Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

" Must be nice with working heating after so long without. Enjoy it, I was sipping the posh drinking choc yesterday under my heated throw, decided if I cannot get out in the garden I may as well enjoy the enforced idleness."

Indeed Farway. My inclination is to do the same as you. Perhaps it's a good thing to take a break from all the things you feel you must or are expected to do.

Unfortunately life just keeps throwing 'stuff' at me so I may try a short boring trip out and then indulge. But I don't think that quite works the same.

Talking of gardening lol, my spring/autumn patch in the corner is trying hard and that at least is doing it's job.

I wanted to go and have a look but disturbed 2 Blackbirds feeding. Think they've been at it all morning. They sat each end of the fence and looked resentfully at me until I gave in and came inside.

Dustyevsky

twopenny said:

Feeling a tad better today at last but then I haven't done much!

It has been a dire winter here, no clear nights with glittering stars at all, just murk day and night.

The garden really does look dreadful but the birds seem to like it which is a good thing.

You shouldn't worry about 'not doing much.' When you're well, and the season's right, you do lots. The trouble is, we gardeners are 'doers,' so it irks when weather and circumstances conspire to prevent us from 'doing.' Right now, I'm waiting for the 'window man,' when I could be nipping outside to cut the old leaves from the hellebores. It's a 45-minute job; just the right sort of thing for a cold, miserable day. If I don't do it, I know I'll feel guilty!

Regardless, even if the garden is all soggy and looks terrible, we old hands know it will make a remarkable recovery once spring comes around.

Working_Mum said:

I attended a talk last night which was really interesting:- Gardens Locations of Danger or Delight?

Who'd have thought that the spaces we associate with peace and joy were once seen as dens of iniquity! Fascinating and got me wondering how my little patch would have been interpreted in bygone times!

In other news I have deleted Tw1tter and !nsta from my phone - my one woman campaign against idiot billionaires.

Dens of iniquity? Not quite, but here's a shady corner of one garden where our King used to meet the Queen, when perhaps they should both have been somewhere else! 
As for media billionaires.....I used to do Panto. They put on a good show. The people doing the prompting are in the wings, and one never gets to see them. At the Committee meeting on Monday, we considered improving our advertising. "OK" said someone, "who's on Faceache? " A long silence followed.

Farway said:

A bit of sunshine by Proxy, DGS is flying to Greece, Athens on a school trip this lunchtime, from Heathrow. 

Times they are a changing, which is no bad thing, my one and only school trip was a day trip, by train, from Hayes to Portsmouth, the only similarity is Hayes is near Heathrow.!

Sunny & 60F in Athens.

School trip to Portsmouth?? You were lucky! Cue 4 Yorkshiremen.....

In our 6th Form, I recall there was a trip to Heidelberg for those doing German, and there was also a field trip to Lundy Island for the biologists. Sadly, I found out about the Lundy trip too late to make biology one of my options, though my interest was almost entirely generated by a young lady who had. Hmm....I think we're almost back to iniquitous thoughts! Do I stand in the naughty corner?

Farway

Dustyevsky said:

As for media billionaires.....I used to do Panto. They put on a good show. The people doing the prompting are in the wings, and one never gets to see them. At the Committee meeting on Monday, we considered improving our advertising. "OK" said someone, "who's on Faceache? " A long silence followed.

My volunteer group have a FB site, one of the more knowledgable set it up. .

Not used much, but we did find it handy to advertise for a cleaner on there, presumably loads of kids volunteering their Mum. Even had one applicant from abroad, but that was before we knew how to add the local area only filter.

Handy for advertising events, cos it's read these days by the sort of people who go or like to this sort of thing, car boots, lost cats, pictures of Evri parcel on wrong doorstep, abandoned cars, what was the emergency helicopter doing near Dusty's?

OK, made last one up , but FB can be handy for local groups, as long as filters are correct

Also, useful for Free tomato plants etc

twopenny

What a lovely corner Dusty. I'd like one of those

Thank you for the uplifting talk. That was quite beautifully worded. I almost didn't recognise you

I'm better at doing nothing on a sunny day than a winter one.

Just to show a little promise of spring.............not a lot.............just a little

Not quite up to Dustys but any day now with a bit of sunshine I'll photo the whole steps!

Dustyevsky

twopenny said:

What a lovely corner Dusty. I'd like one of those

So would I, but we're talking £ millions. Very nice owners, though. Not new money. 

Your neat corner is much easier to maintain, and come to that, so is mine, though not so tidy. It's why I don't hanker after anything more than we have. If the truth were told, I wouldn't mind downsizing. It's finding the right plot. We had to wait in rented accommodation for 9 months to get this, and it could easily have been 2 years.

Farway said:

FB can be handy for local groups, as long as filters are correct

Also, useful for Free tomato plants etc

I know. It's the time these things steal, if you're not careful. Someone close to me has an account, but keeps it a secret. She spends a lot of time arguing about bird flu with numpties. I'm over all that!   

I'm looking forward to a better weather day, today. The signs were all there last night:

While I took the picture above, the big river delivery lady screeched to a halt, jumped out of her van and did the same. She might have been running late, but she had her priorities right.

Farway

Dustyevsky said:

I'm looking forward to a better weather day, today. The signs were all there last night:

The signs were correct , it's blue sky all the way this morning, still very cold though but with clear overnight sky in January no surprise there.

