas. There is NOT much flavor there. They don’t smell correct, either. There are better things to eat.
Yes, that miner’s cottage IS tiny. The current domicile, while small by modern standards, is much bigger than the cottage. I’ve lived in places of similar size to the cottage, however, and was quite happy at the time. I do enjoy the relative space in our house, though. And a yard to potter around in.
You’re on the right track with the turnips. Their nutrition profile is similar to the potato, with less calories and much lower carbohydrate. The turnip greens are edible. I like the slightly tangy flavor of turnips, too.
Arya was my favorite with Tyrion the next favorite. The Princess had the order reversed from me. I’ve read that nobody is interested in finishing Martin’s work for him. The final season of the tv series wasn’t received well. However, Martin had quit the tv series after season 5 and gave the show’s writers an outline of where he intended to take the books. I think the long delay in getting out the next book stems from two main things. First, he keeps adding plots and characters, so the various storylines have become too complicated. I’m not sure he knows how to finish the series. Second, I think he’s trying to rewrite the ending so that it differs from the show. Oh, there is a third thing: I don’t know if he even knows how to finish a project.
I’ve also read him saying that he isn’t certain that he wants to complete the book series as everybody who watched the tv series knows how it will end. He’s also vastly overextended. He’s working on the prequel book series, several tv series spun off from the original as well as based on the prequel books, as well as being involved with several unrelated tv series. That said, I do have to say that I own the existing books of the original series and enjoy reading them. We also own the tv series on dvd and enjoy watching that. If he never completes the book series, I’ll be disappointed but will be grateful for the entertainment and thought the uncompleted series and the tv series gave me.
“I’m coming around to the idea that language is a reflection of the underlying culture.” That’s a good observation. I concur wholeheartedly. The culture, the way of thinking, so much becomes much clearer once the language is known. It’s an idea I try to keep in mind when reading history.
Thanks for the link to the article on the storms. I’m glad they had pictures of the storm overlying a map of Australia. The photos really put it in perspective. Reading the stats of wind speeds, rainfall totals, number of lightning strikes weren’t too surprising once I’d seen the sheer size of the storm system. Definitely one of those storms where the guiding philosophy is “hunker down indoors and hope the house doesn’t blow down.”
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
As a canine update, after her recent misadventure, Ruby is on her very best behaviour today. But all things are subject to change and at short notice. 😉
Eventually is a long time for sure. The logic of your assertion is kind of hard to refute.
Out of sheerest curiosity, have the folks in town managed to err, relocate the hungry bear?
Spiders go where they will, and mirrors seem to attract them. The car mirrors always get covered in webs, so your experience does not surprise me. Wolf spiders are on every continent, possibly excluding Antarctica – a bit cold there. They’re quite handy spiders for cleaning up garden pests. Go Fred! 🙂 And you reminded me of the time a few months ago when I was sitting in the orchard with Ollie enjoying the early spring sunshine, and one of them bit me on the bottom. A rather itchy experience if I may say so, but I recovered after a couple of days. At the time I thought it was a bull ant bite, but it may have been too cold for the ants.
On wet or foggy mornings, the ground in the orchards are literally covered in spiders webs. There are a lot of them out there… The fruit trees rarely suffer from garden pests though.
Ah well, your words just go to prove that no one building technique is perfect. I’ve heard tales of people suggesting that their houses are so well constructed that they require no mechanical heating or cooling, and this sort of talk sounds a lot like lies to me. Of course, way back in the day, houses weren’t mechanically heated and cooled, but that is an entirely different matter altogether relating to the available energy.
The logs would perform better than bricks would from an insulation perspective, at least that is my thinking on the subject. I’m a fan of using timber in buildings.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Inge,
No, I’m not entirely certain that the cottage has stone foundations, although in those days, buildings did use a sort of lime and crushed rock / whatever was around along those lines, in strip footings. I’ve repaired an 1890’s Victorian era terrace and had a good look at the footings. You could even see the crushed sea shells added to the mixture. And in that case (which was admittedly 23 years later) the first layer of bricks sat on top of the strip footings, but they were both below ground level.
What was interesting about the construction was that the mortar between the second and third brick layers had a sort of black asphalt mixture which presumably would have reduced moisture working upwards through the bricks like the sponges that they are. Any timber for the floor joists, sat above the asphalt level. Candidly heavy duty plastic damp proof course is a superior product.
With the stone cottage, I’d guessed that the rocks went below ground level so as to stop the walls from shifting, but I didn’t think to check for such details. A closer inspection of the photos suggest this is the case.
I didn’t post the following detail image of how the roof was tied onto the stone walls, but things are not all that different these days with brick walls. The stone cottage was all done with bush poles though. A lintel is anchored to the stone walls with some sort of steel strap embedded in the mortar. Roof joists are anchored onto the lintel. And roof battens sit at right angles to the roof joists. The Iron roof sheets are anchored onto the roof battens. Roofs are made very similarly these days, but perhaps with more dimensionally sound timbers! 🙂
Just added that for your interest.
1 up and 1 down houses are very rare in Melbourne due to the age, and we looked at perhaps buying one well over twenty five years ago. It was in North Melbourne where there are a lot of old terrace houses. I agree, they’re expensive nowadays, but originally they were workers cottages.
Oh my gawd, falling from a height is a dangerous activity for ongoing good health. Hope he recovered from the fall? And wise to keep the kids off the stairs, although they may have been more agile as kids are. Yeah, chimneys can add a lot of stress to the walls of a house. And it is also possible that the house was able to move around a bit more freely in the soil than the later addition of the chimney which may have had more sturdy foundations, and this can also cause cracks.
Hehe! Houses tell stories of the lives of former occupants, don’t they? Back in the days of polio, I’d heard stories that parents kept their kids sleeping in the fresh air of enclosed in verandas. Winters would have been cold, but then as a kid my room was the old laundry in the backyard converted into a bedroom. It was a tiny space, but suited me well enough.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Oh yeah, the season for sun ripened tasty apricots is very short – and the fruit does not store well. Freezing will turn the fruit to moosh. Nobody wants to consume moosh. Funnily enough they preserve well (better than peaches) by bottling (canning). The flesh is firmer and holds together in the cooking process.
