No T Words mentioned at all - a fresh start

[Deleted User]

Our weather station wasn't saying anything, when we looked we had a clog of spiders web in the water collector so we haven't officially had any rain today - in spite of that the goldfish are splashing around happily on the lawn! The lurcher and I have just got soaked to the skin on the afternoon walk, the wind was blowing the rain sideways at us and we had to walk face on into it to get home. I am now dry and changed - he is flat out in front of the woodburner on a dry towel - Happy Summer everyone! KITTIE your strawberry growing sounds wonderful - DH doesn't like them so I get to have all of ours Mmmmmmmmmmmm delicious. Cheers Lyn.

[Deleted User]

I don`t know Rosetta but I had 12 mara de bois last april and they started fruiting very quickly and my dh and I had some every day until the first frosts. I got hooked!! I blitzed some donated strawberries and froze them and they were sensational just mixed in with a strawberry jelly. I intend to freeze lots and make jam as well as eat and give away. I am doing it properly this year and am cutting off all the runners also feeding with tomato food

scottishminnie

Wow, you ladies put me to shame with your productivity. I'm so irritated that work get's in the way or I'm sure I could be much better:) I suppose the fact that I get paid has something to do with it though!

I inspected my rhubarb crown yesterday which mum has been bringing on for me. It's looking good but I do wonder - will transplanting it mean I won't get any this year? I'll be disappointed if that's the case as I could happily eat rhubarb for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

It was a mostly sunny day here until the eaxct point when I stepped off the train (sans brolly or hat) and the most torrential downpour opened up. By the time I got to the car I was like a drookit dug as my granny used to say and the rain had gone off. Got home to hubby and there had been very little rain here - what a difference 5 miles makes - he wondered where on earth I'd been to get into that state!

mmmm - strawberries - and strawberry jam. My mouth is watering at the thought. I feel the need for a strawberry planter - off to websurf:D

gollygosh

The Rhubarb might look a little sad for a short while but it's hardy stuff so you shouldn't need to suffer the cravings for too long.
I've got 5 big plants and have been eating crumble since the snow! It came up really early and when it snowed I thought that it would be ages recovering but it came back within a couple of weeks.
I totally ignore it, never feed it and it thrives. My kind of plant;)

[Deleted User]

SM re the rhubarb, you won`t be able to pick anything this year and only very few sticks next year. It needs the time to get its roots down and established. Don`t plant it deep, you need to see the crown. Well worth waiting for

I have been pottering again and managed to get a big wash on the line. Clouds are building up now but they are beautiful. I have been preparing for the mighty deluge which is coming our way. All strawberries at home are now on sheltered outside cills or under something like a bench or an overhang or a plant stand. All the baby plants are either in mini greenhouses or against a wall which should deflect some of the rain.

One of my patio grow fleece covers had 4 tears in it, so I have been sticking patches on it. I have a beady eye on the local forecast as I`ll put it on for anything under 6 degrees

I ordered garden shading net yesterday (ebay is cheapest) and I am going to make something or other for the patio grows as the sun overheats the insides. I`ll try and cobble something with some elastic, so that they can slip over the top and hang down

Sahara, clothes, sent me a catalogue today. Lovely stuff too but I am not paying £149 for a top :rotfl: it isn`t as though I am cruise material or out to impress anyone

[Deleted User]

floods

http://www.floodwarn.co.uk/

It is a good accurate site, click on the left bar and you get all the risks in various areas

Am making bread now and using lots of seeds, pumpkin, linseed, poppy and chia. Am using the bm but with active yeast, the one you add to water to re-hydrate. Result so far seems to be much better than with the fast (expensive) yeast

we moved 2 years ago and quickly set up house and contents insurance but having read about non-standard construction, we realised that we weren`t properly covered. The house is eco and is not bricks, concrete, slates etc I am so glad we have done the research, it took days for us to do contents properly as well. We did room by room and our contents are worth 100% more :eek: than we previously valued. All in all the total insurance is 50% more expensive but we will soon be covered for all the vagaries of our very unusual house. You can only imagine the worst case scenario eg fire and everything would go up. You can be as careful as anything but I believe that most happen simply due to some internal fault. Next step will be to get a fireproof box to store receipts and photos of rooms and contents. It is daunting

[Deleted User]

Morning all, another very wet day down here in Hampshire. We ran out to the nice farm shop we use and there is so much flooding on the roads, little streams have turned to raging torrents and in one case a rather spectacular little waterfall too. It is good to see a flood plain doing what it is meant to do and not having been built on is an object lesson to construction firms and local authorities! KITTIE - what is the construction of your ecohouse, are you straw bale and cobb? I have always had a fantasy of owning an earth sheltered house, one of the Grand Designs programmes was an earth shelter in an old quarry , the lady was a vet and it sat so perfectly in its surroundings but the one I really liked was the earthship in france which looks so cosy and warm - envy was felt, particularly for the wall of bottles they made. They recycled most of the build materials and it was perfect. Hoping that this dreadful weather clears up for the weekend as DD1 and Dh are both involved in a Bronze D of E camp and trek and the terrain they go over is very steep and muddy - hope it doesn't prove too trying. Have a good day Lyn.

[Deleted User]

I like the strawbale houses too mrs LW but no, we are wood frame, sheeps wool, various natural materials and cedar cladding. Also lime render and special paint outside that sheds dirt and costs a lot. Flat tilted roof and panels, rain harvester, solar shading. Sun trap garden, 3m below the surrounding young orchard. You have to say how close the nearest tree is so dh measured the distance and said the root was 3 m above our house foundation level

If you have young, lovingly grown small plantlets outside then keep an eye on them. I have just rescued my preciuos rudbeckia indian summer seedlings as they looked sickly. They were drowning in sodden compost, so I have re potted on the kitchen table and they are now back outside but in a dry sheltered place on the cill. I have no more shelter room left, arghh. I took planters of all sorts off a solid surface as the rain couldn`t drain away and they are now standing on holey chairs and a garden table. Lots of people will lose loads of plants, it is worse in some ways than the frost

D of E trek mrs LW!! Its going to be sodden, give them spare socks and poly bags to put over them, nothing worse than cold soaking feet. DD did her d of E 18 years ago and badly hurt her knee, she did finish and got the gold award. It`s a wonderful thing to add to a cv

[Deleted User]

DD has mastered the art of falling flat on her back in mud - I'm fairly sure that if there was an award for it she would be in the running! DH is going to be the wheels for the trek and gets to go back to a nice warm flat to sleep at night, KITTIE - your home sounds wonderful, surrounded by orchard the birdsong must be incredible. We looked at a cottage years ago in Kent when the girls were young that was half a mile up a little track in the middle of apple orchards but were gazumped. Just as well really as we then got sent abroad by the company DH worked for and ended up here in Hampshire 20 years ago when the company was sold to another firm based here. We have a standard 1970s box, but have done all we possibly can to make it green. The only thing we haven't been tempted by is Solar Panels as our neighbour installs these and I know there are technical problems still to be overcome. Our little seedlings are still being coddled in the greenhouse and polytunnel so we don't need to go and cuddle them tonight! DD is used to rough treks in precipitous places having run World Challenge trips for the school and tackled the Himalayas, and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, the High Tatras in Poland and many other high places some of them even wetter than GB at the moment - but I expect they will both be glad when its over. Stay dry, stay warm Cheers Lyn.

[Deleted User]

http://www.weatheraction.com/displayarticle.asp?a=451&c=5

:eek::eek::eek:

I am putting thie link on the winter thread and I am concentrating on the brassicas now as they will take cool and wet

ps, I don`t know what summer will be like as my sub only covers the month ahead