Awful weather - typical Brits talk

-taff

It's been a while but I have been readng honest. I had my first proper tomatoes last night with some pesto on top [ homemade, I'd run out, with greek basil because the normal basil was a dessert for snails or slugs or both] and they were delicious. I am a walking garlic mountain this morning though because garlic was in everything last night, the chicken kevs, the potatoes in oil,vinegar, garlic and parsely and the green beans in pesto. My blood is most definitely clean this morning.

Everything is looking a bit straggly and parched. I accidentally emptied one of my water butts, started watering the tomatoes, forgot, went to do supper things, all over greenhouse floor by the time I remembered. One job at a time innit...

pp, I like snail bum, very funny. Arb, your ladybird bum too...I am sensing a whole raft of different bums are going to gracing these pages before long.. DOn't worry about the fig, it gets fruit on last years brancehs I think[ farway?] but it doesn't flower, it just sends out litle blobs that get bigger and eventuallly turn into fruit. You may have some yet.

YBE, how's bob getting along? I liked your dramatic skies, they could be abstracts. I did read all the Nella books but I found her a bit dislikeable. But you could definitely see she was a chained woman, felt like she was just crying out to be bohemian but wouldn't allow herself.

Dusty, i did like that  little courtyard pond.

Farway, congrats on the car passsing, 2P, fingers crossed an old fashioned one can find the problem...

Dustyevsky

MoT day, plus a whole load of nonsense to do with planning, which could go either way. The bat & bird survey says something unhelpful, which the surveyor should have known not to include, especially as it's hearsay and unrelated to bats or birds. I must persuade her to alter a few things. Don't you just hate telling 'professionals' their business?

Lovely bright start, but they say it's going to rain after lunch, so that's the watering sorted, but not the grass, which is still growing faster than I can mow.

Yesterday, I popped down to the dry stream and gave many of the ferns there some 'medicine' that will make them go away, or rather not come up next year. It's the same stuff I give the bracken when it creeps into the field edges. I like having ferns down there, but they've really taken over in the past few years, and other plants are being shaded-out.

twopenny said:

Dusty I'm not a fan of that sitoorie or pond. It shows no imagination.

Do you mean the big pond or the little one with the statue? I don't think there's much one could do with the large pond to make it imaginative. It just sits in the landscape in an appropriate hollow, surrounded by the usual marginals. I don't like the statue with the small pond, but that's personal choice. I do like the way the edges are overlapped by the coping stones, because small pond edgings are the usual failure point, looking naff hen the water levels drop. When we had a small glass fibre pond, I deliberately roughed up the edges and used layers of coloured resin to match the surrounding stones. By the time mosses and lichens grew, it was hard to tell what was 'real' and what I'd faked. THat pond is the only thing I miss about our first house! 

Anyway, here's another sitting-out area from the big garden, this time with a robot lawnmower so you don't need to worry about all that blimmin' grass!

wort

Dusty I thought the shrub was pittosporum Tom Thumb with its shiny crinkly leaves, hope you enjoyed the wedding, and had a dance, keep the joints in order. Great sitooterie for our inclement weather.

Im not too bad YBE still waiting on a few bits to heal , I’ve been awol as been to work then reading a couple of large books, once I start I can’t stop. By the time I’m fit enough I’ll have a jungle to tame in the back.

Farway very diligent netting the grapes, that’s the sort of thing I don’t get round to. I’ve still no sign of raspberries 😏I wonder if they’re autumn ones would they be setting flower now though? 

Dustyevsky

-taff said:

 I am a walking garlic mountain this morning though because garlic was in everything last night, the chicken kevs, the potatoes in oil,vinegar, garlic and parsely and the green beans in pesto. My blood is most definitely clean this morning.

Allegedly good for blood: 1 tbsp cider vinegar, 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, juice of 1 lemon, chilli powder (or Ancho chilli seeds if you don't like hot chilli) spoonful of chia seeds, 1 chopped garlic clove. Mix. Take a deep breath, and down in one!

I can't say it will do wonders, or that it will be pleasant, but it doesn't seem to do any harm! This is definitely not medical advice, just a recipe.

