What is happening

[vyon]

Originally Posted by Kugai

Always carry a Golf Umbrella in iffy weather

In WELLINGTON? - I've no desire to be sailing over the harbour in my best Mary Poppins pose.

[Kugai]

I've never had issues with it. It's a matter of learning how to use it.

[Moonlady]

Dragon Fan, I love brussels sprouts too... though Kugai, I'm not sure about lemon sorbet and brussel sprouts.

Zelandeth, glad you both survived the downpour.

[Greenrider Tresa]

Well you're welcome to my brussels sprouts, Moonlady! They're to be tolerated but not loved as far as I'm concerned.

[P'ter]

I'm not allowed them (or any 'heavy' greens) as I'm on a low calcium/oxalate diet 'cos I get kidney stones. I'm not allowed any offal either.

[Allen]

Good source of sulfur dioxide, too. That's why they stink when you cook 'em.

I don't eat them because my taste buds tell me they're nasty.

But then, I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain to become a vegetarian.

[Moonlady]

You guys are hilarious!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

[mawra]

I love Brussel sprouts as well.

Kibby has not been having a good week. The person she games on line with almost every night sometimes long past when she should be sleeping, died. Mostly it was three that played, the one that died is the one who in charge of the game. Even though they had only met once, Kibby was still close to her. She is taking it hard. It is hard to want to do something to make it better, but can't.

[mawra]

While we were out and about yesterday Kibby spotted this book, I had never even heard of it before so I made her buy it for me,

[P'ter]

Jody wrote another one as well; Dragonharper. You'll have to buy that one too.

[Priscilla]

I might have a copy of that. I'll have to check the box of books scheduled for donation.

[Anneli]

sorry to hear about Kibby's loss, mawra, hope she's coping with it as well as she can.

Originally Posted by mawra

I love Brussel sprouts as well.

Kibby has not been having a good week. The person she games on line with almost every night sometimes long past when she should be sleeping, died. Mostly it was three that played, the one that died is the one who in charge of the game. Even though they had only met once, Kibby was still close to her. She is taking it hard. It is hard to want to do something to make it better, but can't.

[Priscilla]

I did not find a copy of the book you were interested in mawra. I did find a book called The Unexpected Apprentice, written by Jody Lynn Nye.

I am so sorry to hear of Kibby's friend. I'll be thinking of her!

[GinnyStar]

Originally Posted by mawra

I love Brussel sprouts as well.

Kibby has not been having a good week. The person she games on line with almost every night sometimes long past when she should be sleeping, died. Mostly it was three that played, the one that died is the one who in charge of the game. Even though they had only met once, Kibby was still close to her. She is taking it hard. It is hard to want to do something to make it better, but can't.

Sorry for Kibby loss, Zen hugs if we could reach you we would, a twist on Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey Ship Who Searched I've been looking over a new Where in the World, but I don't have all it together I also have something to share here and at the NKT, but it well take time to set up.

[Kugai]

[granath]

My condolences to Kibby.

[Dragon Fan]

P'ter, Not Quite Sorbet, They are very tasty steamed with a lite lemon creme sauce.

[Zelandeth]

Okay, literally a couple of days ago I was driving back home through hail showers with the temperature barely managing to hover around 4 or 5 degrees C.

Today it hit 26C, and even now at 11 in the evening is still at 24.

We did take advantage of the decent weather though, finally getting rid of the hugely overgrown cedar tree in the back garden (felt terrible taking it down, but the previous owner of the place let it get so out of control that there wasn't anything else we could do with it) which has gained us a good 20% in terms of space, and has finally given light to half the garden (and has allowed out next door neighbour on that side to have daylight in their garden for the first time in about ten years).

In the evening we tested out the garden furniture we bought back in the spring by having dinner out there (using the grill I built a year or two back), and tested out the little wood burner thing which both served to get rid of a bunch of bits of wood I've been tripping over for months and the bit of smoke it generated served to keep the bugs at bay.

