Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

Lidl had fig plants in today for £12.99. Also different coloured Ranunculus (??) - they were nice and I was tempted, but ended up buying what I thought was a white Canna Lily until I looked at the receipt when I got home and it says Calla Lily?? Are they one and the same?? I wasn’t even sure if it was an indoor or outdoor plant as there was no label 🤷‍♀️

Not the same, but if it's white, more likely to return than any others mentioned, especially the ranunculus. Lovely, fluffy, colourful, things, but the unwary don't stop to ask, “Why do I never see these in other people's gardens?”  

Speaking of fluffy, good hind behind too!

Well, it's been raining lightly but steadily for some time here, and if we're to believe the Exeter inebriates, there's more but heavier for the next 12 hours. We need it, or rather the plants do, so although bonfires will have to wait, I'll finally be able to plant the banks by the stream. These still have space for natural-looking geraniums, foxgloves, and a few others that will blend-in. We might even have a stream again! I envy Rosemoor's rock gully with its spring fed stream that never dries-up. 

I also envy WM's wind turbine location, that always seems more photogenic than mine. She can keep the little black flea beetles that come in their millions with the oil seed rape, though!

greenbee

We have rain, so I'm waiting to see whether my bodged water butts collect any water. The ones on the house are already full, but the greenhouse and shed gutters are a lot smaller (as is the roof area on each). 

No BFB bought yet YBE, let alone down! I need to organised to feed my poor garden, but at least it's getting water. In terms of what I'm sowing, I've got lots of cosmos, so will sow plenty of that. I've sown some candelabra primulas, nicotiana langsdorffii, and some ragged robin so far. As it's wet I may go and scatter some phacelia on the veg plot. I don't think I need to sow marigolds as there are plenty popping up of their own accord. 

-taff

We are of the same mind Farway, my Kelvedon went in last week. I sowed the carlin to save the seed but I'd like to eat some nice ones too..apparently pigeons strip peas at the allotment so I'm debating whether to do two lots. I did have transit that was 25 years old but then it started needing a grand a year spent on welding so I had to regretfully let it go [ to next door] ...still miss it, it was so handy and exactly like driving a boat. I did laugh at your sexual taxing though

ybe, the adblue thing because it can be a !!!!!! for going wrong. Mines had to go in four times in three years for something to do with it. I liked your take on what the sculpture sounded like and the spirits

pp, love the goth caterpillar, I'd say Sparkle Goth...and you really should look at having an exhibition, anywhere local for you? I have calla lillies, they're white and slightly more frost resistant, but not much, I have an old broken half barrel around mine for some protection, but if I forget to cover during a hard frost, because the barrel makes them think it's milder than it is, they die off again. They do come back though. Loved your fluffy bum!

wm, I love wind turibes, I could watch them for hours...your day out with ybe sounds like fun was had..shame about the rum choices though. Our open day is in June I think, I'll check...

Dusty, those tulips are amazeballs, I'd be very happy if I had that kinf os howing, but I only have about ten in a spready clump [ crossing fingers Farway is worng about the fjords] And the rocks are impressive, love the placement.

greenbee, phacelia is it? hmm...I'm sure that's another Farway LIAM for me...I'll try again as you'e said though.

Rained gently all night here, bit grey and dull still this morning, organised my seeds to sow, ordered some more root trainers, will Be Prepared for the weekend...

Farway

A bit of overnight rain, not much, I'm in the middle southern bit, so funder to the right & Dusty steady rain to the left of me.

Colder as well

YBE, do check if your car needs Adblue, there must be a list somewhere. 

DuckD Adblue, it's one of these magic things that gets monitored by clever car management systems, and clever system decides you are killing all the Polar Bears and your car must stop and proceed to limp [10mph] the final 50 miles home.

Of course, being cars there is often not a gauge or summat to tell you it needs topping up, first you know is a warning light, or it won't start or only drives at walking pace

Fingers crossed you don't need Adblue.

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/emissions/adblue/

-taff said:

We are of the same mind Farway, my Kelvedon went in last week. I sowed the carlin to save the seed but I'd like to eat some nice ones too..apparently pigeons strip peas at the allotment so I'm debating whether to do two lots.

Potted up my Kelvedon peas yesterday, loads of them, more than I thought TBH, but I did see somewhere peas like being close to their mates

I have them in conservatory now, so yah boo to pigeons ATM.

I have pigeons here, and I'm sure they will have them given a chance, they eat the Ash leaves, and yellow celandine, so they've quite a varied diet.

