the daydream fund challenge thread

alfie_1

Poosmate wrote: »

Thanks both. I really need to get a photo of my garden and you'll probably understand how unwelcoming it is! Although I have a patio, it's covered in junk so not really anywhere to sit. I guess over the weeks ahead that will change though. I am determined to get going at it now.

Hark at me! An hour in the garden and I'm turning into Percy Thrower!

Anyway, I am a strange bird, I can't abide eating or drinking outside, though I do partake in the odd BBQ now and again. If I have to I will but I don't enjoy it. Maybe it's just me that gets flies floating in my drinks and wonder if that black bit on the chicken/burger is char or a burnt fly of some sort. I guess I'm just too fussy!

Hope Barney is ok. Maybe he's moody because he got excited and disappointed when you did your thing with him?

Poo

i have the perfect cup for you...can i send you it please ????

lostinrates

Alfie, does he need the chaff? is he gobbling? Has he had his poor old cribber's teeth looked at recently?

Our oldest girl, who you can meet keeps having her ''last winter'' or her last summer. I'll be honest she looks pretty ropey, but then she rules the roost out their in the field and goes for a buck and fart every now and again: I said to the woman who oes her feet ''this might well really be her last summer'' and the woman laughed and suggested we rename her Methuselah. (She doesn't seem to remember her own name reliably these days anyway!)

Resting in the shelter in the afternoon would seem likely now (horses around here I've seen in fly rugs already), less so the morning, unles you are geting those early in the day knatty flies already. I wonder why he's not resting in the sun.

edit: fwiw, I've started to cut down hard feed already this year the grass is coming through, and I want the old girl to stay thin through early summer, for her joints. She can build weight up for winter in early autumn.

edit again: the real oldie here can't cope with chaff at all, but she'll have her supplements in grass pellets or just a hi fibre nut when its really hot. I can't be bothered with mixing up beet/grass mush when its reall hot and it goes off so quickly, so a hi fi nut of something with a bit of water goes into soething she can cope with. She only needs it as a vehicle for her summer supplements.

lostinrates

Poo DH loves BBQs and Iim not such a fan. I do like eating outside, picnics, or wandering out with a plate and a glass.,but waiting for ages for food I can cook better in the oven....hmmm. And they are expensive an so meat heavy....

we're going to build a BBQ by the pond for summer, so that we enjoy it down there and feel ''away'' from the house.

Rummer

I love eating outside in the summer (midge free days) and often pop out before and after work to enjoy breakfast/good book (not eating the book). I just find at this time of year I start to forget that the garden is also somewhere to relax as I am so busy trying to get it ready for planting! Today it is a bit dull and overcast and I didn't get up early enough to enjoy time out in the garden as well as popping to the shops and getting ready for my friend coming so I will need to see if I can fit in a couple of hours after my evening class. Just need to keep remembering to water the greenhouse as I am terrible for forgetting and condemming all y hard work to death!

alfie_1

morning....and what a lovely one !! it was 20 degrees yesterday ! hope for same today...im working on the "railway" this afternoon...repairing station platforms!!

i have the urge to travel again !! iv been looking for a photo and opened up my morrocco pics..... this is a famous garden in marracesh [cant spell !] wonderfull colors! cant think whos it is tho...durrr!

this was high up in the atlas mountains and i just love it !!

if you look closely you can see a "power" line going all the way to the top of the mountains..... bet that didnt cost over £15,000 per mile !!!! typical southern elec here !!!!

sorry to bore you with pics but felt like sharing !!

Rummer

They are lovely! I want my garden to be in the blue tones of the picture at the top! Currently I am building up a supply of blue ceramic pots and silver metal ones so that I have some degree of colour co-ordination in the garden!

alfie_1

Rummer wrote: »

They are lovely! I want my garden to be in the blue tones of the picture at the top! Currently I am building up a supply of blue ceramic pots and silver metal ones so that I have some degree of colour co-ordination in the garden!

hi rummer..
its the garden of YVES ST LAURENT. it is all shades of aquas and blues...wonderfull place. i will try and forward you some more pics via PM so you get a wider view.

lostinrates

morrocan blue is amazing. I think it would make your heart sing in the depths of February as much as in July. It feels as hot as Marrekesh in my yard today too.

