Awful weather - typical Brits talk

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

-taff said:

I'm loving the trig points photos...Is that a thing, has anyone photographed them all?

Hi taff, there's a database of them

https://trigpointing.uk/

and a map as well if anyone wants to see which ones are near by

https://trigbagging.co.uk/trig-pillar-map/

Around 6000 scattered around the country I believe, don't think they are all high up, there's some near us by the coast which are relatively low lying. 

YoungBlueEyes said:

Congrats to Luna for getting Photo of the Week with that trig point :clapping:

Thanks YoungBlueEyes, et al  

Still say it's rigged, I enjoyed Poppy's beach scene with the smiling fence picket far more.

Great to hear the nice weather as been spread about, gone back to cloudy and a bit nippy here but brighter than usual. 

pink_poppy

Credit where credit is due, lunatic, you’ve put some stunning photos on, including the trig one 😊 I’ll have to see if there are any trig points near me - look what you and twopenny have started - we’ll all be out there bagging them now 😂

No photos from me today. I’ve been gardening for the last two days and my bones are complaining. DH and I decided to prune what I think is a pyracantha - it’s very spiky but I’ve never seen berries or flowers on it. Anyway, it’s had a severe haircut with the intention of digging it out now. The only problem is it was hiding a raised drain, so I’m going to have to think of something to cover it up again 🙄

I’ll have to read about the Largs train incident, Farway, I’d not heard of that before. We passed the train station and I can only imagine how frightening that must have been.

Glad my Arran view pic brought back memories, twopenny. Every time we’ve been to Arran it’s been pouring with rain, but it’s such a beautiful island.

We’ve had a lovely sunny couple of days, but the wind has been freezing, especially today 🥶

twopenny

Opposite of Poppy. No gardening from me today.

Swim and dance and forgot a break and I hurt all over

Smattering of rain - could see a yellow sun behind the thick mist.

So here's a moon in the afternoon photo from yesterday when you could see things

Dusty I hope your fears are unfounded. It's always a worry when things change with neighbours.

Farway you've made up for me. That's a lot to get done in one go. Are you going to buy more seed?

I alway meant to get some perennial Broccoli. Hard to get these days but it's a good doer.

Luna the trouble is once you know about things like Trig points it's hard not to go and find them. I did look into taking UK trips to all the beacons from the Amarda times but it's surprising how little people know about them.

Dustyevsky

Trigpointing seems to be unresponsive this morning. Perhaps we broke it. Well, not me, obviously, 'cos I wasn't here.

Lots to ponder, as usual, but I'll have a rant about road closures again, because they made a trip to Clovelly Court Garden much harder than it should have been. The estuary coast road was closed, but the sign was before where we joined it, so that was a 4 mile return trip to nowhere. This was followed by 5 miles in the wrong direction to reach the road that was open, only involving 2 sets of 3-way road works lights!

Like 2p, we found warm, calm, hazy, coastal weather spitting a few raindrops occasionally, ruling out any views from the coast path, so the gardens took pride of place. They're mostly walled, as you'd expect, bang on a NE-facing coast, and very much a working set-up, with very impressive restored glasshouses, growing apricots, peaches and grapes, plus propagating all sorts of edible and decorative plants.

There's a video on their website, but it's a tad ADHD in presentational style...

https://www.clovelly.co.uk/things-to-do/clovelly-court-gardens/

What the video and other pictures don't seem to show, is how lovely the peach blossom is at this time of the year. Definitely the highlight in March!

Each fan-trained tree was beautifully labelled:

No chance of that fading! The blossoms speak for themselves.

This was 'Peregrine'    https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/81464/prunus-persica-peregrine-(f)/details

More later.

Trying to get home later was as interesting as going. The main road to our place was also signed 'Closed,' but I'd read somewhere they were doing the repairs at night. Also the affected section is 12 miles, and they can't be doing all of it! Anyway, I completed the whole section, to find a Megabus driver asking the road guys setting up the cones what he was supposed to do....He's the replacement for the train which has also been shut down for track repairs! You couldn't make this stuff up!

Dustyevsky

Farway said:

Another one here with a grey & mild morning, but it's supposed to be downhill from tomorrow

Isn't the mixing of flowers & veg just a cottage garden? Or has it been renamed and is now a wonderful new method?

