good morning It's bright & dry here so I'm off to watch mr summer take part in a mountain bike race in the forest I'll have no signal so will pop back in later Squiggle, that's great about the book sign me up for a copy

Chicken Tikka Masala is at the low end of medium and I would say milder than Dopiaza.

 

Checken Jalfrezi can vary in hotness - at its mildest a bit hotter than Dopiaza, so you would need to be careful with that. Having said that, it is nice and has replaced the Chicken Tikka Masala in London restaurants as the UK's favourite curry.

 

I don't advise you to try the Chicken Inferno curry served at a restaurant in Staffordshire. It was recently mentioned on the BBC news and I found this article in the Sun where one of their reporters became the first person in the UK to successfully eat the whole curry.

Link

Good morning everyone. Weather is dry and bright atm.

Good luck to Mr Summer in the mountain bike race.

Squiggle, it must be good to see all your hard work come to fruition.

El, all this talk of curry is making my mouth water. I can't eat very hot curries but love all the milder, Indian ones and I adore Thai curries - yummy!

I am still sticking to my diet but my scales aren't showing much of a loss. Youngest son says I need to increase my exercise (i think he means start to exercise) if I want to lose more weight. Looks like Keira is in for some extra walks.

Hi all x
Well done squiggle 
All this talk of curries is making my tummy rumble ! The Mela isnt far from me and the smell in the air is going round my heart !
Keep it up Yogi, can you swim? I am not a very good swimmer, but am starting a ladies only water aerobics class next week. I am dragging my sister along with me for support, although she is keen to lose some weight for her 50th.


Dont fancy that Chicken Inferno Curry ,El  

I am sure that weight loss will soon start to show Yogi as long as you keep at it.

 

Summer I thought once I know who wants a copy of the cake recipe book I will start a new dialogue with all of us and then you can all let me have your full names and addresses, what do you think?

Good afternoon all.

The weather has stayed dry and bright so I persuaded Mr Yogi to cut the hedge at the bottom of our back garden. It's pretty high and requires step ladders to reach the top. I was on ladder wobbling holding duties and clearing up, and then I weeded the borders in the front garden. I think a long, relaxing soak in the bath will be required later on tonight.

Hi Skylark. I can swim but I'm not a strong swimmer. I like to be near the sea, rivers, lochs etc but I'm not so keen to be in the water - unless it's a hot, bubble bath.

Good luck with the aqua aerobics class. My mum used to go twice a week, and she loved it. Now that she is in her 70's, she doesn't go any more.

Chicken Inferno sounds like one to avoid, El.

Squiggle, I am still sticking with the diet - and will increase the exercise to see if that helps. (starting tomorrow)

Yogi just think how many calories you used up wobbling that ladder

He got his own back by (accidentally) covering me in hedge clippings.

You have been busy Yogi !
I have just scrubbed out the bath, that must be lots of calories used up

Bath scrubbng is physical work, Skylark.

Got to go for a while, be back later.

evening

 

i'm just popping up to dry my hair, but here's a selection of fungi i saw & photographed in the forest today! i wanted to share them with you, i didn't touch any of them!

be back shortly

Squiggle, you and anyone else who is fond of Doris Day will want to watch or record 3 hours of programmes about her on BBC4 this coming Friday starting at 9.00 pm. It starts with a documentary with clips narrated by Michael Brandon, followed by a special variety show she did in 1971, followed by an interview she gave in 1992 presented by Betty White.

Summer, interesting photos you took this afternoon. I know nothing about fungi, but a teacher at the school I went to was an expert on them and would be able to identify them at an instant.

I have no idea what each specie is called El, I only know the red & White ones are highly hallucinogenic and dangerous! Regardless of the fact that most are probably poisonous, I think they're beautiful, the colors especially. As for curry's, I use rafi's at www.spicebox.co.uk they have a shop in Suffolk, I used to buy them all the time when I lived there! And now there's one in York, I pick up a few curry packs when I visit. They're all made from scratch, you just cook them in a wok at home, and they're much better than take away curries I like onion/garlic flavours in my curries, nothing creamy Yogi I can just imagine your hedge clippings hair do! An extra half mile-mile on each of your walks with Keira will soon burn off plenty of extra calories each week and I'm sure you'll soon start to see a deference Squiggle, that's fine with me about the cook book, I'm already looking forward to uploading a pic of something I've cooked from it

El, thank you for the heads up. I love Doris Day - watched Calamity Jane today, for the hundredth time. Looking forward to the interview, she has had an interesting life.

