Awful weather - typical Brits talk

pink_poppy

The house and garden is lovely, twopenny. I thought the flowers were Campanula, but whatever they are they look stunning tumbling through the hedge.

It's funny how gardens look so different in different parts of the UK - that one looks quintessentially English.

Congratulations on your green pimples, Farway   

Dusty, can I ask what stones you used for your path, please?? And were the slabs just laid on top?? And what are the long thin border bits?? I need ideas. And your SiL, if he's available   

OT - it's no' bad out there. A bit grey and breezy, but it's not raining and I've had washing hanging outside since 7.30am - I love these light mornings.

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

Are you moonlighting as an estate agent, Dusty??

Hardly. I'm too honest! If you twisted my arm ever so slightly, I could tell a few tales about cob and thatch construction! I wouldn't want to let nice ladies, like 2p, let themselves in for the downsides.   Now, that stone and tile house she's just posted is much more my kind of thing.

I'm not sure how my BiL missed the aurora, pp. His DW never misses anything!

Thanks for the nice comments abut our garden. It's still a work in progress, and what's there has taken 15 years of slow development. If we didn't have fields and other land, things would have moved more quickly. Personally speaking, I didn't want the acreage, but it came with the bungalow and adds value. Perhaps, one day, we'll have to decide whether to cash in that value to acquire something more suitable for us....but for now, we cope.

Farway said:

Cold & misty morn when I awoke, the heating was back on

I love that house & tumbling plants pic 2P, do you know if the purple trailing down the wall is Aubrieta?

Hope so 'cos I'm trying to get it tumbling around my steps, first season, so can't say if it's worked or not

Yes it was pretty cold here, and we had a sprinkling of rain, but we're on benign warmness now. Time to !!!!!!-out the dahlias maybe.

I think it is aubretia. We can't grow it here. People told us we couldn't, but we tried, and found they were right. And we don't have the same soil as the wee town or the village, either!

Funnily enough, walking friend and I spent most of yesterday afternoon in GCs, and we came away with two named varieties of aubretia for a trough planter in her garden. Not growing it, I didn't realise there were varieties! We intended to find a variegated Griselina and a specific variety of Mahonia, but drew a blank. I also wanted a salvia. Like Richard Kimble, for us, "the search continues...." That'll puzzle a few people!

Todays picture hopefully shows natural variation in the colour of primroses. We have hundreds of naturakl ones,, and just the one which is veering towards white.

Gah! Forgot....one cannot pri ck-out here!

wort

Woke up to rain here, the garden needed it. Yesterday was really warm but I was in work and missed it . Came home and next door had mowed the front grass 👏🏻😍

Taff😂 thanks  it my rhododendron, though cos it is white it soon goes discoloured. 

My forsythia is looking good now, actually quite happy with the garden at the moment , quite a bit blooming.

Dusty I really like that path, lovely garden with a table just needing a chair to sitoot! With a nice cold drink of your choice. I’ve added Chloe on Insta, spent the past hour listening to her little vids, good singing voice too.
I think the cottage will be snapped up, but they could do with sort out my life to declutter if I was to buy it.

2p that house has a great wallscape, that training plant is so pretty. Hope the mist disappears.

Farway I keep considering wheeled jobbies, but too many rough areas here for the wheels to get stuck in.  Go Peashoots 😍

I was never a beer drinker, even when I could have it and despite spending my early life living in a pub. Always preferred spirits then moved onto wine. The young ones now love the Guinness, my nan used to drink it, and my mum would drink a gill of dark mild. My nan used to say gobshite, and I say rat bags. My dad had the saying stone the crows ! I think cussing these days seems far more crude.  

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

The house and garden is lovely, twopenny. I thought the flowers were Campanula, but whatever they are they look stunning tumbling through the hedge.
Dusty, can I ask what stones you used for your path, please?? And were the slabs just laid on top?? And what are the long thin border bits?? I need ideas. And your SiL, if he's available   

Campanula's a good shout too. I thought the flowers a bit small for those, but the foliage isn't as grey as I'd expect for aubretia.

The stones are granite chips (local) and the slabs were laid first on my prepped base with sharp sand under them. (Should have been a 1:8 mix of sand & cement really ) The long, thin borders are just 150 x 25mm tanalised boards. They will rot....hopefully not in my time!

SiL will have his own largish garden to do soon. I think his time ahead is all booked-up! Sorry!

