Daydream thread... without the rose-tinted specs

COOLTRIKERCHICK

have you got them home now then davesnave??


just tried to do some weeding, as the weeds have now gone awol again, could only manage a short spell, as it is bloody hot out there, as I have got older, I don't like the sun/hot weather anymore lol..

ferretkeeper

Dave have you got all of them in the picture (four ?)! They are So cute, inspired me to watch the Secret Lives of a Cats which I recorded a couple of weeks ago, what a lovely programme and interesting things I didn't know about cats too!

I am sooo tired lately, glad we're past the longest day, it bloody felt like it yesterday! No one wants to go to bed til it's almost dark. I also can't do as much in the hot weather, well depends on my mood, some days I do loads, others not so much. I've tried getting up early but it doesn't often happen, shame cos it's light so early and it's lovely being out then.

I'm not making much progress in the garden, been busy with the outbuildings, electricians have done 1st fix, roof is done as far as we are going, and last bit of concrete is happening this week. Nearly there now!

My retired builder has gone back to his regular job as a gardener so I've got his labourer and a newly trained builder working now....it means I'm having to do most of the thinking and being on hand a lot of the time. it's common sense stuff, I can't understand why they need me to point out obvious things, I'm no builder! but I can see the big picture which they can't, no matter how many times I explain!!!

Anyway, progress has slowed and standards aren't as high BUT we're past the most technical bits so I'll have to live with it. Or pay proper money for proper builders.

I think I'll get them helping me in the garden soon, I want to render an ugly block wall before I (they!) paint it and I've got plans for a pergola along another big wall, it's south-west facing so it needs some shade plus it's the ideal spot for my grapevines and kiwis and other pretty things!

Well better get on, just the watering takes an eternity, all the lovely things I've got in pots waiting for me to get a raised bed finished to plant out!

Hope everyone's having a lovely time in the sunshine

Cottage_Economy

Hi guys

Hope you're all having a lovely morning in your respective necks of the woods.

I've already done battle with 25 feet of overgrown hedging this morning, which was smothered with brambles to a point about 3-4 feet out from it.

Does anyone know if I burnt the conifer cuttings along with the brambles whether I could use the wood ash on my vegetable garden?

I seem to recall in my dim and distant past someone warning me about not using conifer shreddings as mulch as it affects the plants negatively, but what if they are burnt to ash?

I'd love to be able to recycle it all.

choille

Hello CE - I would think once burnt the cuttings will be fine, but if everything dies then it will be my fault.

It's raining here & I am doing nothing as yet, I must stir myself. FLW on the bay so that'll take forever & it's so quiet on there at the mo, but could do with some extra money - the building a house thing eats the stuff.

LIR - welcome back - hope you are feeling stronger.

I could send you oodles of ash trees - mountain ash - rowans, they grow like weeds & seem to be coming up everywhere especially under the birch trees - think it's part of the tree cycle. There are a group of them in Dingwall with different coloured berries - some look bright pink, the others orangey shades.

Does anyone know what the tree that looks like a black Elder is called & where I could get one? The florets look purple - gorgeous looking tree at this time. I would love a bit of coloured trees down the track.

lostinrates

I LOVE Rowans! I plants some I bought from lidl or Aldi but the weeds were bigger and won. . Too many things on my plate to keep up with everything. I've seen the orangey ones but not the pink ones, how amazing!

Today we got the rest of the garden fence wood stained. Its taken longer than it should have done, and the back garden is just a bit of a mess still so its just the beginning of starting to look at it. I'm toying with getting the slab laid for extension next year, even though we won't be able to do the rest for a few years, because them we have a better scope and scale for the garden planning and the worst of the disruption is done. So long as we didn't do beds around that part of the house we could move in to the back garden. Dunno.

choille

What colour of stain?

I could send you rowans anytime.

Do the slab LIR - you do like ground works - makes sense doing it when it's dry.

Still raining, still sitting after polishing off a couple of bacon rolls.

lostinrates

choille wrote: »

What colour of stain?

I could send you rowans anytime.

Do the slab LIR - you do like ground works - makes sense doing it when it's dry.

Still raining, still sitting after polishing off a couple of bacon rolls.

Wow, what a kind offer! I'd definitely take you up on it in autumn when they'll transplant better?


The stain is called 'wild thyme' its a cupinol one. Its a sort of grey meets blue meets green. We''ve matched a masonary paint to it and we've painted this colour every spare weekend for ever.

You know snow blindness? We have grey/blue/green blindness. It s a really good colour though. It kind of blurs the edges of boundaries so they look smart and clean but also not so definite, softer, and blended into what's behind them, whether its a farm building or a landscape or view of the sky.

Its a beautiful background for plants as it doesn't shout.

Cottage_Economy

choille wrote: »

Hello CE - I would think once burnt the cuttings will be fine, but if everything dies then it will be my fault.

:rotfl:

Ashridge Trees sell a purple beech tree - or were you thinking more shrub than tree?

They also have a purple cherry plum.

choille

CE - Yes, purple beech trees are lovely. I think this black elder tree thing is a tree - I may have posed his query on here before - My memory is not what it was.

LIR - That colour of stain is lovely & is a bit like my windows I think - so I've got to think it's groovy.

I've also got masses of birches here too if want any.

Davesnave

choille wrote: »

CE - Yes, purple beech trees are lovely. I think this black elder tree thing is a tree - I may have posed his query on here before - My memory is not what it was.
.

The black elder comes in a couple of forms and there's a few golden ones too. The latin is Sambucus nigra, then you want the varietal name as well when Googling.

Black forms are Black Beauty & Black Lace. I used to have both, but now I only have the latter. They all root easily.

Gold forms include Sutherlandii, which is cut leaved, like Black Lace, and another one that isn't. I don't know what the plain one's called, 'cos I got mine in Lidl's car park! :rotfl:

Yes, CTC the kittens are here now. FK, we only had two of them...the torties. We always have torties.