Strawberries

[shaneystar2]

This is their third year and I have lots of fruit already but they don't seem to be putting out any runners this year for me to pot on .They are not in the ground but in a strawberry pot and various other containers .Are they past their sell by date and shall I chuck them once finished fruiting and get new for next year ? I have had a few ripe fruits already and they taste OK !

[jno]

I'm never going to win anything on the basis of talent, Robinia, but I get quite lucky sometimes. I used to fill my Xmas present shopping list with stuff I won in the office raffle.

The tart with the cart

[swedeheart]

Ha ha ha, there are millions of'em on eBay, Shaney...! Well, maybe not millions... I must have had oh say fifteen Barbie dolls - wonder if they had the same names globally? There was Barbie and Ken, and Skipper, and Midge, and Francie (who came with three different wigs), and Twiggy and Julia (modelled after Diahann Cannon as nurse Julia on television) and Ricky and Allan and one I called Anne but I think she was in fact an alternate Barbie, and Tutti and a little black girl who was not a Barbie but who fitted right in with them and a soldier doll who wasn't a Barbie either. He and Anne were a couple, I decided. She was bendable and he had joints everywhere and was able to flex even his feet...! ...so they were a good match. Ken was a bore wasn't he, did any of you ever manage to play life into him? There was a red plastic wardrobe, it may have been for Francie and all of her wigs? and a kitchen with a turkey? for the oven... and I loved their tiny high heel slippers... I could go on...

I won a trip to Paris when I was fifteen, and a really good stereo system a few years later...

3 dozen eggs...! Neti that's priceless...!

[VINNY100_2]

Tiz pi$4ing down and windy and cold.apart from that its quite nice weather.I went to a church fete years ago looking for some old army coat and i bought some raffle tickets and put me name on them.When i got home the vicar had left the star prize on me doorstep..6 bottles of homemade wine....blimey i was confuzzled by 9;o,clock..!!(:O) OI.! how comes you lot think i drink a lot,i dont remember giving you that impression.? Yummy,i bought some long red" lick-o-wish"I use to get the woody stuff from the health shop but they dont seem to sell it any more.do any of you like "lick-o-wish"(:O)

[shaneystar2]

Well someone must want them ..we've got bids on the DVD and one doll already .It must be something to to with some film or other about Barbie .I have no idea .But I would imagine little girls must plague for these sort of things for Christmas .I only ever got plagued for Transformers, modelling kits and Beano Annuals !.

[shaneystar2]

Oh and PS Jno ....go easy on the cockles and mussels ....alive alive oh .. yer know .Have a lovely time ..Enjoy ..it's always nice to win something even if it is only a Barbie Doll ..

[Robinia]

<more squeals of laughter>...I'm choking here, I've just sat down with a plate of egg butties would you believe?...hahaha...are you sure they're not still in your closet neti?

Oh shaney I'd have loved to have seen your face when you opened that letter. A few yrs ago I might have bid for them but g'daughters have every Barbie & Bratz available. I sometimes think the tiny details are wasted on little ones tho'.
Apart from a food hamper in the 70s (& the odd small to very small lotto win) I've never won anything, so from now on I'm going to enter comps whatever the prize. I've been trying for a flat screen, all singing, all dancing tele, but I can see I need to set my sights a bit lower

I'm not keen on lickawish Vinny but neti might need some after 3 doz eggs...

[swedeheart]

Oh, man, you don't know what licorice is until you've tasted pure amarelli, they're the real deal Vinny, you'll like them for sure if you like the grown up taste of the twigs. You're a real "candy pig" aren't you Vinny. (That's what we say instead of "to have a big sweet tooth.")

Had an email from my Singapore sister and she mentions Deepavali, is that the same thing you've often mentioned as Diwali, jno?

[Robinia]

haha, candy pig!
My sister often mentions Diwali (Deepavali) too. She lives about 15 from Leicester & when the illuminations go on there she swears her village lights go dim. :o)

[jno]

yes, same thing I think, Kit. A Hindu festival. It comes at the same time as Guy Fawkes and both require a lot of fireworks. Actually, it's getting better, five years ago it used to be the sound of exploding wolves every night from September to Christmas but now it's only for a week or two so the poor dear little foxes won't be scared.

[swedeheart]

Yeah I remember that thread, jno (pets and fireworks) - I called you Cruella, he he he.

candy pig for Robinia

No need to gloat, Neti !

[Robinia]

ooooh, bless, it's so sweet.
so that's how you get picky to eat his veg shaney?

I love cauli...'specially cauliflower cheese

(for the benefit of our overseas viewers it's a ref to tonight's River Cottage)

[shaneystar2]

Yep ..Hugh Fearnly Eat it All ..brilliant !
Actually I got a confession out of Picky yesterday when he rolled up for his birthday .
He had some chicken the other day !
He went down to that big bad city last weekend to see his girlfriend and as that was all that was going and no doubt he was starving ,he ate it .
Haha .....I did actually catch him sniffing the air a week or so ago when he turned up and I had a bit of roast pork in the oven . But he was ever so virtuous and munched his veggie sausages ...but I could see he was wavering !!