Spring is about here, the neighbour's magnolia buds are about to pop,

One of my new dwarf dahlias from seed is a bit exciting, or not. It has yellow / red leaves, so it could be my ticket to a fortune or manky lack of nutrient compost in that cell.

I like the sound of Farway's yellow Dwarf, ticks all the right wrong boxes

'Downhill' hasn't arrived here yet, but it's much cooler, with a NE wind.  

Mixing edibles and ornamentals is exactly what cottagers did. Nowadays, it's gotta have a trendy name, like 'Edimental,' or 'Fusion Gardening.'

I have a magnolia from yesterday waiting in the wings......

My 'Bishop's Children' are supposed to be dark leaved. (Is there a Bishop of Fulham?) And isn't there a 'Dwarf Redskin' series with bronze leaves? Hmmm, probably best not to go there.....

Farway

Cooler & dull, I needed the light on again this morning.

Supposed to be showers later, which is good for me, keep those new seeds and plantings watered.

Great photo of the trees & valley Luna, and boo to the peach blossom Dusty, reminds me of my dire effort with a peach.

It was a posh named one, in a pot in the greenhouse, blossom was fine, then something chewed its way into the peaches, so zero fruit for me.

The following year it had leaf curl and sailed off to the fjords the year after.

I've always wanted fancy plant labels like those, I could order some, but I think I must have some Scot or Yorkie DNA and flinch at spending brass on copper.

Update, just checked, the blank copper labels are £120 for 25 blanks, punch set to stamp is £150 and box to store the punches is £55

Gulp, shall we buy some once Rottery Acres is settled?

twopenny said:

Farway you've made up for me. That's a lot to get done in one go. Are you going to buy more seed?

I alway meant to get some perennial Broccoli. Hard to get these days but it's a good doer.

Hope you find some perennial broccoli, I've never grown it, but I'd guess if there's room it could be a handy veg.

I was tempted with buying more seeds, thinking about growing sweet peas up a bit of net under the handrail on the front steps.

Then I thought, why not bog-standard peas? 

And then realised I have those purple podded mange toots !

That's it, plan B, grow purple mange toots. I can see it now, ego whatsits & lobelia cascading down the steps, purple peas dripping off the hidden netting, dwarf dahlias smiling upwards from the troughs, with a towering Canna in the rear.

Who was mentioning goosegogs the other day?

My one that I thought had died has sprung back to life, fresh shoots, which is good & bad news. Good 'cos it is a tasty one, bad 'cos now I have to take a bit of care with it.

Dustyevsky said:

Farway said:

Another one here with a grey & mild morning, but it's supposed to be downhill from tomorrow

Isn't the mixing of flowers & veg just a cottage garden? Or has it been renamed and is now a wonderful new method?

Spring is about here, the neighbour's magnolia buds are about to pop,

One of my new dwarf dahlias from seed is a bit exciting, or not. It has yellow / red leaves, so it could be my ticket to a fortune or manky lack of nutrient compost in that cell.

I like the sound of Farway's yellow Dwarf, ticks all the right wrong boxes

Mixing edibles and ornamentals is exactly what cottagers did. Nowadays, it's gotta have a trendy name, like 'Edimental,' or 'Fusion Gardening.'

My 'Bishop's Children' are supposed to be dark leaved. (Is there a Bishop of Fulham?) And isn't there a 'Dwarf Redskin' series with bronze leaves? Hmmm, probably best not to go there.....

Thought so, runner bean wigwams dotted among the Lupins etc.

Dwarf redskin dahlais, sounds likely, whatever happened to the dark red ball head cabbage ? Oh those were so innocent days.

My T & M offer begonias & rhubarb are on the way, Evri just waiting until I'm out before lobbing it onto the porch roof

pink_poppy

Swimming and dancing sounds good to me, twopenny. Beautiful blue sky in your afternoon moon pic.

That peach blossom is gorgeous, Dusty. Do they smell as nice as they look??

You paint a pretty picture with your front steps description, Farway.

I now have seven flowers on my Amaryllis - four are out or mostly out on one stem and another three coming on the second stem. I'm sure I've only had four flowers in total when I've grown them before.

I was out for a walk this morning and saw a lovely oval shaped flowerbed made out of flat pieces of slate piled on top of each other. It looked really nice, with wee daffs, an iris and muscari in flower. I'm sure taff or wort have done something similar with roof tiles for edging borders?? I have an oval shaped pond that I'm honestly thinking of filling in (I would replace with a smaller pond elsewhere) and am thinking a slate or roof tile bordered flowerbed would be perfect there. Something to PONDer...

