It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

smileyt_2

taurusgb wrote: »

Well I've been languishing in a hospital bed since being rushed in with an agonizing pain in my left side on Saturday morning. Pain is due to a hugely enlarged spleen but so far they can't say why. Blood is all wrong too - not clotting for one thing apparantly. I've been very lucky tho as am in a single bed side ward with en suite facilities.
Been reading the thread avidly using my phone - not too sure how well posting from it will turn out so apologies if it's hard to read.
Have no idea how much OS is going on at home.....not much is my guess!

Taurus I hope the hospital can find out what's wrong and make you better very soon.

I have teeny, tiny cucumbers starting, female flowers on my pumpkin plants, peppers forming, lots of lettuce, purple sprouting broccoli and KALE growing well, french beans growing well and broad beans growing well :T . Oh and my one sweet potato plant is threatening to take over my friend's greenhouse! If we get enough sunshine this month I might actually have a harvest in September!

Something weird has happened to one of the pumpkin plants we are growing in the back alley for our giant pumpkin competition. I noticed a couple of nights ago that the 'lump' on one of the female flowers on the biggest plant had split. I put it down to being one of those things but was a bit sad because the plant belongs to a four-year old child. It is obviously a child's plant because she has made a little wooden sign and painted it with her name. Well, last night I went out to water them and found a kitchen knife stuck in the 'lump'! So now I am wondering if it is deliberate sabotage or if one of the kids has been curious about what is in the 'lump' and has sneaked a knife out of the house to have a poke around with. I haven't been out to look at them tonight so I don't know if anything else has happened. Very bizarre. It can only be one of the neighbours because the alleys are gated and only residents have keys. Anyway, I have gained a good kitchen knife and the culprit is not getting it back.

Must be off to bed. Hopefully it will be a bit cooler tonight, although I'm not complaining really - it'll be winter soon enough

Good night all. Sweet dreams.

3v3

Why so impressed? Well, from the 'compost' I put on a "woodland" area of my garden, guess what?

Delightful potato flowers and another plant I didn't "plant" in the shape of ... a tomato plant!!!! How do they fayre? Brilliantly! How do my "cultivated" tomatoes fayre? Fair to middling!!! :rotfl:

Lesson learned? Mother nature truly does know best

ceridwen

smileyt wrote: »

Something weird has happened to one of the pumpkin plants we are growing in the back alley for our giant pumpkin competition. I noticed a couple of nights ago that the 'lump' on one of the female flowers on the biggest plant had split. I put it down to being one of those things but was a bit sad because the plant belongs to a four-year old child. It is obviously a child's plant because she has made a little wooden sign and painted it with her name. Well, last night I went out to water them and found a kitchen knife stuck in the 'lump'! So now I am wondering if it is deliberate sabotage or if one of the kids has been curious about what is in the 'lump' and has sneaked a knife out of the house to have a poke around with. I haven't been out to look at them tonight so I don't know if anything else has happened. Very bizarre. It can only be one of the neighbours because the alleys are gated and only residents have keys. Anyway, I have gained a good kitchen knife and the culprit is not getting it back.

Shame about that pumpkin:(

Just thought "hang on in there a minute ceridwen - smileyt has just casually thrown in that food is being grown in the back alley"....

Are you all using your back alley as extra garden space and growing food out there in your neighbourhood Smiley? I put up a newspaper article recently on the Gardening Board re 2 women who have co-ordinated getting their communal back alley turned into extra garden space for all the residents - would that be YOUR back alley or are you taking a leaf (radish/lettuce/courgette - delete as applicable:rotfl:) out of their book?

I think we need to know more about this back alley gardening - purlease:D

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and, on that tack, I still havent encountered whoever it is that is clearly doing some guerilla foodgrowing near me. I still think I know who it might be and saw someone in the distance who could be from the household concerned...and am still trying to figure out a conversation along the lines of "Its nice of you to do some guerilla gardening and help grow food for everyone" - as, if its who I think it might be, then they come from a country where GG isnt done and might think they are growing it just for themselves - even though its in public space - ie so they are actually growing it for anyone/everyone. Have got feeling that I am going to have to explain the concept of guerilla gardening to them - as I think they may not know that that is what they are doing......and am not at all sure how it will be taken if they currently think they have annexed some public space for themselves personally...

EDIT; Hastens to add - SmileyT - its obviously realised that your communal back alley is for the residents in that street only and isnt "public space" as such....just in case anyone "gets t'wrong end of t'stick" on that...

mardatha

Cer, I would leave well alone. He/she isn't bothering anybody and doing no harm, so if you say something it might spoil it, no ? And then maybe somebody else is also watching and nips in at the proper time to pinch the spoils, then you will get the blame...

GreyQueen

Morning all it's climbing into the high twenties here in P.C., ditto yesterday, so think that a little potato-topping may well be in order this evening as this heat and humidity make blight a real possiblility.

My 2nd earlies (Kestrel) would have been up 4-6 weeks ago but with the bizarre weather we've enjoyed this year, only a few have died back and the rest are growing away nicely. Feel that to leave them to blight risk would be chancing my arm a little as they're intended to keep me until next year's harvest.

I lost a lot of my spuds which were stored in sacks in the lottie shed in that cold snap last Dec, despite the sacks being wrapped in blankets and bubble-wrap. My plan for this autumn is to bring them down to the bike shed at Shoebox Towers. It's a tiny space of 3 ft x 5 ft 9 " and obviously has to accomodate my pushbike, but I have a cunning plan.