Getting things like that sorted out and having got some actual flowers out there and such is starting to make it actually feel like our space now rather than what we inherited from the previous owner.

Also had a hilarious moment when we saw our dog actually notice the fish in the pond for the first time and spent a good couple of minutes trying to decide what to make of them. Luckily there is netting in place so deciding to see if they were tasty wasn't an option as they are probably too dumb to retreat. They're emphatically unafraid of me and every time I'm working on the pond I can feel them trying to decide whether *I* am edible, rather than retreating to the far end of the pond like every other fish I've encountered do.

Not been a huge amount else going on lately to be honest! My epic 3D design project is progressing, albeit somewhat slowly, I do at least have a clearer idea of where I'm going with it now which is something, and I've after a several month long battle with my computer actually got the relevant software to play ball.

[granath]

Zelandeth, I've had about the same weather experience, last week we still had frost at night. On the weekend and yesterday it was sunny and over 20 C. Today we're expecting a high of 23 C, which is a lot for mid-May. I'm so far north, that three days in a row with maximum temps of over 25 C count as a heatwave. Not quite there yet, but I'm more used to these temperatures in July than in May. :p

We ripped out two dead rhododendron bushes and planted some thuja instead, and planted carrots and peas. It's funny how homegrown tastes so much better.

[GinnyStar]

Hello folks, I'm passing it on, Anne McCaffrey Pern that is. My friends are here with me. So I'm loaning her one of my spare three in one.

Shall come back and update more.

[P'ter]

My new brother-in-law in Ireland is dying (carcinomatosis) and turns out to be allergic to morphine. Not nice.

[GinnyStar]

Originally Posted by P'ter

My new brother-in-law in Ireland is dying (carcinomatosis) and turns out to be allergic to morphine. Not nice.

Not Good P'ter Zen hugs if we could reach you we would, a twist on Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey Ship Who Searched from USA

[Zelandeth]

So Murphy's Law has had another go at me!

We've got guests from the US staying with us for the next couple of weeks, having arrived this morning.

Then get a phone call from up north giving me the news that my father has passed away.

Given the state of health he's been in of late and the state of mind following my mother's passing back in 2014 I honestly don't think this is a bad thing and is probably the kindest thing that could have happened. Nobody really knows what happened, but going theory at the moment is either a heart attack or stroke, as he's had a couple of those already.

Just the timing? Really?!? Any other week I could pretty easily have dropped everything to get this dealt with, but no it had to be this one. So I'm now frantically trying to shuffle things around to get everything arranged, and will heading up Northwards as soon as some concrete plans are in place. Funeral and such isn't too much of a problem as we've had preliminary plans in place for a while now, it's going to be clearing the house and such that will be the real challenge as Dad has a lot of stuff...Suspect that it will be another "hire as big a van as I can get hold of and drag it down here" job. Probably take a couple of trips...at about 8 hours each way apiece. That'll be fun.

[Hans]

My sincere condolences, Zelandeth. And good luck with all the work this will bring. I know, been there, done that, but never with foreign guests at the same time. Myrphy's Law indeed...

[Anneli]

Oh Zelandeth, such a kick from fate must be a nightmare particularly with guests from overseas.

My sincere condolences on your loss, and good luck with the practicalities

[Zelandeth]

Definitely a *beat head against nearest wall* moment. Only got back from the last trip up there on Monday!

...means I need to move that blasted CRT television again too...honestly hoped that was the last time I'd shifted that boatanchor!

Luckily my guests are mostly darting over the place for the next couple of weeks, so there hasn't been a huge amount I've had to shuffle.

Just crossing my fingers that the likes of the bank, council and life insurance companies decide to play ball. As far as I'm aware he didn't leave a will, but being an only child and the end of the line so to speak should hopefully negate that complication somewhat.