I like the gully Dusty, I had a dream of making something similar in my garden [I'm on a terraced slope], but that was thirty years and many bad backs ago

YoungBlueEyes said:

Hurray for new tech 2p and Farway. Fingers crossed now they start playing the game! Have yous started a savings pot to rebuy them next year again cos of built in obsolesence  

Me and wm had a fab day on Saturday, it's amazing what you miss/are ignorant of until someone's walking round with you pointing it out. Brilliant. It was a bit chilly mind, so when we reached a pub I got the ciders in and a couple of rums. The only ones they had were Captain Morgan's - a spiced one (not even a full measure!) and some pineapple nonsense that taste like Gee's Linctus. V poor offering considering where we were

The PC with W11 is up & running, even managed to log into MSE, next hurdle is GMail log in

Nice outing by the sounds of it, despite the poor rum choice, must be all these Gen Z folks and their ways

Hope the cider was a better choice, make you pair sound like hardened drinkers, cider with rum chasers

The short measure reminds me of the old one about asking the barman if he could fit a tot in your pint, if yes, then top the  **&&&& pint up!

No gardening expected with it being cold &  dampish. Perhaps nip out the front just to check if any LIAM are showing, more likely to find lily beetles than LIAM

The mystery seedlings popping up remain a mystery, but real leaves are starting to show, so not long now

YoungBlueEyes

Oooh I want a rock gully with a spring-fed stream Dusty It can go on my wish list, along with a pair of good black labs, a detached house, an answer to wandering thistles and whatever those weeds are that I've forgotten the name of that come up like asparagus stalks. Grrr  

Thank you very kindly for the adblue info and link taff + Farway, I'll do that next. I might be in the 'you'll only find out you need it when it starts limping' camp though cos I didn't get the manual with it. I don't remember seeing it on the previous services though so I might be lucky :fingerscrossed: The cider selection was nowt to shout about tbh, it was Strongbow. (Or was it Thatchers..?) I had a fruit beer that was more than acceptable, iirr it was Leiffe (sp?) that had been infused with fruits. Quite nice. I was expecting about a dozen rums though, we were right in the old town actually at the water's edge, so a pair of Captain Morgan's wasn't acceptable really You could deffo have fitted the half shot into a pint ha haa!

With a bit of luck you'll be knee deep in cosmos gb, or hip/shoulder deep I'll have to look up the other ones... I like the sound of ragged robin

I would do 2 or 3 lots of peas if you've got them taff, pigeons are entirely without morals and won't leave you a scrap.

OT sun's trying to come out now and I hope it does for it was damp and drizzly and rainy all day yesterday. Not particularly cold though once the wind dropped. I dunno when you'll get your bonfire going Dusty, they say yous down there have a lot of swirly rain coming...

Wondering if 2p has fallen down the back of her laptop... and no more from arb yet either? @ArbitraryRandom Hopefully you're not erse up in a tatty sack arb!

Edit - no adblue, hurray! Although reading what it is it sounds like the err Enrichment Bucket wot himself tops up and I sprinkle it on the grass… not that it makes a blind bit of difference but himself likes to feel useful.  

Dustyevsky

Isn't Adblue based on a compound of urea? I wonder if an occasional pee in the tank would do the same job? (This is not mechanical advice, ) Some drunken person peed in my motorbike's petrol tank when I was at uni, and that definitely didn't help performance!

Farway said:

I like the gully Dusty, I had a dream of making something similar in my garden [I'm on a terraced slope], but that was thirty years and many bad backs ago

I wanted a wadi from the main roof downpipe at the back, but Mrs Dusty wasn't keen. It would have been busy last night, as we had a thunderstorm, plus torrential rain, wind, etc for many hours. I'm sure we've had all the precipitation we didn't get in March. The river cams are showing it was worse on Dartmoor than Exmoor, and apparently, there's flooding on the main road up to Barnstaple. When I drove down there yesterday evening, there was much standing water, but at that stage the river was still at summer level. It's top of bank high now!

Fortunately, today's forecast is benign, so there shouldn't be many problems. There will be a sudden spurt in the growth of everything now, including the weeds!

As we were on a tulip theme, I'll add to that again this morning, with the display in the Cottage Garden at Rosemoor.

twopenny

Oh that's gorgeous. 
It looks like the bit of Heligan that I wanted with the pool in front.
I didn't get much in the way of tulips this year. Just the one that got blown to smithereens in yesterday's 🍃 

I'm around and reading Bluey. Just fighting with this blooming tablet.

I have a cute photo to post and where Bluey would like to live but has to wait till I get on the laptop.
Hobbling off now (waving to WM) to try and sort out the modern day problems that all these companies expect us to know off the top of our head. Whatever happened to customer service? We seem to be working for them.

