Awful weather - typical Brits talk

pink_poppy

Really?! Thank goodness 😁 Thank you Mickey & Farway 😂

tinah

De lurking to say it looks like a wood mouse to me.

pink_poppy

Thank you, tinah 😊 I’ve just googled wood mouse after seeing your post and you’re right, my wee beastie in the garden does look like it could be a wood mouse - I never even knew there was such a thing. Every day is a school day… 😂

wort

Phew 44 posts to catch up on ! Amazing Judas tree from seed, shame about Judas denying the cat was his 😔 the honesty plant is lovely.

Weather been nice and sunny all week , today chillier breeze, need a jacket outside. I’ve watered the pots a few times this week, and cut back the ginormous forsythia. 

The standard lilac is flowering and I’ve bluebells and white bells ,white rock and aquilegia ,cornflowers flowering too. I’m loving how the garden is looking all lush ,I have a lot of coloured leaved plants ,so even when there’s not much actual flowers it still is interesting.

I’m hoping the good weather continues , I’ve a few more days off yet.

pink_poppy

We had ‘The Hobbit’ thrush in our garden earlier - bashing away at a snail 🐌 must be feeding babies somewhere as it flew off with it…

Big Aurora possible tonight - it’s probably going to be too light here until the early hours of the morning, but you might be lucky down South if you have clear skies.

Glad you’re having a nice time off, wort. Your garden sounds lovely 😊 what colour is your Lilac??

YoungBlueEyes

Thanks 2p, It feels like a proper garden now The majority of it is down to you lot though, I'm a lot more knowledgeable about the things I'm trying, and the different things I'm killing more slowly having a bit more success with ha haa!  The red blinds were there when we moved in, and same in the big bedroom, red walls and everything. The ea assured me it was a football team thing and not a 'literary' thing. I realised I could cope with them in the conservatory when I saw the price of new ones! The rest had to go mind. If anyone needs a b-i-g red rollerblind I've one in me garden, free to a good home, buyer to collect. Seemed a shame to bin it when there was nothing really the matter with it. 

Good news you've only a mouse there pp I've never heard of a wood mouse either. We're under no threat from AI are we - Mickey has 2 tails Least he has gloves on though. Love your wee thrush+snail, but why's he "The Hobbit"?  Did you get your aurora...? 

Are you getting good R+R on your days off wort? I'm after different coloured leaved plants... I see various red leaved plants/bushes on my walk to work, some of them more a burgundy really, and I quite fancy a few somethings like that. My garden's all green. Except for the dead hebe which I need to hoik out - I don't know what he died on me for, his pal a few feet across is fine :rolleyes:

Wm the little woodland would probably be good for you and R0meo. If you go out of your work and turn left, up past the pub on that wee roundabout, keep going straight on up the very wide-mouthed road, it's a couple of hundred yards up there on the right. It's a little patch of heaven, really it is. How's R0meo doing now? All hang-ups gone?  Oh and did you see Beechgrove last night? There was a something plant which looked really good - name incrementally forgotten while looking for a pen to write it down - that thrives in the shade so would be a possible contender for your woodland patch. It was a big wide bushy thing, camouflage-patterned leaves and a red flower standing up in it. Did look unusual but attractive. 

No the Cliff Richard/Summer Holiday bluebells didn't smell taff Mind as I was bent over sniffing it a mongrel new breed of dog came up beside me for a sniff of it too, so that made up for it I can't remember now what she called it, but it was a sprocker/collie mix. Sprockollie maybe...? I thought she was having me on but they're brand new and very expensive. Apparently. Aye I thought it was amazing of Cissie to Facetime me! Goes to show you're never too old  

I've never got Honesty to grow here Dusty, actually I can't even get them to sprout I'll have to keep my eye out for more seed disc things. That and borage are bluddy everywhere but are completely beyond me. MrsD coming through the bath made my tummy go squiggly Is that the root cause of her dodgy flipper maybe..? 

Anyway. Speaking of irreverent nonsense here's a question for yas (and I'm being serious). All answers gratefully received. I was talking to one of the proper ones at work yesterday, she was saying she didn't know what to do about the hole in her garage floor. Her himself is also a solicitor so not very handy or DIY-y. Long story short it turns out the the garage in the garden of the house they bought a couple of years ago was turned into an actual garage - as in the place you go to get your car fixed, and the big hole is the pit thing They didn't see it on viewing cos they couldn't get in it for all the furniture and boxes and stuff in there. So I said well I'll ask about and get you some options. She's lovely and sarcastic and dry, so I do mean ALL answers gratefully received She has ruled out body depository, big floor safe, and plunge pool - that's all my stoopid brain gave me.

