Awful weather - typical Brits talk

pink_poppy

Thanks for the 'fingers crossed' vibes, although I'm having 'imposter syndrome' feelings about job number one now   I'm probably better off with job number two, or even three (if/when I get offered an interview)... I need to keep thinking about that wee convertible for motivation    

That's a lovely Dahlia, Dusty, I like the wee reflection of it in the background too.

Thumbs down to 3 hours of broken sleep, YBE   I've slept a bit better with having the bedroom door wide open the last few nights. I don't know if it's that or just pure exhaustion, like Farway.

Grey and cloudy this morning with a high of 20 degrees.

Farway

Late arrival, it is feet day plus into Morries to mooch among the dead plants, and top up diesel ready for trip over DDs on Sunday. 

Must mention the kindness of strangers. A lady offered & fetched, unasked, a trolley for me from the trolley stowage. 

Then a mid 20s worker, in hi vis, offered to put a reduced 40L of Levingtons in my trolley for me.

Both very welcome, & maybe I look worse than I feel? 

Morries has Spring bulbs if anyone is looking for some squirrel / rat food

Very hot sun, going to be a scorcher today.

Nice dahlia Dusty, my Bishop is just starting to open a bud

Dustyevsky said:

Mind you, even the multi-linked barrels our horsey neighbour has, eventually run out. I see she's lugging one of those roll-along camping containers up the hill daily. It's possibly crossed her mind by now, how useful our unmetered tap used to be, before she reported us to the authorities for things that were entirely legal, and cost us £thousands. Unlike the yanqui crayfish, she had choices. Crayfish can only be what they are. End of sermon. 

Sometimes biters get bit. 

No gardening today, maybe a bit of watering if I spot a wilting plant, otherwise it's languid lolling watching tele tat in the heat.

DT Brown has some seeds on offer 99p, https://www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk/collections/99p-seeds?filter.v.availability=1

Plus free P & P on all seeds, code 08DTBSEED

Ends midnight Monday 18 Aug

twopenny

Been out looking for a breeze this afternoon. 31c and very little to be had.
It's so bad here autumn colours are in the trees and grasses. Couldn't believe it when I saw mature trees half yellow.
All the fields yellow and soil exposed.

The moors are mostly green and recent messing by the park has however kept the streams with water for the animals.
What rain there's been has landed there. No sign of any animals. They'll all be in the valleys where it's shady and water.

The garden? I think I've lost some big plants. Just keeping everything a fraction above failing.
There's not much I can do except trying to get a little water in the soil.

No fruit in the freezer or jams, neither chutney.

I keep thinking about Bluey tree stumps. Id have those turned into painted totems with fairy lights around.
Make use of what you've got 🙂 I m going to need that idea 





The rose is still going but getting so big and it's by the electric cables 😟
My neighbour suggests it's running on electricity 😵‍💫
You can see the state of the tree, leaves drooping and falling off daily.

wort

Good morning all, 
I have also been sleeping with the bedroom door open, I have a side window on the landing which has been open plus bedroom window for any any through draught. Strangely last night felt a little too chilly so I closed it then slept well until a car alarm this morning then my alarm. Felt exhausted when I woke though !! 

2 p I hope you are able to keep the plants going until you get rain, you must live in a microclimate.
Dusty karma for your neighbour 😉 I have never grown Dalias, always looked too much work lifting tuber etc.

Yesterday started with a walk to the park, with Dsis and grandkids. When I got back SIL had made my gate and was attaching it. So I pottered around, I’ve cut back another large hebe , just the root to get out when the ground softens up. Tidied Red Robin and hardy geraniums.
The gate has lasted well, but the cat climbs over it and it has great gouges out of it where he scrabbles up it. Looks like a wild animal lives here.
Need to get wood preservative for gate and then I can paint next week, I’ve booked a few days hol, so just this long weekend to get through.

