EV 927 "Quotation"

[devadolly]

Good Afternoon all N & Cer's. Wish it had been Salamanca last week when I was stranded without the benefit of the BRB or other tatty tomes!! Did manage to finish last week's but only after my return home as no amount of racking would nudge the brain cells into producing some of the rather 'way-out' answers.
Now off to dig some spuds for supper (Ratte variety, really lovely firm new potato) to have with some wild salmon caught yesterday. There is a bottle of Cloudy Bay that has been winking at me for some time now..........................................
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[DocHH]

Hello Devadolly,
I rather suspect that DC will be empty today. Pleased you finished last week, there were a couple of "off the wall" answers, but fairly clued cryptically. I'll be opening my normal Tempranillo later.

[Christiana]

Afraid I didn't finish last week's offering - still extra busy gardening ( I hate Horsetail, Bindweed, couch grass, goose grass and creeping buttercup) , and harvesting produce from garden. Beginning to understand how busy you must be Devadolly. I have blackcurrants coming out of my ears and now the apples are all falling from the trees. Number three son is turning up soon to equip me and show me how to turn some of it into Blackcurrant wine, cordial etc.

In contrast this week's was started and finished over lunch, just now. As you say Doc H H, DC is likely to remain empty this week. Surely there is a happy medium?

I hope everybody finds this thread. It didn't turn up when I put it in the search box, so I skimmed through, but that aint easy later on, when there are lots of following posts.

[Christiana]

Have now returned to last week's fray. Have put the garden 'on hold' until tomorrow

[devadolly]

Hello Christina, if you have some nice dessert apples, buy a juicer - you can use the fallen slightly bruised apples as well as the good ones. I have a James Grieve tree which is laden with the most delicious apples, the trouble is, they do not keep longer than a day before they get a bit soft so they all get juiced and frozen for a lovely taste of summer on a dull winter day!
Baking apples make great apple rings - cut thick and thread on canes in the boiler room or airing cupboard if you haven't got the bottom oven of an Aga. I'm sick of fruit too..........................................
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[novalis]

Managed to look at this week's after a three week hiatus.....and find I've pricked my thumb.

[Christiana]

Thanks for tips DD = have juicer. Is it okay to freeze the cloudy version or should I filter the juice?
Novalis, take care least something nasty happens

[DocHH]

Novalis,
Welcome back, but shouldn't you have kept that injury a secret nameless deed.

I assume your marking is all finished now for a while. I have 2 days work on 7th and 8th September, then just 2 more in November, that's it for this year, a total of 11 this year. As Herself doesn't like me overdoing things we are planning to head off on holiday at the end of November!

At the moment I'm quite occupied getting about 300 Listeners united with their new machines, plus training them in the use thereof, which will allow them to play MP3 files on the memory sticks, rather than the cassette tapes our Local Talking Newspaper will be sending out. The logistics of this have been challenging.
We have spent about £20,000.00 on these machines (aka Boom-boxes), memory sticks and incidental equipment. All of which will be provided to the Listener FOC. However, we applied for, and were awarded a Lottery Grant for half of that amount! Needless to say also that many of our Listeners appreciate our service that we receive some touching messages, and donations. Some of the things "sight impaired" people do is astounding!

Us, the Recordists have had to learn a few extra bits of the Adobe Audition program to enable the Listener to use the Track forward/back buttons. It's all coming together, at last!

[devadolly]

Christina, If you leave the juice to stand the 'must' should rise to the surface and become quite firm, it is then possible to remove it or pour carefully and get a perfectly clear juice. Perfectly OK to freeze if cloudy.
Noval;is - doing what? The thumb..........

[novalis]

Hi DocHH!

Marking finished until 24th ( GCSE results day ) then the appeals will start.

Christiana, a badly torn hamstring has been nasty enough!

[novalis]

Hi Devadolly!

Was merely musing on an unneeded part of the quotation..

[tweaker]

Hello DD. We share something in common. Don't know if you do the Listener but this weeks was by Schadenfreude! Your arch nemesis a.k.a Oxymoron. Which is now my blind spot too, of all the setters I've come across since I stated to solve. So this weeks EV is a welcoming relief.

[copelander]

That was a bit of a disappointment today. I ended up thinking "Is that it?" This would be a good weekend to spring clean DC,as it's sure to be empty and there must be so many crumbs and empty bottles hidden in the corners. DocHH, sounds like a valiant effort on behalf of your talking newspapers. Well done!. Christiana, good luck with the garden, it'll all be worth it in the end. Splendid sounding supper, DD.

