The General Chat Thread (2016-2022)

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I'm fortunate enough to have never lived anywhere where it wasn't safe to leave windows and doors open except for when I was either visiting my real father (so under the age of 8), where I was born in Glasgow and the house that I spent a couple of my teenage years in. There (the last one) I had the 2nd floor bedroom at the front of the house so I was able to sleep with the window open (and hence began a life of living with windows open). For a very brief period I lived along a major railway in the south of England, there you left nothing open except for the bedroom window which were of the type that opened horizontally and halved the space when fully open. Everywhere else I have ever lived it was a case of anything could be left open and usually was. Several of my home didn't even have keys. If anything was to happen no-one would hear anything at all so you may as well minimise the damage to property. That was the theory. Here,as you all know, I don't lock the house up at all. Everything is left on flyscreens. If someone wanted to break it, they could easily take an axe to anything and no one would even hear them. They could drive a vehicle into the house and no one would hear... It's that sorry if place. Even where I live in the south of England (for 12 years) we didn't worry about leaving ladders outside and windows open.
 
Yeah, we only lock up if we are all going to be out all day or away overnight. The garage is a more likely target here as motorbikes, more properly "dirt" bikes are likely to be stolen than anything else. We've got a dozen bikes in our shed but also 2 dogs to deter people from trying to climb our fences.

In summer we can go weeks without shutting the doors or windows as the kids are on holiday.

Very lucky I know.


@morning glory

Your window boxes are gorgeous.


I've been making pretty Xmas things in my floristry class. Just need to pour the candles to get them finished. Can't believe it's 2 weeks until Xmas.
 
Frizz1974 said:
I've been making pretty Xmas things in my floristry class. Just need to pour the candles to get them finished. Can't believe it's 2 weeks until Xmas.
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ecks. I still need to knit some Christmas decorations. The tree will be purchased next weekend and then kept in water until the following weekend. We only decorate and do the (real) tree a day or two before Christmas day.

Frizz1974 said:
Yeah, we only lock up if we are all going to be out all day or away overnight. The garage is a more likely target here as motorbikes, more properly "dirt" bikes are likely to be stolen than anything else
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We don't lock up even then. When we first moved in there wasn't actually a functioning set of keys. Yes we were given keys and yes the doors all have locks, but of the +20 keys we were given, only 1 worked in any lock and that was to what was previously the games room which we now employ as a bike shed. Theres 6 bikes in there, not cheap ones either, and my recumbent trike with Rohlof hub is in the barn which doesn't have any doors. We only insisted that the locks were changed in the house because it should be our decision not to lock up rather than something imposed on us. The keys haven't moved since the day I hung them up in the kitchen nearly 18 months ago.

Frizz1974 said:
In summer we can go weeks without shutting the doors or windows as the kids are on holiday.
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We have yet to shut the window (which is actually a sliding patio door) in our bedroom despite the longer cold winter we had (frequently -8C). In the UK we would closer the window when it dropped below -double figures C, so -xxC. Having camped in -20C quite often, and neither of us being used to central heating, it doesn't bother us.
 
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You're tougher than me. Once it gets down under 10°c during the day I'm not likely to open the house up so much.

We don't have central heating so our bedrooms get quite cold at night through winter when the outside temps are in the minus zone. My area has very similar weather to yours actually.
 
sidevalve said:
A genuine de-activation certificate requires [or required] that the barrel is solidly filled [with metal - can not be bored out, not an easy task anyway, as the rifling would be lost] at the very least and even that is not enough now. Seems I am stuck with a display item I can not trade or exchange for another. Apparently the politicians and police believe that a criminal would rather buy a deactivated gun then find a new barrel then a new firing mechanism then fit it all together rather than just buy an illegal gun in the first place.We live in a strange blinkered country. I remember when I was young boy scouts and girl guides could carry a pen knife and go camping and use an AXE !!!! - now - Oh no they might even cut themselves or perhaps such things would turn them into insane psychotic murderers - pathetic. The 'nanny state' does little to protect us in reality but it pretends it does - sad
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Laws have changed over the years, but it doesn't matter what laws they bring in, someone will always break them. Some of the younger teenagers round here carry guns and regularly use them for target practice. Phoning the police is useless, as by the time they arrive the kids are long gone. They did search the house of one that we could name, but of course they found nothing. Seeing as the 3 police stations in an area of 250,000+ people may well soon be reduced to one, I doubt that there is much that can be done about it.
 
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A few snaps of The Great Central Way and the Grand Union canal. A bit chilly but worth it.
 
I may have mentioned this before.

A couple of months ago a stray dog gave birth to 9 puppies on the unoccupied land next to our house. Since then, my wife and her mate across the road have been feeding them and advertising them on the internet to attempt to find owners. Yesterday, a couple came to collect the final two and now my wife is miserable because she misses them.
 
The tomatoes are done. There was a hard frost last week. I did harvest all of them before the frost. Those that had some color are ripening on the window sill. The ones that were very hard/green are not showing any sign of ripening. Sooo - Salsa Verde using green tomatoes instead of tomatillos. The cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage are doing well. I still have kale, mustard greens and a little lettuce. The lettuce is in pots under the patio cover so it was protected from the frost.
 
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