Awful weather - typical Brits talk

YoungBlueEyes

Thanks for well wishes re my hurty fumbs folks. They were both sore as hell yesterday but a bit better today. I didn't come on here so as to keep any goodness in them for DomNon.  Seems to have kinda worked, I think (sorry 2p + Farway + Dusty )

Anyway. Appraisal was a load of bollix, but luckily I didn't say that out loud. It wasn't a big myself up session, it was a 'how much more training and in which areas do you feel like you need' session. I was making the right noises until she said "do you think you have an attitude problem", which made me laugh and say "aye right!". Well that didn't please her one bit, I'll see what the fallout is on Monday. 

More importantly - BG was good last night, it was George and Calum. Next week is that stringy haired nasal one and the lang streek-a-pish. Might have to watch it on mute with subtitles... George was on good form, I reckon whatever was ailing him has passed now  

Are you sickening for something too now wort? Hopefully the blood tests will reveal an easily solved problem. Seems like dealing with morons at work is universal then eh. It's a wonder there are so many employed people... maybe it's only those without the nous to fight back that end up staying employed ha haa!

Any news on Poorly Car 2p? Have they at least stopped finding things wrong with it and adding noughts to the bill? I like your "slimmer and fitter" line, just right is that  

Hopefully the hens will forgive your tardiness Dusty. You feeling any better today? Your laxative Beecham's Powder story made me giggle - that is called Karma and he no doubt had it coming Your laurel line looks more manageable, and you can now see your neighbour's waterslide thing   Imagine getting a whack with a stick #MoreStuffWotHappenedWotKidzTodayWouldNeverBelieve

How's the back this morning Farway? Do you need one of those Thai girls to walk up and down on it to relax the muscles? I'm sure there'll be a website for that kind of thing...  Your blackberries will be very sweet and delicious with all the extra growing time they're getting   

The new person who Has All The Answers is a pain in the hole eh taff. But you smile and nod and go back to what you were doing and let it fall apart round them. If she wants to manage me out she only need say, and I'd cheerfully go. Some allotment pics would be nice, I can't picture a lot of what you talk about. Unless it's rats, I know what they look like  

OT I haven't been out yet this morning (it's taken me a soddin' hour to write this!) but it looks sunny enough with a wee bit of a breeze. 14'c currently and up to 22' later, perhaps. 

Here's a funny story to cheer up the poorly people.  There was a good comments section comment on my news site yesterday, the question was -have you ever used ChatGPT?  One messer said he'd asked chat if cows were causing climate change.... "Yis are worried about cow farts while Amazon's burnin' and Jeff Beaker or whatever is flying to Mars. Cop on. My cows are grand. They never lied on a tax return or invented crypto."

Dustyevsky

I love your last paragraph, Bluey! Jeff Beezer didn't get out of Earth orbit, or rather his bevvy of beauties didn't, but they performed some amazing experiments somersaults for a few minutes. Real science, that! Meanwhile, don't anyone dare mention the incredible amount of power all those data centres consume, or the fact that CO2 is actually good for growing plants. 

Anyway, glad the appraisal went well...sort of!  I s'pose the answer to that question should be “My attitude is  naturally positive, but bound to reflect the environment in which I strive to maintain it.” 

I'm not commenting on Thai massage, but hope Farway's remedies finally bear blackberries. His Merton Thornless sounds in much better shape than my friend's, which I was called upon to secure a few wires for yesterday. It has grown possibly 2' this year, and shows no sign of flowering, let alone fruit.  OTOH her canna now stands at 6' and is still flowering like mad.

I got the time wrong for the World Crabbing Championship, so my family arrived rather late, but saw the prize giving. Conversations on the Quay indicated a strong Northern interest, and there was “a lovely atmosphere.” This is the only photo I have, and it's post-event.    If you peer hard, there's one line still out and someone lowering a net.   

In other news, I've sold my old, broken walk-behind mower on the Bay.    That's one down and two to go....

OT: Another "promising" day. Yesterday I went out, lathered in Factor 50, convinced by the inebriates it would be sunshine 'soon.' As the photo above shows, it didn't happen in the mid and north areas of Devon. Car said 19c. Still grey as I type, but breezy. 

