Awful weather - typical Brits talk

YoungBlueEyes

Ooh that's proper gardening 2p Will your bulbs mind being moved do you think..? Shame that you didn't see the night sky parade thing fully, but lovely that you got a cuppa from strangers, people can be so friendly when you let them   That sitooterie was a gorgeous colour in real life, a proper creamy turquoise-y hue, but it was looking out to sea so it'd be too exposed and hot/cold in reality. The Bee Bum shot took about 50 pics to get that one - thank gawd for phone cameras and a delete button eh. Looking forward to your sitooterie - a stream and some privacy sound perfect  

They're fab pics pp, and yes it looks like a Christmas pud I did get up to Scarborough (lots of ... international tourists... ) and the shops reflect the errr... new population. It's a shame cos I loved Scarborough, I spent a lot of time round that area in my previous life when we were stationed at Staxton. So I left them to it and just walked the beach. Speaking of swans I got a fairly poor pic of swans when we were in bottomleftlandia last weekend. It was amazing to watch - there's a rowing club on the river and the steps that they go down needed a wash, but the washer woman must also have been the swan feeding woman cos dozens and dozens came out of nowhere when she appeared. Another woman then fed the further up the bank to get them out of washer woman's way. I'm guessing swan poo is like duck poo - it was a pig of a job getting it off. It was looking into the sun but this is the pic I got - 

Thank god they don't sell this up here or I'd be a full on drunk and happy with it   God it's good, the right mix of creamy sweetness and a wee bit tart -

Spotted in a car park - a tree hedge/ hedged trees...? Looked fab in real life  



Me and my bu99erance gene lead-footed it up to Whitby this morning to watch the sun-rise. But I missed it as the roads were a bit icy (it was V early mind cos himself was up and out to work) and I didn't fancy crashing for how would I explain that to Cissie   Least I know my brakes really truly properly work 

Should probably try some gardening today but it's cold and frosty out there and the place is white over. The sun was out earlier and will be again this aft, they say, and the temp could just tip over into double figures, they say. 

Dustyevsky

Tasteful bee posterior in the crocus, Bluey, and a very posh sitooterie, which I'd guess might be municipal, but none the worse if it is.   And what dramatic scenery you've caught there, pp! Ben Nevis does look just like a giant Christmas pudding.   That's some tall deer fencing too.

YoungBlueEyes said:

Hopefully success was had all round with inserting bendy children up chimneys under worktops, and the bit-too-far-right hens found some middle ground to be content on
Don't forget your dahlias Farway

We are all eagerly waiting for an update on GS's valiant efforts in Underworktopia....Isn't that where we're all headed when AI takes over the mundanery? Don't think I'll fit!   Hopefully, don't think it'll happen either!

And at least Farway has some dahlias to forget. Mine are still in the packet. I did get some work done in the brilliant sunshine yesterday morning, but it was of the "do it now or regret it" sort, like mowing the grass where the cowslips live.

In the afternoon, I made a quick stop at the GC to buy 210 litres of this 'reduced peat' compost   You know why! 

Then it was off to see a house my DD2 and her husband are intending to buy in a village 12 miles south of here. The main selling point (besides the price!) is the garden, being a large corner plot with country views, a workshop and two good sheds. Sadly, virtually all the shrubs were ones we already have, but there were some other items of interest. I'm not sure if they come with the property.
If they do, there are at least 20 of them!

pink_poppy

That's a LOT of swans, YBE!! There was only the one adult swan yesterday and two ugly ducklings scruffy looking cygnets. Loads of ducks and daffodils though. Glad you made it to Scarborough and Whitby - I'm not jealous in the slightest...
I like the sound of that rhubarb cider and I think I can see a bottle of cinnamon whisky in the background - my DD's boyfriend's favourite drink and the only whisky I think has a nice smell - all others give me the boak    
Wow to the tree hedge - I love it

Dusty, the Christmas pudding mountain is actually Buachaille Etive Mor - pic taken from the Glencoe Mountain Resort, so a different view to the one most people recognise as that mountain, which is more triangular than pudding shaped. Ben Nevis is in the background of the Corpach shipwreck, which is an old fishing boat that ran aground a few years ago.

Cloudy but dry today, with a few glimpses of sun promised.

Ducks and daffs pic from yesterday...

Farway

Very frosty but very sunny start, with blue sky. Should be nice once it warms up.

I may be similar to Blue, could try some gardening if it warms up, far too chilly right now

Dishwasher update, all fixed , of course it came with usual need to dash out and get the right bit after buying the wrong bit the day before

Drain pipe comes in a thousand different bores, all looking nearly the same, except when you try & couple them together

Anyway, all done, and now better than Tex Ritter, Tom Mix, Wild Bill & Trigger fitted the original.

That tree hedge of Blues, is that wots known as Pleached trees?

https://www.hedgeworx.co.uk/pleached-trees/

One for Rottery Acres. There was a bit on Beechgrove a bit back, where they were doing one with apples I think, sort of Espalier in the sky. It would look stunning but hard work and a head for heights.

YBE, I like the sound of Rosies Pig, just looked it up, and it has a tale [tail, te he] behind it.

I fell in love with a similar animal product when I was in real bottomlefthandia. Rattler cider

BTW, seems RP can be bought on line, hic!

And first bee bum of the year, Yay.

My new old camera has a Burst function, which I've not tried, but takes umpteen shots which is supposedly good for fast moving stuff, like sports or bee bums

Love the shipwreck Poppy, I can see why it is a favourite spot.