Are apricots grown in your part of the world? I reckon Yakima might be a good area for them, although that’s only a guess. I tell you what, those trees have gone into shock because of the completely nuts rainfall. It only rained a little tiny bit today.
I’m freaking out a bit about bringing in the firewood for the year because of the rain. It’s getting dicey trying to pick a day to do that work. Ook! And the rains are returning mid next week. No rest for the wicked…
Good stuff! And glad to hear that your lady has returned safely home again. I don’t have any familial obligations, but I can well understand that they’re important.
When a crispy ripe dessert apple looks like a better option than a banana! 🙂 I only buy them now when they look alright to me, other than that, I’d happily skip them for oranges. That citrus fruit grows well in this part of the world. The local cherry farm has closed up early this year due to the heavy rains. Unfortunately, cherries easily split with heavy rain, but oh, the economic pain for those farmers. The birds got all of our cherries off the trees. I’ve given up on that fruit variety.
Hehe! Yeah, that’s the thing, sometimes bigger is better! Mind you, the stone cottage had a very decent sized garden surrounded by a well made stone wall. It was a pretty sweet set up.
Thanks for confirming my suspicions of the turnips. So yesterday the tubers were peeled, then diced, and baked along with some potatoes, onions and carrots. The roast vegetables get used in various meals, but last night we sliced some of them up and chucked them on a home made Ortolana pizza. Ortolana being a medley of seasonable vegetables. Yummo! And I couldn’t pick which were the potatoes, and which were the turnips.
Dude, I’m not arguing with you about Mr Martin’s most excellent series of books, or work ethic. And I own the books as well, and enjoyed all the imagined moments of that turbulent land. The article I read on the subject suggested that the author experiences writing as a form of gardening, where he sets off in a certain direction and then the story takes on a life and direction of its own. I can see that. Some weeks, I begin writing the blog with a title and a single idea, and then see where it all goes. In fact, some of the projects here take on a similar life of their own. Part of the creative process, but I have an odd hunch that it is tapping into some other source as well. We’re very much a species which revels in stories. Still, can’t bring myself to watch the series, mostly because I would prefer to read the ending. Now Grand Designs UK, that’s an entirely different matter! 🙂
Sadly the storm has taken a few lives. But the scale of the thing is epic. The satellite photos showed the magnitude of the monster. And up north of the continent the storm even spun out a minor tornado, and it was quite destructive. A few roofs were ripped from houses. The engineer for this house specified that the roof had to withstand very high wind loads, and given we survived a direct hit by a minor tornado many years ago (also on Christmas day), the instructions were perhaps good advice. Hope not to see such a thing again, but lightning does strike in the same place more than once.
Managed to test out the discounted inverter purchased a month or so back from the manufacturer. And gave the big yellow power wheelbarrow a full service today which took a few hours. The inverter testing was a big job, mostly because many cables and fuses had to be upgraded to accommodate the higher currents. Oh well, nobody said life would be easy. And it’s true you know.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Reduced chilling hours is a problem depending on the particular varieties of fruit trees being grown and how many hours they each need. There are low chilling hours varieties available, but it is not a ten minute job to replant an orchard. Although I did see an orchard last week which had entirely new varieties of apple scions grafted to the rootstock. And you never know, the trees may adapt to the lack of chilling hours, but who knows what issues that may have – and I’d suspect a lack of blossoms and fruit would be one outcome.
Yup, a warm winter and a late frost would do it. We skipped the warm winter, and settled on a late frost, and that had similar outcomes! 🙂 Four years in a row, may be a new climate pattern? Oh well, plant a diversity of trees, and you’ll get something. Might get some chestnuts this year. They look like they’re forming on the err, flowers (oh! catkins, of course). Might have to plant out some more chestnut and hazelnut varieties. Always something more to do.
Exactly, don’t have all your eggs in one basket. Plant a diversity of trees, vegetables, tubers, berries etc.
Hadn’t thought of the origins of the slow food movement, but yeah. I agree, it has always been around. For the big shed folks, it’s a way of life really. And when we entertain here, there is no rush whatsoever when at table. Food is very important, possibly more important than most people realise. I’d read some odd statistic that almost half the population down here have some sort of gut issues, and that’s not good at all. Slow down and enjoy life. Speaking of which, we went to the local pub tonight for dinner. They’d undergone a renovation, although curiously I was told the work was done to shore up the structure (it’s getting on a century old), particularly the floor. So not a cosmetic fix up by any means. They had a new chef in the kitchen, and things were good I can tell you. Had a wagyu beef burger and chips which was all excellent (and not too much salt on the chips). They’re back!
That was my impression of tripe as well. It stinks. I’ve never been a fan, although the Editor tells me that I have a very sensitive nose. Could have worked as one of those super-sniffers who get paid heaps of mad cash. Our fortunes may be made perhaps? But in a bizarre twist of fate, I was once paid to use my nose, by none other than the gooberment. They used to get me back regularly during paid work onto an odour assessment panel for the tested of air samples collected from around the Werribee sewage farm. I got all the glamorous jobs… Drats, foiled again!
Hey, the person doing the chicken baking left the feathers on, and also perhaps failed to gut the thing. I so hear you. Actually articles on how to be thrifty have formed part of the news media for over the past year. I may be cynical but I noticed that during the silly festive season, the thrift articles were dumped in favour of how to get cheap credit for folks who’d otherwise not be able to access it, and then there were the subsequent financial distress articles. Hopefully in the new year we can get back to thrifty again.
What a story. I don’t know what to say. Dairy is usually produced in areas that are somewhat greener and with higher regular rainfall for obvious reasons, but when you go 100% artificial, well, that’s a risk. The issue with the insulating foam reminded me of the Grenfell high rise fire in the UK, and that similar stuff has been used on some buildings down here as cladding. There was a fire in the big smoke on a high rise a few years back, and luckily for the occupants, the builder had installed an oversized water pump, so they got the fire out, but it spread quickly up the flammable cladding. The gooberment is rapidly replacing the stuff at the tax payers expense everywhere, and interestingly won’t say where the stuff is installed – for obvious reasons. I’m surprised the dairy folk didn’t try and switch on the sprinklers they had for the summer months cooling.
