The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

Pyxis

Jackmydad wrote: »

I first came across it (IIRC) as one of the poems in a book we had at school called "Poems of Spirit and Action" edited by W.M.Smyth.

It's a good collection IMHO. It's also got some rarities in it like. "There's a Pathway" by Alys Fane Trotter.
I must get a copy.

Just googled that poem. Evocative.
Interesting, because they give an explanation of the poem at the bottom. Yet the poem is so good, you didn't really need it!

chris_m

zagubov wrote: »

You don't eat your peas with even modest/normal amounts of mustard?
What on earth do they taste of?

Er, peas perchance?

They are especially nice fresh off the plant, uncooked. I had to be very disciplined whilst shelling them otherwise there'd have been none left for cooking

Jazee

Very little of what I grow in the garden gets cooked or preserved. The strawberries I've been eating a bowlful every day (and thinking thats £2 saved). Broad beans, peas, courgettes - raw, as I shell them or chucked in a salad. Not that I shell courgettes.


Getting impatient waiting on raspberries and loganberries etc, but discovered some gooseberries and plums still in the freezer earlier so have got those out to defrost.

chris_m

Jazee wrote: »

Getting impatient waiting on raspberries and loganberries etc, but discovered some gooseberries and plums still in the freezer earlier so have got those out to defrost.

I'm still working my way through the raspberries in the freezer from last year - before I get overtaken by this year's ones being ready :eek:

I think (correction, know) I need to prune the raspberry patch drastically once they've finished this year. It's getting more like the thicket it was before I cut them back and provided supports - there's barely room to get between the two rows now - and that's just because they've bushed out so much, the bottoms of the stems are still as far apart as they were.

There's a Tayberry bush somewhere under there but, even though I know where I put it last Autumn, I can't find it now for all the raspberry growth. I may take out that entire row and put a few more Tayberry bushes in instead of that half of the raspberries.

Jazee

I got just one raspberry plant last year that's suitable for a pot. No fruit last year from that, but I've supported the stems this year across a trellis and it's doing really well. Need to read up on the literature but assume I'll need to replace some of the compost in the pot this year when I trim back.

chris_m

Jazee wrote: »

I got just one raspberry plant last year that's suitable for a pot. No fruit last year from that, but I've supported the stems this year across a trellis and it's doing really well.

Raspberries come in two types, one which fruits on the previous year's growth and one which fruits on the current years growth. For the former you only chop out the old canes, usually identifiable because they are brown rather than green, whereas the latter should be chopped right back to just above the soil level. Check which you have before cutting back else you could lose next year's fruiting.

Blackberries are similar - the one I bought and put in last year didn't fruit because it had no "last year's" growth on which to fruit, but is fruiting this year. Two others in hanging baskets that I bought this year are supposed to fruit off the new growth - but it's a bit early to tell yet because the flowers (assuming they appear) shouldn't do so quite yet.

Need to read up on the literature but assume I'll need to replace some of the compost in the pot this year when I trim back.

You could just "top dress" it with some well-rotted manure or a handful of Blood, Fish & Bone stirred into the surface and watered in.

I haven't done either with my raspberries, but they are in the ground, very well-established (they were here when I moved in) and seem perfectly happy. I think if I gave them any extra nutrients they'd completely outgrow the fruit cage - they are trying to do that anyway

Jazee

Chris-M, thanks very much for the tips.

SingleSue

Think the proverbial will hit the fan today....none of the boys have got their father anything for Fathers day.

Middle son outright refused, eldest said he couldn't afford it and why bother and youngest asked me what I would like for Fathers day as he says I have been more of a father alongside being a mother than he has. It didn't help that none of them even realised it was Fathers day today as anything father related goes outside of their radar.


I've always done it for them, either by nagging them or buying something myself and getting it sent off but I decided that now I am not beholden to him with youngest finally leaving compulsory education, that if he wants to have a relationship with them, then he is going to have to actually do something, for example, actually get in touch with them. I no longer have that responsibility to tell him what is going on as my contact/responsibility as a parent with care with him ended when they became adults and he no longer had to pay maintenance.

It'll be me getting in the neck though.....

vivatifosi

If he even raises it, tell him to go reflect on his own actions if he cannot understand why he hasn't received anything.

What a narcissist!

Pyxis

SingleSue wrote: »

Think the proverbial will hit the fan today....none of the boys have got their father anything for Fathers day.

Middle son outright refused, eldest said he couldn't afford it and why bother and youngest asked me what I would like for Fathers day as he says I have been more of a father alongside being a mother than he has. It didn't help that none of them even realised it was Fathers day today as anything father related goes outside of their radar.


I've always done it for them, either by nagging them or buying something myself and getting it sent off but I decided that now I am not beholden to him with youngest finally leaving compulsory education, that if he wants to have a relationship with them, then he is going to have to actually do something, for example, actually get in touch with them. I no longer have that responsibility to tell him what is going on as my contact/responsibility as a parent with care with him ended when they became adults and he no longer had to pay maintenance.

It'll be me getting in the neck though.....

I can relate to that.
I breathed a huge sigh of relief when my youngest reached 18 and I no longer had to battle with maintenance, or with criticism about how I was bringing them up, (i.e. I was attempting to bring them up properly, instead of just letting them do whatever they wanted), or anything else for that matter.


Sue, if he phones you and gives you grief, just say "they are adults now and make their own decisions. Goodbye" and put the phone down. And then block his number.