YoungBlueEyes

It's finally cooler here and I slept alright last night. Spark out by 2130 and didn't wake 'til nearly 5 By 1500 yesterday I was saying common sense things to clients Water Butt Man came in, wanting to know what we'd done so far on banning evil and inhumane water butts, so I politely said some honest things to him. He called me/us a few names then said he'd go find a "Proper Solicitors that isn't in the gubmint's pocket". Good luck to ya pal, let us know how you get on!  A fellah came in wanting to do a Right to Buy - he thought he just had to hand his council paperwork over and we'd sort it. He came back an hour later to see if it was done yet Luckily Mini Big Boss Man was in reception and straightened him out, but he left disgusted too. Big Boss Man thought that was the funniest thing all week and gave me a poster to put up that said 'Leave your crippling sense of entitlement at the door' but OMM forbid me from putting it up  

Love the kharma bite-back on horsey neighbour Dusty, beautifully poetic is that We're big fans of Lidl's salmon wellington too.... so what are your campers wanting? Best steak and home-made chips? Or are they vegetablists vegans? Bishop deffo got his issue right with that dahlia, a keeper for sure  

Good to hear some morries are still thinking of the gardeners Farway and haven't decided to use their gc as a dead bollard and fencing repository. I think my squirrels are fat enough tbh so I'm not buying any more fodder for them. Much as I love snowdrops and crocuses and stuff they never get chance to grow   Kindness of strangers indeed Did you not mess with their heads and say "Do You Mind?! I'm only 56!" or "Bless you good sir, I'm 108 you know!"  Well I would have  

I hope you haven't lost any favourite big plants 2p? Are the ponies doing alright do you know?  I hope your rose pulls through, any sign of coolness coming your way? I think weatherman said the easterly wind is blowing the heat over to your side and then out over the ocean, so respite is coming  

Dam cats don't take a blind bit of notice do they wort Could you protect your new gate with some chicken wire and a lovely thick green prickly plant growing up it...? Hopefully your long weekend will fly by and you're soon at your garden  

OT quite nice here, so far. 17'c currently and a high of only 21 to come. Lovely NE breeze with it too, and I'm truly thankful   DomNon this morning, food shopping, and then some gardening cos it's getting away from me out there. Early morning weeding is one thing but my plants need proper attention - deadheading and BFB'ing and tying up and stuff. Once himself peels his erse outta bed I can make a start.... 

Farway

Got up & still cream crackered after another restless night. 

Bits of me took turns to hurt / cramp/ itch etc. 

Finally went back on drugs & took a Para**** & rubbed Iso oinkment on back. I was ready to sleep by about 6 AM.  in time to get up.

However, despite being a Zombie I have managed to feed & water some plants at the front, the urgent ones. 

At least I am back to being able to lift a nearly full watering can.

Dull, and thankfully, cooler this morning, with a bit of a breeze.

Thanks for updates YBE, good job there are some around with more money than sense, keeps a lot of the world employed. Probably more so in the medical world, where Snake Oil is the miracle cure.

Shame about right to buy man, bet he had his £50 purchase money burning a hole in his pocket

My Bishop dahlia flower has opened, despite being a named one [forgotten the name] it's not very impressive IMO, Dusty's looks better at the moment. Once a few more flowers are open, I'll get a pic.

wort said:

 I have never grown Dalias, always looked too much work lifting tuber etc.

I think Dusty & I are lucky with our weather, mine stay in the ground, maybe if I had super prize winner I'd lift it just in case

The Kong coleus has been attacked by slugs, holes in one of the leaves.   Urgent blue sweets applied

I'm going over to DD's tomorrow, so will maybe MIA. 

I go bearing gifts, a dwarf Golden Delicious which I have in a pot but really should be in the ground. And the Loganberry I bought from Morries, growing in a pot, but now my Boysenberry has revived I don't really have space for, and she has a fence gasping for a fruiting berry.

Gardening jobs today is bagging up the plants for DD and maybe catch last night's GW

Dustyevsky

Oh dear, 2p that's a sad sight!    The plants may well bounce back; it's their coping mechanism at work. I never thought the rivers would recover in 1976, but they did. 

You're in Wessex Water's area, while we're with South West Water, and vive la différence! SWW have no plans for a hosepipe ban. We've paid a bit more, and they've invested correctly to ensure continued supplies in droughts.     Embarrassing for others, who'll have plenty of excuses, no doubt. "Lessons have been learned..."etc

Farway said:

Must mention the kindness of strangers. A lady offered & fetched, unasked, a trolley for me from the trolley stowage. 

Then a mid 20s worker, in hi vis, offered to put a reduced 40L of Levingtons in my trolley for me.

Both very welcome, & maybe I look worse than I feel? 

Nice dahlia Dusty, my Bishop is just starting to open a bud

The first time I was offered 'assistance' at B&Q, I was quite taken aback. It took a few moments to realise my self-image wasn't what others were seeing!  Then there was the walk at this time last year, when a middle-aged lady advised us not to proceed further, because “the footpath becomes steep and slippery.” We found it pretty average, as footpaths go. 

