Making minestrone soup (or "Bottom of the fridge" soup as it's popularly known in this household. We always seem to have a lot of vegetables to use up, and with lots of Christmas socialising meals to get through as well as traditional Christmas meals, it's sometimes a welcome relief to eat...

Tiger , have you spotted Santa creeping around in the undergrowth anywhere yet?
You now seem to have spotted virtually everything else that walks , flies or swims !

Can anybody suggest why I now have to log in with my ID and password every time I'm notified of a new thread, rather than just being able to click on the link and go to it automatically? Thanks

I usually treat myself to arm armful of books from the library and bitterly cold winter days are an ideal opportunity to Wade my way theiugh them. Right now the garden is awash with flashes of green as hungrynparkeets descend o. Our bird feeders. I guess most of the easily accessible berries have al...

Another fascinating photo and ll the more interesting because these birds are usually such solitary creatures. Not often you see them together like this. We're lucky if we see one of them, let alone two!

Aagh ! Well done! Please tell me the address for the gnome so I can send him a letter to replace my broken spike leek hole digger. I've only had it for about 20 years and the darned thing has decided to break on me.

That's the trouble. Nothings lasts longer than five minutes these days !!

Sounds delicious and glad you enjoyed it Pa. Just shows that you can't disguise the taste of quality food no matter which way it is served.
I love cauliflower cheese and it's a source of frustration to me that I can never successfully grow the darned things so all power to your elbow!

Oh please everybody tap your deepest wells of humour and keep it flowing.
No point in looking to Westminster for any light relief for the foreseeable future !

Mine's about 8 inches high now. Just planted it rather too closely as I didn't want to waste any of the bulbs I had. Now annoyingly I can't get into the middle of the vegetable patch to weed it without trampling on some of the shoots.

Magnificent photos -wonder how much it cost to set all that lot up. Glad you enjoyed the evening.

Tiger. You continue to set a very high daily target for yourself !

That's tough Pa when much of the pleasure of eating is enjoying the different textures, especially the crispy parts of roast meals.etc. Hopefully at least you can still enjoy the flavour of your home grown produce and the taste of some of your favourite meals. Hope you enjoy the evening at Wisley an...

i'm saying this quietly but so far my leeks this year are looking good too and showing no sign of rust. They were wrecked last year and I was worried that contaminating spores might still be in the ground. Pa, are you having to have all your food whizzed now to make it easier to swallow or are there...

Probably now one of the several hairdressers or estate agents. Hair must grow really fast around here to need so many hairdressers! House prices seem to have stalled though so maybe some of the estate agents will disappear (and become nail parlours or tattoo shops!). Oh for a useful hardware shop or...

Yes Pa, we've missed you and the humorous graffiti chalked on the walls !