The old timers used to say that you caught more flies with honey than vinegar. But people make their own choices sorry to say. Any updates on H?
Thanks. Did some things today that I was really wanting to do for a while. Tested out the discounted inverter I purchased from the manufacturer which is shutting up operations mid next year. It worked well, but I expected nothing different from it. Also gave the big yellow power wheelbarrow a full service. That likewise took a few hours to do. If things dry up, we can begin putting away the firewood, but it has to dry up first – and the power wheelbarrow is used to haul massive loads of the stuff uphill.
Parsnips are apparently easier to grow than carrots. Something to look into. Thanks for the suggestion.
Dude, they’ll get into tents too just to keep warm. Best to keep tents tightly zipped up for that very reason. Not good.
Cheers
Chris
Chris:
Mr. Bear has not been seen for a few days since the bird feeders were taken down. I forgot to mention that typically they would have gone into hibernation in November, not to be seen until spring. They did not so so this year, as we have had one roaming around our property in the country as well. I imagine food is somewhat scarce, though possibly not so much in town . . .
Pam
Yo, Chris – That was an interesting article. Timed to match the New Year’s resolutions 🙂 . Also big in article land, this time of year. They didn’t mention stretching, but did mention exercise. And one should stretch before exercise. When I ask H if she wants to go for a walk, she goes through her stretches … just to get the kinks out.
“The Last Supper” book mentioned 3/4 of the people who think they have gluten intolerance, don’t. Not to say those people don’t have some gut issues, given the state of food. Or, what passes for food. I haven’t met any of them (looking at my Idaho friend) who might give trying sourdough made with stone ground flour, a whirl. I really wonder if H does need a wheat free diet. Elinor always said she did, but I wonder. Elinor has a lot of funny ideas, when it comes to H.
You mentioned chestnuts. Just read an article in the Atlantic Magazine about our chestnuts, and how they were wiped out by a blight. And efforts to bring them back, in some form or another. I got curious (as one does.) Because “Nature abhors a vacuum.” Who said that? Ah, Aristotle. What replaced the chestnuts, in the American ecosystem? Ah, various varieties of oak and maple.
Re: Your local pub. But did they replace the pizza oven? In a city the size of Melbourne, there must be good used ones, kicking around out there.
You might have been able to become a “nose” in the perfume business. Although I see they need “…seven years of study and qualifications in chemistry.” Now there’s a sure-fire date pick up line. “And what do you do for a living?” “I sniff around sewage farms, for the government.” Bound to make you popular with the ladies 🙂
The dairy barns “sprinklers” were more misters. Once the fire took hold, there was just no stopping it.
Gosh knows how the whole situation with H is going to shake out. And, they don’t keep me very well informed. Sometimes I hear nothing, for up to a week. Then I give a call, to find out what’s going down. I forgot to mention, the other night, when they finally brought her back, and I took her back in the Club, everyone cheered. 🙂 Not by plan, but I think she’s become the Club mascot.
I thought I had some parsley, coming up in my garden. It’s usually returned, every year. But it kind of sprawls, and I’m beginning to wonder if some of it is turnip, or parsnip. I allowed some of those to go to seed. Camomile, which has reliably come back, every year, has not made an appearance. Yet.
I finally sat down with the first seed catalog, last night. It’s from Mr. Solomon’s old company. I wondered if they had perhaps got some Jimmy Red corn seed, given all the recent articles. No. But they did have an interesting “bargain” pack. A “quad-shot caffeinated combo.” One plant each of coffee, tea, Yerba Mate and Yaupon.” If you buy the combo, it’s about half the price of buying the individual plants. Around $40. I’ll have to think about that. What I don’t like about that company is, I think they really gouge on the shipping costs.
Well, last night I watched “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.” I’m glad I watched the “extras” first. Al writes parody songs, and this film is a parody on musician bio films. Which are thick on the ground (next up … Amy Winehouse!), and have gotten pretty to formula. So, by telling the story of Al’s supposed life, it really sent up the genre. Al and Madonna probably didn’t really have a shot out with the drug lord, Pablo Escobar, in the jungles of Columbia. It was a very funny movie, and Daniel Radcliffe was very good.
I decided dinner, while watching the movie, would be a parody of food. Cheese, chips and chocolate. I’ll get back on the old healthy track, today. Lew
Hi Pam,
Mr Bear has clearly wised up and read Pam’s guide to: ‘ways to better living’, by not intruding upon the awareness of the good townsfolk. Hope the bear is OK, but it was a wise thought by someone to remove the bird feeders. No point inviting trouble, and the bird feeders can go back up in a week or so, I guess?
It may interest you, but we do a similar thing with the snake risk, and so are careful not to leave water out for them. My philosophy is that the risk is always there, but perhaps it would be better if the enticements were elsewhere. There was lot’s of talk of snake stories during our recent Christmas catch up with friends. Ah, all very country!
Yes, the climate here is a bit weird as well this year, so we’ll spare a moments thought for the confused bears. I know how I feel if my sleep is interrupted, so bears would feel that much worse, maybe multiplied by a hundred times. Please do keep alert for the bears, and trust me I watch the local birds to see what they have to say on the goings on around here. They know what trouble looks like, way before I do.
Had lunch with friends today. What a lovely day. As an official introvert, I’m now tired this evening! 😉
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
The timing of the article was pretty good wasn’t it? And the direction the article took was less about ‘blue zones’, and more about what you can do right now if you put your mind to it. Noting the missing stretching reference, and maybe some other stuff. Dunno about you, but I’m not big on New Years resolutions (NYR), and can’t in fact ever recall making one. If I wanted to do something, that’s a whole different process for me. The NYR puts too much pressure on one day for me, and might upset the over composition of the day. Now I think further on the subject, I have absolutely no idea what that last sentence even means, but do we want to find out? Could be awful…
Ah, I’d read some article a while ago about stretching being better for you after exercise, rather than before. Now when I used to do distance running, stretching before and after was encouraged, but nowadays I only stretch afterwards, and slowly warm into the work activity, whatever it may be. Whatever works, I guess. H is wise to stretch, and dogs do a lot of that activity. Glad she is back – and celebrated!
