the daydream fund challenge thread

COOLTRIKERCHICK

rhiwfield wrote: »

Had the CH on for a while today as we were getting chill indoors during a long, fraught, financial planning meeting.

Hens are steadily laying 3 a day, we havent done any jam and the goosegogs are getting riper. Time to get preserving and baking

Going to try something new at a village do tomorrow, will let you know how badly it goes!

oo you are either going to do a rhiwie version of vilage people Y.M.C.A or the you are having a trial run before you go on the glastonbury stage as one of the wombles:D am i warm? no? ok then..... cant wait to find out what you were trying out..

The weather has been totally strange today... bright and sunny and a split second later dark and hammering down with rain and hail stones.... and yep i am freezing my little cotton socks off...

we have the normal 'wild' budliea here, the purple one, but if anyone could get their paws on a cutting for me i would be extremely gratefull;)

choille

CTC - I'll need to wait until after it's flowered.

Rummer

Morning!

How are you all? Today it looks as if it might actually be dry for a while so I am going to get out in the garden and tackle the mountain of branches I created when my friend let me borrow his loppers! Oh what fun it was!

The hedge needs sorted too it seems to have grown out of all control in places! Finally the creepy buttercups have done something useful and flowered so parts of my garden are a carpet of bright yellow which is pretty (if very irritating).

Going to dig through my seed tin and see if I can plant anything else tasty.

Davesnave

Aarrgghh! It was -1c here at 6am....:eek: 10 days from Midsummer. This never happens!:(

Yesterday, I was in my old garden, enjoying lovely quiet sunshine, while back here at the ranch there was hail, thunder and torrential rain. I'm getting to understand how we grew stuff so easily & quickly at the other place!

The rain reached us eventually, but by then we were on the way back. Lovely sunset and lovely fish & chips to match. The only thing that grumbled was the van, because I'd covered the whole floor area with wet concrete blocks and then laid a patio over them! Still, most of the building stuff is here now and we can use it on the polytunnel project.

Poorly hen was less poorly yesterday, eating and drinking normally. Whether this had anything to do with DD2 sitting her for 30 mins in a bowl of warm water the evening before, I have no idea, but it was something she'd read on t'internet for egg-bound chickens, so she gave it a go. There we were at 9pm, with said hen under a hair drier.....must be bonkers! Anyway, we don't think she's egg-bound.

Buddleia weyeriana is nice. We have one on the roadside at the front and another down in the wildlife bit, but I think they are both
the variety 'Honeycomb,' which is fluffy rather than ball-like in flower shape:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37738527@N06/3479392948/in/photostream/

lostinrates

Davesnave, where is a good place to buy these gorgeous sunny looking buddleias? I've only seen white/purple/pink ones, this is a revelation in gardening to me and I'm so excited!

don't know whether to do out door windows or continue hallway. It looks sunny now but......



architect was here yesterday and told me not to dog out the bed I wanted to. it should be out of the way but he just said ''don't risk it''. So, that will be a post summer project. He also said he's thinking it would be wise to have builders come through where the hedge is now, to mean less stress on the doggies (the architect is so right for us!, tbh, I wouldn't have thought about avoiding stress for them, only minimising it when it was here). so davesnave was right to tell me to wait on that score too.

Lotus-eater

Davesnave wrote: »

Aarrgghh! It was -1c here at 6am....:eek: 10 days from Midsummer. This never happens!:(

That is bad, anything damaged?

Always a couple of days ahead we get forecasted down to 5c, which means a frost generally for us (to tell you how localised it is, the other side of the road and a mate 200 yards away, don't get it as bad as I do), but then it always disappears and goes up to 9c.

Down to 2 last night, not as bad as you Dave, but I certainly hope the weather gets as warm as it should be in June.

Although I did predict somewhere that it would be a bad June.

Davesnave

lostinrates wrote: »

Davesnave, where is a good place to buy these gorgeous sunny looking buddleias?

architect was here yesterday and told me not to dog out the bed I wanted to. it should be out of the way but he just said ''don't risk it''...... so davesnave was right to tell me to wait on that score too.

Err....I don't know anywhere local to you. Burncoose & Southdown or Larch Cottage for mail order, but I will have a dig around. I will do some of ours soon, if I can, so if you can wait....My confidence in propagating is a bit low since arriving here. In the other place things just grew.

It is a real pain not being able to grow/develop stuff close to the house because of building work. It's happened to us before.....:(

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

Err....I don't know anywhere local to you. Burncoose & Southdown or Larch Cottage for mail order, but I will have a dig around. I will do some of ours soon, if I can, so if you can wait....My confidence in propagating is a bit low since arriving here. In the other place things just grew.

It is a real pain not being able to grow/develop stuff close to the house because of building work. It's happened to us before.....:(

I'll wait for yours then.


It IS a pain.

The weather is a right pain. thing is, you don't know, when like lots of us, its a new place, if its an oddity of an odd year or a new norm we have to contend with and the weather last year was odd.
we've had two dry summers with rain at harvest times in a row. Its BAD news, on a big scale or for small holders.

It has occurred to me I should be using the time to try and get the pond emptied again, I might offer the water to a local farmer if I see him and remember. we still haven't seen the bottom, and while we wanted it full for ''recreational activity'' I think I'd feel better seeing how much sludge and crud is actually in there first.

Also usually in dry years like this at least te horses are easier, but my equine podiatrist told me every thing she has seen for the last month has indicators of laminitis....all of them having raised pulses in their legs. Its not right....

Davesnave

lostinrates wrote: »

I'll wait for yours then.


It IS a pain.

The weather is a right pain. thing is, you don't know, when like lots of us, its a new place, if its an oddity of an odd year or a new norm we have to contend with and the weather last year was odd. .

Yes, with us, problems have been wind-related, as it's not easy looking after horticultural stuff in pots when it's constantly blowing at Force 8 from a direction nobody has put in any protection for, while the sun dries everything out double-quick. Both of us are unhappy about windy places, and we didn't reckon this one would be as bad as its been. Should've asked the locals!

I'm no horse person, but I'm guessing laminitis is foot-related & to do with the abnormally hard ground, so a similar thing in that there's only so much that can be done.

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

Y
I'm no horse person, but I'm guessing laminitis is foot-related & to do with the abnormally hard ground, so a similar thing in that there's only so much that can be done.

hard ground doesn't help, that's for sure, (especially with horses with shoes on) but its mainly thought of (not entirley accurately but for purposes of discussion here adequately) as mainly related to obesity. years like this, dry...less than great grass growing conditions, should mean there is less obesity. There IS less grass. we have a fair crop, but not an obscenely huge one.

Even my girl had pulses and I think that's only happened ONCE in her life before (and not due to obesity ) In fact, her weight is pretty good atm, but she's the thinnest here.