Register

Chatterbox 2

For all refugees from the old Beeb Food Boards :-)
Chill out and chat with the foodie community or swap top tips.
NOTE: CHATTERBOX IS IN THIS FORUM

Moderators: karadekoolaid, THE MOD TEAM, Stokey Sue, Gillthepainter

User avatar
Posts: 2236
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2018 4:03 pm

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby Sloe-Gin » Thu Jan 13, 2022 8:34 pm

No, prohibitively expensive for caravan use!!
The bagged cushions are huooooge. The downstairs loo is OOO!!
We have excess new carpet in the loft. New van carpets are the next ask. Not, thankfully, as expensive!!
Then our caravan will be almost as good as new!!

Posts: 886
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2020 11:38 pm

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby ZeroCook » Thu Jan 13, 2022 9:45 pm

Gillthepainter wrote:AH!
Got it, Zero.  But I think the Welsh fella is bending the roolz again.

So now we know they are apt to use American spellings and double letters.  I had been wondering about double letters ... so basically no holds barred English.   Scrabble rules?  If it's in a dictionary it flies ...

I've only been doing it for a couple of weeks and was getting them in three and feeling very clever until the last two! They getting sneaky!

Grass and lawn is a pain to keep up Gill.  Need servants and gardeners for that  :lol:  :lol:  Didn't think about the small gravel kitty litter problem! I like paving stones a lot.

Plum shale sounds pretty - paving slabs or gravel?

That's a job, Sloe!

User avatar
Posts: 1547
Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2016 6:16 pm

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby dennispc » Thu Jan 13, 2022 10:34 pm

And think of size of the shale, I think ours was 25mm, with larger sizes it can be quite chunky not pleasant to walk on.

User avatar
Posts: 3719
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 11:53 am
Location: near some lakes

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby Gillthepainter » Fri Jan 14, 2022 10:25 am

well, this is the image from google stock I have in my head (south facing garden needing shade)

Image

This is how our garden looks at the moment. Just a lot of grass and a patio, 3 x the size of the image here.
With a pretty wall.

Image

And our previous garden, in Kew. Designed by Roddy Llewellyn.

I don't want herringbone again, or bricks. Nor a pond - I don't miss the waders. But I do like a good courtyard garden.
which can be used

Image

User avatar
Posts: 6058
Joined: Sat Nov 14, 2015 10:19 am
Location: East Anglia

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby Suffs » Fri Jan 14, 2022 10:29 am

You need a pergola and climbers … and a fig tree in a vast earthenware pot 8-)

User avatar
Posts: 1547
Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2016 6:16 pm

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby dennispc » Fri Jan 14, 2022 12:39 pm

I'm not a gardener, unless it's veg, but here's our shale with the side of the garden where it runs up to the fence and we've put in some pots. The triffid plant is where our pond was, impossible to get rid of it so we just let it go. There's a couple of old logs left for insects etc.

The honeysuckle frame took a pounding in the winds and small fir tree felt the frost but the other one didn't. The clematis at the back does look good in the summer as do the small acers.

User avatar
Posts: 8629
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:02 pm
Location: Stoke Newington, London

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby Stokey Sue » Fri Jan 14, 2022 2:42 pm

Do you mean shale or slate? I Googled because I’d never heard of using shale, and the results returned were for plum slate
1DFB0105-4274-4E47-BD86-0AEABD960948.jpeg
Plum slate chippings
1DFB0105-4274-4E47-BD86-0AEABD960948.jpeg (243.5 KiB) Viewed 15386 times


I wouldn’t have the currently fashionable slate layer anywhere that will be routinely walked on, a friend has it and I think everyone we know has slipped on it, a couple of us quite heavily, a lot of people have stepping stones embedded in it which also looks quite decorative and is much safer

Love the Google image Gill, reminds me of the houses we knew in Gascony, sigh

User avatar
Posts: 5297
Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:58 am
Location: Wiltshire

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby Earthmaiden » Fri Jan 14, 2022 4:26 pm

Your picture reminds me of how I planned my garden after visiting the Chelsea Flower Show (but hasn't happened!).

Looking at your current garden and written plans I'm assuming most entertaining would be on your current paving? Shale, slate, shingle etc can be very trying for chairs of the dining sort which are pulled backwards and forwards from the table. Not so bad for ones you just sit on and don't need to move so much. Feel quite excited about what you're planning though!

User avatar
Posts: 3719
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 11:53 am
Location: near some lakes

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby Gillthepainter » Sat Jan 15, 2022 8:10 am

Yep, the French really know how to do a garden.
No picture, Dennis. But I do know what you mean.

