Travelling On

greent

Gotta love some onion gravy - and it's certainly the weather for such food

Delichon - my aunt had a rogue white bluebell appear for the first time in her garden this year!

[Deleted User]

greent said

Delichon - my aunt had a rogue white bluebell appear for the first time in her garden this year!

Thank you.  What a coincidence.  The white ones are really pretty but we haven't any of them here.

In between showers I dashed out to check and, as I already knew, 'our' blue ones are the traditional English bluebells.  It looks though as if the rogue pink ones are the Spanish variety which we didn't plant and for environmental reasons don't really want!  It's a puzzle how they got into our garden, we live over a mile from the nearest house LOL.  The pink ones do look pretty though so I'm tempted to leave them be.  When i first mentioned them I wondered if bluebells can change colour according to the acidity of the soil, like hydrangeas but the interlopers are  definitely Spanish not English so haven't just changed from our usual blue to pink.  Just another of life's little mysteries LOL.

Karmacat

I have bluebells that do that too!  Blue, pink and white ... I think scabious do the same, according to the chemical composition of the soil.  Possibly rhodedendrons too?  I used to have scabious in my previous garden, and fennel grew like a weed, the (chalky) soil was just right - here, its so full of clay, its just not the same.  I went outside to do the bbq area clearing thing, *right* when the rain was starting, ahem ... big oops there, but never mind, there's still time.  Though its still chucking it.

Haven't done the yorkies yet, but I did roast lots of sweet potato, that worked well.  There'll definitely be time to do the yorkies.  The onions, however, will go with the oil leftover from the sweetpotato, along with cashew nuts and frozen chopped celeriac - more onions were delivered yesterday so there'll be time to do that.  Got to be clever about using chopping boards and the like, I'm mean with my energy like that  

Not got onto ancestry yet either, partly because National Archivves are also opening up free online (partly - much less generous) so I'm checking whats on there.  I had a railway clerk in the late 19th century, so that might be interesting.

Onwards and upwards.  Hope everyone's well.

[Deleted User]

Sun,rain and rumbles of thunder here today.  Really difficult to know when to risk setting foot outside.  On the plus side there was a wonderful double rainbow earlier.  Definitely a cause to be thankful even in these worrying times.

I must try to get back into tracing my family history again.   I had nothing but dead ends after a promising start and lost interest because I didn't have the time to spare on it.  Now I'm retired I have no excuse have I?.  I really want to find information about a relative who emigrated to Australia and eventually committed suicide there.  None of the English relatives ever found out the full story, I recall elderly aunts speaking about him in whispers.  I've been fascinated by his story since I was a child but haven't a clue where to start with it.  My other relatives were all English based.

themadvix

I went for my walk and came back a drowned rat! It was dry, then hailing, then chucking it down with thunder (all in about 15mins!) - there’s sun now of course!

 Thanks for the tip about the National archives - I have railway clerks, so will investigate. Delichon, you might be able to get access to Ancestry via your library for free - they have lots of Australian records on there, you might find what you’re looking for! I’ve only got one distant rellie who emigrated, so it was good to find out about him.

Suffolk_lass

Having dug out a bag of thug-like Spanish bluebells, I would urge anyone with English ones to remove them - the bulbs were over a foot deep and I am sure I will have missed some. They have smothered and taken over a bed of crocuses I used to love as the first mauve in my garden.

I think they lull you into a sense of appreciation but they will kill off the native ones

greenbee

Suffolk_lass said:

Having dug out a bag of thug-like Spanish bluebells, I would urge anyone with English ones to remove them - the bulbs were over a foot deep and I am sure I will have missed some. They have smothered and taken over a bed of crocuses I used to love as the first mauve in my garden.

I think they lull you into a sense of appreciation but they will kill off the native ones

I've been killing off spanish bluebells for  years now and I think I'm winning... and my natives are spreading nicely which is gratifying. 

Karmacat

Delichon said:

Sun,rain and rumbles of thunder here today.  Really difficult to know when to risk setting foot outside.  On the plus side there was a wonderful double rainbow earlier.  Definitely a cause to be thankful even in these worrying times.
I must try to get back into tracing my family history again.   I had nothing but dead ends after a promising start and lost interest because I didn't have the time to spare on it.  Now I'm retired I have no excuse have I?.  I really want to find information about a relative who emigrated to Australia and eventually committed suicide there.  None of the English relatives ever found out the full story, I recall elderly aunts speaking about him in whispers.  I've been fascinated by his story since I was a child but haven't a clue where to start with it.  My other relatives were all English based.

I had a rainbow yesterday too!  Got more rain right now.  Australia ... oof ... madvix's suggestion is a good one - I have a *lot* of emigration in my family, but mostly to Canada and America (and latterly Rhodesia-as-was).  One poor old boy wrote to the family from New York in the 1930s having been taken there by his mother (my great great grandmother) in the 1890s when he was 5 years old.  And some came back to fight in WWI. 

Karmacat

Suffolk_lass said:

Having dug out a bag of thug-like Spanish bluebells, I would urge anyone with English ones to remove them - the bulbs were over a foot deep and I am sure I will have missed some. They have smothered and taken over a bed of crocuses I used to love as the first mauve in my garden.
I think they lull you into a sense of appreciation but they will kill off the native ones

I didn't know they were that deep!  Right, some research needed.

Karmacat

Slow start to the day today ... I have several options open to me, ha .... my phone appears not to recognise my wifi any more, but I'm just not going there right now, if I do anything tech it will be to bring the new computer up to speed, though I don't know if I can bear to do that either.  The genealogy might encourage me to do that, actually - it takes so long to get onto the ancestry website, the laptop crashes soon after.  Never mind, a bit of work here and there, and dashing out to do stuff in the garden between rainstorms.