Daydream fund challenge part 4

Davesnave

Rummer said:

Oh dear, what happed to Alfie?

So far as we know, she found it very difficult to view the new,'improved' forum on whatever she uses. Choille emailed her details I'd gleaned from site feedback regarding issues people were having and possible work-arounds, but  she heard no more.

Ted_Head

Alfie hasn't responded for a while;-)
I tried phoning her but no reponse. I know Choille rather well and she was very naughty getting banned;-)
Even up here we have butterflies floating by. It's been rather dry this last few days so I have been trying to clear some rough ground which is taking forever. It's filled with reeds and a thatch but I am getting there - just have to take it easy with my rubbish back.
I had a terrific bonfire yesterday - love a bit of arson. My better half decided to have a bit of a clear out of old drawings - two sacks worth so that helped clear some of the willow brash that I've been sawing down now that I'm a man;-)

Davesnave

Choille would go into discussion time and argue! The folks in there aren't worth it IMO; it's not as if any of them are going to change their minds significantly about anything.

I entertain some pretty off-the-wall ideas, just as ideas, not facts. They might not all be right, or be entitrely correct, but I think some are less screwy than things we're asked to accept as facts.

I soon found people in Discussion Time didn't like that; they want commitment to a particular, and usually quite conventional, POV.

EDIT: Are any of you getting email notifications? I'm not. I've tried logging out and logging in again.....

ukmaggie45

I'm getting email notifications. Too bloody many of them. Old forum just gave you one and told you that you wouldn't get any more until you'd looked. This one I get a message any time anyone posts anything on the forum parts I'm subscribed to. So I get gazillions from the Take a Look at This threads. I've given up going to the stuff there now mostly. I always come to the Daydreamers. I want The Nice People back. I'm not at all happy how this new forum is working. And I want to know how Choille is coping too - dunno what happened, but miss her.

pink_poppy

I have a feeling we're okay with choille ;-) unless I'm mistaken...
Missing alfie though, I hope she's okay and is able to post soon to let us know how she's doing.
I'm loving the nest pics, Dave. I do miss the garden birds we had at our old house. And the hedgehogs. As much as I love it in the rented house, I can't wait to have our own place so that I can establish a bird/wildlife feeding station

Davesnave

ukmaggie45 said:

 I want The Nice People back. I'm not at all happy how this new forum is working.

  Ah, I forgot Nice People was in there. I left NP when I found contributing to that and this thread simultaneously became a little onerous and repetitive.

But you didn't expect Martin to keep ' Debate....' open, did you? What, a forum that discusses the economy at a time when it's being systematically wrecked? Crazy idea!

All I'll say about the Covid thing is, "Follow the money." There are those who are going to benefit from the turmoil, and the debt it's created, and it won't be you or me! There will be a huge spin-off from the 'cure' too, when it comes; perhaps not overtly financial, but in terms of the influence our saviours will wield in future.....

Meanwhile, I'll continue to get my hands nice and dirty: a close association with a good range of bugs has served me well over the years!

Ted_Head

Well - I've been hauling out some honeysuckle that I mistakenly planted at the gate and it's been busy strangling the trees. My hands are aching this morning. A person who shall remain nameless had their sheep roaming about and they got into the bottom of the croft along the shore - just as the wild goats do. It took her until this morning to come along after they kept getting into the garden. I wish I could afford to fence along the bottom but I can't thole that.
Glorious day here after all the wet and mud - yesterday was stonking as it is just now so off out to have another choillefire as OH is still emptying the wee caravan that was his office before we moved into the house.
I'll try Alfie again see what the score is - her Mum wasn't well & I don't think that sounded good.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

We have Tawny Owls! Heard a male just after 4am - and 35 minutes later, a female joined in from a front garden about three doors down opposite - not bad for the town centre, is it?

Dragged himself out back to do the grunt work bundle up stuff for composting that I never got around to burning this winter due to copious amounts of rain every time I even thought about it. And then got him to slice the patio weeds off and move the mini greenhouse frame into direct light (the plastic cover fell apart about ten years ago). Still got tons to do out there, which will probably happen tomorrow when I'm supposed to be sitting in front of the computer waiting for emails - earthing up a forgotten large pot containing some surprise spuds, for a start. And he found a Thrush's anvil, so he's quite chuffed with that.