We definitely don't want trees, we've decided. So a fig in a large pot would be perfect.

Any road, the first thing over the next 2 months is to die back that unwanted grass.
It's a good lawn, straight and well laid. But just not for us.

User avatar
Posts: 2632
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:58 pm
Location: Clayton-le-Woods

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby Renee » Sat Jan 15, 2022 8:09 pm

It will be nice to have your garden the way that you want it Gill. Definitely no trees, because you get all the leaves in the autumn.

Has anyone seen Seville oranges yet? I tried to ring both Asda and Sainsburys today, but it was impossible to speak to a real person. I didn't want to make the journey and find that they didn't have them.

User avatar
Posts: 4920
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2013 5:52 pm
Location: North West London

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby Pepper Pig » Sat Jan 15, 2022 8:25 pm

Waitrose and Ocado have them, in fact Waitrose had them before Christmas. Don’t know about the others Renee.

Posts: 2211
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2012 3:26 pm
Location: North West Leicestershire

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby WWordsworth » Sat Jan 15, 2022 9:18 pm

I saw them in Aldi yesterday.

User avatar
Posts: 2632
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:58 pm
Location: Clayton-le-Woods

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby Renee » Sun Jan 16, 2022 2:32 am

Thanks very much. I will try Aldi which is closer than Waitrose. Sainsburys is opposite, so I can try there if I can't get them from Aldi.

User avatar
Posts: 1547
Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2016 6:16 pm

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby dennispc » Mon Jan 31, 2022 12:29 pm

A bit late, but now we're back home here's the photo of one side of our back garden.
Attachments
gardeb.jpg
gardeb.jpg (317.07 KiB) Viewed 14954 times

User avatar
Posts: 3719
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 11:53 am
Location: near some lakes

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby Gillthepainter » Tue Feb 01, 2022 11:09 am

Looking good, Dennis. And easy to maintain, I should think.

Well this weekend we have begun the process to kill the grass. We are lucky in that the previous owners spent a lot on the garden, so the existing lawn is flat and even, giving us a good starting point for our plans.

The easiest way to my mind was to cover the grass for 8 weeks until it dies. I've weighted it down with every pot and garden thing that I could find.
As it's prone to be windy round here, I have to keep the tarpaulin flattish and in place.

Image

User avatar
Posts: 5297
Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:58 am
Location: Wiltshire

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby Earthmaiden » Tue Feb 01, 2022 11:43 am

Interested to see what you've both done/are doing. I'd wondered if you could have sold your grass as turf, Gill!

User avatar
Posts: 3719
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 11:53 am
Location: near some lakes

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby Gillthepainter » Tue Feb 01, 2022 12:50 pm

I hadn't thought about selling it off, no. In our plan, we aren't digging the turf up, so it's not available to take away.
Our plan is to die it off, cover it with weed killing matting of some sort, that also drains well.
And lay gravel over it.

The borders will have edging tiles, so it will be a contained area, we are hoping to get reclaimed stone edges that look like ropes perhaps.

User avatar
Posts: 3919
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 6:33 pm

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby scullion » Tue Feb 01, 2022 3:25 pm

Earthmaiden wrote: I'd wondered if you could have sold your grass as turf, Gill!


that was my thought when you first told us what you were doing.

User avatar
Posts: 8629
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:02 pm
Location: Stoke Newington, London

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby Stokey Sue » Thu Feb 24, 2022 6:09 pm

I've had an odd thing today

I had 3 torches, none working properly, so I sat down to sort them out

When I opened the big butch one, which wasn't working at all, I discovered that the batteries in it had decomposed, rather like batteries used to 50 years ago, they were a sort of chalky mass round the edges, as far as I could see, they had gummed themselves in and couldn't be removed - I think they were the batteries that came with it, obviously not the Duracell type

So I opened the newest little pocket torch, that still had its original batteries, and I realised that the reason it hadn't been working some of the time was because they are slightly too small and slip about and don't always make proper contact, it's rather a good torch with Duracells in place.

The "spare" torch I think I'd just loosened the lens too far trying to control the beam, it seems to be all right now

But just a general reminder that cheap batteries that rot are still out there, don't assume the batteries supplied with cheap & cheerful equipment are worth having.

Posts: 2211
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2012 3:26 pm
Location: North West Leicestershire

Re: Chatterbox 2

Postby WWordsworth » Thu Feb 24, 2022 8:49 pm

Good point Sue.
I had to bin some fairy lights after I put them away with (inexpensive) batteries still in.

PreviousNext

Return to Food Chat & Chatterbox

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot] and 27 guests