Farway

Sunny day ahead.

twopenny said:

That's disappointing to find first thing in the morning Farway. Does it ever get better during the day in any way?

It eases as I limp around, seems to be a bit like a rusty hinge, OK if kept moving, but once immobile, like sitting a long time, or in bed, it seizes up

If you think about it next time you get up, just how much movement you back makes getting from prone to standing

Anyway, high hopes this morning, just a quick Ouch and a Heroic Wince, and I was upright

I hope the other malingerers poorly people are feeling similar improvement.

Dustyevsky said:

I'm remembering some things which happened to us lads when we went part-feral in the summer hols. Our plums are ripening now, so the incident where we were caught scrumping those by an army-type hotel owner comes to mind. Two of us escaped unharmed over the chain link fence, but Scruffy got his winkle-pickers stuck in it, and the old guy whacked him with his stick!    It was straight out of The Beano! Imagine that happening now and the lurid headlines!  At the time, Scruffy probably gave a two fingered salute, and I know I silently thanked Mum for always ensuring my footwear was sensibly unfashionable.    

Our biggest fear while scrumping was getting caught by The Nuns, our scrumping ground was the Nunnery. Luckily none were caught, 12-year-old boys can outleg an angry nun. 

That would be out of the Beano as well, Nun in Flying habit and waiving a fist at a disappearing child with puffs of dust from his heels.

Like this

YoungBlueEyes said:

Anyway. Appraisal was a load of bollix, but luckily I didn't say that out loud. It wasn't a big myself up session, it was a 'how much more training and in which areas do you feel like you need' session. I was making the right noises until she said "do you think you have an attitude problem", which made me laugh and say "aye right!". Well that didn't please her one bit, I'll see what the fallout is on Monday. 

More importantly - BG was good last night, it was George and Calum. Next week is that stringy haired nasal one and the lang streek-a-pish. Might have to watch it on mute with subtitles... George was on good form, I reckon whatever was ailing him has passed now  

How's the back this morning Farway? Do you need one of those Thai girls to walk up and down on it to relax the muscles? I'm sure there'll be a website for that kind of thing...  Your blackberries will be very sweet and delicious with all the extra growing time they're getting   

Normal sort of appraisal then, at least "Aye Right" is a tad better than FO 

Now looking out for BG, GW has turned up for my horizontal weekend gardening

Friends say I now need to register my age for the sort of websites you allude to, but I hear the kids are way ahead, as usual. 

Seems there are sites you can find / generate a driving licence image with, say, our Glorious Leader's face on it, suitable for facial age clearance 

The Thai girl I get would probably be the one who can reverse a car into the garage. IYKYK

I'll carry on watering with the 2L milk carton today, keeping up OK so far. 

I had to chuck one of my two courgettes plants away yesterday, it was just a mess & taking up space & light from the tomato plants in the same pot.

The other plant, different pot, has a courgette! Just one, but I'm happy with that. If no more, I may let it grow a bit to small marrow size before I eat it.

The toms are Romillo, you can spot the snail trails of the Hungry Horde scouting group

Looking at this pic I think I could have composed it better. 

Dustyevsky

Courgettes have been more difficult than usual this year and toms are ripening only slowly for me. 

Has anyone looked at Ana's Food & Lifestyle on the Toob lately? If I recall correctly, she used to be the darling of many....err....older mature ladies on here.   Now, it appears, she's turned into a conspiracy theorist and hints at all sorts of things which 'might' be influencing our weather and crops. Her accent's quite thick, and she talks about 'not upsetting the algorithm,' so I'm not sure exactly where she's coming from, but found watching snippets interesting. I couldn't go a whole programme, though, and anyway, I know what's on offer at Lidl! 

Farway

Dustyevsky said:

Courgettes have been more difficult than usual this year and toms are ripening only slowly for me. 

Has anyone looked at Ana's Food & Lifestyle on the Toob lately? If I recall correctly, she used to be the darling of many....err....older mature ladies on here.   Now, it appears, she's turned into a conspiracy theorist and hints at all sorts of things which 'might' be influencing our weather and crops. Her accent's quite thick, and she talks about 'not upsetting the algorithm,' so I'm not sure exactly where she's coming from, but found watching snippets interesting. I couldn't go a whole programme, though, and anyway, I know what's on offer at Lidl! 