Speaking of walking dogs, I can no longer use the word ‘walk’ in any spoken sentence. The little cheeky rapscallions are listening in. About a month or so ago, that word got dumped, and I’ll now say to the Editor: “Do you want to take the things, for a thing”. That’s the code words. And the dogs have learnt this sentence as well. Got any suggestions as to replacement code words for ‘walkies’?
Had a long lunch today with friends, and we had a great time just talking stuff. Unfortunately I was a bit tired as I had to get up at the crack of dawn and do some paid work before heading off earlier today. Yes, yes, meant to be on a break and stuff. Oh well, a bloke’s gotta do, what a blokes gotta do. Hey, did you know that the sun is even shining at that awful time of the morning? Me tired this evening. It’s not civilised, although the lunch was civilised, and is this what balance looks like?
The gluten issue is an odd one because we all tend to think of bread wheat flour being an homogeneous product, but the stuff grown nowadays would be very different from the plants harvested even a few decades ago. So, I’m unsurprised that people have troubles with their digestion, and all foods can affect us in weird and wonderful ways. That’s life, and there is a tipping point where gluten produces a mild sedative effect on the person consuming it, and a person going into toxic shock. It’s a continuum, and some people can consume Spelt wheat flour and yet not Bread wheat flour.
Dunno about you, but a big bunch of fresh greens picked straight from the garden consumed with a bit of tasty cheese and a couple of fried eggs, has a massive anti-inflammatory effect on me, and you just end up feeling good. I like it, but it’s not that appealing a lunch for most people, and getting fresh greens is much harder than you’d imagine for most folks.
And that is also the thing. How and when was the flour ground? The mill I purchase the high protein unbleached flour from uses their own stone grinding mill. How cool is that? And sourdough is a longer process than using the more active bakers yeast, so you’d reckon the flour is being processed differently.
The only way to know with H is to experiment, carefully. I’ve become responsible in the past for cats and dogs who the former owners swear are fussy eaters. The evidence suggests that things are otherwise.
Go Aristotle! Like sands through the hourglass… 😉 The dude is correct, and fortunately oaks and maples are less flammable trees than say, eucalyptus species. They would have survived in such places. I do sometimes wonder if controlled slow and cool burning of those forests may have knocked back the blight. Forest litter at ground level can build up alarmingly quickly, and this can have all sorts of consequences.
I did ask that question about the pizza oven, and they said that it was repaired, because otherwise it was a very good machine, despite its age. There was also some talk about the difficulties of removing the oven.
Seven years of study is too much for my brain these days, so I guess I’ll have to pass the sniff-job-otunity and rest on my laurels with the stink assessment team. The things the goobermunt subjected me too in the name of experimentation. Ha! The ladies would run a mile.
Yeah, I was thinking about that fire long afterwards you mentioned it. I’m guessing the flammable insulation probably provided a continuous layer of highly combustible fuel for the fire right across the huge shed. Plus any hay in the stalls would also have been a problem. And the poor cows would not have been able to leave their corrals. For an industrial facility that size, there probably should have been some serious fire equipment ready to hand which was understood and tested. I have to think about fire risks here, and have some systems in place, then regularly test them.
I’ve not known of parsley – the crinkly leaved variety – getting wiped out by summer or winter weather. It dies back a bit over the winter months, but there’s usually heaps of the plant to eat. Chamomile dies back here, and gets out-competed. A bit of a shame that because I quite enjoy the tea.
You mentioned the freight issue before, and candidly whenever I pay for freight costs, they seem to be rather cheap. How some items can arrive from overseas with cheaper freight costs than the local suppliers is something of a mystery. Dunno what your experience is there, but some things are very cheap in your country. Be warned, a coffee shrub grew really well here, then promptly died after encountering a light snowfall. The plant might do OK in a greenhouse. There’ll be a tea camellia which will work well where you are, it’s just finding the right variety.
Might have to check the film out. I’ve always enjoyed Weird Al’s take on music. That’s a fun way to tell the story, and quite suitable really given the subject matter. Amy Winehouse is getting some airplay at the moment. The UK grime artist ‘Skepta’ has produced a very dark and moving tribute with her song Can’t Play Myself. It’s quite good. The singers loose talk about rehab was perhaps true?
Enjoy your food parody! Fits the bill for sure.
Cheers
Chris
Chris:
As in introvert who has worked really hard to overcome it, I get you.
Pam
Yo, Chris – Can’t say I remember ever being serious about a NYR. My take is, if you want to change something, why wait for a particular day?
Well, dogs. Their command of the English language, gets better and better. Maybe you need to invest in a random word generator. There’s probably an Ap. 🙂 Or, go cheap and just get a word-a-day desk calendar. “The password for today is…”
Yes, I don’t like days that have too much crammed into them. Heck, I don’t like it when making up a batch of rice, and a batch of oatmeal and fruit, fall on the same day. 🙂 But I’m glad you had a lovely lunch.
I need to experiment more with greens. But, had a similar (and frequent) dinner, last night. Rice, fried eggs and veg. Etc..
I finished reading about wheat, in “The Lost Supper”. A few things I didn’t know. Besides spraying glyphosate on wheat, to kill weeds, they really give it a good dose, right before harvest. It kills it and makes it easier to harvest. Who knew? The final chapter was on indigenous foods, and, it just so happened, here in the Pacific Northwest. Or, at least, up in British Columbia, where the author is from. There was a bit about controlled burns, and how the idea is getting around. But that execution, due to red tape, is harder to pull off.
The book ended where it started … eating bugs. The author’s final conclusion was, they’re expensive … and frankly, don’t taste very good.
I’m happy they were able to repair the pizza oven. Ran across an interesting article, this morning, about the right to repair.
http://www.finance.yahoo.com/news/the-right-to-repair-movement-won-its-biggest-victories-in-2023-143010331.html
Progress, is slowly being made. I couldn’t get the end of the article to open up, but perhaps you will.
I grow the flat leaf, Italian parsley. It’s reliably returned, year after year. But, we’ve had so much soil mixing and moving. Same problem with the Camomile. I got a good bush, last year, and have the occasional evening cup. It still may appear, and if not, I’ll just replant it.
