Thread 14 - TalkLair: “What The Hell Are We Supposed To Use, Man? Harsh Language?”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 13).

Summer should be well under way, but the chilly wind, grey clouds and pouring rain beg to differ. Looks like 2024 continues to be a washout - on the bright side, the Tories got washed out too! In the TalkLair, we remain hunkered down keeping cosy and warm. The hearth is glowing, the walls covered in dubious artwork, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, 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…

Do you mean like a lintel, Kuc? You can buy concrete lintels off the shelf. I'd take a photo, anyway, and ask for guidance in a local builders' merchants.

It's this thing @duc748, don't know whether it should be called a sill or lintel or maybe a shelf (see picture). We did wonder if the big part of it has been replaced before as there is a line/joint on the left side.

I don't know what to call it either. One thing that occurs to me, though - some stone rots over time. At the property I mainly work at, the house was built in the 1700s and it's made of local limestone. Because of weathering, the stones crack and start to fall apart so need replacing. I've been there nearly 10 years now and in that time the builder who maintains the place has had several sessions of replacing stone in both the the house and garden walls. Stone quality makes a difference too. One time the owner bought some cheap limestone and it had to be replaced within a couple of years.

It's a sill, as you rightly say. And it' s not load-bearing, other than that you might sit on it? Doesn't look that much different in size from a paving slab. I'd have thought there'd be a few options, in either stone or pre-cast concrete. Measure it, and take a pic, and see what a builders' merchant can offer you.

Concrete is cheap, but stone might be a better job.

https://ocldirect.co.uk/british-standard-pressed-grey-900-x-600-x-50mm-concrete-slab/?srsltid=AfmBOoqk8y1MA4UMJ1emjC3uZrV03y6UWh-EQelM3bOaDZHzNCkFuREtQvM

I can’t help Kuc though I was struck by how much your porch looks like our porch with black & white tiles, red bricks and a thick painted lintel thing. The paint sticks to ours though.

I’d never thought it might be made of stone as all houses in our town are built of brick, but it looks the same as yours.(I’m in SE while you’re in Leeds IIRC)

I'm off to see Richard Ashcroft tonight. But in fact, I'm not looking forward to it much, for a variety of reasons. Which is a bit weird. Bloody electronic tickets are part of the angst. Call me old fashioned, I like an actual ticket, one per person, made of paper, rather than some widgit on your phone.

Thank you all! I think a builders merchant is a good shout, will see if I can get to one next weekend. Would a general builder be the trade to do the replacement work? (Perhaps I need a no-job-too-small person, but in the past I've had a disappointing experience with somebody I got in to put up some shelves in our old house - very rough and workman-like result).

Meanwhile, I saw this meme and felt sadly in agreement.

Heh! On another thread yesterday, somebody made a comment along the lines of, nobody could be that stupid, and I said, you've seen those photos of people with bandages on their ears, right?

@Kucinghitam - I'd ask at the builder's mechant about tradesmen. They'll probably be able to recommend someone. I did this at the local plumber's merchant when we replaced a shower, and the chap did a much quicker, better, cheaper job than the bathroom fitter who originally put it in.

That meme nails it.

I have nothing useful to add to the porch sill thing.

I made some biscuits and they're not half bad, though they needed longer in the oven than 12 minutes. Didn't take note of the extra time I gave them but probably around eight minutes.

justbeehoney.co.uk/blogs/honey-recipes/honey-oat-biscuits

I am making ice cream. The raspberry one is already in the freezer, the bilberry one (okay, they’re billed as wild blueberries but they seem bilberryish to me) is happily churning away in the machine.

I find the cooking time for biscuits is pretty unpredictable as I never roll any two batches out quite the same thickness. (I am aware there are rolling pins with handy guide rings. I should probably get one.)

The uncooked mix is quite soft and more like flapjack mix so I measure the biscuits out by eye and shaped them in my hands. They've actually turned out pretty well.

Bilberry ice cream sounds lovely. As a child I spent many happy hours picking bilberries on the Long Mynd and recall them being a far cry from blueberries which always lack flavour to me.

Kuc, you can probably have your sill rendered. You'd need to strip the paint with a wire brush and blow torch first and then keep on top of fresh painting.

On the other hand, a replacement may last better.

Whinberrying was a feature of my childhood too and my aunt made delicious pies from them with perfect crisp pastry and masses of fruit in the filling. Today’s ice cream involves a bag of frozen fruit courtesy of Ocado but I’m hoping for fruity deliciousness nonetheless!

Us too, up round the Roaches in North Staffs!

No pies were made with the ones we picked, we ate them all right there, and very nice they were too. I'd like to try a bilberry pie, though, it sounds delicious.

It was pretty amazing! My aunt and uncle had a farm in west Wales and she was used to catering to whoever was helping out on the farm or the likes of us who holidayed there regularly. The pies were made on a deep plate with perfect pastry (thin and crisp and delicious) underneath and on top with masses of fruit in the middle. It’s the sort of cooking that seems incredibly simple but almost impossible to get just right! (Or maybe I’m just not great at pastry.)

The flavour of bilberries (or frachans or hurts or whatever you want to call them) intensifies amazingly when they are heated (I agree that commercial blueberries are weak stuff in comparison). Very good a a slightly warmed sauce with ice cream just as they are, but obviously excellent if you have enough for a pie. I think it's a bit early for them around here but I'll go uphill some time soon and look for some.

Britinme, there's a new thread in the personal folder in the old place that might relate to something you said recently.

Oh, my granny used to make those sort of fruit pies too! My mum still has the metal plate she used to make them in, I think. She called them "plate pies" and she made what she called rough-puff pastry for them. Gorgeous!

I'm intrigued! (But not enough to go and look - the universe has not yet reached a state of no themodynamic free energy).

Collecting bilberries is a long-standing summer family tradition ChezKuc, there are loads of them in the countryside hereabouts. Mostly to be eaten fresh off the bush rather than brought home.

Several years ago we had an unfortunate incident due to bringing home a bag of bilberries, involving (fill in necessary narrative): children, opening of bag in car, snacking, bilberry stuck to seat of trousers, my bedroom Farrow & Ball-painted wall, me saying "look out you have a bilberry on your bottom," bilberry-bottom-owner turning around to look at own bottom...

Yes, picking them is an 'oldest clothes and be prepared for discoloured skin' exercise, but unlike blackberry picking doesn't result in 'much bleeding taking place'. To almost quote someone who will NOT be competing against Joe Biden in November, thank God for some hope at last.

oh PS the thread was started by someone whose old favoured internet stamping ground was closing down and who had been refused access to its lifeboat - and been advised to go to the old place instead.

The suspicion, nastiness, accusations of being someone else and general mass paranoia and hostility is a great incentive to not return.

I just went and had a look at that - it's only the second time I've been curious enough to bother, and I no longer have an account there as I destroyed my PW on the way out. It is quite weird, isn't it?