Given the dive his quality of life had taken lately I don't see this as the worst thing that could have happened, especially as it was obviously pretty quick. Just the timing is a bit of a pain...that said, he'd always want the last laugh and to make sure I was on my toes!

[Kugai]

[Allen]

Guests are one thing, friends are another. For instance, my wife and I would understand. Family comes first. That is an empirical rule. You should do what you need to do. Friends/guests take care of themselves. If you've welcomed them into your home (and you're not operating a B&B), then they should be able to come and go as necessary, clean up after themselves, help you over the times. At least this is the way WE would do things. Or make other arrangements if you're not comfortable with leaving them access to your home.

Oh, and I feel for you having to move the CRT telly. What size? I can carry a 27", but our last one was a 32"....... you do the conversions, sorry. It was a monster. I gave it away to get it out of the house.

[vyon]

We were just lucky Mum decided to sell up and buy a small fight-to-occupy flat in a retirement village - so instead of having to do the cleanup in a flap at no notice at all, we had three months of notice. But - it was an overgrown 1/5th acre section, a 160 square metre house with a huge rubbish-filled basement and there was still stuff there that had been brought there forty years ago when my parents sold the farm. I filled four two cubic metre rubbish skips, three one cubic metre recycling bins from Habitat for Humanity op-shop and arranged their truck to take away furniture for re-sale at least twice, plus I gave away my two remaining beds to the Women's Refuge. I had intended them to be given to somebody who needed two children's beds with storage, but they put them in their op-shop. I won't be dealing with them again. Habitat for Humanity were really nice to deal with and they used two of my bookcases in their shop. Meanwhile one of my brothers took at least three truckloads of rubbish away to be dumped. He spent a whole day demolishing an orchid-house and the old hen-run.
The tree that was overhanging the house decided a week before the photographs for the auction that it was going to drop two substantial branches on the roof during a storm. Three brothers, one nephew, four chainsaws, two ladders, a couple of long ropes, no consideration of occupational health and safety laws and a full day of very hard work later the tree was a huge pile of Manuka firewood. Even the land agent helped wheelbarrow it up to the road level. Then it and van-loads of stuff were taken around to my youngest brother's house to be sorted later.
Naturally, my brothers, who came and worked their butts off for three days think they did it all. They weren't there to see me plugging at it every day for three months. Siblings!

[vyon]

OK, I'll just add another comment instead of trying to correct the last one and waiting until the computer times out for it to re-load to correct a spelling mistake - is that because this thread is so long?

It's a right to occupy, not a fight to occupy. A fancy kind of lease for all practical purposes.

[Zelandeth]

Well things are moving along pretty well now. Everything that can be done remotely has been, and I'm meeting with the funeral director early next week (they handled arrangements when my mother passed - and as it's exactly the same setup at exactly the same place etc, that's pretty much a tick-box exercise), to get a better handle on the schedule of how things will go with the funeral. They also have the death certificate in their hands so I'll be able to pick that up then and get things sorted at the registry etc, then get stuff with the bank and things sorted.

The house is pretty simple it turns out, we get the first 14 days after the death free of charge, thereafter rent is simply charged per day (about GBP10) until we hand the keys back, so there's not a massive pressure there.

So things are all moving along.

Just realised that I forgot to post a couple of photos a few days back when we were working on the garden, so let's correct that. This is out back of our place just now - still obviously a bit of a construction site in places, but starting to come along, especially compared to when we moved in!





Be interesting to see once we've got things more or less finished!

This evening I actually had some downtime...can't remember the last time that happened, so got the oil and oil filters changed in both the Saab and Citroen, will do the air and fuel filters on the Citroen in the morning - and fuel filter on the Saab if I can remember what on earth I did with the O-rings for it...I remember putting those somewhere safe so I didn't lose them...Oh dear...