OT - it's been sunny this morning, but an even colder wind than yesterday. I'm debating whether to do a bit more digging outside, but I'm being a wimp at the moment.

twopenny

Ok weather not as bad as predicted. Yes winter woolies on but warm enough and there was a bit of sun this afternoon - this was Devon

Farway that's very creative. I look forward to the photos. Lots of pea shoots I'm guessing and then the peas.

Stunning blossom photos Dusty. I hope my apricot comes out with something though it won't be as glamourous as that.

"Swimming and dancing sounds good to me" turned out not to be. Swim was great but I got my facts wrong, didn't rest midway and haven't done that dancing for a year so ended up in a cramped heap by the time I got home. Lesson learned.

Very few flowers out in south Devon but did find that if you want to really look at something new go on your own. I could have spent ages looking at architecture and boats but we went shopping

Didn't get enough time at Buckfast Abbey which was stunning. I'd recommend going if you're down that way. Didn't get to see the gardens but a lot of the gift shop and cafe and no oportunity to take photos so I guess I'm going to drive down at some point to see both that and Totness.

Gardening tip - violas and primulas slug free, they used a lot of sharp grit on top of the bed.

The veg wasn't in flower borders, it was flowers in the veg garden. I couldn't find which episode that was but I will one day and post. It was different.

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

That peach blossom is gorgeous, Dusty. Do they smell as nice as they look??
I now have seven flowers on my Amaryllis - four are out or mostly out on one stem and another three coming on the second stem. I'm sure I've only had four flowers in total when I've grown them before.

I was out for a walk this morning and saw a lovely oval shaped flowerbed made out of flat pieces of slate piled on top of each other. It looked really nice, with wee daffs, an iris and muscari in flower. I'm sure taff or wort have done something similar with roof tiles for edging borders??

I couldn't smell much emanating from the peach blossom, but my olfactory prowess was never great. I'm told they smell like the fruit they become, but with the calm inside the greenhouses, I'd have expected a mass effect to hit anyone stepping inside, even me.

Have you been feeding that Amaryllis little blue pills?   7 blooms is positively rampant!

I'm sure it was taff who had the tiled edging to a bed.

twopenny said:

Ok weather not as bad as predicted. Yes winter woolies on but warm enough and there was a bit of sun this afternoon - this was Devon

Very few flowers out in south Devon but did find that if you want to really look at something new go on your own. I could have spent ages looking at architecture and boats but we went shopping

Didn't get enough time at Buckfast Abbey

This part of Devon was the same, weatherwise. Like you, I was suffering stiffness, so when someone called to collect a subscription, I decided it was a rest day. We found some common history from 50 years ago and nattered for 90 mins!  

I agree, it can be difficult when a companion has somewhat different objectives for a visit. Mrs Dusty is best suited. We have closely similar interests, so I get time to compose photos properly. Yesterday, I could have spent another hour in the gardens and not bothered with the coast path, trying to find a view which wasn't there. I think they hide the village deliberately! It's a separate, much higher fee to get in there.

pink_poppy

No little blue pills have been administered   I took this photo yesterday... on closer inspection one stem has two flowers open fully with a third nearly there. The other stem has one flower open and three just thinking about it at the moment. I've had to prop it up against the table because it's a bit wonky (aren't we all)...


I was mistaken with the slate flowerbed yesterday (I took a sneaky pic ) the daffs were in pots behind the bed, but there were hyacinths in there - two different shades of pink. I've had to crop the photo as it was too revealing - I wouldn't be very happy if folk were taking photos of my garden (highly unlikely given the state of it ) and putting it on a forum...


I walk that route quite often and it's the first time I've noticed it, so not sure whether it's been rejuvenated recently - it looks nice with the Spring flowers and has certainly got me thinking about doing something similar.

I ventured outside to do some more pruning yesterday and only lasted about half an hour - the cold wind was cutting through me - I think it was a Northerly - bloomin' freezing.

OT - I think today is supposed to be similar to yesterday, a bitingly cold wind, but dry and sunny. It's all starry out there at the moment with a full or almost full moon. We're due a partial eclipse on Friday morning and the moon will turn red apparently - a blood moon.