At a boot sale earlier this year, brother got a joblot of books el cheapo which were stuffed into a strong laundry-bin type thingy about 3 foot tall. It's made of wooden stakes with "rope" woven among them and has a flat lid. I was planning on putting the spuds into a paper spud sack and then into the container.

Can anyone think of any reason this wouldn't be suitable? It'd be sitting on a concrete floor but I could chock it up it airflow would help. All suggestions gratefully received.

Well, the combined elastic-trickery and cooker gas bill arrived yesterday (my heating and hot water are coming off the Mothership and are paid for as a service charge on top of the rent). Electricity is costing me £4.01 a week and cooker gas 0.98p a week.

Not too bad but looking at the comparators from this time last year I'm using quite a bit more electricity which I blame on the addictiveness of MSE Forums.......nothing else has changed to account for it, so it's all your collective fault for being so interesting and entertaining.......:rotfl:

These price rises are shocking. I cannot recall having seen the like in my adult life; buying several of everything seems to be a rational response when prices can jump 20-30-40-50 % between one day and another. Reverbe, that tip about putting the price in pen on the top of the can is one I've been doing for a few months now, not to educate the OH (haven't got one) but so I can track the price hikes and I also put the purchase date so I can do rotation faster without squinting at tiny BB dates. I'm sure supermarkets take advantage of the fact that price stickers are obsolete. I have heard that in the last round of galloping food inflation, back in the days of price stickers, some naughty people would scratch the newer ones off to reveal the older ones.:cool:

Heard something interesting at the Magic Greengrocer last week; he told me that he and the other retailers in Scruffy Centre (a run-down area of town) are noticing more and more people buying stuff with handfuls of coppers and silvers; they think people are reduced to raiding their penny jars etc. Been going on for about 5 weeks now. Scruffy Centre is a retail bellwether as the area of the city which it serves is a jumble of Old English Paupers and New Immigrant Paupers. Prices are keen down there and I shall be making a flying visit today before w*rk.

taurus if you're reading this, hun, sending you good vibes for a speedy recovery from whatever is the cause.

Hope everyone has a good day.

EDIT 3V3 I have an 18" tomato plant growing in my squash patch and I sure as heck didn't plant it. Never have grown outdoor tommies up there. Think it may have originated as a tomato seed which came out of the 2 y.o. compost from the bottom of the Dalek, from whence I took some compost to tuck under the transplanted squash in early June. One of my lottie neighbours had a fright wen he discovered a "cannabis" plant growing on his lottie which is right by the street. He yanked that out very quickly before the Plod came calling. He thinks it grew from hemp seed among the birdseed from his Dad's aviary (he brings the sweepings down to compost them). Ain't nature wonderful?

ceridwen

mardatha wrote: »

Cer, I would leave well alone. He/she isn't bothering anybody and doing no harm, so if you say something it might spoil it, no ? And then maybe somebody else is also watching and nips in at the proper time to pinch the spoils, then you will get the blame...

I get where you are coming from Mardatha - 'tis just that I see a big difference between someone doing guerilla gardening for EVERYONE and someone trying to annexe public space for themselves personally.

The first I agree with - the second would mean telling the Council someone was trying to take over our land for themselves personally and having to arrange to have it stopped (hence why I'm trying to work out whether they know that what they are doing IS guerilla gardening - or they think its for themselves personally iyswim). I dont agree with people trying to do personal takeover bids on any bit of public land they fancy just for themselves.

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GREYQUEEN
Hmmm...you may well be right re the "handful of silver" paying for groceries. Wonder if there is a particular reason why this has started about 5 weeks ago specifically that you can think of? (ie rather than months ago/days ago/etc)

jackieglasgow

Maybe they aren't trying to "take it over" and just thought it was a good idea to grow something on what is otherwise waste ground, what you are really saying is that it is for other people to eat it is OK for them to do exactly that, but if it is for themselves, it is not. Maybe they barely have two ha'pennies to rub together, and growing a wee bit extra somewhere where it is not doing anyone else any harm, is the difference between eating healthily/surviving and not.

Minihauk

Ceridwen - to be honest, I can't see much difference between your approval for Guerilla Gardening and your disdain for people planting on common ground. Growing food on common land would mean that anyone would/could harvest it if they so choose. Would you really feel the need to report them to the powers that be??

GreyQueen

ceridwen wrote: »

GREYQUEEN
Hmmm...you may well be right re the "handful of silver" paying for groceries. Wonder if there is a particular reason why this has started about 5 weeks ago specifically that you can think of? (ie rather than months ago/days ago/etc)

I have no idea, just what the M.G. and others selling nearby had noticed.

TBH Ithink a lot of people are really hurting. Things were a struggle before prices started to go looney-tunes and it's only going to get tougher as the cold weather will see already-stretched budgets having to go around fuel hikes and food hikes. Somethings gotta give. Unless they give people more benefits and up the minimum wage, a lot of people will have to pull those belts tighter.

On the plus side, the M.G has seen me well for plenty of fruit so scurvy isn't about to strike Chez GQ. Blessings on him and his family.

Reverbe

ceridwen wrote: »

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...and speaking of experiments - must get my act together as to what to do with tayberries. Thats today's "food I havent tried yet" experiment - I'm now aiming for several new to me foods per week. Dont ask why - but its that policy of mine of "Must try everything (vegetarian) at least once"..

the lovely lady over the road makes them into a delicious jam. its like blackberry/blackcurrant and raspberry.I admire you for trying new things. thats why I had the calamari the other week.. getting old now and havent had so many things. Champagne for example