[Christiana]

Hello Copelander. Yes, I felt somewhat cheated, though I enjoyed the theme. Not sure what my dessert apples are, Devadolly. They are very red and firm and, at the moment, not as sweet as I would like for juice, but that may improve. Unfortunately three of my four apple trees are cookers, so I am busy coring, cooking and freezing. Will try the apple rings. Youngest son has recently bought a 'dehumidifier' or some such, which dries fruit and he is going to bring it with him for me to try next week. I also have some ripe plums here, given by a neighbour, and two plum trees, fruit definitely not ripe yet, to deal with in due course. There are also two pear trees. Not sure how to handle these. One is quite poorly with black, sooty splodges on most of the leaves and not much fruit. The other is much smaller and has small reddish pears, so far very hard. I read that you should remove them before they are ripe to avoid grittiness, but very uncertain as to when to do this. It all seems much harder than doing EV. By the way Novalis my thumbs and other areas are pricking, but it was the crop of stinging nettles that I also have that was the cause!

[Jogler]

Gosh, everyone sounds so industrious - good job, and lucky people to have such exciting gardens :). Also Doc HH, you must be a life saver; my step mama is more or less blind and I know how much you are appreciated. This week's has, indeed, been a quickie but we had to laugh when the penny dropped on the title. Tweaker, we found Schadenfreude very heavy going and did wonder if we were ever going to get to the end. Leaving it for a day helped and it came in a series of rushes so was worth persevering with. Just make sure you black out the setter!

[devadolly]

Christina, hard pears, just the thing for poached pears in red wine, also freeze very well. Doc HH, had heard the TN was upgrading itself, friend of mine is a regular and I sometimes send them a few things of interest.
Tweaker, Oh don't mention Mr O............I have never attempted the Listener, feel it might be a bit beyond the aging grey cells, also can one sneak it off the internet as with the Speccie?
Copelander, am insulted!!! One of the rules of DC is you have to do your own washing up!
Wonder how Physicsgirl has got on with Mini2, you seemed to know her whereabouts Novalis, any news????

[DocHH]

Jogler(s),
I am not a life-saver, I am just putting "something" back into the system which helped my Mother when she lost her sight at the age of 75. Some of the "sight-impaired" (I hate that term) I have met are quite astounding. I met a lady last year who had lost her sight 30 years previously, as a result of a car accident. Since that time she had done para-scending, paragliding, free-fall from a plane and climbed an SAS fake rock face. Her friend, who accompanied her to the event was appalled when the SAS invited her to try. "She is blind!" was the cry. The SAS man said quite placidly, "Madam, do you think we only do our exercises in the daylight"!
My own mother was also a determined lady. The first thing she did after losing her sight was to knit a jumper! The moral of this is that do not underestimate anyone who loses their sight. I find it very rewarding, and meeting our Listeners makes it all worthwhile. Make sure your step mama goes to the AGM, she will meet all her Readers and Recorders and have a really good day!
I'm going, I'm boring everyone!

[zita-green]

You're not boring everyone, DocHH. My late father-in-law used to record the talking news for our local community and, with such a melifluous voice, charmed everyone.
This week's EV was a 'walk in the park' compared to last week's. I taught this for nearly thirty years so my problem was, where do I start with usable quotes?
The dried, then frozen apple rings are a life saver for teething babies, as both my grandsons suffered terribly. My only problem this week is with 14d. I am missing only the initial letter and last week's xword has mashed my brain. As for the Listener, don't get me started. You need a brain the size of a planet.

[DocHH]

Hello Zita,
Thanks for the kind words. I've been a regular Reader for the Local Talking Newspaper for over 15 years, more of a drone than melifluous, but a Recordist for only 2, things will be a bit different now from when your F-I-L was involved, far more technology, recording onto hard-drive etc. In 1972 I did read for RNIB, as they had lost a chapter of a nuclear physics book, and that was one of my subjects at Uni. at that time.
As to 14d) of todays simple Crossword, think anagram of a word in the clue meaning sufficient, minus a letter that normally indicates posh, or available for all to see!

[Jogler]

Z-g; it is an anagram of one of the words less the normal vowel for posh meaning a strong brew. DocHH, I have learned not to estimate anyone - this year I have met some extraordinary people who one would never consider had done some of the things they have achieved. I guess that is what makes life so interesting.

[Jogler]

And while I was typing you beat me to it :)