Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

Two ducks today - no idea what ‘variety’ they are though…

The furthest duck seems to be a Eurasian Widgeon. The other one could just be a female Mallard, but I'd guess you know what one of those looks like, and the head colour looks wrong. I don't think it's a Shoveller .... you live in quite a pricey area, so manual labouring ducks would be unlikely.   Yup, I admit defeat on that one!

Farway said:

No sooner had I said I was going to sow another batch of beetroot, in cells, than my earlier sowing, on 23rd, popped up yesterday. I did sow another batch anyway, fingers crossed it all works out.

Oh! This morning I threw out my last beetroot sowing as duff. Maybe I should have been more patient. After all, I nearly did the same with my 'Strawberry Foxgloves' (this is not foodie advice!  ) sown in autumn. They finally germinated this week.

Rain is approaching us now from the south. Apparently, it's reached Exeter. No watering for me tonight, but in my crystal ball I see someone in the near future weeding and mowing like a man possessed.

twopenny

Cooler with cloud and a smattering of rain. Not enough to be of use.

Poppy I think your bird may be a Perigrin Falcon. This is a baby one from around here

Though it may be something else without seeing closer.

Re achey hips and so on. Have you tried a light bed covering instead of a heavy duvet?

I've taken a layer off mine and found I'm not trapped in one position at night by the (lovely) warm extra cover.

However because it's not that warm I'm looking to buy some fleecy pjs so I can have lighter covers.

Found some liquid plant food in Poundland today. Add my Wet & Forget arrived by a very grumpy delivery man who saw 'leave in the porch' and left it outside  

Has a really bad move around day and forgot my poppy seeds purchase but - I did find a weeding tool for the block paving that was £2! The manager had managed to twist the blade but it works just fine. Extending so no more agonising hands and knees job

One of those silly days when my new tablet fought back being set and then wouldn't connect to my wifi.

Such a lot of time wasted when I could have been enjoying myself in the garden! Very annoying.

Glad you're over the lurgi Dusty.

Busy Farway, got to get it done while you can :-)

Taff I get exhausted reading what you've done.  Things are really going apace with your plot.

pink_poppy

Thanks to Dusty and twopenny for the identifications - that would be exciting if it was a peregrine falcon.

Just a quick post to give an Aurora alert - it’s not very strong here at the moment because it’s not pure darkness, but may be elsewhere. Plus I’ve just seen Fram2 go overhead 😎

pink_poppy

Well, the Aurora started off calm with a nice green arc, but then went utterly insane at about 10.30pm. I ended up going outside in my PJs and standing in the middle of the road taking photos 😂

twopenny

Glorious Poppy!

You are so lucky, so many people would like to experience this and don't get a chance.

Hope you're warm enough though

Farway

Now that's a proper aurora PP, great photos and lucky you to see it like that.

Cooler, but sun is coming out and wind dropping, supposed to be good for a few more days, high pollen count, so I guess that means low wind?

Out watering the pots at the front first thing, no rain due here, Dusty maybe taking one for Team Sarf.

The daffs still need dead heading, it stayed too cold for me yesterday, plus now my knee needs some WD40 & Silicone Spray, if I bend down I may stick there.

I did rub some T Balm earwax into it last night, and now I'm smelling of emulsion, as Mrs Malaprop might say

My concrete compost is a mystery, some plants seem to hate it, Rocket & one batch of dwarf dahlias are struggling, but the tomatoes, peppers and later batch of dwarf dahlias are romping away

The peas shoots love it as well, possibly I was too quick to condemn it?

Still cakes over as it dries, though.

One job I will do, knees not required, is drill holes in my new HB wall baskets. I'm going to hang them on the front steps railing, hiding the rust rustic patina.

In my dreams, I see ripe tomatoes & flowers hanging down from these baskets, the reality may differ.

twopenny said:

Found some liquid plant food in Poundland today. Add my Wet & Forget arrived by a very grumpy delivery man who saw 'leave in the porch' and left it outside  

Has a really bad move around day and forgot my poppy seeds purchase but - I did find a weeding tool for the block paving that was £2! The manager had managed to twist the blade but it works just fine. Extending so no more agonising hands and knees job

One of those silly days when my new tablet fought back being set and then wouldn't connect to my wifi.

Such a lot of time wasted when I could have been enjoying myself in the garden! Very annoying.

Busy Farway, got to get it done while you can :-)

Yay, plant food & a weeder, it's ups & downs, isn't it?

I've just had a fight Wi Fi day as well, YouTube decided it was fed up connecting to Wi-Fi, so refused to do so, searching & failing to connect. Of course, then needed a zillion digit password entering about twenty times.

