Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

 Waterfalls in your garage doesn't sound good  
I wish our fire warmed the rest of the house...

Maybe Farway's garage is like our barn, with gaps between some bricks immediately above the floor slab? In our case, that was done for washing down after the cow/goats had been milked. Like everything here, it was designed badly, and the gaps blocked easily, but not enough to prevent water from coming in under surface flooding conditions.

Farway

A morning without rain, that's a first in a few days, even sort of glowing clouds with sun trying to bust out.

Very soggy underfoot though, and cold, so zero gardening again.

I'd like to clear away the dead dahlias & tom stalks but too cold & damp for me right now

I'm uncertain about my pelargoniums, only cheapo from Morries, I expected them to be dead by now but still going on despite the cold / frost

I've nothing to put in their space, so tempted to leave & see if they will survive.

Always the way, the choice ones die at once, the indifferent linger on

I'll get a pic & let you see what I'm on about

DT Brown has clearance seeds, maybe chance to try those expensive F1 varieties?

Some seed in our sale has a shorter sow by date and you may get packets stating sow by December 2025. We can reassure you that all the seed is quality tested and 100% guaranteed until the end of the Sow by Date

Discount will automatically apply at the checkout

https://www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk/collections/sale?utm_id=01JGXM70Q9YVQS09TKMAGH14WZ&_kx=-bdv4GkDAg57Ud-BA4tZCCWVGIlULULCbRaxkzDf5g4.SHCV6i

Oooh, a rainbow Dusty, nothing that exciting in my sky

pink_poppy

I hope you managed to find your big coat, AR. I'm just back from a walk to the post office and back - it didn't look too bad outside, but the paths were treacherous and there was an icy wind - my ears were freezing and that was with a woolly hat on  

There was a very faint rainbow while I was out for a walk yesterday, Dusty. I could see the bad weather heading towards me so headed home, but the sleet managed to catch up with me. I did stop to take a pic though...


Someone was trying very hard to blend in, but I don't think he/she was fooling anyone    

Farway, are you going to order any F1 seeds?? I'm still not ready for seeds or plants - maybe next year.

Farway

pink_poppy said:

Someone was trying very hard to blend in, but I don't think he/she was fooling anyone    

Farway, are you going to order any F1 seeds?? I'm still not ready for seeds or plants - maybe next year.

He didn't fool me!

Still tempted, but I may not this time

There are some goodies in there though.

Veranda Red tom I think Dusty likes, Hurst Green shaft pea, a good un, Cobra climbing French, another good un, bronze fennel, goes on forever, and an outdoor cuc I spotted, all very tempting

twopenny

We had rainbows here too Dusty. I d on't believe them any more.

Nothing doing today, same old problems and unable to get into the garden for the cold so I won't bore you with it.

However, I haven't watched GW this year and started last night. My blood pressure dropped immensely   So I think it's a thing for these miserable cold days. Bluey likes the cold so she should be alright.

Love the seals, what treasures you have up there Poppy   Just need some heat...........I'll go with you on that. I can either be warm and stressed or cold. You're situation did make me think of my time in Australia, we had wood burners and the chimney was central and went up the centre of the floors giving just enough warmth to the sleeping areas. Can't do that without starting afresh with the build in this country.

ArbitraryRandom

Had a good train journey and weather was lovely in Cardiff when I arrived in the afternoon - still cold, but bright/sunny. 

Had a fairly free afternoon (some meetings, but on my phone) so spent a good few hours walking around. So much has changed in the last few years I found myself getting lost (and I lived here for a decade!). All tired out now and early start so enjoying a hotel cuppa before bed  

Dustyevsky

The siren seed companies have been singing to me too, Farway, but I've resisted. I remember the problems I had last year with fickle composts and lack of sunshine. My approach this year will be to sow what I have, (not inconsiderable! ) and see how things play out with a more soil-based mix. If it hadn't been for the toms, experiences in '24 might have driven me to drink, or even golf!

twopenny said:

We had rainbows here too Dusty. I don't believe them any more..

I believe in the beautiful, natural ones.   Perhaps I'd better not say any more!

Farway said:

Veranda Red tom I think Dusty likes,

He found it good enough, especially for those with little space or facilities for the taller sort. Once it was producing, a friend never ran out of small toms. I'll grow some again, but I've something else to try as well. There's always a new one, isn't there!

I think we had something of a Cardiff day here too, Arb. There were some big lumps of rainy stuff between here and there, though! I wondered if 2p was having those. In the sunshine, we hit 5c, so I had a few hours, outdoors collecting-up the remainder of the willow firewood. The big cherry tree is still daring me, but I won't cut it until I have a calm day and the ride-on to pull it, so it falls roughly  the right way.

