Come and tell me your dull and unexciting news 30: Calmly through the day

[MissConductUS]

I've started a new one. Please join us and share the boring and mundane things happening in your world. It will be calming for all.

Here is a link to the prior thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5013993-come-and-tell-me-your-dull-and-unexciting-news-29-calmly-through-the-day

Welcome to all regulars, lurkers, and new contributors! Everyone is welcome to join.

@HildaTablet ‘Barm’ is yeast so a barmcake is just a yeasted bread roll - in some parts of the NW of the UK. But if you move a few miles out of that area it’s called something else. I’d call that a barmcake as I happen to come from that area,
oh yes indeed it can get heated. My secondary school was 8 miles away from my home town and they called it a flour cake and we had never heard of that name 😀
We also had winberry pie at school, which was a very localised fruit, never had it before or since, but just found it online to order. Oh happy day!
😃😋

Winberries are a type of blueberry. I don't know if they taste any different to the regular ones.

Whinberries? Hmm, maybe we come from very near to each other, @Umanresources! (we never had them in a pie at school, though).

Penguinsa, I hope you have a fabulous trip with your DD!

Math, it's hit 95F (35C) here today. The heat dome has arrived. I'm leaving in a bit as I managed to get a last minute appointment with my GP to see if there's anything to be done (short of prednisone) for my awful seasonal allergies.

Uman, we have a similar food naming controversy here. In nearby New Jersey, there are two names for the same deli meat - pork roll and Taylor ham.

https://peteandeldas.com/2018/01/history-pork-roll-taylor-ham/

People get quite worked up about which is the correct name.

Men in high-viz are doing construction work by the reservoir. They have lowered the water level to facilitate this, so there is no water going over the spillway. This allows a clear view of the duckling steps/ladder some kind soul constructed to allow the ducklings to climb back up the steps.

I think we do 😂
Wimberries are sweeter I think, than blueberries and we used to have purple stained teeth, gums and tongues after eating the pie Sue. Just found out that the bakery doesn’t deliver to my area, but found another one that does. Phew!

Miss, this may be far too simplistic and ineffective as a solution for you, but I also have pretty bad allergies, year round, actually, and a slight deviated septum which doesn't help. My ENT advised sinus rinse and otc allergy meds. He said to use different brands (different active ingredients) and alternate them. I'm bf'ing, so have only taken the odd one, but sinus rinses morning/night help me. Hope you get relief. 😊

I saw salmon berries a couple day ago, btw. I mentioned them in a post last year when we were chatting about things like that. They're like an orange/yellow raspberry and grow wild. Had them, and huckleberries, growing in our back yard when I was a kid.

We have wild blueberries growing in the hills round here, which we call bilberries. I think technically they are slightly different but in my head they are just wild blueberries.
On the subject of berries I have been weeding and topping up my strawberry pots today.

Can you post pics, Dandy? I'm curious about the bilberries.

It's interesting that 'barm' is used in the UK too. In Ireland, 'barm breac' is the traditional Hallowe'en yeasted fruit cake/ bread, in which various tokens are hidden. There's a coin, a ring, a tiny piece of cloth, a dried bean, a little twig or stem of an apple, all with their own significance around marriage/ lack of, unhappiness in marriage, poverty, and wealth. Barm breac is anglicised as 'barm brack.' Breac means speckled.

I went to the gym and spent an hour on a treadmill. It's too hot to walk outdoors, and/ or cicadas keep on flying into me. They fly until they crash into something or someone. The wind direction changed in the afternoon, and I was able to turn off the AC for the first time in days.

Have fun in Borneo, Penguins.

Seasonal allergies are a scourge, MissC. I hope your doctor can find a way to help.

If I remember right, bilberries are also known as wimberries and whortleberries. In Ireland they are fraughans/ fraochans, and I believe they are blaeberries in Scotland. We used to bring little beach buckets when we went rambling in the mountains, with the aim of bringing fraughans home for jam and pies, but we usually ended up eating most of them. My DCs had a charming book called Blueberries for Sal when they were small, with a plot involving a bear mother and cub and Sal and her mother out on a mountainside gathering berries, blithely unaware of each other's existence - until...!