OT cooler, thank you jesus. It's 10'c out there with a bit of a breeze. Sunny though so it's perfect weather Right I need to shift meself - I'm following himself in to 'Ull to get his car serviced and fetching him back.

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

Big Aurora possible tonight - it’s probably going to be too light here until the early hours of the morning, but you might be lucky down South if you have clear skies.

Nope, not here. I looked out abour 02.00 when the cat was sick. No stars, so we were grey, like this morning. Never mind, I like your winking cat and a thrush is always welcome here, although they never seem to stay past April.
I'm feeling a little grey myself this morning, but the weather's due to cheer-up, and there's no mowing today, so I'll probably perk-up later. Overdid it yesterday, attacking the last impossible bit of walking friend's garden.It's been under landscape fabric since the house was built in 2018! Knowing how builders do stuff, it's the part where all the dumpers would drive between buildngs and 'landscapers' (loose definition!) would bury the carp. Put it this way, I brought in 5 big feed bags of compost/rotted wood chips, and left with twice as much clay. We only managed around 3-4 m2, but at least tough plants can go in now with some chance of survival. Happily, the Malus we planted nearby in the last bit of improved ground is thriving, and clay soils are OK once the structure's opened up.
Here at home, Mrs Dusty and I will be giving our sandy garden similar treatment this weekend. While we don't need to remove anything, except the odd lump of rock, the hungry soil will gobble-up whatever we throw at it in terms of manure / compost. While we're not short of the latter, top of my list of wants, is a shredder/chipper so we can compost more, but suitable models start at about £800.
The shrubs in the pictures of wort's garden do contrast beautifully. We've tried to do similarly here, but a few shrubs don't cooperate.   For example, Photina 'Red Robin' is a dead-loss, and the brighter yellow Choisya refuses to look happy. It's a case of finding out what works over time. For example, who'd have thought a bay tree would be unaffected by sitting in waterlogged soil half the winter, but I know two that do. They're romping away just now.
Time for a picture. Here's another self-seeding flower that loves our soil. We planted one or two about 15 years ago. Now, we have to pull most of them out! These are on the 'temporary' soil heap.

A garage pit is another thing I'd love, Bluey, but it might be good for wine storage. Apparently, I do that all wrong, but then none of our wine is expensive. Maybe if I'd been a legal beagle..... 

twopenny

Awwww collie X spaniel.  Ben the love of my life was just that.
Always happy, everyone's friend and very intelligent. Nightmare to train, could do it, wouldn't do it if something more fun was on offer.
He only cost me £5 from the dogs home.
Happy memories.

I'd have that blind if I was nearer.

Hot night and starting hot today so no idea what the day holds but cleaning drains is on the list 😐

wort

YBE I’m glad the red was a football thing, I was imagining Mr Gray living there 😂 it’s amazing how people now pay for dogs that used to be classed as mongrels 😂 Fab that Cissie is down with the kids FaceTiming.
When I put the garden together, I thought about all year round colour in the leaves of shrubs, so have many assorted. Samubca nigra, Tom Thumb, Eunonymus green and gold, and the white and green one. Acers, Spirea, smoke bush, hebes,etc. plus many which flowers as well, so lots of interest before you add in flowers.

I’ve no idea for the Pit🤔

I watered and actually fed my pots after tea, then cleared the leaves of the scillia, and hoiked out a dead mini conifer in a pot from a couple of Xmas ago. I cut the grass, and was going to empty the pot with tulips in and repot but I’ve no bigger pot, so that’s for another day. I went through my old small pots and threw away the excess.

Pp lovely Thrush, I’ve a couple of blackbirds keep coming for worms can’t catch on camera but love to hear them singing. I didn’t see any aurora and today is looking overcast and sounds quite windy.

Dusty the aquilegia seed you sent me has its first flower stem 😍 I’ll try for a pic when it opens ,fingers crossed 🤞🏻 for the white one. I was walking the garden and realized I’ve many colours, From dark purple and Magenta to pale pink and white trumpets. So pretty.

Farway shame about the chillies, one of my nasturtium seeds has leaves, and when I see it ,I think of you. I’m hoping the rest of the seeds come up.

wort

The cat wee tree (shudder) horrid smelling shrub , my sister suggested one when I was doing my garden, I quickly rejected it.

2p that water in the bird bath wow ! It looks illuminated. Did you go to the beach?
Pp hope the vertigo is getting better.