OK, for now, again.

Also, in jobs to be done, is clear a space for tomatoes in the conservatory. Last year's dried up ones are still there.

I class that as pest control, drying out all the aphids, slugs, mites, whiteflies etc

Dustyevsky

twopenny said:

Poppy I think your bird may be a Perigrin Falcon. This is a baby one from around here

Glad you're over the lurgi Dusty.

Good shout on the B of P I think!

Over the lurgy? I only went down with it yesterday! (along with DD, her husband, his Mum, and Uncle Tom Cobley.) I stand by my claim to be rid of it by Saturday night, though.  The sore froat is almost gone, so it's just snuffles and aches now. Another day of quietly exercising my dibber, should see it on the run!

Great aurora yet again pp! I peeked out at some unearthly hour and detected a greenish tinge, unconnected with the usual light sources, but it certainly wasn't photograph-worthy. We were still getting gentle rain then, which persisted until around 09.30. Although a small amount, the rain was more than predicted, and in view of the dry period ahead, useful.

With the previous fine weather, the swallows have arrived early. We don't usually see them before the second week in April. Never mind dates, Easter, school hols etc, swallows define the start of our summer.

Farway said:

One job I will do, knees not required, is drill holes in my new HB wall baskets. I'm going to hang them on the front steps railing, hiding the rust rustic patina.

In my dreams, I see ripe tomatoes & flowers hanging down from these baskets, the reality may differ.

Two items we were gifted by the folks who left their garden stuff here for 6 months were those large plastic planters on legs. I've just drilled bigger holes in those for drainage. Not sure what to do with them yet, but it looks like they'll be above the carrot fly and slugs will need crampons....so we'll see.

OT: Dry now. Sunshine and 19c predicted. Still a keen wind from the east.

Farway

Nice & warm out now, popped out and daffs dead headed, so now it's just sit back & wait for them to die back.

Holes drilled in baskets, another job done.

Dustyevsky said:

Farway said:

One job I will do, knees not required, is drill holes in my new HB wall baskets. I'm going to hang them on the front steps railing, hiding the rust rustic patina.

In my dreams, I see ripe tomatoes & flowers hanging down from these baskets, the reality may differ.

Two items we were gifted by the folks who left their garden stuff here for 6 months were those large plastic planters on legs. I've just drilled bigger holes in those for drainage. Not sure what to do with them yet, but it looks like they'll be above the carrot fly and slugs will need crampons....so we'll see.

OT: Dry now. Sunshine and 19c predicted. Still a keen wind from the east.

Go for carrots, fittingly today is International Carrot Day [nope, me neither ]

https://nationaltoday.com/international-carrot-day/

To mark the occasion I'm going to plant out my pot grown carroty carrots from last year, flowers good for insects and who knows, maybe self sown carrots forever?

-taff

Dusty, thanks to the OH, I have Cuban Pete chick chicky boom in my head all the time now...Nice dead guy, I need one for my front garden to scare off cold callers.

2p, would clematis on an arch be good for winter? A good chop every year would keep i down and there'll just be twigs left in the winter.

greenbee, that's a lot of ibcs...I think I'm envious of the size of your garden

PP wow, just wow...They're amazeballs....

Farway, i see your drill holes and do it too for one bracket..I did drill some holes int eh wall for a latch yesterday for the gate, 3 of them were in the right place so that's enough right? Odd about the compost..

Not as sunny here as it was yesterday and it rained in the night. Still dry though so I took the opportunity to raise one french door that was sagging in the heat, quicker than waiting for the window people to come and do it. And I've finally potted some of the tomatoes, and made a pot display on some roof tiles to get my this weeks purchases squared away for the summer. There's a lot more to do but I'm sitting down now and watching a Chateau DIY for a bit...

pink_poppy

Thanks all, the colours of the Aurora were amazing (or amazeballs   ) fuchsia pink and lime green - so vivid. Probably the best one I've seen here, although nothing can top the one we got on Harris in October. I think there's another alert for tonight, so I'll be looking outside again. Even if the Aurora doesn't appear, the stars and planets have been stunning. It wasn't cold at all, twopenny, although I did have a big dressing gown on and my wellies

Farway, you deadheading your daffs has made me think of my red amaryllis. It looks like it has the same bulbous bit behind the dead flowerheads - am I supposed to deadhead them the same as daffs?? I can't remember what I've done in the past.

Dusty, hope you manage to fight off the lurgy and it's gone by tomorrow.
Exercising your dibber    

OT - it's yet another beautiful day here - it was a bit breezy earlier and I was wishing I'd tied my hair up to go shopping, but it's nice and calm now.