I don’t think I’d even want to attempt coffee. It’s quit a song and dance to get the beans to a brewing stage. Teas are so much simpler.
I watched a good movie, last night. A sci-fi. “Creator.” Lots of cool explosions. 🙂 It’s rather a hard plot, to describe. But it has to do with AI. Due to an “accident”, the West has totally banned AI. But Asia, has not. But the West has discovered there’s an AI super weapon, in development, and send in an undercover agent to destroy it. But what do you do when the super weapon manifests as a small child? There’s a lot more to the plot, but it’s an interesting movie, and the photography of the Asian landscape is spectacular. Worth a look. Lew
Chris,
UGG. Thursday got frenetic. Not a good frenetic. Another relative entered the fray of those with serious health issues. A neighbor of brother-in-law in Toppenish, who also happens to be a step uncle, has been in hospital and got the diagnosis Thursday: ALS. UGG. There were other lowlights from elsewhere, so we spent a lot of time doing the “Accept, adapt, move on” thing.
Hmmm, I saw that the w a l k word and its replacement phrase are now verboten in your household, lest the fluffies go crazy. Avalanche knows that a walk is imminent by my body language, so changing words is only mildly helpful. (She also knows w a l k in English, as well as 2 variations in Welsh!) However, in your situation, perhaps say something like, “Hey Editor, maybe in 12 minutes it is time to see Ganger Rolf.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollo (Scroll down to “NAME”)
Or maybe “Honey 7 minutes until roaming?” Use various languages as well as various English words. Never use the same things twice in a row – alternate religiously. German gehen. Welsh cerdded (pronounced care thed, the “th” as in “this”.) Trek, trip, scoot, scram visit the stump, pick some acorns. Sail the briny deep, take a slow boat to China, ride on a turnip barge down the Clyde. Be creative but be sure to watch the tone and the body language, because if the tone and body language are the same as when w a l k is said, they will KNOW.
Yes, apricots are grown in the Yakima area. Good guess! Some varieties of peaches are grown in the Spokane area, also. And apples. I try to purchase a few boxes from the local orchards for eating and dehydrating. Sometimes they have local fruit, sometimes they have fruit from Yakima. It all works and is better quality than what I typically find at the grocery store.
Good luck with the firewood. It sucks working with it when it’s wet. Sometimes, however, the options are limited.
A neighbor gave me a volunteer cherry seedling years ago. It has grown into a stately Royal Anne. I get the leaves for the garden. The birds get the cherries. The chokecherries are split between humans and birds. The philberts and walnuts grow extremely well each year. The squirrels get all of them. It’s nice to share.
I’ve never had turnips or potatoes on a pizza. I’ll give them a try when the Princess is away. I’ve finally gotten her to eat pizza that has vegetables on it in addition to her required pepperoni. Fresh spuds or turnips might be a hard sell. Ever tried artichokes on a pizza?
Yes! Mr. Martin’s writing style is certainly gardening. It is so easy to let the garden get out of hand. Try this, add that, there’s room for the other, oh, wait, something else needs to fit in somewhere! Now where was I and what am I doing? And who knows what the creative sources truly are for any endeavor such as writing stories, or even music, or painting, etc. I don’t think anybody really knows.
Hey, at least Big Yellow was maintained and should be running better! Hard work, but worth it. It should make some chores easier?
Yikes! I turned my back for a minute and Dame Avalanche was attempting to write some advice for the Fluffy Collective on “How to Interpret Pathetic Human Attempts at Codewords for Walks”. I think I got her additions deleted.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Turns out that it is unwise to consume food when at a computer keyboard. The ‘o’ key had stopped working and I banged the keyboard upside down on the desk hard – and lost my reply to you. However…
Introverts of the world, unite! 😉 And remember to take time out to recover.
In an amusing side story, back in the recession of the 1990’s, a couple of house mates had earned their living previously through err, unconventional methods, and um, for reasons known only to themselves, they took me under their wing and taught me how to converse with all sorts of people. A Mr Miyagi for social circumstances perhaps? 🙂 It’s hard to say for sure how I would have navigated life without having had their instruction guide to better social living? Dunno. But yeah, I still need time out after social stuff to recharge the batteries. Oh well. And it took me three years to decide to begin writing the blog.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – To good to let it disappear.
http://www.yahoo.com/news/farmers-reveal-unsettling-reason-struggling-050000551.html
Seed growers are doing it rough. Lew
Hi DJ,
Sorry to hear about the ongoing issues. Oh, far out, ALS is no small thing. Ugg indeed. Man, what else can you do other than that, and be there for them. It’s not good.
Yeah, well, the canines do that trick here as well. They’re watching! Didn’t the old timers quip that: It’s not paranoid, if it’s true? 🙂 I can tell that you’ve been through the exact same chain of dog related events, as you’d reverted to two versions of the same word, but in Welsh. What does that sound like anyway?
Rollo and Co. were fearsome adversaries and I’d not appreciated where the Norman’s had come from. A troublesome lot if I may say so! 🙂 But also not to be messed with lightly, them or their progeny. The Vikings were a force to be reckoned with.
Dude, they know! It’s enough, and perhaps there is some telepathy at work there as well? Certainly our best efforts are being defeated, one trick at a time. Perhaps, the canines have some Viking blood in them?
The firewood is a bit of a nightmare this year. It even rained today, and that wasn’t in the forecast. Hopefully, we’ll bring in some dry (?) firewood over the next few days. Plans changed today anyway, and so we spent a couple of hours hauling rocks back up the hill to fill up the recently installed rock gabion cages. Over winter, we’d been harvesting rocks for this very purpose, but they were all in piles way down below near to the forest edge. One day next week on a very wet day, we’ll put together a new rock gabion cage. Right now, despite peak rocks being real, we have a good supply of rocks way down below near to the forest edge. But yeah, the options are rather limited due to the crazy weather this summer. I’ve got the wood heater running tonight. It’s like winter out there…
It is nice to share the produce with the wildlife. We get to enjoy their company and antics, and hope they don’t get up to too much mischief! Although it is hard to explain why the crepe myrtle needed total breaking. Discovered a couple of hazelnuts on the shrubs today. Yay! Hopefully the parrots miss them. I’m fond of recounting a story that an old timer farmer around here once said to me: Chris, you’ve made the place into a supermarket for the forest animals. We do get some of the produce, mainly by outcompeting them.