Hopefully the sun warms the place up & I can get out and search for some Spring signs something like 2Ps, will do.

Once it warms, my intention is getting out the back garden and maybe start clearing the dead nasturtium "vines" and fern fronds

Could even go daft & takes down the bean canes before they fall down, but by then it may depend on my aches percentage

twopenny

Wonderful blue sky and sunshine this morning but yes, darn cold.

You can't win this time of year. Thermals are warming over the radiator ready for me to try a walk - that ends with a coffee. Hopefully it will be warm enough to sit outside the cafe and watch the squirells. They're ok when they're someone elses

I doubt gardening is on the cards yet, some moss raking perhaps. But this time of year the garden is in shade still and sodden so it's not inviting.

But I'll take Dustys advice, it will be done eventually.

It's going to be a sling stuff in and you get what you get year it seems. Pots of bulbs everywhere and more to pot. But just colour will be nice.

Looking at my lovely Daphne it seems to be hanging onto life better. I need to read up on how to look after it. I guess that's why you don't see many in gardens. They are picky.

Even in my tiny plot it's too far away. Needs to come nearer to enjoy the colour and scent. Goodness knows where though.

ArbitraryRandom

Starting on topic, It's lovely blue skies here. Warm in the sun even though the gauge says a max of 7. Nice change from the three days of near constant drizzle earlier in the week. 

I'm being tempted to plant out some of my potatoes... I don't know if this is all going to change on a dime and we're going to have some late Feb/March frosts (or even snow), but it's been so mild recently that it might be worth risking a tub or two. I also need to build the cold frame I bought a couple of years ago, and decide if I want to build more trellis for my beans or if the three I used last year will be enough again. If I'm not going to build them then I should probably move the boxes out of the corner of the lounge where they've been since last summer...  

Spent several hours this week deep cleaning the kitchen. I'm not going to say there was anything wrong with it before, but you can't half tell a difference now it's done. I should probably do it more often than once a year, but next week I'm shifting focus to the bathroom. 

I never had the twit/face app, but I have recently deleted the clock app. Not for any political reason, and it was a great way to find/learn from new artists, but because it was far too easy to loose time to it and I don't need anything else stopping me from sleeping at a reasonable time! 

Dustyevsky

ArbitraryRandom said:

Starting on topic, It's lovely blue skies here. Warm in the sun even though the gauge says a max of 7. Nice change from the three days of near constant drizzle earlier in the week. 

A lovely bright day here too, until about 10 minutes ago, when it clouded-up. We're due rain tonight. However, the cutting NW wind, now shifting SW, has kept me inside, apart from doing compulsory chores, like mucking out hens, fetching logs and a bit of careful watering in the poly. It's been colder than they're letting-on!   "Feels like 6c".....my bottom!  I'd say it felt more like 2c, but the dry interlude was worth having. Hopefully, 2p found more shelter than me.

Now our 4th load of logs are in the shed, like you Arb, I'm hoping for a mild February and March. It's great to think my winter fuel allowance might soon be helping to build the place where all those transatlantic electric planes will be touching down in a few years time.  I'm not sure who'll be on them, mind, as I thought we were all to be bankrupt and happy by then. It's a funny old world. On the same page, I see the first person to be convicted of 'aggressive cyber-farting' has had to shell-out nearly £300, so it looks like logs are still much cheaper than gas!

(Edited for accuracy)

-taff

Beautiful day here, sunny, dry and it may have been nippy, but work atthe allotment soon warmed me up. I haven't been for nearly six weeks between Christmas, New Year, Storms and rain etc, but I discovered my garlic is six inxhes high and spaced much better than I remember doing,  the field beans are little rosettes on the bed, so I treated them both to some weeding with waterproof gloves [ cool job in case anyone is interested] . Then I dug up most of the teasel from last year that's due to sprout this year, and replanted some for the birds in a line so I know where it is, started a new compost heap, raked the leaves, chopped two braches off the apple tree because personally, I'd rather the shed stayed in one piece [ it was growing on the roof of it], mened [ kind of] the guttering on it, raked the leaves up and chucked them ont he compost heap [new side] and planted my four asparagus crowns which turned into six, [like that in the packet, not my fault honest guv] and planted three Jerusalem artichokes. I also moved a semi circle thing of metal mesh over the beans to stop the pigeons from munching. Now that I've written it down it sounds a lot more than it felt like, even if my body is telling me it was double that...

That's a beautiul corner Dusty, and the same for yours 2P even if the money is not equitable.

Arb, I just checked my potatoes, I've managed to order two maincrop and one first early, which was no the plan, it was supposed ot be one of each type...ah well...I'm planning on putting them in in March so now I have to find somewhere to keep them not chitting for another couple of weeks...damn it.

I just had to google a Dpahe, sounds lovely, I can see an addition coming to the garden but omre research needed I think.

I did go to the GC yesterdya with a friend to use my birthday present of a free cake and beverage for two and unfortunately, I came away with another raised bed  to make [ 20 quid off though! still not cheap!] , some brassica seeds, a couple of hellebores for my sister from the cheap shelf and a different fern for me...I think the bed will make one cicular one and the sides can go to make another one much bigger,

I know it hasn't but having got out today, it does feel like more spring has sprung..p.s. Farway, if they aren't rotten or going to be, leave them there