Ot still freezing and wet. Like yesterday, 5c and wind. Only gardening is picking up what blew down last night 😔 
 

Farway

Cooler with a wind, sunshine & showers, nothing like Dusty's but could do with a decent drenching now

I also thought the Adblue you could probably just wee in the Adblue tank. 

Being diesel car suppose it would be ultimate MSE, use old chip oil instead of diesel, and wee in the Adblue tank?

Should turn heads, and noses, as you trundle past, leaving a whiff off chips & public loo in your wake

At least you'd be able to afford some Woods or Appleton's rum with the savings.

Dustyevsky said:

Farway said:

I like the gully Dusty, I had a dream of making something similar in my garden [I'm on a terraced slope], but that was thirty years and many bad backs ago

I wanted a wadi from the main roof downpipe at the back, but Mrs Dusty wasn't keen.

Yes, I think Wadi type was what I had in mind, serpentine and gently tinkling [back to Adblue ] over glistening pebbles before a small waterfall down to the next level.

My geography would need a pumped supply to the top, no downpipe.

Sampled some of my fresh pea shoots last night, not sure if it's worth the effort for the taste. 

Nothing wrong with them, but seems a bit Cheffy to me, look nice etc. But there are tastier things to eat, IMO.

Depending on if a large pot is ready & may just pop the rest into large pot & go for peas, or at least young pods with the rest.

If it warms I'll potter & pot up some chillis, plus water some pots because the rain is not doing it

twopenny

Hope you got your pottering in Farway.

It's warmed up here and lovely and sunny.

Because I tripped and fell on the concrete in the garden I'm a missing some skin from head to hands and lovely impressive bruises on my knee and hand so work outside has to wait. Seem to be healing ok and I managed to roll though that was a shock in itself

So I've taken myself and my injuries up on the moors and hills for a drive to get some fresh air.

Wildflowers are coming on apace in the hedgerows, leaves on trees are starting to make and appearance and the fields are full of lambs which you can never tire of so I guess Spring really in here.

One thing I didn't expect was this

They are back in their field too - and happy they look to be

Dustyevsky

Yesterday, it being Mrs Dusty's now non-significant, non-profitable birthday , we aimed the car at Barnstaple, and reached it just in time for a big lunch. By then, the sun was shining strongly. The fine weather eventually reached 2p, too, by the look of things. There was one big stretch of floodwater on the way, and another on the return by a different route. They were exactly where the Radio had warned us they were in the morning, proving nothing had been done to clear them, other than allowing vehicles to tentatively drive through.

I hope you're mending 2p. It's no use me saying “Take care” etc, because I'm sure you do. None of us wants to have accidents. They simply happen naturally, at home, in our gardens, or when exploring local places. I mean, it's not as if we go selflessly blasting off into the blue yonder on top of a firework full of rocket fuel to save the planet, or anything like that. We leave that to the bravest 'experts.'

Looking at Al Paca, or Ali Paca, (at last, we know there are 2 sexes now ) I can't help smiling, even though my limited experience with those animals wasn't positive. Never get caught in the rain with one; they just soak it up!  It's like dragging a huge sponge full of jelly that either keeps bashing into you, or refuses to move because it's spotted something edible.

Anyway, besides eating too much lunch, Mrs D and I left the old folk snoozing in the car (with a window open ) and perused the local GC for an hour. I suspected all we'd come out with was a big tub of BFB, but it was pleasant enough in there. No, they didn't have a copy of the NGS Devon Gardens booklet, but I was reliably informed, "It's coming out soon."   Hmm, I picked mine up there about 3 weeks ago, but wanted one for a friend.

Speaking of publications, The Gardener's World mag we bought to get the 2fer offer on garden visits, is giving my eyebrows a work-out. The latest thing seen, spotting the difference between ads and content, is Lego flower kits. You get 274 pieces, which you may assemble in 'bespoke' ways to create plants and arrangements that mimic nature and never fade ....Eh? No mucking about with BFB or falling over, guaranteed. Sounds 'Safe.' And we all need to be that, don't we?

Well, here's my answer to the Lego kit. Sits on the bathroom window sill......

Farway said:

Sampled some of my fresh pea shoots last night, not sure if it's worth the effort for the taste. 

Nothing wrong with them, but seems a bit Cheffy to me, look nice etc. But there are tastier things to eat, IMO.

This is heartening. I have 3 plants from around 50 peas sown!   My overwintered broad beans are starting to form pods, though. That's in the polytunnel. The outdoor ones.....Norway!