Awful weather - typical Brits talk

wort

2p sorry I meant Abelia not Abies I told you my memory is away with the fairies . 

Terrible nights sleep still awake at 2am alarm at 5.30 am . Only 9 hours work to go before I can collapse .

twopenny

Ah, got quite excited there for a moment thinking there was some new plant 😄
Hope you get to relax when you get home.

Amazing photos of the moths! That's stunning 😍

Farway

Yay, torrential rain started just after two this morning. I was another one unable to sleep. 

Rain started again about three & has been a nice steady garden drenching drizzle ever since.

Naturally my Merton Thornless blackberry picking is postponed, but at least the dust will have been washed off

And soon the plumping up juice will be pumping into my, and Taffs, apples

Less, Cracking bee photos silhouettes.

I sometimes see a humming bird moth, always astounds me that they migrate here from Southern Europe or Africa. Long journey for a little thing like that.

Some heretics do say Global Boiling means they can stay in UK overwinter

twopenny said:

Ate my Apricots today. I was trying to ration myself but keeping them a few days has made all the difference. The flavour is amazing!
It was worth all the effort. Hope it survives.
If you see one Farway give it another go - though I think I was lucky with the ridiculous hot dry weather this year.

Right, that's it, eyes peeled. If & when I spot one, I think I'll try & grow it in my conservatory, both for watering etc and keep those leaf curling rains off.

May as well, the toms in there are rubbish this year

I remember the 1976 ladybirds, poor little things were so hungry they started biting people. Seem to recall they came over in swarms from France in the hot weather. 

Apart from delayed blackberry picking, no gardening planned, may catch BG or GW, depends. GW has been at shows, so not interested in that.

Pics, buddleia + butterfly shot. The buddleia is self sown, quite a posh one.

Hibiscus is also from seed, sown some years back.

YoungBlueEyes

Oof you're MIA for one day and you've a load of posts to come back to   I'll start OT. The Wall of Death/Protect House + People, thunder + lightning abound warnings turned out to be some rain. It started mid morning and then gave up, then came back all aft and stopped in the evening. Barely a breath of wind with it and it was misty by bedtime. So that's Tusky and the sobers relegated to entertainment value only :rolleyes:  It'll have done the garden a world of good though, and I'm in the apples-need-plumping gang too.

Taff how's OH? Hopefully it was just body and not head/neck injuries? Gawd you must have been worried sick. Fingers crossed he's getting better now? 

I'm gonna guess that wort's DD house is a probate sale, and the executors/beneficiaries are fighting over the spoils. We've a couple of those at work, one of them's being going on for a few years. Nothing you can do to hurry those along sadly. Maybe making an appointment with the sol would be more productive than ringing for updates (if that's the case). Make sure first they don't charge you for their time - I'd say they wouldn't for one appointment but double check first. Also, if you kill that olive they've more in Lidl and they're only £8 cos they're plastic  

Love your prisoner of war story Dusty, and a free drink to boot   I love the Lemon Queen, that's a lovely fresh colour combo eh. Cat looks like they is deciding which side of your throat to rip out first...

I'd say you and your lovely hair should go to the interview pp, but treat it as a bit of a game. You don't want the job even if they offered it to you so what does it matter how it turns out? I'd go along and just have a chat, bit of a change of scenery for the afternoon   Anyway if you want something to do - how about setting up a camera outside your house and putting it online so we can watch your fantastic scenery? Like all those Shetland cameras but just for your loch

Aww little lovely ladybirds Farway That poem isn't too bad either, your mate Chat is getting better   I think I wouldn't mind buddleia of I got a white one, I only ever see purple ones. But that purple hibiscus is a beaut  

That's a good little haul 2p - did you fry them all up in some bacon fat Woohoo for amazing apricots! Hopefully you got someone with a bit of sense at the bank? 

Ooh I like your photos Less I'm not sure I've ever seen a Hummingbird Hawkmoth before Are they rare are they?

I wasn't at work Friday so I was up and at it early in the garden. I've near filled my bin Once I started looking there were lots of dead bits on living things so I went full George and lopped stuff off left right and centre. And in the case of one tree I took the bluddy lot off cos it was very unhealthy looking. Meant to do the same to the other but the rain was starting and my bin was full   Pics to follow (cos I've written yet another essay!) 

OT not raining now but it will/might/could sooner/later/overnight/tomorrow. Heavy and muggy and warm out there at 20'c. Did it rain on St Swithins can anyone remember?

Dustyevsky

Sorry, I'm still a page or so back. Life is somewhat busier than normal...

Abies are basically “Christmas Trees” 2p, though not all are suitable for gardens. They can grow to 120' or more!  I love Abelias, wort, though they seem slow-growing for us here.

