Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

I'm so envious of your Aurora Poppy, and thanks for the sunsets. I've forgotten what they look like here for dense cloud. Ditto stars

Yep it chucked it down last night in bucket loads but is supposed to be sunny spells for the rest of the day. Too wet to go outside but the sun shows dirt I thought wasn't there so it's housework. Don't think it's worth putting washing out even with a wind because it's so damp out there.

I haven't watched Gardeners World/Beechgrove/Gardeners Questiontime for ages so there may be some catching up while I polish and vac.

I did take a wander out there to try and work out how to move everything around what with the invasive tree roots in my veg plot and the rats using the compost bin to reach the apples. Sheesh I don't want to do all that but I don't think pretending it's not happening will help.

I'm short of gardening pics so I may have to do something simple.

Meanwhile on the theme of autumn more birds

The ones that couldn't get on the wire were queuing nearby

pink_poppy

I'm not sure about those Lulu tomatoes, Dusty, they don't look very appetising, although I'll take your word for it that they taste nice. I prefer the look of the wee one.

I'm going to try the coffee/cocoa drink, YBE, sounds like something I would like. Unrelated (sort of), but have you seen that you can get Tiramisu Lindt bawz now?? I've got a box stashed away - bought in Tesco for £4.50 on Clubcard. And Baileys is £13 for 1L (DH bought 3 bottles of that...)

wort, have a lovely holiday. Definitely get your warm bedding on for when you get home, I really appreciated it last night - brushed cotton especially is like sleeping on marshmallows

Another brilliant bird photo, twopenny, so funny that they're queuing up    
We seem to be a bit thin on the ground with birds lately. I've heard the click click of a wren in the garden and I've seen the robin a couple of times, but the blackbirds have pretty much disappeared. Still a few sparrows on the suet block though.

It's really chilly in the shade here, but nice in the sun. I've just brought my washing inside because it started to spit, but of course it's stopped now. Never mind, it's all mostly dry.

Rubbish Milky Way photo from last night... it looks better zoomed in on my phone    

pink_poppy

A slightly less bad pic??...    

LessImpecunious

I think both your Milky Way photos are fab Poppy - much better than my moonshot ...

On topic of photos, and as a follow up to 2P's bird photo competition I just came across the Comedy Wildlife photo competition, which I think folks might enjoy: https://www.comedywildlifephoto.com/gallery/finalists/2024_finalists.php

Dustyevsky

I lost my evening post to a power cut yesterday. It went something like:

"There's nowt wrong with your Milky Way photos, pp. It's asking a bit much of a phone to capture the enormity of the universe! The best way to do that is just lie down and look up at it. We're very lucky to know a little more about what we're looking at than most previous generations. Where we're unlucky is often not having the dark skies needed, but you in the nether regions don't have that problem! It wouldn't be too bad where I am, either, were it not for a neighbour with a new LED light they leave on all night!

The Lulus were grown for cooking, or maybe slicing to go with burgers etc. They taste better than they look! Mrs Dusty likes them, so I'll probably grow one or two plants again. Personally, I don't think Sungold can be beaten as an 'eat anytime' tomato, but I'll try the Divinity toms Farway recommended last year and also keep Floridity and Datlo in the loop. The Veranda Red did OK too, being undemanding, and not blighted in the polytunnel. We won't bother with the Gardeners' Ecstasy, but that's not to say others wouldn't like it. It's all very subjective!

We're not seeing many blackbirds at present. I'm not sure about other species, as we don't feed at this time of the year. A robin made such a mess of the car on the hedge side, we've had to park it elsewhere. I think it must have spent days fighting with its own reflection, judging by the amount of poo!   The sparrows are always with us; no shortage here.

Have a grand, warm holiday in Andalusia, wort. I hear it's lovely at this time of year. The only bit I'd avoid is around Almeria, which is polytunnel city! ....."

I think that was it.

Yesterday was far nicer than predicted here. The coast may have had heavy showers and strong winds, though. 2p will no doubt report. We gardened and I chopped-up loads of logs, because they never supply them properly prepped at the prices we pay.

Love the wildlife photos, Less. What a treat to wake up to.

Whoops, almost forgot....this is 3/4 of my squash harvest! They were all the same variety, and in previous years we've had 80 or more from a similar sized patch! 

