🦞 The Lockdown Gang still chatting 🦞

Ours is a battle to keep them NfkDumpling I honestly don't think you can have too many.

They are lovely baked with a lump of stilton on them as a starter but I confess to loving them with just cream or thick yogurt.
Good with a plate of cheese and crackers.
They make a good stiff jam too.
Fig (and whatever) chutney.
Drop in a jar with some vodka and pour over ice cream.
Cut some into an almond frangipane sort of tart.
Bake them in chunks in cake batter...
Put them in tagines/ middle eastern dishes (and curry) where you might have put dates or apricots..

Notspaghetti i just caught the words pour vodka over ice cream and thought wow I’ve never done that. It is now on my to do list, 🤣
NFK good advice for Grammaretto
I have managed to have a few “conversations” with Kaimoana on messenger. She records her bit and I reply. What a beautiful voice our friend has and it’s lovely to hear her chuckle.
I’ve been out for lunch today with DH’s best friend and his wife. Very nice but made me feel sad DH not being there too.

My offer has been accepted so now to seriously declutter before mid October.

I can see I'll have to have a house clearance team.
I'm a bit stunned.

Oh wow. Gosh. Crumbs.
Well done- an exciting future awaits!
🍾💐

Hoping for warmer, cheaper and more manageable but sitting out here drinking tea in the afternoon sun I hope it's the right thing to do.
I shall crack open the fizz tomorrow night when my friend from the north is here.

Oh Grammaretto I'm very pleased for you but know this must be stomach churning too...
I was supposed to be taking stock of my already-made pieces and got involved in trying to sort out silks and wools I'd dumped about the "studio" upstairs... then I renewed the moth killing protection... went to find a photo for someone interested in a wall hanging, couldn't find my memory stick of (expensive) professional photos and the sheer amount of STUFF up there was totally overwhelming.

I know you have been at this sorting for a while now but I couldn't get into the study for huge boxes of yarn I'd left in the doorway whilst I searched for the right colour purple!

I am in awe of those of you who have had really stuffed busy homes and have managed to move.

Well done Grammaretto for getting this far.
Maybe having a clock ticking is motivating.

Grammaretto Im pleased for you. I hope it will be a home where you’re happy and safe. Wow lots to do now.
Is this the one that’s 10 minutes from town and from a bus stop? Here do the busses go?
Is it on the flat i.e. will you be able to walk places from there.
How big is the garden? Will it give you scope to plan something that you can sit out in. Ooh I realise I’m quite excited. 🤣
Notspaghetti when DH and I moved here we had a storage unit for two years until we finally managed to either house or dispose of everything in it.
I’ve been to an art exhibition today. Interesting and very different pieces.

Yes all those things Doodle 😍
A short walk to the bus stop. A slight incline, the garden is small but flat. Both front and back gardens are almost entirely gravel or concrete slabs. I find this ugly but low maintenance.
There's a garage which could be used for some temporary storage I guess.
I'm still trying to work out what I will keep.

Perhaps you could get some raised beds put in the garden so that you can have some plants at an easy height and have a bit more greenery. After your current garden I expect you’ll find that difficult for a bit.

Yes Doodle. I had thought of that and could make it bloom.
I have my df from the North staying with me and we harvested veg from my garden for our dinner. Broad beans, potatoes and gooseberries.
I wonder why they are called gooseberries?

How are the Lobstars?

I think you will need a potager, Grammaretto. Do you have a friend with a pneumatic drill?
And a greenhouse - is there one? If space is an issue, you could have one of those 'lean-to' types against your garage wall.
#fullofgoodideas.
I shall 🤐🤐 henceforth.

I took a photo of my successful twinkly lights.
Not posting as they look, er, twee by night.

Good luck with the open studio weekend Grammaretto. Hope your back isn’t too bad today.
Twee is fine ixion. I’m a great fan of fairy lights.

Gooseberries 🤔 because the give you goosebumps if they’re a bit tart ?

Went for lunch to a garden centre with friends today. Got marooned there while there was a deluge and even a bit of hail.
Church in the morning then going to hospice in the afternoon with DS2 .
Have a good bank holiday weekend all

That sounds like a lovely day Doodle. Mine was also very nice and sociable. I spent quite a lot of it sitting outside my front door, drinking coffee, eating brownies and strawberries and chatting to visitors to the pottery and book sale.

Apart from a few slightly feral children why would you allow your kids to run into a pottery showroom waving water bottles about and giving eachother piggy backs?

More tomorrow and again next weekend.
A few books and treasures clutter left but it's barely scratched the surface.
I shall have to have clearance people in.

I have sold a surprising amount of pottery, especially teapots. I didn't think they'd be so popular as most people use teabags these days.

Someone had ordered a special blue and white set of cups and plates from me so I had finished that and was able to hand it over.

I thought you'd be too exhausted to drop in tonight, Grammaretto, but so pleased it went well.
Hopefully, the rest of the weekend will be as successful- ah, but you don't have a Bank Holiday on Monday, do you?🤔
Good news about your sales! May we see some of the teapots you have left?