I'm leaving my Honeysuckle to get on with doing its own thing by the front door.- I cut off the longer shoots that were getting in the way of it closing a few weeks ago, so it's thickening up nicely. I will have to do something about the Lavenders at some point, as I neglected them and they're beginning to look a bit woody - I'm thinking of taking about a third of the ugliest woody bits off and hoping for the best. Hopefully, the Rosemary beetles will leave them and the Rosemary alone this year - I picked off the few that I had last summer - after filling in the species notification, only to get a snotty email back telling me it was too early in the year to have them. Well, yes, in normal conditions, but not in a built environment semi detached storage heater facing ESE. But hey, what would I know, compared to an 'expert'? Should have learned my lesson from being told I couldn't possibly have Cuckoo Spit on them as early as I always do and that the Purple Emperor was a figment of my imagination until I passive-aggressively sent  a reply with footage, asking 'Well, could you tell me what this is, then?'.

Bloody experts. 

Ted_Head

Message from Alfie:-

hiya.... sorry been off line for a while ... had shingles but not badly ... sorted now 😊

I cannot get back on to the group but when this is all over I will get a mates bf to have a look , hes a whizz on computers !

I hope you are well and luckily like us here we have space to breath and mooch at least .

we have actually run out of grazing ... the mud destroyed the grass and we had 15 acres rollered so waiting for green to pop up now !! we have the 5 big horses in the farm field which is adjacent to a wilderness farmers field .... oooops fence isn't the best so may fall over and the horses MAY get to nosh on his field until I can get "help" to move them out ??? 😉

farrier due tomorrow to trim all 11 [ he has actually said he may split over 2 days ]

all our chooks got anhialated by mr/mrs fox ... they were an odd bodd collection , mainly elderly !!!!!! birds so we were not too sad ....

my garden has never looked so neat ! im taking more time to do jobs hence better finish ! we had rain at the weekend but not cold and the sun is beaming again now ... birds are singing , flowers are blooming ...

I can read some of what the group are writing but after 4/5 lines it disappears ? so I get the jist ...

could you copy and paste this to the group as I do miss them and ive not deserted them just a hick up ...

take care , stay safe

love to all

ALF XXX

greenbee

Good to hear from Alfie. Sorry to hear she's been unwell.

I've finally been well enough to make some progress in the garden (had the virus - not too badly - then secondary infection and lots of antibiotics which weren't at all nice). So have mowed on the highest setting, half of the garden has been treated with broadleaf weedkiller in the hope that it reduces the amount of creeping buttercup. The rest needs doing this week. Beds have been weeded so are relatively tidy, but need edging. I've spotted lots of self-seeded foxgloves, erigeron, campanula, pulmonaria and hellebores which I plan to rearrange. Some of the geraniums have also had babies that need moving too. 

The stream continues to be a problem - it's FULL of water parsnip, and nothing much else seems to be growing. I think I need to start moving some yellow flags - I took lots out on advice from the village conservation group after the flooding when I moved in. I think far too much came out (I've since learned that the conservation group aren't really into conservation, more into making things 'tidy'), which means that the stream is wider, and the banks have suffered as well. Ragged robin is spreading nicely, as are primroses. I've planted some candelabra primulas (and have some seeds in the fridge so I can grow some more). 

As I'm currently grounded and have no travel booked (or planned until September), I've decided to grow food. I've got 7/8 packages for a raised bed (and a veg cage to fit it), and a pile of topsoil and compost. Someone is coming to do some outside work tomorrow including sorting out the waterbutts and clearing the space for the planters (which I built over the Easter weekend) and the raised bed, fixing the growhouse and building a bigger compost bin. And if the final package for the raised bed arrives, building that. 

I've got tomato, basil, coriander and sweet pea seedlings on my office window sill. Baby strawberry plants in the growhouse along with broad beans and nicotiana alata which I hope are germinating, and need to come up with a planting plan for the raised bed. As well as working out where I'm going to grow the tomatoes given that I don't have a greenhouse and have no idea when I might be able to get hold of one. I also need to try to remember how to grow food from seed... when to pot things on and plant them out!