Awful weather - typical Brits talk

wort

PP stunning sparrowhawk, 
Taff my luck with erigeron is down to neglect definitely, I’ve never watered or fed it. You on the other hand have enjoyed success with the rocket that I failed miserably with. I only had a couple of tiny leaves off it then it bolted.
Yesterday was an ideal garden day, but I had a hair appointment then called to see dsis and we had a drink or two. But seeing the sun and not having to put a big coat ,gloves and scarf on was great.

wort

2p I’m still in socks and slippers, I love being barefoot,but after having foot problems which then caused back pain I was advised by the physio not to walk barefoot,but wear supportive shoes for me that means arch support and rocker bases. ( this is not medical advise etc) I had to put the heating on this morning to take the chill off.

Dusty funny magpie photo,wonder what the discussion was. We have around a dozen or more living in the trees at the end of the road they don’t half make a lot of noise.
Pp I had pyracantha but it got too big and cutting it back is a lethal job with the spikes. It had already migrated to the other side of my back wall onto the field by the time I got rid of mine, and I need to keep an eye on that and for it trying to get back in my garden.🙄 
Farway well done getting the plants, and good idea to have delivery sometimes it’s worth it. My tete a tetes are flowering now, the sun yesterday must have opened them up.

today is back to grey,cold and rain forcast.

Farway

Sunny start, but clouding over & rain coming from Dustywards.

If the rain keeps off a bit longer I may get round to putting some of my new BFB on the pots at the front, tete a tetes are now out, no sign of Jetfires, crashed & burned I guess

I also have some mystery shoots coming up, could be forgotten daffs?

My rocket, on window sill, has geminated, only tiny but at least they're alive

I was hoping to sow some dwarf dahlias today, but the seed packet has gone AWOL I'll have another hunt later, famous last words "can't be far away"

If I fail to find them, I expect I'll find something else I'd forgotten about & sow that

Had it been sunny like yesterday, I would have sprinkled some erigeron into the front steps cracks. But thinking on, now I have been tempted by cheap lobelia seeds, on the way, a few of those dribbled in the cracks as well?

Sod's law of course, I have self sown Honesty popping up from one step crack, very unlikely to come to anything

Hope garden dries out a bit 2P, mines still a bit soggy.

That's the trouble with raspberries, nice, but they do go walkabout

Not yet managed to squelch out and check the Snake's Heads

Dustyevsky

Farway said:

Sunny start, but clouding over & rain coming from Dustywards.

If the rain keeps off a bit longer I may get round to putting some of my new BFB on the pots at the front,

Sorry about that.   You may have time for the BFB; it's only just started to rain here, honest!   I say that because on one YouTube video I watched this morning, the originator claimed 80% of Britons now realise much of what they've been told, over the last 5 years in particular, has been lies or half-truths. Gosh! Whatever next? People saying they're qualified to do things they haven't the first idea about? Nah, surely not? We can't have folk doing important stuff like...err...boiler servicing, if they've only made the tea in the factory making thermocouples.

But I digress, mainly because there wasn't a whole heap of gardening going on here yesterday. After exhuming the rest of the branches from the stream area and dragging them up the slope, I was cream-crackered in the knee department. So, it was into the poly and planting-out the rest of our cut & come again salad greens. Now the days are longer, the original plants are romping away well, so I'm getting the equivalent of a £1.20 supermarket bagful on each cutting.

As promised, I also brought a small table into the conservatory ready to take the propagator. As we still had guests it wasn't connected-up, but we will be ready to go this week. The Bishop's progeny dahlias will feature, so maybe we can have a race?

wort said:
Yesterday was an ideal garden day, but I had a hair appointment then called to see dsis and we had a drink or two.....

Yeah, sometimes it goes that way!

Not much in the photo cupboard, so here's a picture of some hazels I cut and stacked, ready to turn into tomato supports etc.

twopenny

Lunatic, your robin photo is front home page

Odd how some things work for some people and not for others.

I've never managed to sucessfully grow Rocket or any of the other winter salad stuff. I may have a go with the old seeds that got put away in disgust after my last attempt.

It all looks so easy when the gardening programmes do it.

Erigi-whatsit I have to chop back on a regular basis and pull up where it's seeded inconveniently because it doesn't half take over.