Actually the spuds and turnips were separately roasted beforehand then sliced thinly and added onto the pizza. Your lady may be surprised at how good that works out to be. Absolutely! The local pub adds thinly cut up artichokes (which had been pickled) onto their capricciosa pizza, not to mention olives. Total yummo!
All part of the creative writing process, and you’d see that with carvings (try not to bite off more than you can chew), and I’m a big fan of limits – although never hit the highs which Mr Martin does. There might be a cost to hitting those highs.
We’ve been maintaining all of the machines here (with one notable exception) for the past year and a bit, and I don’t look back with any level of regret. And it’s been cheaper to do so, but not in time – although it takes time to take the machines down to the shop. Big yellow is a beast of a machine.
Phew, that’s a relief. I’d be troubled if Avalanche fed too may ideas to the fluffies. And, they may return the favour.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
I hear you! 🙂 Plenty of time to make a change, if a person makes the time to do so. Hey, does the Club address that particular – and I’m not entirely certain what to call it, but – sticking point in a journey? But yeah, why wait?
Hehe! I might just do that, and today’s word for walkies is: (press button for answer). You know, they soon might begin watching me to see whether I pushed the button on the device. Most critters are pretty clever, they have to be to survive.
Limits are freedom, for sure, and doing too much – even when they’re fun activities – is no good. Tell you a funny story about limits. Back when I worked at the big end of town, I used to talk to this very wealthy dude for work. Now, back then I didn’t have a mobile (cell) phone mostly because I didn’t want them contacting me after working hours – which they would have done. So the wealthy bloke was talking to me about his mobile phone (and they were quite common back then) and I said to him: “I don’t have a mobile phone. I’m free!”, and he looked at me as if I were an alien or something unusual like that. But the point stands, what you own, ends up owning you. Anyway, when we moved up to the bush, there was no landline connection, so I bit the bullet and bought the phone. What do you do? I now annoy people by using the thing as a phone.
Actually, there is a phone which was sort of made to be mostly repairable. The Fairphone. It’s a modular design and so can be repaired by the average user. Pretty clever really, and I might think about that if I have to upgrade the current one. And that won’t be by choice either. Already I’m discovering applications which require an upgrade to the operating system – which the phone can’t handle.
Thanks! The lunch was lovely and the company was even better.
I’d eat a similar sort of meal maybe two or three times per week. It’s good stuff, and we’re getting better at growing greens which you can chuck into the mix and cook up.
Oh my, I’m uncomfortable knowing that about the chemical usage, but what do you do? But it makes sense why the chemical would be used that way – that’s not to suggest that it is a good idea. Look, in order to produce grains at that scale, a level of certainty is required and drying off of the grain heads by the sun is a natural process. Yikes. And, err, I hadn’t known but had seen fields sprayed and wondered about the why of it.
The red tape is a problem for cool burns down here as well. I read an update on how things are going down here with that practice: More cultural burns needed ahead of bushfire season, Indigenous practitioner warns. The bloke is clearly touched by the land spirits, but far out, I’m not sure I’d have the patience to deal with all those authorities. Also, there is a slight conflict of interest in that if such burns reduce overall fire risk in the land, then what will the firefighters then do?
I’m going to take the authors guidance under advisement – note to self, avoid eating bugs.
The full article worked for me, and it’s a sort of step in the right direction. Along those lines, I’m thinking about what we need here to work, and then figuring out whether the stuff is repairable or not. It’s funny but I got to looking into portable timber mills this evening, and I dunno about the economics of them for here. And economics is at the bottom of a lot of repair questions. I think such high tech stuff as phones, will become repairable when the manufacturers lose the ability to fend off cheap replacement parts from other sources. Trying to make a car from parts would send anyone broke.
Hmm. I reckon the curly leaf parsley is even hardier again to both cold and hot weather, and thoroughly recommend the plant. Hope your chamomile pops up again, and there has been a lot of disturbance at your place. I tried to grow it in the paddocks, and it did well some years, but other years the grass outcompeted it.
That’s my thoughts as well. I’m trialling tea camellia, and it seems to be doing OK. It’s early days for the plant, and really I have to grow some from seed.
Ha! It’d be like turning AI into a really cute kitten. I’d seen a trailer for that film and it looks intriguing.
Thanks for the article on seed farming, and whoa – that’s a problem. I’m seeing that here as well. This year for example, none of our pumpkin, squash or melon seeds germinated, despite raising them in the greenhouse. We had to go and buy seedlings, and the seeds looked fine. Hmm. It’s a problem we’re putting some brain cells towards, we’re trying to get our infrastructure finished first. Fingers crossed.
Cheers
Chris
Chris:
An oh is a useful thing, but I do not think it proper to attack it.
Pam
Hi Chris,
Another too busy week.
I love stone buildings, walls and fences. Don’t see many around here though. I had visions of making a small stone wall with all the rocks that would come up in the farm fields – never happened. Maybe in my next life.
Congrats on the successful tiramisu.
Can’t believe your crazy weather. How frustrating. We had a very warm few days over Christmas which were in the mid 50’s with some light rain. Back to normal winter temperatures but nothing extreme and no snow to speak of.
Had a good Christmas. Christmas Eve was the big family gathering though we were missing a few due to my aunt’s fall a few days before, the affects of which sent her to the hospital on Christmas Eve. My niece and her wife had gone to see if she was well enough to go and found her unable to get out of bed so they ended up with her until midnight. Turns out she’s fractured her sacrum and will be in some type of rehab facility for a few weeks and then she’ll return to California to be near her daughter in a assisted living facility though I think she’ll end up in a nursing home as she essentially needs 24 hour care. She’s terribly thin and weak but at least she’s not combative anymore and has finally realized that she is in no shape to live alone.