YoungBlueEyes

Queueing birds, that's brilliant 2p! Is that a load of starlings is it?  Thanks for the reminder about BeechGrove, I've not seen the last few episodes, stoopid brain forgot to remind me look for it on catchup. Grrr.  Re your gardening jobs, could you do the biggest thing first? That way everything that comes after it will be easier  

Tiramisu Lindt pp?! Never heard of it! Might have to umm reconfigure my 'lifestyle choices' to squeeze them in Coffee/cocoa is on the bitter side of things, coffee/hot choc is sweeter. Depends what you like but I think they're both lovely Your photos are fine if I open them in another tab, you can see it all really clearly   

What's occurring with your squash patch then Dusty? So many to so few... Sharp lack of blackies here too actually, jeez I do miss them, and no sparrows either. Merlin id app thing is picking up all sorts but nothing blackie sized - they're either wee birds or big bu99ers. There's actually been a bit of a 'if your name's not colourful you're not coming in' vibe these last few days. I've had (in no particular order) bluetits, goldfinches, pink-footed geese, yellow-legged gulls, grey wagtails, and a tawny owl. I'm sure I heard a bat when I was up first thing this morning but Merlin evidently doesn't do bats.

OT Sunny and really quite cool and a bit cloudy here. They said it'd be lovely and dry yesterday, it therefore rained on and off all day. Another lovely sunny cool dry day today, possibly. The 'feels like' was 0'c when I got up

OffTopic (but most of my posts are so it's nowt fresh) - RIP Dame Maggie Smith. God love ya   I'll stick even more "possibly's" into my posts, a la your Lady In The Van character. 

YoungBlueEyes

Those animal comedy pics are brilliant Less, I enjoyed that  

YoungBlueEyes

Does Rottery Acres have to have a garden...? 

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/151882142#/?channel=RES_BUY

(Lifted from the Have a Look at This thread.) 

Farway

Big weather change, sun's out, no wind, but brrr, very chilly. The weather thingy say could be record low temp tomorrow, for Sept, here. Just as well I have the ripe outdoor toms picked.

Once the sun warms up a tad, I'm going to harvest my grapes, all six bunches, plus I spotted, from the bedroom window, a windfall apple.

I'll check my sweetcorn while mooching about, and try to remember to get some apple cuttings to try out.

Nice Milky Way pics PP, it was our first clear night last night, no Milky Way. But I'm surrounded by all sorts of garden & security lights, plus next door leave the kitchen light on for their dogs, so I count it lucky to see any stars some nights.

Dustyevsky said:

The Lulus were grown for cooking, or maybe slicing to go with burgers etc. They taste better than they look! Mrs Dusty likes them, so I'll probably grow one or two plants again. Personally, I don't think Sungold can be beaten as an 'eat anytime' tomato, but I'll try the Divinity toms Farway recommended last year and also keep Floridity and Datlo in the loop. The Veranda Red did OK too, being undemanding, and not blighted in the polytunnel. We won't bother with the Gardeners' Ecstasy, but that's not to say others wouldn't like it. It's all very subjective!

I hope Divinity works for you & Mrs D, but at least you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you didn't pay full price for the seeds, which makes most things taste better.

My surprise one from this year was the Rubylicous, blight free as promised, and once ripe quite tasty. If only the cherry type toms were a bit larger. It was some of these I picked yesterday, along with last of the Divinity.

pink_poppy

I was draped over the car looking up at the Milky Way - I just hope the neighbours didn't see me   

Do you know what happened with the squash this year, Dusty?? The dreaded slugs?? They do seem to have been particularly bad this year. The squash you have look good though.
Bah to neighbours with all night long security lights - that would annoy me. I'm always surprised how well we can see the stars on a clear night because we do have street lights dotted around.

YBE, sorry, forget I mentioned the Tiramisu - silly me for not thinking about your diet restrictions.
I tried the coffee/hot choc drink yesterday and it was nice. Very rich, but that's possibly because I made the coffee in the cafetiere and it was a bit strong (cue me bouncing off the walls after   ).

It's chilly here too, Farway. My first thought when looking outside this morning was urgh. It had obviously been raining overnight and it just looked dreich.
Hope your grapes taste delicious   

I noticed the cherry tree down the road has some leaves changing colour - looks very autumnal out there today. It's brightened up a bit this afternoon, but the fire will definitely be going on again tonight...