Wort I tried the arch support insoles. They worked  brilliantly for a while but not now.

Sitting here with the wild wind and the rain instead of outside in the sun like yesterday. Oh it was lovely just putting on one set of clothes!

I guess gardening is out today. So I guess varnishing the cupboard handles I stripped yesterday should be the thing to do.

Turning out cupboards as what I have from the weather when it was good English weather is being replaced largely by thermals and waterproofs.

I'm not in the mood at all for that stuff. Inspired by a touch of spring yesterday I want to be out in the fresh air.

Yes the Tete a Tete are out and the ones in pots are a lovely cheerful colour, a bit at odds with the weather............the flowers, bulbs at the front are still just bashed into the ground.

TaTete really are good value in this climate. My previous neighbours garden is awash with cyclamen spilling across the pebbles like a ballerinas dress and looking gorgeous. I'm thinking of suggesting that I can 'neaten them up' for them and ask for the spare corms

-taff

Ooo, spare corms...another thing that has never come back from planting in the front garden.

As far as rocket, pick a spot a couple of foot or 18 inches square, sow thickly all over. Thin when you need to. Same with flat leaf parsley. That's my approach I also had a bit that self seeded in another part, so it will happen. 

I don't think I have enough dry spaces for the erigeron. I would like a pointless stone wall for random prettienss though, so....

Beautifuly sunny yesterday so of course I stayed in and did some sewing [ because until the sewing was done can't make the cats a walking level to the cat flap box or me a box for the worktop] so today is not sunny, very windy and threatening rain. I'll probably go to the allotment for an hour or two anyway if the rain holds off.

Wort, I just wear fit flops now, expensive but good, or at least the old style of them was, not so fussed on the new narow styles.

I don't mind doing a dahlia watch along to see how your seeds sprout...

Well done on alexanders too.I think I would like some for the alotment so I will mosey to a nursery quite close when it opens in March and see if I can get some...Time for some planning I think.

Hope the aches and pains all lfy away with potential spring sun!

pink_poppy

Taff, I blame fat flops (flip flop style) for my Achilles tendon problem as I used to wear them all the time and scrunched my toes up to keep them on while walking. 

Congratulations lunatic - it was a lovely photo 😊

twopenny, I love your description of your neighbour’s cyclamen looking like a ballerina dress. My HB cyclamen never did come back.

Dusty, your salad greens sound good - I wish I had a poly. Or a greenhouse 😉

Farway, I think I’m thinking of a different plant for the Erigeron. I like to see plants spilling out of cracks in steps or walls - it always looks so pretty. Btw, it’s the sea holly plant I’m getting confused with.

wort, the sparrowhawk pic was taken through my filthy kitchen window (filthy windows are a common theme in this house 😂) it flew off my wonky whirly about a second after I took the pic so I was pleased I’d caught it in time.

We’ve had 50mph winds and torrential rain this morning - I’m glad we travelled back from late MiL’s house last night as I’ve been reading this morning about trees down on the route we took. It’s calmed down a bit this afternoon, but I think we’re due more wind and rain later today ☔️ 

YoungBlueEyes

Afternoon folks  

Jeez there's some good pics on here (as ever). The robins and sparrowhawk and ducks in a row are belters Congrats on the front page Luna  

Now, where will I get one of those gun-toting cigar-chomping booted killer fish things from then? I could do with a couple actually. One out the front and one for work. And are they remote controlled...? I'll be wanting three so I've a spare to hand  

Was it Wed or Thurs that I came in from work and opened the conservatory doors to let the heat into the house. It's all kinds of wrong is that. Was lovely though, short lived but lovely. It's raining and cold and windy and miserable out there again now, which is worse but right.

We've been down to bottomleftlandia this weekend where we went to see a man about a car - going back in a couple of weeks to pick it up :clapping: It's a disgrace you've to go all that far just to get a not-quite-banger, but the fellah there says it's a common thing now. People will travel miles cos they're so few and far between. So I'll soon be sans Swift and have a non-swish, high-ish mileage polo that wants a bit of fettling, and I can hardly wait Had to chuckle on the way down there - himself's satnav confidently announced "SouthWest" and I thought jeez sure that didn't take long, but the map thing showed us just off the bottom of Derby You know you're a northerner when Derby = south west ha haa!