Less, your Hummingbird moth pictures are great!   I see them most years, but only once have I managed to get a photo. They're so disinclined to pose for more than a second or two. 

pp, I'm in the 'go' interview camp too, but for slightly different reasons. Maybe this job isn't quite what you want, but it's good to meet with potential employers, because maybe they'll have something else coming up that will suit. Often the mind set and personality of an employer is as important as the role they're offering. As an interviewer a few times in the past, I'd have enjoyed 2p's 'Seychelles' answer, and marked her up for honesty and humour; two significant assets in many jobs.   

The poshness of your self-sown buddleia is obviously being appreciated by that Red Admiral, Farway, and I can't see any aphid damage like that on many of mine. I've kept a few self-sowers too; one has a very upright habit so it fits in well where it grew, the other is indistinguishable from 'Lochinch.' 

Woolly cat, some of you commented on, is almost feral at this time of year. She returns to the house at night for food, but holes-up at other times in the hedge or one of the cold frames. We had a hell of a job catching her yesterday to replace her collar. She's expert at detaching them!  Hope OH is recovering well now taff, and everyone's had some good sleep. We've not had the rain many have experienced, but there were 3 short power cuts last night which always make electrical things bleep....not that I heard them!   Some heavier bursts of rain this morning, but unless we have one of the much-vaunted thunderstorms, a good drenching looks unlikely. 

Here is one of our more unusual Buddleias. Aphid damage is visible on the nearest leaf, but the other is untouched.

Just checked....nearest thunderstorm currently at sea off Aberdeen! 

YoungBlueEyes

Pics of stuff. 

I took a pic of my wannabe spire in case the weather forecast was right (ha ha ha ha haaaa!) 



Before and after of the manky tree - 

This is the other one that’s up next - 

Trees are hard *sigh*

YoungBlueEyes

Prettier stuff now. 

(That last one was under a bramble that I clipped back to the ground.) 

The diddiest strawbs in the world! And yes I ate both of them because himself was still in bed, and people that are still in their bed at that time in the morning need to be either fatally dying to death or giving birth, the rest is just idle schweinhund-ness which should not be rewarded with a World's Diddiest Strawberry.

I don't know why the last two are a bit fuzzy, seems I used up all the clarity on my hoverfly-on-a-begonia-petal shot.

You busy being a Man Wot Can there Dusty? That's an unusual buddleia, I quite like that colour combo   If we've an aphid explosion and a ladybird explosion, why isn't the one cancelling the other out?!

The drunkards have just put out an alert for more storms and thunder etc etc arriving at lunchtime, so being a recalcitrant sort I've stripped the bed and put a wash on.

twopenny

Blimey that's not good 😕
Have you looked it up in Hessywhatsit?
Perhaps you could encourage the spire to go treewards.

Hummingbird Hawkmoth to be found between 4 and dusk on Hawthorn, Buddleia or the big stuff as photographed.
Once you've seen one you'll notice more.

Had some rain overnight. Not enough to do any good. 
Just catching up on some r n r after neighbours son had fall out with partner I guess as was kids telling the adults what was going on and ferrying them to and fro with a lot of door slamming.

Prunings from a couple of days ago still on ground but too wet to put in a bucket. What today holds is to be decided 🙂

YoungBlueEyes

I didn't 2p, I actually took my lead from that awful Ruth on BG - she had a rose that was dong something similar and once she'd chopped the bits off it she dug it up. I'm not sure it was the same thing, even though the affects look the same, so I've left it there for now. It'll either die on me or it won't *shrug* Tbh there's a pretty little plant coming up behind it (that's what the string is for) and it's lovely. It's tiny wee purple flowers with an orangey heart and I'd be happy to have that run mad  

Trouble at t'mill for Headknob is it? Gooood. Hopefully you and your neighbour will be getting some peace soon

twopenny

Sheesh well refresh didn't work for me 😬

Beautiful photos Blue. Especially the begonia one. That's a keeper 🙂

Well done with the alpine strawberry. Mines a brown mess but to be fair I didn't look after it being as they usually look after themselves. Perhaps I'll get some autumn ones if it survives.

Aww new plant. It's like moving furniture 😉
Weather says rain, it's sunny with clouds out there. I'd like to put a wash on but I'm not as brave.

No the more problems Butthead has managing 2 small children the more neighbour has to do a balancing act. I think she loves it.
Wonder if his partner said he must have both overnight so he has to deal with something real. I don't think it's that logical tbh.
It's a different world to the one people I know live in.
Wouldn't mind if I wasn't forced to live it too. 😵‍💫