Saturday 25 January 2014

And the Heavens opened.

HIYA!
A Warm welcome to new follower Alexandra and also to Janice on Blog Lovin. Nice to see you here.

So what have you done to the weather?!
Today our little Civic Society  hosted the regional Get Together. We met at our remaining ( don't get me started!) pub. Had a meeting, then lunch and then a walk around our places of historic interest. Half way round the sky went black, there was an almighty clap of thunder and for the next few minutes the thunder and lightening was spectacularly close while several tons of  hail battered us to the ground. We beat a hasty retreat back to the pub where, fortunately, the member who was leading the tour was able to present his "Virtual Tour" onto a screen.
SimpleSuffolkSmallholder says in her post today that it is St Paul's Day and that tells us that whatever the weather is today fortells what the farming year will be. Similar to St Swithins only for the whole year not just a few weeks. Crikey ! I'm glad I don't believe in such nonsense or I would be throwing myself off the nearest bridge.
 The campaign to get D. to part with his stove and reinstate it in the kitchen, has gathered some momentum with support from my daughters. D. says he feels "got at" really?! tee hee. If you feel in the least bit sorry for him, Don't, as he can well hold his own.
We have found a few possibles for the lounge stove though, so that is hopeful. One that we like has a plate especially to cook on... Oh yes! that's the one for me!

 Looking at the paper there is absolutely nothing on the television tonight, so I will watch a programme we recorded a week or two ago. It is the history of Still Life painting, starting with Caravaggio, and looks to be rather good apart from the silly title, "Apples, Pears and Paint" which would be enough to put anyone off.

Tomorrow the girls and their offspring will be here for tea. it is D's birthday on Monday, so I will have to rustle a cake together or our youngest granddaughter will be upset on her grandad's behalf ( He wouldn't mind) Between ourselves he is 69 this time. Poor old thing!

 Had a rather unusual tea tonight. I did jacket potatoes with... brie, egg, onions a la greque with bacon and beetroot. Yes I know it is a weird combination, but all part of us using everything up and very tasty it was too.
It is still raining a bit here. Hope those of you in the UK that are flooded will get relief soon and those of you in the USA who are freezing can keep warm. So far we in the UK Midlands have been pretty lucky with our weather.
All for now
Keep Warm
Gillx
PS I wrote that just after tea. It is now 18.15hrs and the thunder and lightening are back with torrential rain! As I said at the beginning of this post... What have you done to the weather?!

22 comments:

  1. Hi. I watched that art programme with my uncle, the artist. It was very good.

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    1. I replied to your comment yesterday and it disappeared ! So here goes again...I enjoyed the programme very much. It reminded me how much I love Chardin and how I am not so fond of Dutch Still Life. Wouldn't it be good if there were more programmes like this. Hope your uncle enjoyed it - I saw some of his work on your earlier post
      Gill

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  2. hope he has a great party and the cake wonderful, the program does sound interesting, as for the weather, we are still snowed in!

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    1. He had a lovely time. We stayed in as the weather was dreadful again (not snow like you though)
      I shall give quick post on the day tomorrow
      Gill

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  3. Very weird weather here too only not until 5pm. Another weird thing - my blog with the weather poem vanished into cyberspace and I hadn't got the energy to do it all over again!

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    1. I know! I went looking for it and it had gone!
      Janice, who comments below, asks for my recipe for ginger and marrow jam. It is yours actually. Do you mind me passing it on to her ?
      Gill

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  4. Rain and wind here in Dorset. We've battened down the rabbits and keeping our fingers crossed the garden fence stays upright!

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    1. Battening down the rabbits sounds a bit cruel!! I know what you mean !
      Hope your fence stayed up
      Gill

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  5. Hi, just spent the last few days reading your blog from the beginning. I find it really interesting. You seem to be so busy all the time with your large extended family. You mentioned that you made jam with your GD -ginger and zucchini (can't remember your word for it) . I love Robertsons Ginger Jam, is it something like that? Could you share the recipe? I hope all the rain you've been having over there isn't causing too many more problems. It is bright and sunny, +15C here today but supposed to get quite cold again on Sunday. We have had so much snow here that it will still be on our front lawn, which faces north, until June!! The ruts on the residential streets are so deep that some of them are impassable. One of the joys of living in Canada, but we are in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, so we get lots of snow but we also get Chinook winds that give us nice warm breaks in the winter. We are very thankful for that!!

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    1. Hi Nice to see you here.
      The recipe is for Marrow and Ginger Jam and yes it is like ginger jam. I got the recipe from Simplesuffolksmallholder and hope she won't mind me sharing it. If she is okay with it I will post it or direct you to her blog.
      Gill

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  6. We've been blest this week with snow followed by ice and today is a lovely high fifties - I think someone is stirring the weather pot with a slotted spoon!

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    1. The weather is certainly keeping us guessing - we've had just about everything thrown at us lately. Now we her that snow may be on the way
      Keep warm
      Gill

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  7. It rained here yesterday afternoon too. I watched a TV programme about a bunch of giggling women making bread. 45 mins of giggling, 5 mins of bread making.

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    1. D. came into the kitchen yesterday to tell me that he had been watching a bread-making programme, which I might enjoy,but which had rather been spoiled by a gaggle of giggling women....Same programme perchance?
      Gill

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    3. Far too much giggle per minute; it MUST have been the same prog.

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  8. I wish I could say we are having rain, but it is nice & warm today however my concern is later in the week when we are expecting near 40deg again. Wish I could send you some of our sun & warmth!

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    1. ooooh 40 deg would be too warm for me! I hope that you are having enough rain for your crops and gardens
      Thank you for your warm thoughts and for visiting my blog

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  9. I have just picked up your blog from another one I read, I share your desire to have that field kitchen installed in the lovely space, unfortunately its never going to happen for us now.

    A few years ago we lived in an old stone cottage and had a multi fuel stove fitted in the sitting room, we also had oil fired central heating which was horrendously expensive to run. The little stove in the sitting room was magic, we had a fan on top and instead of the heat rising it pushed it towards the door to the hall which we kept open so the heat circulated. We were cosy when we got 5 weeks of heavy snow and frost.

    Had we stayed in the cottage we would have stopped using the oil central heating and just used convection heaters in the bedrooms when they were needed. They switched on half an hour before we got up and then switched off and the same when we went to bed. We did not really need heat in the kitchen it was so small it got hot enough when the oven was on.

    I have put your blog onto my reading list and look forward to reading more.

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    1. Thank you for commenting. You sound sad that you no longer have your cottage.
      I have seen those fans, they are a good idea.
      Gill

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    2. sorry about your weather - I promise you it has not come down to you from up here - we have had some snow but now it is sunny. I will endeavour to send some sunshine down your way.

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  10. I have to try those potatoes! They sound delicious!

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