Morfydd St. Clair

Christopher Weeks wrote:We tried a modified this last night: https://globaltableadventure.com/recipe/baked-belgian-endive-with-ham-and-cheese/


It was OK, but we won’t repeat it.

Interesting; why not?  I have a similar recipe (using a Gruyère pseudo Béchamel sauce).  I love the taste, but the endive tends to get very wet and sort of slide away from the knife and fork.  Maybe I can find a way to use the same ingredients in a bite-sized dish…

I can see using endive leaves as a carrier for stuff as a fancy appetizer (or informal eating-with-you-hands meal).  Because it’s bitter, the “stuff” should be fatty or meaty, probably.

NB: I love bitter and could munch on endives by itself - your mileage may vary.

I’m going to ask a really dumb question:  how many “sheds” are you allowed to build?

Because if you can build two, one could be the “wet” one, with toilet, bath, wet part of kitchenette, and, I dunno, central command center for whatever irrigation you do.  (Plus sauna/outdoor-kitchen, etc.)

Then your crafting/sleeping space could gain a lot of room.  

Put a sun shade between them when weather requires it and you’re golden.

I love how much thought you have put into this, and hope you can build something that makes you happy.

Perhaps Burra will have favorite suggestions.  It’s beloved in Portugal - searching for “bacalao” should get you started.

In Germany, there are several recycling options.

For (most) glass and aluminum drink containers, one pays a deposit on purchase.  The container can then be returned to get the deposit back.  (Most supermarkets have automatic machines to make this painless.)

People do go through garbage cans to pick out containers for the deposit; I think of it as a mitzvah to leave those containers on the ground by the can for easier finding.

Paper, colored glass, clear glass, compost and green waste are all supposed to go into specific outdoor containers and not in the garbage.  Plastic (some kinds) are supposed to go into yellow bags left outside and picked up every other week.

I must admit that I slack on compost (my dehydrator-thing died and regular countertop composters go poorly for me) and have no green waste in my apartment (I have a compost pile in the garden, of course).

Glass containers are usually returned to the brewery, power washed, and re-used directly.

Aluminum and glass are, of course, melted for re-use.

I would not be shocked if almost everything else, including garbage, is burned for electricity.  Not great, but in Europe there’s no space for landfills, so…

(Oh, and electronics are supposed to go to their own recycling; again, because so many things are burned for power and electronics are nasty for that.  There are several specialized bins for small electronics and recycling facilities for larger ones.)

I have never had a kitten, but have heard very good things online about a YouTuber named The Kitten Lady.  Her advice is supposed to be especially good if your kitten is too young to be away from its mother.

Marieke De Jong wrote:
Hi everyone,

Interesting question Nancy, and I never seem to manage enough or fully functional pea sticks no matter how I vow to do it!
Anyway, I just happened to come across a Dutch website on rare seeds and they listed a pea that's been saved by one if their farmer - seed growers and they described their technique of growing the peas together with wheat (or some grain, but I think they said wheat). I'll try this one of these years once I get grain going in my garden. I can see it work even if you wanted some fresh peas, as long as you leave space you can just walk along the rows and pick some.

Hi Marieke, which website was that?  Thanks!

This week the apple roller, to pick up fallen apples, got a good workout.  The apple picker is a close second.  Then a leaf rake and big “claws” to get leaves from the pile into the barrel, to be dragged to the compost pile.

A trowel to plant fall bulbs, and soon clippers and saws to prune everything.  I can’t believe how enthusiastic I am about pollarding some of the hazelnuts.  (I could do a full coppice but have aggressive rabbits, so leave 1-3 big trunks about hip-high just in case.) There will be sunlight again!  Briefly.

That's great feedback.  I don't know how to paint, but it's very clear for next steps (or next try) for you!

I do think it's lovely as is, but I understand that it's not where you want to be.

Night Watch is one of my favorite Discworld novels.  I sometimes re-read Guards! Guards! and then Night Watch immediately after.  G!G! is the funny pastiche I think you might be looking for.  It's very early in the series, introducing a lot of characters for the first time, in very broad strokes.  NW is fascinating after everyone having grown and matured.

Should you ever decide to sell a copy, please let me know - this is a very sweet piece.

(edited: grammar)

Susan Mené wrote:Oh, and we call those bugs "water bugs".

Huh.  When I was in Baltimore for college, we called the 1-inch-long, black cockroaches "water bugs".  (I was like, no, that is a roach.  I even looked it up in a paper(!) dictionary - I'm old - and it said it was a roach.) I thought they were the worst until I moved into a place with the 1-cm-long brown roaches, which we called "German roaches".  Not as terrifying but occur in the hundreds.  I am pleased to note that in Germany I have never seen a roach.  I'm sure they exist (and actually the climate is pretty similar) but so far so good.  Knock on wood.

In Baltimore, people would say they were going "down'y'ocean" to mean Ocean Shores MD.

We were at the garden today so I staked up the three female plants.  The fuzzy brown branches in the foreground are one of the females; a few thorns but not many.  The white spiky branches in the background are the male; thorns aplenty.  (Despite looking dead in this photo they’re all leafing out nicely.)

Apologies for crappy photo, the garden is chaotic right now and the camera couldn’t focus on “scraggly thing here, no, here!”