Royal Escape from the Topic - for off topic chit chat Showing 2,251-2,300 of 2,839

[Karlyne]

The pictures of Michael are crazy scary - so much water, so much destruction.

[Teresa]

It wasn't as bad as expected after all. I slept through it all and normally I hear every stir. Very heavy rain here today.

[Karlyne]

Teresa wrote: "It wasn't as bad as expected after all. I slept through it all and normally I hear every stir. Very heavy rain here today."

Well, that's good!

[Barb in Maryland]

We got our dose of Michael's remnants last night--heavy rain, thunder, lightning, and some wind. Today is gorgeous! and 20 degrees F cooler (!!) than yesterday. Whereas I was tired of 85F and humid, I'm not quite ready for 65F, though I sure do appreciate the low humidity and sunshine.
Peak autumn leaf color is still a week or two away for us. Our maples haven't really started to turn yet. Hope all this cool and clear weather gets us some good color on the trees.

[Critterbee❇]

The air was so heavy and humid yesterday until about noon, then it opened up and poured until after midnight. It is about 65F now, and I have about a dozen peppers growing in the garden! The spinach is also coming up, but it is micro-sized now, just baby growth.

[Karlyne]

Our trees in the valleys and canyons along the rivers are gorgeous right now. The tamaracks in the mountains are turning vivid yellow, too. Except for where the fire burnt them all out... Do you all have what I'm guessing would be called Eastern Larch (our tamaracks are Western Larch)?


I have baby kale and since it's on the south side, I'm hoping it'll grow enough to get a nice salad out of it, anyway. My spinach looks forlorn, though. No snow in the forecast and next week 60s, so I might get a bit of a stretcher to the greens!

[Critterbee❇]

I don't know a lot about trees, and am not sure if we have those beauties in Virginia.

There is an enormous art and crafts center in West Virginia called Tamarack, though, haha!

[Barb in Maryland]

Karlyne
No larch trees--Maryland is generally too warm and too low for them. They like cool temperatures and higher altitudes. Or so the tree guides say!
My front yard has a pink dogwood, a white dogwood, a red maple and a silver maple. The back has another silver maple and a another small leaf maple (turns gold in the fall). That's on our 1/2 acre. My next door neighbor has a redbud, a japanese maple, a honey locust, a pin oak, and a huge broadleaf (Norway) maple on her 1/2 acre. My suburban neighborhood was built about 60 years ago, so some of the trees are quite large by now. When the weather cooperates it is quite the color show in the spring and fall.

[Karlyne]

We have a resort called Tamarack over the mountain and a teeny weeny village called Tamarack about 20 miles north of us. They grow usually above 4000' or so, so we're a bit too low to have them right on us. They look like evergreens in the summer, but they shed their brilliantly yellow-gold needles in the fall. And in the spring, the needles are super bright chartreuse!

[Susan in NC]

Barb in Maryland wrote: "We got our dose of Michael's remnants last night--heavy rain, thunder, lightning, and some wind. Today is gorgeous! and 20 degrees F cooler (!!) than yesterday. Whereas I was tired of 85F and humid..."

Here, too! My husband was showing me pics online of all the flooding and trees down, power outages- we lucked out here in our little corner of Greensboro!

Yes, it is lovely and cool and sunny today, hopefully our sugar maples will put on their annual show before dropping all their leaves!🍁 The winds yesterday blew a lot of green leaves out of our trees, hopefully there are enough left to color up - we have three huge maples, two in front, one in back.

One of the front ones turns a rich gold, the other a stunning red - the one in the backyard is a combination! I love when the afternoon sun hits the golden leaves, it reflects a lovely golden glow into my yellow living room at the front of the house - makes me so happy!😁

[Susan in NC]

Critterbee❇ wrote: "The air was so heavy and humid yesterday until about noon, then it opened up and poured until after midnight. It is about 65F now, and I have about a dozen peppers growing in the garden! The spinac..."

Yum! I’m glad they held on in the deluge - treasure those last tastes of summer!

[Susan in NC]

Barb in Maryland wrote: "Karlyne
No larch trees--Maryland is generally too warm and too low for them. They like cool temperatures and higher altitudes. Or so the tree guides say!
My front yard has a pink dogwood, a white d..."

No larch trees here - like Barb, I’ve got three large maples, crepe myrtles and Eastern red cedars - we’re also in a suburban neighborhood, our house was supposedly the first built in 1962, so we have 1/4 acre lot.

