skywise012000

I'm thinking about getting on with my Christmas Cakes and this year, for a change, I thought I'd like to do some quilling on the cake using edible rice/wafer paper. The only problem is that it's very difficult (well, impossible really) to find strongly coloured wafer paper. I can only get it in pastel shades which are a bit too subtle for a Christmas cake where I need strong reds and greens to give it that Christmassy feel.

Does anyone know how I'd go about dying whole sheets of wafter paper a strong red or green? As you may know, just colouring on the sheets with food colouring pens won't do because, with quilling, it's the edges of the paper that are on show.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

I'm thinking of getting a couple of chickens for my back garden. The only "con" to this is that I already own a cat.

Has anyone ever kept chickens whilst owning a cat? Did they get on alright?

I'm not worried about the cat killing the chickens because they'll be kept in a "predator-proof" run, but I am worried that the cat being around will upset the chickens too much. Advice please?

We're in the middle of decorating our dining room and have papered one wall in black wallpaper. When we hung the wallpaper there were no white lines between the sheets of wallpaper but now that it's dried out there are very noticeable white stripes - it looks like it's the edge of the wallpaper and not the wall underneath showing through.

Does anyone know how to hang black wallpaper without the white stripes at the edges of the paper showing?

Any help would be appreciated.

When I try to look at the Pleiades in my peripheral vision, they appear as a bright smudge in the night sky, yet when I look at them straight on, they seem to disappear. Why is this? how can an object that is so bright in peripheral vision just disappear when looked at directly? Is it something to do with the atmosphere . . . . or do I just need my eyes examined? LOL

I want to make some American recipes but I get awfully confused with some of the measurements and descriptions given - can someone help and translate these into British for me?

1. How much does a "stick" of butter weigh? We buy butter in 1/2 lb blocks.

2. What is meant by "shortening"? Is it butter, margarine or oil?

3. When a measurement is given in "cups" - how much does a "cup" weigh?

Many thanks

I've got a glut of cayenne peppers and Russian Red chillis in my greenhouse at the moment and I'm wondering what I can do with them to avoid wasting them.

I've made pounds and pounds of chilli jam and chilli chutney and I've got enough dried chillis hanging up in my kitchen to stock Tescos! I've given loads away to friends and family as well and I don't think they want any more . . .

Does anyone have any ideas about what else I could do with the overflow? It seems criminal to just throw them on the compost heap.

I'm using a heated propagator for the first time this year and, although the seedlings came up fine (I'm growing chillis, sweet peppers and tomatoes in it), after about 10 days a lot of the seelings just fell over.

I've got the propagator situated in an unheated conservatory out of direct sunlight.

I did everything the instructions told me to do - taking the lid off during the day and putting it back on at night because it's still very frosty at the moment.

Is this a common problem with heated propagators or did I do something wrong?

I've now planted some backup seeds which I'm growing, as I always used to do, on the kitchen window sill - just in case I lose all the seedlings in the propagotor.

Okay, so I struggled through Twilight (Yeuch!) and I've read The Vampire Diaries and the Sookie Stackhouse novels, and I just can't work out why all these vampires seem to fall for teenage girls!

I mean, these are supposed to be vampires who've been around for 100+ years. Wouldn't they be looking for something a little deeper than could be provided by 17 year old girl? And I'm not talking about sex here but simple things like a decent conversation?

Maybe I'm being too cynical, or trying to read something into these books that just isn't there, but the fact that these old beings who have (on average) over a century of life experience are falling head over heels for 16 year olds really doesn't ring true to me.

My little girl, Chloe, has always been very affectionate, giving lots of cuddles and sleeping on my lap and in the bed with us. Recently, though, she's taken to sleeping on my hubby's dirty clothes (which he leaves on the shower room floor when he's had his shower. Grrrrrrrr! LOL). She's still eating and drinking and seems fine physically but she doesn't seem to want to spend time with us, preferring to kip on the shower room floor. My hubby thinks it's because we've got underfloor heating in there and she's still surrounded by the scent from his clothes. I'm worried that there's something underlying this change of behaviour.

Any ideas why she prefers the shower room floor to my lap?

I've been given a recipe book that comes from the USA. A lot of the recipes talk about "broiling". What exactly is "broiling"? Do they mean grilling or is it roasting?

I've had a bumper crop this year - far too many for us to eat.

I've made tomato chutney and preserved some in oil but I've still got loads left over.

Does anyone have any other good ways of preserving them (apart from freezing - they're too small to peel so many to freeze!)

A couple of years ago I noticed a small patch of horsetail growing in the pavement outside my house. Stupidly I did nothing about it.

Now it's all over my garden, in my vegetable beds, greenhouse beds, flower beds and lawn.

Does anyone know of a way to kill this horrible horrible weed without damaging my precious veggies and flowers?

Any ideas would be gratefully received.

Thanks

I have an outdoor pond with 8 goldfish and 2 shubunkins in it. This morning I noticed that abut 30 tiny little fry are lying dead on the surface. Is this just normal "wastage"? I've never had goldfish that have bred before and I don't really know what to do with them. Any help would be appreciated :)

Is it just me or is he not the sexiest thing to be seen on TV for a loooong time?

Can I have a Gene Hunt of my own to call me "Bolllinger Knickers" please? Oh for a return to real men. . . . . . . . .

OK, I've got 20 minutes left of my lunch hour and I'm bored because I can't go out because it's raining so here's a challenge.

Who thinks they can convert me to their religion? Please don't tell me to read the Bible or the Qu'ran because I've read them both at least half a dozen times.

Give me three good reasons why I should convert to your faith and not just 'Because my religion is the only true one' etc. I mean *good* reasons.

Off you go . . . .

From the Sayings of Lazarus Long :

"The most preposterous notion that Homo Sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of his creatures, can be swayed by their prayers and becomes petulant if he does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest and least productive industry in all history."

Does this ring as true to anyone else as it does to me?

My kitty has recently started giving me gentle bites on the hand when I'm cuddling her. She curls up next to me and purrs and, when I'm stroking her, she turns her head and just holds my hand in her teeth. There's no pressure and it doesn't hurt me - she literally just holds my hand with her teeth.

I don't know if this is because she is sore somewhere and my stroking her is painful or whether it's a sign of affection.

What do you guys think?

Who will be cooking along with Gordon tonight?

The recipes look really yummy - I'm especially looking forward to the chocolate mousse with Crunchie in it - yummy yummy.

Does anyone have a recipe for a really garlicky garlic soup?

My cat, Chloe (British Blue) is very talkative. Whenever she comes into the room after being outside, or even in another room, she meows until one of us answers her. She sounds panicky - like she's afraid we've gone and left her. Or alternatively is announcing her presence. Is she just saying 'Hi Mum, I'm home'?

She also has 'mad half hours' where she hurtles around the house looking very fierce and yelling her head off.

She's three years old and we took her in when her former Mum left her and have had her about 6 months.

Is this something we should be worried about? Does she need an Ologist or is she just playing?

She seems to calm down instantly once she's in the room with us.