@IWanderedLonely

I wish I had known sooner! I love bread and butter pud. And bread pud come to that.

@Penguinsa

Wowser Peng. Borneo? Hope you get to see some Orang Utans. Only my 2nd favourite animals - after cats of course!!! (In case Floof is reading over your shoulder!!!

I think my colleague is now blessing her lucky stars she did not go to this year's Hajj. What with the high temperature and the amount of people dead- 550!!!

HildaTablet they are gorgeous pics.
I hope to get to that sculpture park one day.

Today I went to the library on my lunch break and did some admin to assist DD who is away. I sent an encouraging email to a colleague and made a texas vinagrette. It was a peaceful day.

@culturevulture1984, what's a Texas vinagrette?

We're still in the heat wave, about 35C today. There's a thunderstorm moving in, which may spoil our plans to cook burgers on the grill.

The front garden is doing better than I expected. I've been giving the Hydrangeas a lot of water, and the heat has caused the cactus flowers to open much earlier than expected. I don't think I've ever seen them bloom in June.

We are still hearing from DD from Japan occasionally. DH has made an appointment to go car shopping with her and her DH when they return from their honeymoon. Thankfully our Subaru dealer has a lot of cars in stock. There was a time during and after covid when the car lots were pretty empty, and they had waiting lists for the new ones coming in.

@MissConductUS @HildaTablet
I'm curious, too. Is it this:

https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/texas-barbecue-sauce-vinaigrette

Quite similar. It's an ordinary vinagrette with additions, garlic, worcester sauce, tabasco and other bits and pieces.

We had a chilli party today. It went well and I think guests enjoyed.

Having a hot and sticky weekend here. We are expecting storms overnight.

The day lilies are in bloom, about three weeks before they normally do. Must be the weather.

Do you have ac, Math? It's humid here, too. Was 29c yesterday, down to 23c today, but got a brief bit of rain. More rain expected tomorrow and, thankfully, another 5c cooler. I'm just not one for the heat anymore.
Hope Penguinsa is having a stellar holiday.
Miss, nice to know your dd and dson-il are having a good time in Japan. I enjoyed shopping and eating at Skytree and found a nice coffee bar and bakery in that neighbourhood.
Culture, That dressing sounds good! I might have to give it a try. 😛
@bizzey you doing ok?

Just tossed a washing machine cleaning tab in and set machine on tub clean; am nursing baby; and am pretty much ready to get some sleep. 😊

Gorgeous day here yesterday thank goodness, so daughter and I sat outside in the garden and played a couple of games. I was a single parent for 17 years and we always played a lot of games, mostly bought from a car boot sale. My son and his family love playing games too. We even play a board game over zoom, as they live abroad.
When they were here at Christmas, my youngest grandson wanted to be on my team and chose the figurine for our team, because it has the same hair as granny. It was Albert Einstein! It could have been worse and chosen the DaVinci figure 😂

I’ve just been to Tesco and although it was busy I managed to get a parking space where I prefer to park. Phew

Excellent parking news, Cattery.

We do have AC (window units) havoc. They've been blasting non stop for the last few days as our night time temps have been high. This morning dawned a refreshing 72F which is about 22C.

Math, glad you have ac. I don't, but it's not super common here for most homes. With climate change I expect more homes will be built with ac. (Which adds to it, doesn't it?). Anyway, am grateful for another cooler day here. It's cloudy and about 14c here. Mid-day rain forecast has shifted to late afternoon, so going to check out Greek Day on W Broadway.

https://www.greekday.com/

Lovely sunshine here today. Rested in the garden this morning. Hope the weather is to everyone's liking.

We have a yellow weather warning issued for the uk this week as temperatures may reach 30! I think the problem here is we are not used and therefore not set up for it. Very few people have ac and electricity prices have rocketed in our cost of living crisis.
We have just had solar panels installed so may have to look into ac options. At least if it is sunny we will just be using the energy we are producing so not adding to the climate crisis.

We were getting by with fans until the nighttime temps got uncomfortable. Humidity is the problem here.