Here is this week's absolutely free but absolutely not legal advice made-y upp-y story that didn't happen. Etc. If you aren't practically at the end of your house buying journey then you aren't going to make it before the stamp duty changes. Really you're not. Things not to do in this situation include 1) coming in and threatening and then pleading with the phone answering chai wallah ette (who has absolutely no control over anything of significance), and 2) coming back an hour later with £10k, in cash, "for anyone who can get it fu**in done".  If you were too late off the starting line, it's tough titties pal.

OT still raining and grey but next week looks to have a few nice days in it, possibly.

Farway

Rain still not here, looks glum & gloomy out though

YoungBlueEyes said:

We've been down to bottomleftlandia this weekend where we went to see a man about a car - going back in a couple of weeks to pick it up :clapping: It's a disgrace you've to go all that far just to get a not-quite-banger, but the fellah there says it's a common thing now. People will travel miles cos they're so few and far between. So I'll soon be sans Swift and have a non-swish, high-ish mileage polo that wants a bit of fettling, and I can hardly wait Had to chuckle on the way down there - himself's satnav confidently announced "SouthWest" and I thought jeez sure that didn't take long, but the map thing showed us just off the bottom of Derby You know you're a northerner when Derby = south west ha haa!

Here is this week's absolutely free but absolutely not legal advice made-y upp-y story that didn't happen. Etc. If you aren't practically at the end of your house buying journey then you aren't going to make it before the stamp duty changes. Really you're not. Things not to do in this situation include 1) coming in and threatening and then pleading with the phone answering chai wallah ette (who has absolutely no control over anything of significance), and 2) coming back an hour later with £10k, in cash, "for anyone who can get it fu**in done".  If you were too late off the starting line, it's tough titties pal.

Good news about a new old banger, I had a copy cat Polo, the Škoda one which eventually failed MOT once too many

Likewise, you know you're a Southerner when London = The North

Ref bag of cash, time to get the Office Sign about Lack of Planing is not an emergency?  Link to office friendly image

I've had another sweet pepper pop up, at least something is growing.

No luck finding my dwarf dahlia seeds , how annoying is that! Grrr

However, having more money than sense, and it being free P & P this weekend I've just ordered more from Mr F, well by more I really mean three different varieties of dwarf dahlias.

I also fell for the old Twofer trick and saved £5.44 sort of.

Cue me now finding them tomorrow

I'll try for Rocket emerging pic later, a bit too tiny right now

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Dustyevsky said:

 I believe things work out when they're meant to. We had half a dozen false starts, to say nothing of the many other properties we viewed and walked away from. We didn't buy this smallholding with long term ownership in mind; it was just a safe haven for our money in a financial storm. At first, I hated it. However, in the much quoted words of Ingrid Bergman, "Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get." It grew on us, so, like her, we've no regrets.

Your "getting there slowly" is indicative of contentment, too. 

It's a fine philosophy, contentment is certainly the thing to aim for but I'm not sure I'm finding it yet. I'm often reminded of 

And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again

The time sure does fly, what exactly it is I'm running towards I've no idea, perhaps it's an existential crisis but fortunately I have much to do and little time to worry about it! 

Interestingly it's kind of the opposite here, I loved it when we first moved here but now I'm not so sure we need such a big house, hence the desire for a small cabin in the woods. The place is stunning and the lack of people around a real treasure but that sparsity of sunshine can be a bit of a drag. 

Whichever way it turns out we've been lucky to buy cheap, no one else was mad enough to take on such a project, and the investment in the house will financially pay off one day.

pink_poppy said:

Congratulations lunatic - it was a lovely photo 😊

Thanks Poppy (and 2P and YBE) but nowhere near as impressive as your sparrowhawk, a real treat to see. It must be rigged, I thought your hawk and Dustyevsky's magpies were much better pictures.  

In terms of the weather, it's raining, absolutely bucketing it down non-stop since 8 this morning, we had such a lovely day yesterday, I don't know why they then have to go and spoil it with this.

At least has given me the chance to grout the tiles under the stairs, only put them up 5 years ago so probably time it was finished off....