I'll show more of my Bishop progeny if you show me yours! 

wort said:
I have also been sleeping with the bedroom door open

I have never grown Dalias, always looked too much work lifting tuber etc.

I’ve booked a few days hol, so just this long weekend to get through.

 We had the front door open last night because our visitors chose to be in the front garden. They weren't fussed about privacy, having a posh camper van. It was a comfortable 15c this morning, but it's scorchio with a strong wind later, so double watering is likely today. 

I get what you mean about lifting tubers, but if started early from seed, they're ready for the gap in blooming that often occurs now. I like finding out what turns up from the random buzzy bee gene selector. 

Things are easier to endure if they come with a treat at the end. Hope the working weekend passes in a flash,but not from a thunderstorm, unless you want one, that is. 

YoungBlueEyes said:

Love the kharma bite-back on horsey neighbour Dusty, beautifully poetic is that so what are your campers wanting? Best steak and home-made chips? Or are they vegetablists vegans? 

We ought to follow Christian principles and turn the other cheek, but when a so-called friend tries to drop you in it with the Powers that Be, one's forced to ask, exactly which cheeks do we mean? We've a suspicion, any conciliatory gesture will be met further on with another kick up the erse!   After all, we haven't even reached proper planning permission yet!   

Friends got spag bol, our other fall-back.  They retaliated with a healthy-tasting, oat and sawdust pudding, which probably explained much about their svelte shapes, compared with ours.  I dumped a pile of Lidl ice cream on mine. 

I'm rolling back like Asda for today's photo, taken exactly 7 years ago:
Digitalis ferruginea with a pure white Thalictrum behind. We don't have either now. Nothing's forever. 

pink_poppy

That really is a sad sight, twopenny, hope they do bounce back.
Painted totem tree stumps with fairy lights - genius idea    

wort, years ago I bought a dahlia thinking it was just a one hit wonder annual, but it came back the following year, much to my surprise.
Hope the weekend flies by for you and you can enjoy your hols.

I had a restless night too, Farway, I must have woken up a gazillion times. Too hot. A bit chilly. Rinse and repeat.
Enjoy your day with DD tomorrow.

Hope the DomNon is out of the way and you're now pottering in the garden, YBE.

That's a very impressive plant, Dusty, I wouldn't mind one of them in the garden.

I wandered over to the tattie bags this morning and spur of the moment decided to tip one out... pics to follow. I've left the other two bags for now, because I'm pretty sure DH will want to be there to see any treasure unearthed

What a lovely morning - sunny and still and not too warm. Perfick   

pink_poppy

A nice weed/plant that’s popped up - my plant ID app says it’s flax…



My bonus tatties - not a huge bounty, but not bad considering my half ersed attempts at feeding and watering them… two bags still to go 🥔 

twopenny

Note to Farway! 
And cc to Poppy?

Our Morrie's are selling off long handled weeders you don't have to bend down.
Would do for bulb planting at a pinch.
About a Fiver.

Just been down twice because they were selling off pots with sunflower seeds. The pots I needed were £3.68 from the GC but these were £1.38 🙂 and I've got sunflower seeds for next year.

Picked up more geraniums on discount too so I have some colour in the garden, plus they are easy to water and found I have blue pots to match the unexpected colour of the bench 🙂

It's a bit spotty with all these individual pots but hey ho. At least they are surviving.

Idea is to change them for winter primulas come the time.

Trees turning yellow and bare branches also autumn cyclamen in full bloom 😬

Very strong wind and cool but that won't help the plants at all. No rain forecast.

Aubrecia showing signs it's still trying - unless it's the last gasp 




Bluey that made me laugh about the poster 🤣 
Hope it's not like the time I ask my assistant to say to the boss on the phone 'tell him I'd had enough and gone home ' and she did 😲
To be fair he forgot we did different hours and I was up to my elbows in pizza dough with 3yr olds.
He believed it and didn't think it was funny 😉

Love the colour of that dahlia Dusty. I've always envied people who can grow them.
I used to but they didn't like being dug up as per instructions. I've not succeeded since. I think they have a grudge.

Hope the weekend passes quickly Wort and you get to meditate over making your gate look nice.

Poppy that's a yummy looking lot of potatoes. 
Flax is beautiful. We usually get whole fields of it here and the colour en mass makes you feel very zen.

Ok, off to try and deadhead the climbing rose. I've k'ackered the hip running around for pots and plants and can't walk but intend to be up a little ladder 🤔

Waving at Taff 🙋