Funnily enough, I was watching the same one and did wonder. 

A lot of crops do seem “odd” this year, lack of, or loads of toms etc. 

LessImpecunious

Have to say my courgettes have been over-productive if anything this year, almost approaching the neighbours-run-away-if-they-see-you-approaching-with-one trope, not to mention the marrows; cucumbers similar, and I have a bunch of ripening toms waiting to be picked (and perhaps pic'd if I remember first) in greenhouse. Not boasting  , it's just unexpected, a bit like last year, when exotic veg (well, toms are fairly exotic here) seemed to do better here than elsewhere, normally the opposite... And this and last year have been very different, weather-wise... scratches head emoji...

Also, spotted my first Wall butterfly yesterday, again today, still to get a photo - it's not been sunny for long enough for it to do its classic basking pose...

wort

Taff great polleny bee 🐝 

Grey and very windy here today so the washing is almost dry.
I was out in the garden to find a pot for the olive tree, the one I found was buried down the shady side, it had green strap like growth in it. Hmmm 🤔 what are they ? Tipped them out and found a broken bit of name tag Agapanthus!! Don’t remember ever see them flower if that’s what they are.
So they have been transferred to a couple of smaller pots and I washed the pot ready to put the olive in. I had an almost full bag of Lidl compost but upon opening it it’s full of tiny flies !!! There’s a bit of white round the inner of the bag too. 

Was not sure on using it , does anyone know why or what the flies are and would they be harmful? Shall I throw the compost away? 

Bloods were annual routine ones, though when I checked my results apparently it’s only 6 month since last ones.

Forcast is for boiling over next few days , who knows ?! 

Farway

wort said:

 I had an almost full bag of Lidl compost but upon opening it it’s full of tiny flies !!! There’s a bit of white round the inner of the bag too. 

Was not sure on using it , does anyone know why or what the flies are and would they be harmful? Shall I throw the compost away? 

Sounds normal to me, just fungus flies / gnats, nothing to worry about

Fresh air & predators will soon take care of those for you

If you have Jeyes fluid handy you could make up a weak solution and sterilise the compost with it, just water on.

2 teaspoons per gallon

Don't plant the olive in immediately after Jeyes, give it a week or so to disperse a bit, although my vine weevil  pelargoniums just blinked and went greener 

Dustyevsky

Farway said:

Dustyevsky said:

Courgettes have been more difficult than usual this year and toms are ripening only slowly for me. 

Has anyone looked at Ana's Food & Lifestyle on the Toob lately? If I recall correctly, she used to be the darling of many....err....older mature ladies on here.   Now, it appears, she's turned into a conspiracy theorist and hints at all sorts of things which 'might' be influencing our weather and crops. Her accent's quite thick, and she talks about 'not upsetting the algorithm,' so I'm not sure exactly where she's coming from, but found watching snippets interesting. I couldn't go a whole programme, though, and anyway, I know what's on offer at Lidl! 

Funnily enough, I was watching the same one and did wonder. 

A lot of crops do seem “odd” this year, lack of, or loads of toms etc. 

That seemed to be the gist of what others were reporting, with no discernable national pattern. Of course, the natural world can respond to localised stimuli in localised ways, such as the rain making in Dubai. 

I'm not saying an entity is fiddling with the weather, but if experiments were carried out, I doubt if they'd be widespread, unless or until results were seen to justify costs and means.  How much was it the government pledged to 'dim' the sun? £50m?  That seemed to go quiet, but it's not much in the general run of things.

I don't mind people having theories, conspiratorial or otherwise, but as a science-trained person, I prefer to see evidence, or at least a cogent theory. Ana didn't appear to offer any, except a tour of manky plants in her garden and a reference to 'Billy Goats.' 

It's still predominantly dull, warm and windy here. More over-applied Factor 50, but least the old mower I gave up on has gone to a new home.  Mrs Dusty is claiming the ££ for new loppers and a beefier hedge trimmer. Having broken the last two heavy-duty loppers, how can I refuse?