Car delivered. Rather naff (orange) courtesy car with 123 thousand miles on the clock  supplied.

wort

There was red sky in the morning =sailors warning. And red sky at night = shepherds delight, all in one day so even the sky doesn’t know what the weather forcast is , I tried a pic in the morning but didn’t show the true amazing colours.
Sunday was pure lovely sun but breezy great Pimms in the garden weather so that’s what we did.

Working_Mum

I have been beavering away in my garden  - I do a bit of weeding, watering and deadheading early doors before work each day. My main focus has been the middle bit of my garden. I have now cleared it of tonnes of gravel - thank goodness for Freecycl3 - i reckon 8 people have benefited from the mountains of gravel I have shifted this summer.

I bought a pot for £32 from H0mebase and made a water feature - used the reservoir and pump from the previous water feature so saved  a few quid. I also put the monolith water feature on Gumtr33 and it has been sold. The Green metal shed I sold on FBMP - which has offset the costs of bricks and gravel! I think this project has cost me about £200 so far.



This is the water feature I've made - I sat listening to the water on Sunday morning whilst reading a book and it was lovely. Nothing I do ever stands up to scrutiny so please ignore this is slightly on the wonk - I blame the fact that the existing pond reservoir and stand is bent out of shape because of the weight of the slate monolith which was there when I moved in
I am planning on growing things in this area as it is super sunny - the sets are for trees and pots of stuff I want to grow. Again I know things are a bit shew-wiff but I think the cobbles I had delivered will hide a multitude of sins 



This is where I am going to put my greenhouse. It is dismantled and stored on my patio at the moment. It was already dismantled when I picked it up but will put it up this weekend I think - give myself the headspace to organise it.

I've got a couple of tomatoes on my plants and a few autumn (??) raspberries seems to be fruiting. My sweet peas are producing a small bunch for me each day so I'm happy with that. I intend to be much more organised for next year and grow some carrots, onions and salad stuff.

It's been a hot start to the day here but rain forecast overnight on Wednesday.

Have a productive day everyone 

WM

Dustyevsky

Working_Mum said:

Nothing I do ever stands up to scrutiny so please ignore this is slightly on the wonk - I blame the fact that the existing pond reservoir and stand is bent out of shape because of the weight of the slate monolith which was there when I moved in

Those supporting bases for water features were never strong enough. I did one at school, and had to support the water stone with concrete reinforcement mesh. Of course, the water went rusty!  It didn't matter much; within a year the children had burned out the pump by forcing stones etc down the hole!

I think it's far better to get on with things, creatively using and re-using materials, as you've done, than fiddle-about  for ages, seeking perfection, or saving up to get someone else to achieve it. Chances are, 'someone' else will give people things they didn't want, or anticipate, too!

All you've done looks good to me.

pink_poppy

That's looking good so far, WM. I like the pattern of the bricks you've laid - it's given me some ideas.

taff, the smell of garlic on other people gives me the boak. If I've also eaten garlic I'm fine though. Weird.

I think you need to add 'hold your nose' to that 'down in one', Dusty    Funny that I was going to use the word naff to describe that statue, but didn't want to offend anyone who liked it. Your orange courtesy car sounds interesting...

wort, hope you enjoyed your Pimms on Sunday  

Anyone see the Aurora or Perseids last night?? I didn't. I was up at just after midnight and the stars looked good - I was too tired to stay up though.

We had a nice rainbow earlier - it was fairly flat (as in not a high arc) and the colours were wider than usual. It's a bit grey now and forecast rain pretty much all day.

-taff

That's a lovely job WM. I like seeing people do things to their gardens and I love a work in progress..I woudn't worry about slight wonkines either, everything I've done so far will be quite easily dismantled if needs be, even the raised beds. I don't want to set things in stone until I'm sure what's going on. I like your brick stands, love a brick path too. I'm with Dusty on the using things you have to do stuff. I must have have moved one set of paving stones five times so far at least. And I also like that when I see people do things, I want to do something too, very inspirational..and that goes for all of you you know....

I used to have an orange Mark 2 ford escort, loved that thing. A Vicars son owned it before me, I found his stash of prophylactics in the steering wheel well behind the logo cover...

LessImpecunious

pink_poppy said:

I think you need to add 'hold your nose' to that 'down in one', Dusty

I was thinking it sounded like a good salad dressing