I hope your afternoon went well with DS2, Doodle. Quiet contemplation🌻
We were in the middle of our Strength and Balance class when our cloudburst hit.
There were mutterings that we might have to extend the misery session til the rain moved on.

Luckily, 'twas not to be.

What a lovely set Grammaretto
I hope they have years of pleasure from them.

Thankyou dear Lobstars. I don't usually "do" decoration on pottery as I prefer the effect of the fire and glaze reactions i make a terrible mess

It's pouring down here now so I bet there won't be so many visitors to my pottery and jumble sale.

A woman who came yesterday bought my ancient butter churn -the small glass kind with paddle. She thought her forest school children would have great fun making butter.
She's the girlfriend of my hairdresser and said he's never told her I was a potter. What do they talk about 😄😂🤣

To be fair he didn't tell me she was a forest school teacher. Her son is keen on history and metal detecting . Several people asked me about my collection of curling stones and old bricks!
I think I will leave them with the house, as they were found near here. The 19th century owner, paper mill owner, had a curling pond where DS and DH found the stones in the boggy remains, long ago.
Houses have been built on that land now.

I'm waiting for my friend to come to breakfast. I've made much too much porridge!

Love the tea set Grammaretto how pleasant it sounds sitting there chatting to others (apart from the unruly children)
Lots of lovely history with your home. You’ll miss it but I do so hope your new home makes you happy.

ixion had a lovely time with DS2. After our chat we looked at an old photo album. It was a bit emotional but son said “ didn’t dad have a lovely smile”. True he did.

Oh no...
had a leak last night. Bulging ceiling near the window in our sitting room. Poked it with a craft knife and let it rain in.
😕
Have someone coming to look at the flashing on Wednesday...
Keeping 🤞it's safe 'till then as the wind is blowing from the other direction.

Of course it's our "best" room with a lovely wool carpet and "professional" paintwork. Typical!

Oh Notspaghetti Im so sorry, that’s not what you need. Hope the damage isn’t too bad.
Quiet day for me today. Not much happening. Did a bit of drawing and painting just trying to keep busy

Oh, that's grim, NS, so sorry.
A long time to wait when your ceiling is in jeopardy. Is it a bay window or do you have a room above?

How do your DC feel about your prospective new home, Grammaretto? Hoping things are progressing as per plan.

Do your classes start again soon, Doodle?
Art and drawing? Sit Fit?
Would you consider singing (for fun, that is)?
How's DH's tree looking? I hope the continuous heatwaves haven't affected it. 🌳

I have been decluttering my sewing room - again - today, thanks to the almost incessant rain here.
Trimmings, buttons, furbelows - you name it, I inherited it.
Not sure what to do with Mr.I's great aunt's Cash's name tapes et al from her days in the WRENS.

All vintage stuff.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202608/medium-7u4xmr-1000028542.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202608/medium-f97ucb-1000028538.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202608/medium-evouiz-1000028537.jpg

That's not nice at all NotSpaghetti. Rain should stay outside in my opinion.
It does like to come in though and has been the bane of my life.

I spent the day going by bus to Jedburgh abbey with my df and exploring it. It's a ruin but a very impressive one.

Some of my ancestors were from Jedburgh but left for Australia and on to NZ in the early 1800s.

Such beautiful photos Grammaretto
Yes. I like my rain outside too!

Glad it happened when we were just sitting there though- as I had seven silk hangings on the side just rolled in tissue paper. I was able to move them out of the rain.

Yes, it's a big square bay window ixion with a matching but smaller square bay above.

It involved me moving lots of --junk- important stuff out of the way to check the bedroom carpet and then floor.
The very important items included a box of fur collars from my mother circa 1950 and a bag of odd evening gloves from the same era!

Maybe now I will be able to part with some of the other stuff discovered there... her dance school tunic and footwear from her youth surely is no use to anyone? Not now I've finally disposed of all her greasepaint!

ixion my singing wouldn’t be fun for anyone 🤣
Yes I’ve been t sit fit today, meeting art friends in Thursday for lunch. Tree is doing well thank you. I’ve been down a few times with a bucket and watered it from the river. It’s laden with little cones. So heavy the branches are bending.
Grammaretto i love exploring ruins too. Hope your new home has a very solid roof.
Notspaghetti what interesting items you have come across. Was your mum a bit of a collector.

She was a tailor by trade but had danced in her early years (very much against the wishes of her father).
She had a collection of evening gloves and rather ridiculously I couldn't part with them before now as I was quite attracted to the glamour.
It's ridiculous though. I'm not glamorous by any means!
My dad had a clothes shop after the war until he retired. Prior to that he had worked with a furrier and a milliner before settling on window display - so he probably made the collars from odds and ends of fur and then my mum would swap them about on her suits and winter coats to ring the changes.

I have previously disposed of the cut leather obviously rescued from two pairs of very soft long boots which were cut into ladies gloves and all "just" needed sewing.

Gritting my teeth...
I am not sewing gloves!