Friday 8 January 2010

Icicle in the House

The threat of an avalanche is still here.....overhanging snow on garden room roof to unsuspecting heads of Min, Junior or the dog. We have lots of icicles, like most people I suppose. Some rather large. This has impressed Junior...so much so that she's grabbed a rather large one for closer inspection. Gathered from the garden room roof. It was in the 'wrong' place....and would have caused a lot of swearing had it snapped and landed on me!!

So, rather large icicle has been rehomed by Junior and now lives in the freezer:o)) Amazing how some things fascinate people:o)

We've been talking about the snow and cold and how it's come about. So, totally unplanned, we ended up looking at an atlas, at all the continents. We did the capital city thing, then got on to different climates , el Nino and Nina, Tundra, earthquake and volcano hotspots, rings of fire, Ancient Rome, the metric system, tectonics, Native North Americans, totem poles, coats of arms, tartan, Scottish clans and loads more...this all started off while I was in the bath, warming up the old rickety joints and J asking about the snow....and off we went:o)) This off the cuff stuff just happens, so the stupid Badman & Balls crap of putting in a year long plan would not work for us timetable-hating autonomouses!! Gah!!!

She hates history...'that past stuff' as she refers to it....but I still managed to get Ancient Rome and a bit of 'What the Romans did for us' in without her really noticing. lol

Anyway, today I'm going to try and pootle on with my '101 WAYS TO COOK/USE SPUDS'!

So far, I've got the usual, boil, mash, chip, roast, jacket, dauphinoise, scallops, gnocchi, samosas, soup, pirogy, vodka!!, potato salad, stamping, rosti, croquettes, wedges, curry. Don't think I can include 'sticking one up a certain annoying person's exhaust' Saw this on a film years ago. Might have been an Eddie Murphy or action/comedy movie. Think they used a banana, though. You Americans!!! Fancy putting such an idea in my head!! :o) lol

6 comments:

Peri said...

Thanks for the blog comment. How about Homity Pie using vegan cheese? Just a differing use of potatos plus you can use other bits of veg like spinach or broccoli.

Socks are easy to knit and there are loads of tutorials online and videos on youtube. I'm addicted to knitting them - and in this weather, I am really glad of my addiction.

Minnie said...

Thanks for that:o)) We'll make it tonight, seeing as we have the ingredients.

Shall have to try the sock knitting. Junior tends to hoard every pair that we have in the house, even though some are mine!! lol

cheerymishmash said...

We have a good potato bread recipe that we quite often use when we have a glut of potatoes - can look it out for you if you want? In fact I think it might already be on my blog somewhere! Makes a really soft and good lasting loaf :)

Minnie said...

Potato bread sounds cool. Will have a go at it. Thanks. x

I love your hamster widget:o)

anna said...

hope you dont mind my asking about my cats..BUT do you have all of yours vaccinated ? my adults re..butafter the incident of cat flu with the kitties i think i wil have to get them seen to also. they are due a recheck next week anyway to make sure all their snuffles have gone.....one hasbeen sneezing the lat day or so ..again..but im hoping its down to my overenthusiastic use of bleach.......this is gonna cost near enough 100 quid. but if i dont get them jabbed it might leave them really sick...wht do u reckon ?

Minnie said...

Hi Anna,

No, I don't have mine vaccinated. Never have.

A few years back, I had 2 cats already and rescued 3 more from Wales while on holiday. I took the rescues to the vet for a check up (one hopped as his front paw had been broken when he was younger). I asked if I should get them all innoculated and the vet told me no, which I was surprised at. He told me it was generally a waste of money.

I don't know anyone who has theirs vaccinated, apart from one elderly rescuer and she just has 2 cats who never go out. Most people I know keep their cats in, so with that they're less likely to kop for any disease or condition. I have a friend who has had to deal with cat flu in her 'pride of mogs'..she rescues too and had 31 at the time, 20 being her 'own'. They are all, bar 3, indoor mogs..so the ones that went out brought the flu home!! She's had to get all hers innoculated.

But, with kittens I would myself have them innoculated, along with any others you have, so sorted re the cat flu thing. Could you get help via the PDSA? (they'll help 3 of yours, so you could ask about your adults. You need to be on housing benefit. Don't know about the Cats Protection...maybe they could help, too.

About litter trays...I use a mop and bucked to clean out ours. We use torn up newspapers and magazines as our litter, with a couple of full sheets on the base. When it's 'done with' you can either bin it..it's lighter than normal cat litter or you can burn it in one of those metal incinerating bins that you use in gardens. I mop the trays out with disinfected boiling water every day. If the mogs have an accident or puke up, then I disinfect then sprinkle neat fabric conditioner over the area and it tends to keep them from repeating their little deeds!!..and it smells nice, too:o)

I go to charity shops and jumble sales and buy cheapo wolly and fleecy clothing (30p an item...cats aren't bothered about fashion when it comes to keeping warm! lol) and use that as cat bedding, in cardboard boxes, so they can snuggle and keep warm.