Ooh thanks EL for the info about Doris Day, sounds right up my street  

 

Summer lovely fungi but I don't think I would eat any of 'em, the middle one is such a pretty shade of pink!  That would be so lovely to see a pic of something you have cooked from the book, I promise you you will be spoilt for choice

Love the pics of the fungi, Summer. The red one with little white dots is really pretty, even if it is poisonous.

An extra half mile on each walk, you say - ookaaaay.

I had a nice long bubble bath and washed my hair - no more hedge clipping hairdo and my aching muscles are soothed.

Just popping in to say goodnight. My brother phoning me soon, and it usually is a long one ! 
Take care all x  

awwwww just missed you - night skylark

 

hi everybody

 

Hope your brother is well, Skylark.

Happy nattering, goodnight for now.

Sweet dreams skylark hope your brother is well

Hi Ros, how are you tonight?

Hi yogi and summer again

aww I'm fine thanks yogi - how are you???

I'm fine thanks, Ros. After all my gardening today, I'm having a lazy night.

Sounds well earned yogi, enjoy I'm heading off, sweet dreams in here hope you've all enjoyed the first September weekend of the year Ros hi again

Agreed Yogi it sounds well earned.  Has Keira reached the age yet where she is going off walks or does she still love to yomp for miles?  Reminds me of when we looked after my sister's Scottie when she went on holiday with her family.  That dog was so lazy we went to the park with my daughter in her pushchair and the Scottie hitched a lift on the pushchair for the homeward bound bit

 

I'm really tired for some reason, so I'm heading off too, love to everyone, enjoy your nattering those who are staying up

Goodnight Summer, sleep well.

^^^^ That made me laugh out loud, Squiggle. What a lazy bones.

Keira still loves to go walking and running, she's full of beans.

Goodnight, sweet dreams, Squiggle.

Signing out now, goodnight all.

Leaving a hug for Ros.

night yogi squiggle and summer(again)

Good morning everyone

 

Squiggle, your story about your sisters Scottie reminded me of something I saw on Saturday in town. A man was pushing along a small trailer in which were two retrievers. I could see that they were guide dogs for the blind as they were in harness.

Good morning everyone. After some heavy rain overnight, the sun is shining again.

El, I wish I had seen the two golden retrievers in the trailer.

Morning xx
Not a bad morning here, daughter just phoned wants to meet for a coffee, so i am off x
I have nothing but admiration for these guide dogs, arent they wonderful?
See you all later x

Enjoy your coffee with your daughter, catch you later, Skylark.

Good morning everyone, a cloudy morning here but it has rained quite heavily overnight. 

 

I do wonder why I bother, we have two ginormous conifers the other side of our drive, well three if you count the Atlantic Blue Cedar that some fool has planted behind them.  You will almost certainly know that Atlantic Cedars can grow to 70ft or so and need a lot of room, well this poor thing is squeezed in the corner.  Anyway to stop rambling on, last week I swept the drive and it looked beautiful, heavy wind overnight and guess what the drive is covered again.   We did not plant the cedars and my advice to anyone is don't plant them anywhere near a drive they create such a lot of mess.

 

The Guide Dogs For the Blind training centre was near our old house and they used to walk the dogs past our house regularly as they were training them, it was fascinating to see.

At my parents' house, there used to be an ornamental apple tree just inside the front gate on the left (you can't see it in that photo I posted the other day). Hundreds of little apples (not edible) would fall and whenever I went round there at this time of the year I would need to pick them up from the driveway.

I was looking at the IMDB website and saw this video clip. It's worth seeing this in full screen mode provided you have decent broadband speed.

It may surprise you to learn that this black and white silent film called The Artist is a 2011 film. It's a French/English film and was a wow at Cannes this year. I don't know when it will be released in the UK, and if so, it may well only get a limited release, but from the trailer it looks amazing.