Dustyevsky

wort said:

My nan used to say gobshite, and I say rat bags. My dad had the saying stone the crows ! I think cussing these days seems far more crude.  

There are, in fact, 186 words Ofcom would rather people didn't use. They are all in "Public Attitudes Towards Offensive Language on TV and Radio: A Quick Reference Guide." 

No, I'm not giving you folks a link, nor will I tell you who the person on YT is, who put them all in a song!

Farway said:

I'm considering getting a cheap sack truck...

Batch two pea shoots are just breaking the compost surface, I'll get batch 3 in this weekend.

My rocket, in dubious compost, is not well, still no growth at all. I'm going to resow and see what happens.

The compost is carp, goes like concrete despite looking great. Next time I spot some, I'll get an alternative for my yet to be planted hanging baskets. They will be baked in sun, so need something that will not turn to stone if dry.

And, whisper quietly, I think I can spot teeny weeny figs showing, just as green pimples so far

Sack trucks are great. It's worth having pneumatic tyres on them too.

My Batch 1 peas aren't showing, so I'm wondering if they were viable. Not sure of the vintage. As for compost, I'll be reporting on the Erin one soon. It won't be high praise! : I'm not sure what my figs are doing, beyond dodging a one way ticket to Norway. I've no room in the poly nowadays. 

Spotted courgettes emerging among one sowing of toms. That means the other pot, placed in the propagator on the same day, has nothing in it at all. 

Dull old day. Mrs Dusty and I bit the bullet, cleaning and defrosting the big freezer this afternoon. It takes 2.5 hours. I'm now eyeing-up some kippers, which came from an August, but which one?

P.s. Dahlias p!!!ked-out and left in the polytunnel. Let's hope for some warm nights, or I'll have b!!!!red-up!

pink_poppy

Thanks, Dusty. Was it the same granite chips you used for your whirly area?? For some reason I thought the whirly ones were white, but your path ones look blue/purple?? Could be my eyes playing up again though 😂

I’ve inherited a couple of pots and am wondering if anyone can identify the plant/s in the big pot??… It looks like there’s grass growing in there, but I don’t want to pull it out if it’s something else. I recognise the other interloper and I don’t think it should be growing in there if it’s what I think it is. I love the main low growing plant, but I have no idea what it is.

twopenny

I don't know. Are they house leeks in miniture or babies?

It's pretty though.

Farway yes, stuck in the cracks but it's the best I can do mostly.

The plant is aubretia.. The walls are standard around here even in town and spring is lovely with it. Great for the early bumble bees too.

I bought some deep pink aubretia. I love it which is unusual for me. Mostly I like things to be the colour theyare originally.

Cleaned the mud off the path, the workmen left it in a heck of a state.

Watered pots and beds. Blackies have dug up 2 strawberry plants again! But then they sing to me morning and night so I forgive.

Mowed both lawns and had another go at getting all the leave out from everywhere, result of that big storm backalong when all the leaves came off in one day.

Daffs in the beds have gone over early because of the dry, the ones in my woodland shady area are still fine.

Overcast, got brighter, regerstered 15c out back but felt like 5c out front. Blooming freezing tonight out there.

Dustyevsky

Your mystery plant is a sedum, pp. Not sure of the variety, but you can try some internet picture matching.   It looks as if you have a self seeded cotoneaster in there, as well as the 'grass.'

The chips on the path and the whirly area are the same.   When laid, they're dusty, so may look whiter in a photo taken then. The path stones have already been rained-on, though not a lot. We're still very dry here. Indeed, the neighbour who tried to prevent us from building our new driveway, is dragging water uphill to her horses every morning, poor woman.

It seems we have another fine day in prospect, too. A mix of sunshine and cloud, and with light winds. More mowing today, I expect, though with the lack of rain, growth is mercifully slow. With the friendly neighbour's lawns, I've about 1.5 acres to cut. We've visitors at the weekend, so we must be smart.

Last week, when I was driving across the low moor, I remembered WM's  wind turbine shots. Sadly the weather wasn't with me, but then I spotted an old wind-blasted tree. I thought it looked a little like the wind turbine was blowing the tree, hair-dryer style, but unfortunately, I couldn't get the angle right from that location.    I'll try again another day.....

wort

Dusty thought you had sneaked in my garden for a minute , almost the same shot as my primroses 😂

YBE was thinking these purple plants are like your mystery ones, I'm sure you bought them last year and I remember looking them up and thinking they were a variety of these .

wort

Dusty these are the primroses , don't know what happened ti the pic above.