Just refreshed, good ducks & daffs as well

DD2 potential house sounds good Dusty, fingers crossed it works out, complete with concrete animals

Good buy on the compost, dahlias should do well in there

Whisper, whisper, my purple peas "may" have embryo shoot peeking out. These were the third attempt, using old seeds. Time will tell tomorrow.

While on frantic hunt in the garage for the Right Bit of dishwasher drain pipe, before whizzing off to Wickes in defeat, I found my very old tin of Jeyes Fluid, circa 1970s

Some may recall I had a memory of it being used as soil improver, bug killer, general garden useful item, along with DDT, nicotine spray & red Lead

For info only, to show how it was used & certainly not a recommendation in today's world

pink_poppy

Ah yes, I remember Jeyes Fluid from years ago - it had a very distinctive smell.

More pics from yesterday. Just looking at the photo of the ski chair lift brings me out in a cold sweat, not helped by one of the operators shouting “don’t lean forward!!” to someone who had just boarded and was struggling with their skiing equipment so hadn’t managed to pull the safety bar down 🤢

Another couple of photos from Corpach (I would recommend going there if visiting the Fort William area as it was so nice and I think it must link with Neptune’s Staircase, which is another nice place to visit)…

twopenny

My you've been busy Poppy! What interesting photos. I like the winch one.

Bluey I hope they'll recover, I took as much soil with the roots as I could. Just a little group to cheer this still winter feel, the rest of the space is Chives of various sorts that are on their way up.

It was our first frost yesterday but quickly burned off. Just heavy dew this morning and 3c but coume out nice again   

Trying to decide whether to go and support my chums on a dance afternoon or go out somewhere nice in the sun but I think duty calls.

Daren't start on the garden again because I need to keep just one project at a time and I'm thinking 'oh help, so much to do' scenario.

You can still buy Jeyes fluid. Love the smell. Supposed to be good for getting ants to move somewhere else. Works well but as the smell goes, about a month then they start to come back but it takes a while before they do.

Dusty, children moving closer? More child care duties?

Yes, I got a load of concrete figures when I moved, darn hard to give them away. I kept 2. One frog to hold the back gate open, one charming nymph on a small water shell that looks quite classey

Farway

The sun kept out, and at last it was pleasant enough in the sun to get out the front to weed the pots & steps

Blood F & B added to pots, and sowed old Love in the M, Californian poppy, beetroot & radishes in them

Not bothered if they grow or not, but maybe they will. If they fail, I have others to try.

The Love ITM I sowed, and failed last year, some of mine came up next door [squirrels digging], and have self sown. The LITM is like cress in next door . If only mine will get going, I'm set.

I'll be MIA tomorrow morning, hoping to go over DD's and plant the subsidised James Grieve apple, need to get it done before DD is off for a week, in Maltese sunshine next weekend.

Good lot of pics PP, I particularly like the white tower, and the cogs

LessImpecunious

My contribution to sunny pics - taken yesterday in fading late pm sun, but could have been today, or any day recently....

Dustyevsky

twopenny said:

My you've been busy Poppy! What interesting photos. I like the winch one.

You can still buy Jeyes fluid. Love the smell. Supposed to be good for getting ants to move somewhere else. Works well but as the smell goes, about a month then they start to come back but it takes a while before they do.

Dusty, children moving closer? More child care duties?

Yes, I got a load of concrete figures when I moved, darn hard to give them away. I kept 2. One frog to hold the back gate open, one charming nymph on a small water shell that looks quite classey

You wouldn't get me on pp's ski lift. Even as a young man, with young women to impress, I could barely find the cojones to go on the big wheel at the fair!

I don't believe the Jeyes sold currently is the same stuff as that Farway found. It's gone eco, but may still work for things they might not tell you about on the tin. Worse than Jeyes, was an organophosphate, pros once used against vine weevils. It came as tiny green granules to mix into compost for decorative plants. I noticed feeling light-headed when doing that, so we took the remainder to the council yard for disposal, despite it working well.

No children yet with DD2 & husband, who currently live with us. Anyway, 12 miles, half of it along potholed, muddy lanes, would mean great reluctance for evening child-sitting. We thought our roads were bad, but down there, with the fertile, clingy, red earth, it's another level of awfulness.   

The concrete animal/gnome thing has struck our family before. I'll not bore you with details, but our last house was owned by a concrete fetishist, and it took years to destroy most of his work. It was good getting a really well-made concrete pond, though. We exhumed 14 concrete animals from that alone!

Yesterday for me was more lawn-mowing and a little seed-sowing + saving a few pots of vulnerable plants from the evil vine weevils. So, no photos of cheerfully emerging spring bloomers, like Less's lungwort and Welsh poppy. Every year I mean to propagate the lungwort, and every year I forget. It's so good in early season.

Another frosty start today, but something milder this way comes by midweek.

Oh, and ducks are impossible to photograph. Here is a good example from Rosemoor last December:

There's always one looking the other way, burying its head in its plumage or going bum upwards on the water. I gave up, and I'd only two to cope with!

Impressive swans, Bluey. I read mute swans are protected and belong to the King. That figures. The loquacious ones could tell tales and be an embarrassment.

pink_poppy

The ski chair lift didn't look remotely safe, swinging away, Dusty, scared the bejesus out of me just watching other folk on it   I've got previous, so know my limits now. Why I thought it was a good idea to go on a Ferris Wheel in Bray, Ireland a few years ago, I don't know, or the cycle monorail in Flamingo Land, North Yorkshire, which wasn't that high really. I was scared to death on both of them - I'm just not good with heights...

That's a lovely frosty photo - looks very peaceful.

It's nice to see plants popping up, Less   

It's a grey morning so far. We're supposed to be having sunny spells, but I haven't seen any so far...