I have just received a pair of possum gloves from a NZ person - does that count?! I was also reading about poke sallet the other day, which is an old fashioned dish from Applachia (basically where the Appalatians are in the US) which is highly poisonous if you don't know how to prepare it. It is mad...

I have been in Northern France for a while recently and whilst there I have seen a Great White Egret and also a hoopoe. The egret was huge, even though it was a field away, and I was very surprised to see the hoopoe, although they are common with us in Portugal. This morning in Portugal a small snak...

Prestige things, they all had a blue, white and turquoise stripe on the handle as I recall? I bought my Mum a slow cooker, a small one, in January this year. You just switch it on and away you go, very cheap and very easy to use, and so far she is a fan. We have one, it does stews and hams pretty we...

I totally agree about PCs HG, the best way to cook a ham in my opinion. But, the old fashioned ones were lethal. You took your life in your hands, in case they exploded, which my parents' one did. To this day I haven't dared buy one, although I am sure they are much safer.

I have stopped, and thought, and I can't come up with anything! This probably indicates a lack of imaginative memory rather than anything else, but seriously, I can't think of any objects were better in the old days - except perhaps they were made to last, whereas nowadays many things have built in ...

LadyA wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 04, 2019 8:44 am

I have found that when you live alone, you kind of need more clothes, because it takes longer to build up a full load for the washing machine.

I must remember that one LadyA!

The UK was not far behind Portugal yesterday, it was 21.3 here, and super warm in France too I understand. Not normal, whatever normal is nowadays.

Not a good update from me. This morning I have seen a tick. On me. Legs flailing, head burrowed into my shoulder, like something from The Alien. Yuk Yuk Yuk. We dosed it liberally with alcohol and OH attempted to get it out, with tweezers as we don't have a tick remover here. We know all about havin...

Yes, Marigold is right about its preferred habitat. I always think of aubretia as a real 1960s/70s plant, I really like it as well, but its not very fashionable, not that that matters in the slightest, its just you don't hear people talking about it much. I am growing 'snow in summer' which is a kin...

Well, the sparrowhawk is back, and possibly resident somewhere nearby as we have seen her twice. Once she was on a low branch on our peach tree, just by the house, conveniently sitting still for a good few minutes inspection with the binoculars. Then a few days later we saw her take off from a roof,...