Anyway the party was fun. After some years we once again had an ornament contest. My late sister, Mary, who used to host the gatherings had a contest maybe six years ago. I had put together a lovely tasteful ornament but my daughter, Cecily had forgotten about the contest and for her entry bit the corners off a cracker and found a needle and thread so it could be hung. That contest was a vote by hand and when it was called “Who votes for the cracker? all these hands shot up and she won! Well, needless to say, I was appalled. So this year a lovely origami ornament won. However in 2nd place, following in their mother’s tradition my granddaughters’ entry won 2nd place. And what was it you may ask? For their entry they took a shrimp off the shrimp tray, wrapped it in a green paper napkin and called it “Shrimp Baby Jesus”. What can I say?
Back in November Marty’s girlfriend, Gwen, had a terrible fall flat on her face. She was in the ICU for some days until they did a long cervical spine surgery. She’s now in her 3rd facility, a nursing home until she gets stronger. The fall affected her eyes. My sister and I went to visit her yesterday and she looked pretty good but her eyes are still crossed so we don’t know how much her eyesight is affected. As she has an intellectual disability it’s hard for her to describe her sight accurately though she said she has some blurriness.
I saw Lew mentioned parsnips. I make roasted carrots and parsnips with maple syrup. Easy and quite good.
Happy New Year to you, Sandra and the fluffies. We are doing our annual evening with our friends from the retirement home. It’s their turn to come to our house which is good as Leo has been leaving deposits in the house more frequently.
Margaret
Yo, Chris – Well, we do have that old saw, “Procrastination is a five syllable word for sloth.” 🙂 On the other hand, why do today what you can put off ’til tomorrow?” (Insert another redundant smiley face.)
Push the button, occasionally, but then don’t take them for a walk. That will really screw with their heads.
I know the look. Not so much that I’m an alien, but more like I shot the Pope or broke wind in church. I get the same look when I mention I don’t stream movies (free from the library!) or participate in social media.
Couldn’t see the Fairphone article, but did a shallow dive, into the rabbit hole. The Fairphone 4 became available here, in July. #5 is not available. Apparently, there are some problems with which tel-com carriers will work with the phone, and some won’t. If I ever am boxed in, and have to get one of the darned things, I’ll probably get one through AARP (Association of American Retired Persons.)
That’s where I got my little flip phone from. They’re generally simpler versions of whatever. Because us old people get so easily confused, you know. 🙂 They’ve got great customer service, and are usually the cheapest option, around. Gotta watch the very personable sales people. There are add ons, that don’t cost much, but can add up. But, they’re not high pressure about it. My little phone actually had a function to work with The River’s personal assistant. Not that I activated it. LOL. There’s a button that would connect me with emergency services. For a low, low additional cost. I asked if 911 (your 000), worked. It does. So, why do I need … well, you get the drift. And, by the way, here, the Fairphone costs between $600 and $1000, depending on version.
That was an interesting article, on controlled burns. So, as often happens, the government is paying more lip service, and less real action. At least there is some action, and more will come, in time. Sounds like your wet summer is a bit of a missed opportunity.
Well, the flat leaf parsley, that I grow, seems to do just fine in our climate. Frosts and heat don’t seem to effect it much. It doesn’t even seem to need much water. Even during the hottest weather.
That’s a bummer, about the seed. Did it need to be chilled before planting? I’m seeing more and more seed packs, that pass on that step, to the consumer. Return with us now, to Port Isaac. 🙂 That’s the real name of the town, where they filmed “Doc Martin.”
The library received two films (not a series), “Fisherman’s Friends” and “Fisherman’s Friends: One and All.” Based on a true story, sort of. The first film came out in 2019 and the second, last year. I haven’t watched the second, yet. Any-who. A music exec is attending a stag party, in Port Isaac. He hears 10 fishermen, singing sea shanties. He can make them stars! They’re skeptical, and not much interested. It’s listed as a comedy / drama. I didn’t see any of the original cast, from “Doc Martin.” Worth a look, if your craving a bit of light entertainment. PS: Fisherman’s Friend is also the name of a high powered cough drop. It really blows your sinuses out. Lew
Hi Pam,
🙂 The ‘o’ key started it! Seriously, I need to get one of those gamer keyboards that are water proof and can deal with food and drink spills.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Margaret,
We’re having a very social week as well.
Stone walls and fences just look great, but I hear you about the work being a job for another life. Even with the good (but limited) supply of rocks here, there sadly just aren’t enough rocks for such a thing.
Today was a superb summer day with blue sunny skies and 68’F – which is cold for this time of year. Thanks, and yup, the weather has been crazy this summer. More rain is expected from Tuesday afternoon, and we’re busy bringing in the firewood for the winter – whilst the stuff is sort of dry. Your weather wasn’t far off what we were experiencing, but perhaps without the really heavy rain. How’s the local creeks flowing?
Margaret, over the years you’ve impressed upon me the seriousness of such falling injuries at that age. That news is not good, however, at least your aunt is now closer to her daughter. And also is probably more realistic about her future.
The ornament contest sounds fun. Go Cecily! Well done, despite your reasonable misgivings. Origami is lovely isn’t it? I’d purchased a little computer memory adapter which came from Japan. Let’s ignore the fact the device wasn’t available locally. Anywhoo, when it arrived, in the package was a little origami bird which the supplier must have made. A nice touch, don’t you reckon?
You know what we were discussing about falls? Holy carp, that’s super risky surgery. At least Gwen can still see. How was Marty about all this?
Ah, maple syrup is more easily available in your country. The genuine stuff is rarely seen down here (although I’ve got a couple of Sugar Maples happily growing). For your interest, root vegetables are roasted similarly down here, but using honey. I’m not partial to the taste of parsnips.
And a Happy New Year to you as well. Hope the evening is fun, although by way of comparison I’ll be asleep by midnight! Naughty Leo, but then he’s getting older and we must excuse the occasional lapse in polite behaviour. The cold wet weather might seem unappealing to Leo?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
The pesky puritans really did their utmost to take all the fun out of life, don’t you reckon? Truth to tell, I work hard, but when I’m not working, that’s time to relax properly. You get the impression that the puritans wanted everyone to work hard and die young, but I do wonder if the folks promoting that lifestyle worked as hard themselves? I appreciated the double redundant smiley emoticon. 😉
I like the way your brain works. Yeah, keeping my finger on the random word generator button would seriously mess with the dogs heads, but then, what if they adapted to that strategy? Then I’d be left with having to spend my hours messing with the dogs heads. Would the puritans believe that this was time well spent? I think not. 😉
The summer weather today was glorious, but on the cooler side of things. Blue sunny skies and 68’F, which is rather cool for this time of year. Anywhoo, the only job we have to do around here is bring in the next years firewood. There’s no point bringing in wet firewood, and so by today, the stuff had dried out enough to begin bringing it in. We’ll keep at that until Tuesday afternoon when apparently the rains will return. Hopefully, most of the job gets done by then, maybe.