The red cedars are a remnant dotted all over this neighborhood, planted by the Jefferson Pilot Company, which used to own the land across the street for their employees country club. Now it’s a grade school, city library and walking trails through the woods! Everyone can enjoy it! Needless to say, quite a show here, too, when the leaves change in autumn - still amazes this city kid raised in Chicago!

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

I'm glad everyone has survived Mother Nature's latest attacks!

I went out to a "women's do" last night. One of my neighbours (amazing woman) is involved with a Women's Loan Fund. This group loans money (interest free) to women that no bank will touch. They could be wanting to start a small business or they could be wanting to get their teeth fixed. All of these groups have now collapsed in the North Island except in our little town.

It was a good evening.

[Critterbee❇]

That sounds like a great group, and a big help to women.

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

They are wonderful women - & so unassuming. They receive very little publicity for any of their causes.

& my neighbour & another woman in this group just pulled off an incredible coup. (is that spelt right? It looks wrong)

https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/nation...

This is a result of a petition these women started.

Some money lenders were charging up to 800% interest on loans over here. Just criminal taking advantage of the desperate. Cara said they were hoping for a cap of 60-80% but this is a start.

[Karlyne]

Wow! 800%?!? That's insane!!!

And I'd never heard of truck shops. That's crazy, too. Well, good for your good neighbors!

[Hilary (A Wytch's Book Review)]

Try over 1,000% that is what some money lenders were charging over here in the UK :(

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Hilary (A Wytch's Book Review) wrote: "Try over 1,000% that is what some money lenders were charging over here in the UK :("

Interesting, as Cara thought NZ was one of the few first world countries where there wasn't a cap. Is that still in effect, Hilary?

[Hilary (A Wytch's Book Review)]

Carol ꧁꧂ wrote: "Hilary (A Wytch's Book Review) wrote: "Try over 1,000% that is what some money lenders were charging over here in the UK :("

Interesting, as Cara thought NZ was one of the few first world countrie..."

There is now a cap but for a long time there wasn't and people got into worse and worse financial difficulties :(

[Hilary (A Wytch's Book Review)]

"The company's other key advertising message is transparency, but these advertisements make no mention of the "representative" 4,214% APR applied to loans." !!!

The cap came in three years ago

[Critterbee❇]

Yikes! Way to make it difficult for people to escape poverty...

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

They don't. My nephew fell into the clutches of some of these sharks & it cost his parents a lot of money to bail them out. & this was a middle class boy who thought he had found an easy way out of his difficulties. The genuinely poor are trapped.

[Karlyne]

This sounds like a Heyer subplot!

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Karlyne wrote: "This sounds like a Heyer subplot!"

Ha! Yes! But S doing really well now. One of the top builders in Auckland.

[Karlyne]

Well, am I shocked; Idaho has the highest "payday loans" in the U.S. at 582%. I had no idea and although I've seen their stores, and have even had a single mom friend use them many years ago, I just presumed they were regulated. My jaw is still on the floor. Bloodsuckers is too nice a word for them, and I'm thinking I need to find a pistol like Sophy's...

[Susan in NC]

Karlyne wrote: "Well, am I shocked; Idaho has the highest "payday loans" in the U.S. at 582%. I had no idea and although I've seen their stores, and have even had a single mom friend use them many years ago, I jus..."

Go get ‘em, girlie - but please, if you do it while you’re wearing your Christmas apron and get-up, please take a picture!

Carol, that sounds like a great evening, and a wonderful cause!

[Karlyne]

Hmmm, my apron has nice deep pockets. Plenty of room for a BIG pistol..

[Susan in NC]

Give ‘em hell, Annie Oakley!

[Susan in NC]

Seriously, it does sound like a Heyer plot - or straight out of a Dickens novel, with debtors’ prisons; people get trapped in a downward cycle of indebtedness. Makes me ill when they try to avoid regulation, claiming it’s some sort of legitimate family business...not at those rates!

[Karlyne]

Whether it's "unethical" or not, it IS immoral. Doing that kind of harm to your fellow man is shameful.

[Susan in NC]

Yes, it is!

[Teresa]

Some things never change. There will always be vermin keeping the poor down.

[QNPoohBear]

boohoo! My bus never showed up this morning and thus I had to take Uber to work, arriving exactly on time. Therefore, I missed the library book sale! I even went and got cash yesterday so I could have bills for the bus and coins for the library. I'm seriously mad at the local public transit today. It was a busy day at work so I didn't even have time to pop in on a break.

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Karlyne wrote: "Wow! 800%?!? That's insane!!!

And I'd never heard of truck shops. That's crazy, too. Well, good for your good neighbors!"

I've never seen the food trucks, but Cara assures me they operate in our town. Sure, they should make some profit - but what they are charging is shocking!