I’m not sure why your house is so cold, pp. If I remember rightly, we have the same model of wood burner. Right now, the living room it's in is at 23c, and I'm at around 21c in the office, a hallway from there. It's freezing outside. We can't expect to heat the whole bungalow with just a 5kW wood burner on a night like this, so the central heating will go on for an hour at 22.00, to warm the bedrooms. Being pensioners, we often have the wood burner ticking-over through the day, so the solid brick walls in the centre of the bungalow act a like storage  radiators. The bought-in wood we use comes at a considerable cost: about £750 (that may make you feel better! )  As we make/barter another £250 -£300 worth of logs ourselves, it's about £1k annually just to run the wood fire.

Love the heron hanging out with the seals, and using them for camouflage, or to stir up things to eat! I saw our owl setting off on patrol yesterday evening. He/she reminded me, Rosemoor have several. This one's only £1650!

-taff

The only trouble with moving is having to start all over again. I'd be loathe to leave my garden after I've spent so much time on it, but then, lots of stuff is in pots so I'd just have to find someone to move it I'm considering it too. Missed all the meteorites, cloud, snow and rain put paid to clear skies.

Liking your seahorse swans PP. Gers on the daily thread felt the earthquake in Oban too...[or near Oban] And I liked your Sesame Street photo, one of these things is not like the others...

Arb, I was in the same boat with haircuts, until I lost it all and discovered very short hair is much easier, so now I go to random cutters in walk in places and get myself scalped every three months or so. So much easier [ and occasionally a better job than I used to do on myself ] I lived in Cardiff too for a while in the eighties, loved it, but I hardly recognise a lot of it now whenever I go back.

Farway, your gas fire is what warmed me in the eighties living in Cardiff and coincedentally where I posted my plastic tea set when I was about four, they just went straight through the bars and went up with a whoosh waterfalls? can you charge per view?

Nice rainbow Dusty. I'm with you on the organising of seed. I need to Make Plans especially for succession sowing this year. Do you ever keep your woodburner all night? I've used peat bricks [ yes, I know] but obviously not now but I do want to keep it in on the odd occasion when it's blummin constantly cold, like now because it's the main way we heat the house. All suggestions welcome...

In other news I have finally put new handles on the shovel and spade [ only two, not four arf arf] and linseed oiled the beejesus out of all the wooden handle tools. I think I will allotment tomorrow and see what it looks like now. Did the grass ever stop growing this winter?

twopenny

Hmmm that sounds very industrious Taff. Hope you find your allotment thriving. The wet should be good for getting the worms going.

Dusty, yes, apparant sunshine then massive black clouds coming over and knife like hail and big blobs of rain.

Fairly baltic all day.

Arbs, any interesting plants up there in the foreign climes?

Dustyevsky

-taff said:

The only trouble with moving is having to start all over again. I'd be loathe to leave my garden after I've spent so much time on it, but then, lots of stuff is in pots so I'd just have to find someone to move it I'm considering it too.

Do you ever keep your woodburner all night? I've used peat bricks [ yes, I know] but obviously not now but I do want to keep it in on the odd occasion when it's blummin constantly cold, like now because it's the main way we heat the house. All suggestions welcome...

Did the grass ever stop growing this winter?

Elderly neighbours (they're younger than me! ) who moved back 'oop norf' for health reasons, found their potted garden and chairs etc didn't fit in the removal lorry. It's still in our yard and barn. I'm told a lorry is coming in around a week's time to remove it. The pots are huge with evergreens in them, 8' tall. Having moved these once on sack trucks, I may find I'm away visiting someone on the day in question!

Our wood burner stays in all night. If you're a man of a certain age, sleeping all night without a trip to the bathroom is almost impossible, so throwing a few logs in on the way is no biggie! Experience teaches the fire will stay in until about 04.00 otherwise, but I've revived it as late as 05.00. Doesn't your OH go on night patrol?

Incidentally, when I was speaking of hoovering logs, pp, it was a reference to the messy nature of ours, which typically come covered in moss and lichen. The ones from the forestry chap aren't clean either. My friend who buys kiln-dried finds them clean enough, but pays dearly for that.

No, the grass hasn't stopped growing here, and it's too squidgy and wet to do anything about it. 

Tomorrow morning is promised to be our coldest this week, at -4c, but I read things could be far more severe elsewhere.

twopenny said:

Dusty, yes, apparant sunshine then massive black clouds coming over and knife like hail and big blobs of rain.

Fairly baltic all day

I had to put a hat and gloves on, which is my way of deciding if it's 'cold.' The afternoon hail reached us just as I'd dismantled the chain saw to clean it on an outdoor bench. Otherwise, it was OK in the sunshine, or in the polytunnel.

I think today looks like one for staying indoors. Snow or sleet later....

Looks like I'm first to post these this year. Not ours, I might add!