Thread 9 - TalkLair: “Russell's teapot goes on being round”

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous threads (thread 8).

The new lair of JTT escapees is all cosy and homey; we have truly settled here. Outside, the garden is blooming with summer flowers - should bloody well be, what with all that rain. Inside, the hearth is glowing, pictures are up on the walls, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them).

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

@MouseMinge that timeline will work :-)

I didn’t have nice fabric available so I bought some pieces. It’s really interesting to do.

Lovely windmill! Although I’m not sure about the apparently shared garden (certainly the drive and garages are shared) with neighbours?

I love that windmill but the going through a bedroom and bathroom to get to the viewing room at the top isn’t ideal. I hadn’t clocked the garden issue but that would definitively both me. It’s lovely though!

I love that windmill! Quirky dwellings are just fabulous.

AIBU to do to my DH what he did to our non-stick wok yesterday?

DTDs cooked dinner last night, and everybody was downstairs in the kitchen when I reminded them to only use the wooden utensils with the non-stick cookware. (Not that any functional human being should need reminding). When it came to serving up the food, DDs were struggling a bit with the bulky wok, so asked DH to help. In he swooped, with a metal pasta scoop.

The formerly non-stick surface of the wok is now decorated with a series of visible scrapes and gouges. I am very tempted to scrape him all over with the same pasta scoop.

In the grand scheme of things, it's only a bog-standard IKEA wok. OTOH, as I said, no functional adult should need telling not to use metal utensils with a non-stick coating. Especially not an adult with a bloody science PhD. Who does his share of the cooking, so should bloody well know about basic kitchen stuff.

Maybe he could get a new wok. We've just treated ourselves to this one and are very pleased with it.

Yes, why do seemingly intelligent people ruin non-stick pans? That caused our first proper married argument.

I came back from sea to find my expensive, copper bottomed frying pan (£70 odd in 1999) ruined, as she'd used a metal spatula and bloody steel Brillo pad on it.

FFS!

Oh dear! Just noticed one of our two apple trees seems to have fallen over! It was the worst of the two, didn’t get as much sun, apples never as many or as good.

In better news, this looks like an amazing year for pears and apples.

So you're divorced now, @SinnerBoy ?

I ruined a non stick pan (more of a big pot really) the other week. I did this by dropping it in the floor. It’s surprisingly badly bent out of shape. I could still make soup in it but the lid won’t fit any more.

a metal spatula and bloody steel Brillo pad on it

At least I didn't have to worry about DH using a Brillo pad on the wok, he hardly ever does the washing up! (In his defence, almost everything goes in the dishwasher).

I'd really rather not buy another wok. This one is less than a year old! Will keep on using the poor scratched thing until it gives up the ghost - while being annoyed that its lifespan has surely been reduced by idiotic metal utensil use.

My poor tree.

Still, as I said it wasn’t a great tree, and apple smells gorgeous as a burning wood.

What made it fall over @MavisMcMinty? Did it just decide to lie down and give up on life?

Kucinghitam · Today 15:05

At least I didn't have to worry about DH using a Brillo pad on the wok, he hardly ever does the washing up!

Neither does my wife, unless I'm not there.

I did actually hear something that I assumed was a big old oak branch crashing down last night, but because it didn’t sound like it had hit mine or macman’s cars, I didn’t investigate.

They were both very young trees when we moved here, yielding about 4 apples the first year or two, along with a third cooking apple tree, which we took down as it took up a lot of space for little yield, so probably about 26 years old.

Since the horses died, the apples were largely wasted anyway.

It's a shame when a fruit tree gives up the ghost. Are you going to put anything else in, Mavis?

When I was a student in a shared house I had a wok that I spent ages carefully seasoning until it was non-stick. One night someone washed it up, scrubbing it until it was all nice and shiny again, like new, so I had to season it again.

No, not there, it was pressed up against the massive horse chestnut and got little sun. I suspect the good apple tree is 3 types grafted onto rootstock, as there are different looks and tastes to the fruits, one is a nice Cox-type.

…I mention that in terms of cross-pollination.

A family tree, it would be interesting to have a go at that. My dad had someone graft other varieties onto the Bramley in the garden when I was small.

Our pear tree is 3 types in 1. And they’re looking really good this year! Badger likes to eat the windfalls. I’ve never known a dog do that before. He and Dottie also like to crunch on the fallen cobnuts.

My great uncles spaniel used to love windfall apples and pears. I'm sure by the end of summer he was permanently smashed.

When we first moved here there was an elderly but still productive apple tree in the garden. Every year, without fail, gangs of ring-necked parakeets would converge on the unripe fruit, take a couple of beakfuls out of each apple, peck through the stems so that they fell to the ground and fly off, laughing. Then the lad who used to do the garden murdered it through over-pruning. I keep meaning to replace it, maybe with a pear tree, if only to attract the parakeets back.