I’m keeping a very close eye on the weather forecast this year, and every time I look at the coming week’s forecast, I get this urge to say, oh fudge! Actually that’s not exactly what I say, but you know I’m trying to say. Oh well, the firewood job should be complete in another week. Bringing the firewood in, is the only job that is critical to do at this time of year.
Hehe! Always good to upset people by refusing to go along with their information super highway, and Interweb of trough (IoT), whatever that was all about anyway. I never understood it.
Looks like the device will work here, but the thing is even more expensive down here at around $1,500 – and not available locally, which also means that parts supplies will be a long, long way away. Being repairable is a nice thing, if you have access to the parts. The device I got costs a third of that and was built to be robust (like you can drop the thing, and it will run for days between charges) and so far has lasted four years, but they’ll get me with the old operating system sooner or later. Yeah, that seems to be the case in your country in that it might not work there, although the previous version is meant to work there. Unfortunately, there is a push for people to have this technology whether they want to or not. I only got one because the goobermunt forced me too if I wanted to keep earning an income doing what I’m doing. Can’t say that I was pleased by that.
Hehe! Sure you are, you don’t seem easily confused to me. 🙂 But yeah, I get where you are coming from. I get the drift, they make extra mad cash by asking you whether you want fries with the phone.
I tend to agree with you about the indigenous folks doing the controlled burns the traditional way. The more those folks do the work, and the better the outcomes, the more that the powers that be, will look really bad. Those traditional folks had some good outcomes for landowners during the infamous Black Summer of bushfires 2019-2020 summer. Word gets out slowly from the fringes. The earlier work they did had some very positive impacts when the really big bushfires swept through areas. I think those dudes are on the money so to speak.
Yeah, flat leaf parsley is a great plant too. Dunno, but I just grew up consuming the crinkly leafed variety and they taste almost exactly the same anyway. They are a very hardy plant, yeah.
I don’t know what we did wrong with some of the seed raising this year, but the local people I speak to about such matters all had problems as well with germination. I really need to wind up the infrastructure work so that we can give more time to these sorts of plant matters, but maybe this how things have to roll for now. We still have to replace the firewood shed with a larger shed, and also construct the second greenhouse. But after that, things should be smoother, we’ll see. Dunno.
Hey, they used to sell the Fisherman’s Friends lozenges down here too. The things knocked your socks off for sure! Oh yeah, a massive sinus deglunker of epic proportions! I quite liked the things. Wonder what the active ingredient was? Hmm… … Boom! Menthol and eucalyptus apparently – speaking of the music biz: we’ve got both kinds of oils here! (Obscure Blues Brothers reference).
Better get writing!
Cheers
Chris
Hello Chris,
Happy new year!
I actually have a FairPhone 4, which was something like 1000 AUD here in Sweden. Twice the price and half the performance of a similar device from common brands.
Repairability is interesting, but I think somewhat overrated. As you said, if the spare parts are not available at your locale, it does not work as intended.
One of our sons chose to get a second hand mobile phone instead, which is better value. There are too many people who discard or exchange their smartphone after a year or two. We live in a time of utter craziness when it comes to what people reject.
Anyways, we both run google-free versions of Android to reduce the surveillance. (LineageOS it is called. Complicated setup, but smooth running.)
The FairPhone is somewhat common in activist circles in the Netherlands, but in Sweden it is very rare. I bought it to show people I meet that it is possible. Even at the recycling company where I work part time this year, nobody knew about the FairPhone.
Good to see that the greenhouse is doing it’s job well this season. Utterly strange wet weather.
Here we have had six months of rains every week.
I hope you all will have a wonderful 2024 with as soft collapse as is possible!
Peace,
Göran
Yo, Chris – Oh, yeah. The Puritans were all about dying young. Didn’t want people hanging about. Just more opportunities for “occasions of sin.” When they weren’t stomping ginger bread men, underfoot. Or, tying them to stakes and burning them.
Well, here, the weather has been overcast and drizzle, on and off. We might get a couple of clear days, coming up. Then, back to the drizzle again. I heard and saw three huge flocks of geese, heading south the other day. I guess they were late getting the memo.
No I don’t. What are you trying to say? 🙂
I got my new social security health card, the other day. Apparently, one of the outfits that they outsource to, had a big hack. I was telling my Idaho friends, this morning, I keep expecting to wake up some morning to discover every dime, in every bank account has vanished. Speaking of all things cyber, I watched the movie, “Dumb Money,” last night. I really don’t know much about how the stock market works (which is the intent), but it was a great David vs Goliath story. Fun to watch the filthy rich guys, catch it in the shorts. And, I think the little investors managed to pull it off, as people, generally, now know the game is rigged against the little guy. Worth a look.
No fries. Just an offer to super size the drink. 🙂 Plus selling or up selling. There’s a whole art to it. Though it’s pretty transparent, if you have your wits about you.
Controlled burns. One of those things on the fringes, that is working it’s way to the middle. Speaking of which, I did a lot of laundry, last night, so had an opportunity to settle into our library, and check out Mr. Greer. You (and Claire) answered a question I had. Would there be predictions for the upcoming year? Apparently not.
Well, tonight is New Year’s Eve. Fireworks were (finally) banned in the city limits, last year. There was one brief outburst, last night. I wonder what tonight will bring. At least, this time of the year, I don’t worry so much about them burning the place down.
H and I are headed to the Club, this morning. I guess there’s “doings” of some sort, tonight. Not that I’ll go. Now we have a lot of strep throat going around. Just one darned thing after another. When we get home, H gets a bath. Start the New Year off, all clean and shiny. Lew