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/mone...

[Critterbee❇]

QNPoohBear wrote: "boohoo! My bus never showed up this morning and thus I had to take Uber to work, arriving exactly on time. Therefore, I missed the library book sale! I even went and got cash yesterday so I could h..."

Ahh sounds like you need to curl up with a good book and a cuppa! Were you looking for a specific book at the sale?

[Karlyne]

Carol ꧁꧂ wrote: "Karlyne wrote: "Wow! 800%?!? That's insane!!!

And I'd never heard of truck shops. That's crazy, too. Well, good for your good neighbors!"

I've never seen the food trucks, but Cara assures me they..."

This is reprehensible! Shame on them.

[QNPoohBear]

Critterbee❇ wrote: "
Ahh sounds like you need to curl up with a good book and a cuppa! Were you looking for a specific book at the sale? ."

I wasn't looking for anything specific but sometimes they do have some good books. I'll have to look and see what they have leftover later this week. I don't have time to curl up with a good book or a cuppa. Maybe Tuesday or Wednesday when I have a day off.

[Critterbee❇]

Just popping in here to say that there is a new collection of essays on Georgette Heyer due out next month! I posted a thread in the Heyer in General section with more information.

[Abigail]

Thanks, Critterbee!

[Teresa]

Oooh lovely!!!

[Jane]

I was reading a fairly mediocre, traditional, old-school regency the other day (trying to clean off my shelves!) and Lord So-and-So walked up to his own house in London and the butler opened the door and ushered him in. So that got me wondering about things I never wondered about before . Were doors locked back then? Did the Lord and Lady of the house use a key? Or did they knock on their own front door and wait for the butler to let them in?

[Karlyne]

I've read often about how houses were locked up tightly at night, after everyone was in for the night. If the owners were out for a night on the town, their servants were expected to stay awake and usher them in (probably a footman or the butler) and then put them to bed (a valet and lady's maid).

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

History of the lock

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_(s...

So probably not in wide use by 1817(when most of GH's Regencies) were set.

So the house would presumably be bolted shut when the last family member arrived home. When they went away, did a port always have to stay on duty?

[Barb in Maryland]

Carol ꧁꧂ wrote: "History of the lock

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_(s...

So probably not in wide use by 1817(when most of GH's Regencies) were set.

So the house would presumably be bolted shut w..."

Yes, if the family was in town, a porter, footman, butler had to be close by to answer the knocks of the genteel callers or to greet the returning family member. (The tradesmen had their own door, of course.) If the family left town for an extended time, the knocker came off the door--so no callers. I would guess that what staff was left behind kept the formal front door bolted. They certainly wouldn't use it!

[Jane]

Thanks guys! Interesting link, Carol. It's odd when you think about all the technological innovations and yet most of us are still using some version of locks invented in the 18th and 19th centuries -- I guess Yale and Chubb knew what they were doing.

And I've decided I'd prefer not to carry a key, I'd rather have a butler waiting to open my door for me!!

[Critterbee❇]

Interesting! Would that mean that when the man or lady tells their valet / ladies maid not to wait up, that they would just enter the house by themselves, without the door being locked? Or would that really only be told to your dresser when there was a late night in the home, not involving leaving or entering the house?

[Critterbee❇]

Jane wrote: "And I've decided I'd prefer not to carry a key, I'd rather have a butler waiting to open my door for me!!"

Haha! I would prefer that as well, Jane!

[Karlyne]

I "accidentally" bought a new car with a keyless system almost 12 years ago (yes, I still have it). It was the little car I wanted and it came with a Blue Tooth system (have I ever used it? No...) and a few other bells and whistles that I didn't want, but it was the economy car, with a 3 car seat capacity, and the price I wanted. And.... That keyless entry is the best thing ever invented! I love it! No fumbling for keys ever again! When I have to drive another vehicle, I grumble....

[Jane]

Oh, Karlyne, I forgot about keyless cars. And, yes!! They're better than sliced bread!! Yay, for technology! Although, I'm drawing the line at driverless cars.

As a side note, I'm grumbling right now about GR. I carved out time today to clean up my GR shelves, write reviews, etc. And, naturally, GR is not cooperating. Anyone else experiencing molasses-slow speeds? I think they've reverted back to dial-up or something....

[Karlyne]

Jane wrote: "Oh, Karlyne, I forgot about keyless cars. And, yes!! They're better than sliced bread!! Yay, for technology! Although, I'm drawing the line at driverless cars.

As a side note, I'm grumbling right ..."

Yes! I thought it was my internet, but it's GR!