Poosmate

Evening all. Well I did what I said last night and got home from work at 3.40pm and went straight out into the back garden. I am so brave!

I spent a couple of hours out there but came in because my hands were hurting through using the secateurs. One of my wheelie bins is about half full now, although I could probably squash it down a wee bit, not much though because I've cut some of it up smallish so it goes down the bottom into the voids. It does actually look as though something has been done out there now. You have to look carefully but you can see it.

The good news is that I have several... erm... tree like things. They are actually trunks of the silverbirch trees that keep growing and are about 2 or 3 year old (saplings?) but they seem to have grown straight up so are very straight. I was thinking I could cut them up and sell them as firewood. Some of the trunks have been lying out for about 6 months, some I still need to cut down. They are about 2 inches in diameter. Would they be any good as firewood to sell? Or should I just give them to a mate who has a real fire? I know this will sound strange but, I wouldn't care if I spent a few hours sawing them and only got a tenner for them. I would be happy that I'd got a tenner and that someone was going to use the wood.

Also, my neighbour has cut quite a lot of my grapevine down. I have never cut it because I didn't know how to, it seemed so brutal what I read in gardening books, so I couldn't bring myself to do it. Anyway, I now have a lot of grapevine which is about 1 - 2 inches thick and very woody - would this be any good to saw up and sell as kindling? Even some of the smaller stuff (1 - 2 cm) is very hard to cut with the secateurs. It's like really hard wood.

I appear to have rather a lot of bricks too so when I've got my wall sorted I thought I could put the rest on Ebay and sell for "£5 - take as many as you want" and failing that, freecycle them.

Wouldn't it be excellent if my garden were to earn me a few bob even before I'd planted anything!

In other news, Poo half fell off the bookcase last night as I was stroking her (she stood up and lost her footing). I put my left hand out to catch her front paw and whipped my right hand under her hind leg. She panicked and her claws were extremely exposed and sunk deep into the fleshy bit of my hand between my thumb and fore finger (ouch!)! It bled and it hurt and claw was not extracted till Poo was safely back on the bookcase! It was probably a few milli-seconds but felt such a long time. I squeezed it to try to make sure it bled any dirty stuff out. Did I tell you it hurt? It hurt. Today, it's just a small nick but there's a nice bruise festering around it. Oh well, it's not the worst thing she's done and it wasn't her fault anyway. The worst thing was when she got stuck on my neighbour's porch roof. I encouraged her to jump own into my arms (rather than onto the roof of neighbours posh sports car!). She landed sort of in my arms, only her back legs hit my face and she sliced my chin from one side to the other! The blood just flowed like a crimson stage curtain at the end of a show! I had to cellotape it together to stop it bleeding as everytime I took the cloth away it just opened up again! Strangely, I love that moment we shared and the scar it left on my chin (hardly visible). I guess it's because it was the first time she showed that she truely trusted me. Bless her little heart.

Anyway, don't I babble on?!

Be back later maybe,

Poo

lostinrates

Poo, I'm jumping with joy for you. WELL DONE!

I'm sorry about Poo's antics, and know those bruised clawings well, horrid.



Well what a difference one sunny day too many makes. LOADS of lilac in bud.....and the seedlings that weren't flowering when we viewed last year are going to flower this year....and they seem to be PINK! How cool is that? The horse chestnut ..one hasn't put n many candles, why would that be? Lots of the strawbs are blooming, and the currants are flowering. But the weeds have SHOT up today. Almost knee height in beds that were clear last week.


tomorrow as well as meeting alfie (hurrah! I'm going to round up the chicks and stick them in a broody so she can have a look at them!) someone is hopefully coming to clip the very old horse, who has been really hot. I don't think its worth me buying clippers for her, as I so rarely need to clip.