[vyon]

Your back garden looks great Zelandeth- it's amazing what can be done with some colourful pots. Here, people see little pots of cypress type shrubs for real cheap, buy about a dozen of them, plant them in the garden and forget that they very quickly grow up into shade-creating, soil acidifying monsters. Looks like you inherited quite a few of them! On the up side, if you have a fireplace they make good firewood.

[GinnyStar]

Zelandeth and Zen hugs if we could reach you we would, a twist on Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey Ship Who Searched, my Talent was showing up and I was wonder why, now I know.

We had out of town friends, thanks goodness I was able to borrow a mono-scope, to see so I could help them get around Roseanne Cash was in town.

Dan J. B-Day was Tue. 10-5 we had a lot of fun. And he got what he wanted.

Dan J. had to have eye lid surgery on Mon. his lid is roll into his eye a eye lashes are poking him. He had the other one done in 2009.

[Kalta]

Hope everyone is doing well. This year has been unusual to say the least. Homesteading is not going high on priorities this year. The weather has been crazy, and people have been dropping like flies. It started around Halloween(my sister's best friend since high school died suddenly from brain aneurysm) and I think finally stopped this month. In February at least 5 people in our area died, including our next door neighbor(also suddenly, massive stroke) who was always good to us, doing little home repairs and giving us firewood and such. But on the bright side, all the snow/rain has made it a good year for mushrooms. We have bolete/porcinis on our property, one neighbor has field/meadow mushrooms, another neighbor has shaggy manes, and someone brought morels to church to share yesterday. And the annual plant exchange on Saturday put on by the women's church group, we got a weeping willow tree, broccoli, squash, chard, spinach, 3 kinds of tomatoes, a raspberry, mint, and other stuff I can't remember now. I'm guilty of that meme that went around on Facebook a while ago: "A true gardener will, over the course of their lifetime, buy 10,000 plants with no idea where to put them when they get home"

[Kalta]

Oh and in my role as Crazy Cat Lady, my 8 cats are, in order of descending age: Little Miss Sunshine, Munchkin, then Hedgehog, Pirate, Misfit, and Fussybritches(all part of the same litter), and Dianne and Stoner(not sure if they are littermates). Will not go into why one of our kittens is named Stoner, only that we didn't pick the name.

[Kugai]

[mara]

I am sorry for your loss Zelandeth.
I haven't been here for a while. First my computer crashed so I had to buy a new one and I had gall bladder surgery last week. I am fine now, just a little bit sore.

[Hans]

Spoedig en goed herstel gewenst, Mara!

[Kalta]

Computer crashes suck. I killed 3 in 2 years or less, so I learned to constantly back up everything. And since I have backups, I haven't had anymore problems. And my belated condolences to Zelandeth as well. And glad your surgery went well, mara.

[GinnyStar]

Welcome and enjoy some mushrooms for me, I like they don't like me like shellfish. Zen hugs if we could reach you we would, a twist on Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey Ship Who Searched to you.

Originally Posted by Kalta

Hope everyone is doing well. This year has been unusual to say the least. Homesteading is not going high on priorities this year. The weather has been crazy, and people have been dropping like flies. It started around Halloween(my sister's best friend since high school died suddenly from brain aneurysm) and I think finally stopped this month. In February at least 5 people in our area died, including our next door neighbor(also suddenly, massive stroke) who was always good to us, doing little home repairs and giving us firewood and such. But on the bright side, all the snow/rain has made it a good year for mushrooms. We have bolete/porcinis on our property, one neighbor has field/meadow mushrooms, another neighbor has shaggy manes, and someone brought morels to church to share yesterday. And the annual plant exchange on Saturday put on by the women's church group, we got a weeping willow tree, broccoli, squash, chard, spinach, 3 kinds of tomatoes, a raspberry, mint, and other stuff I can't remember now. I'm guilty of that meme that went around on Facebook a while ago: "A true gardener will, over the course of their lifetime, buy 10,000 plants with no idea where to put them when they get home"