[woofgang]

greetings all on this dark morning...puppies needed out and I woke up with a thumping head and a full bladder so am sat here with coffee and aspirin while himself gets a lie in...pups have relieved themselves, eaten breckie and are now snoring in the living room...I remember liquorice root Vinny, also locust beans, now they were disgusting!

[Robinia]

g'day...are you all out sweeping leaves?
hope your head's better woofy if I wake with one the day's usually a write off

Funny what they will eat isn't it shaney? I'm a bit the same tho', I won't cook broccoli for myself (yuk) but if it was on a plate that I was given I probably would eat it, so long as it's cooked through. I don't do 'crunchy', you may as well have it raw. I'll be putting my xmas sprouts on next week.

right, fight anyone.....?
mood du jour

[Jude123]

Hi All Mundane Jude here Ha Ha!! I feel a bit better now. Just cleaned right through and sorted out a few things. Had my lunch and getting ready for a my afternoon cuppa.

Talking about liquorice I went to a school called The Practising School where there was a training college next door and teachers used to come and practise on us kids. We had to walk there and there was a little shop on the way which sold all sorts of kids stuff. I remember 'chewing wood' which tasted a bit like liquorice and was wondering if it was the same stuff as you had Woody and Vinny. They also sold something called Kaylie (pronounced K Lie as in bed - don't know how to spell it - I only went to the Practising School)!! We bought it in little bags and we all ended up with yellow fingers because we had to lick them and then dip them in to get a taste of the lemony flavour.Loverly!! That was the best thing I remember about that school. I was 9 years old and had just had 2 months off after having an operation to have a squint corrected. When I went back I found it difficult to catch up with the maths lessons and the teacher (Mrs. Salisbury) lost her patience with me and got hold of my shoulders and shook me until I thought my head was going to drop off and my eye was going to fall out. I went home and told my parents I was never going there again and I didn't.. They sent me to a school nearer home and I passed my 11 plus with flying colours and was so happy. Another thing I remember is that it was during food rationing and school used to give us cocoa powder and milk powder. Also one day my Mum gave me this yellow long bent shaped thing which we had to peel and then eat, that was my first banana. Quite liked that but don't eat many now.

I'm off out tonight to my usual haunt to see someone called Deano. Can't remember if I've seen him/her before.

Off for my cuppa now - see yer later 'gater(s)

[jno]

wow, Jude, that sounds a hell of a school, glad your eyes survived. I didn't go to a practising school but I did go to a practice dental clinic where they trained dentists and nurses who worked with schoolkids. Nothing like being drilled by a beginner. (And that was in the days when the drills were pedal operated like old sewing machines... maybe they were embroidering their initials on my teeth?)

[VINNY100_2]

Afternoon.
That was well interesting jude .They never shook me at school..just chucked chalk at me and gave me the cane..!I the P.E teacher was the worst,he would reach back as far as he good and wack.! god it hurt,and he was silly enough to ask me to fetch him a cuppa tea out onto the playing fields,did he really not think i might dip me dodger in it..!!(:O) think they use to call it spanish liquorice jude.Blimey jno ,you and dentists go back along way.hehe..! They use to put the gas mask over my face when i was a kid..didnt like that one bit..! (:O)

[jno]

yes, well, Vinny, I sometimes wonder if there mightn't be a connection between being the guinea pig for trainees when I was small and the state of my choppers now... But I suspect the real culprit is chocolate, as usual.

[swedeheart]

Hey there ho there hi there (he he, annoying huh?) I liked your "essay", Jude. The teachers didn't shake me, I just hated school with all my guts anyway and got out as soon as I could (age fifteen). Later on when I found a profession I wanted for myself I studied ambitiously for a couple of years before moving to Gothenburg to study at the university there. Those were good years for me, I made some very good friends and liked the town itself a lot. Gothenburgers are known for their sense of humour, as they like to call it, he he. Well at least this self image tends to make them eager to be jovial and friendly and that's not the worst self image you can have is it, so I think back on Gothenburg with gratitude. Ha ha, I remember one time just as I was getting off a streetcar in broad daylight (this was a hundred years ago but they do still have streetcars!) carrying a floor lamp that I'd just picked up from the repairer's, and a man I'd never seen before shouted out loud "Afraid of the dark are you sweetheart!"

You know biddies I've been hanging around with you lot for such a long time now that I can't remember which stories I've told you - but then on the other hand you probably don't remember having heard them, anyway...

gothenburg

[netibiza]

Good day to you all - have new computer desk and the keyboard keeps disappearing into the desk, most confusing. Have such a lot of rubbish to sort out before the study/dining room is ready, so keep wandering into the spare room(where tis all stored) , bunging a few things into rubbish bags and wandering out again. Just finished DTGK xword, so had better sort through the dross again!! See you all later!