Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Bit later this morning, shopping delivery dross, but for me, it's far better than trudging round the supermarket looking for things that are not where they were last time.

Dull and sort of hope in the sky, no gardening expected, except lug the garden wheelie around the back now it's been emptied

YoungBlueEyes said:

Good news you found your Wandering Toms Farway, how poetic you found them with the apples I never knew woodlice ate toms though, honestly you can't have anything can you *sigh*  

I think they are opportunists, a slug makes a hole and the lice blighters move in

twopenny said:

Farway did you see BakeOff with the chocolate frangipan and pear tart. How's your baking?

Bake O I never watched, well I did years ago before it changed channel & the new presenters, I'm talking about him with the flower shirts, and the mouthy woman, got up my hooter, and then later I cancelled my TV licence so it's Forbidden Fruit now

So, never saw it and my baking is basic bung everything in mixer then into oven, banana bread & tea loaf and crumbles are the peak of my skills.

Talking of pears, I tried another of my Posh French ones, it was starting to go manky, so I decided to eat what I could. 

Juicy and could be pleasant, but still has a hint of bitterness about it, which I thought could be the skin, but peeled some off, and it was the same. 

twopenny said:

Loved the sea pic Bluey, perfect. I have a feeling you may be moving to the seaside at some point. I have lots of different beaches accessible from my place as Exmoor has a whole coast as well as moorland and woodland valleys which is why I stay..

Things seem to be going well at Farway meadows with all the bounty and it looks delicious despite the woodlice 😉

Back lawn needs mowing, done some clearing but seems back has come out in sympathy with the leg so it's all a bit random.

Better be quick on sea, latest global boiling news is it going to rise by eighteen feet, so stay where you are, and the sea will come to you 

I'm waiting on the woodlice toms to ripen just a tad more, get them at the top so to speak

My nice neighbour has mown my grass, again, I need to do abbit more clearing now the wheelie is empty, but like you, dictated by back allowing it or not.

Going to try a photo, it's a crab apple, a few doors down, but looking grand in the sunshine

Bottom right, yellow berries are some of my pyracantha, waiting for the birds to get hungry enough

pink_poppy

I'm not on my hols yet, but it's all been rearranged for next week. Weather for that week looks good too.

Farway, one of the crab apple trees near to me (yellow fruit) lost all the leaves to Storm Amy, whereas the other one (red fruit) is still covered in leaves. My Viburnum, that had just started to recover after being moved from pot to garden and was starting to flower, has now set sail for the Fjords My poor garden is looking very forlorn after the relentless wind and rain. Next week would have been a good week, weatherwise, to tidy it up, but I'm not going to be here, so...

Lovely moon pics, YBE and Dusty. It was too cloudy for me to see it last night, but the night sky was definitely brighter, if that makes sense. Lovely seaside pic too, YBE. We were at a beach yesterday and I was trying unsuccessfully to capture the waves crashing against the rocks. I took a couple of pics of DH throwing a big rock into the sea, with a disappointing splosh at the end too.

Poor Mrs Hog I hope her babies survive. Well done to you and Mrs Dusty for helping them out. I'm already worrying about my blackbirds for when I'm away. There's one Mr Blackbird who has a damaged leg and he just sits in the middle of the lawn (!!) waiting for me to throw food out. I'm going to have to ask my DD if she can still feed them when she comes to see pussycat. She'll probably think I'm mad, but I'm quite attached to my regular birds because they've been around for months now.

twopenny, Exmoor sounds like a perfect place to be.

Btw, I think it was taff who was going to Germany.

OT - another grey day with rain.

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

I'm not on my hols yet, but it's all been rearranged for next week. Weather for that week looks good too.
Poor Mrs Hog I hope her babies survive. Well done to you and Mrs Dusty for helping them out. I'm already worrying about my blackbirds for when I'm away. There's one Mr Blackbird who has a damaged leg and he just sits in the middle of the lawn (!!) waiting for me to throw food out. I'm going to have to ask my DD if she can still feed them when she comes to see pussycat. She'll probably think I'm mad, but I'm quite attached to my regular birds because they've been around for months now.

Good news on the hols rearrangement, and let's hope the forecast is right. :)The birds do come to rely on human kindness, so it's important to keep up the good work.  We're not seeing much of the blackbirds yet. When we do, our grapes will surely disappear! So far, we've had one bunch. 

I don't know what luck Mrs Dusty will have tonight, but she's adapted the chicken ark to hold any young hogs she manages to catch until tomorrow. Hedgehog Lady has kindly offered to collect any she rounds-up. That's because yours truly hopes to go on a garden visit tomorrow, and I don't want to do it in the van! Hopefully there will be more sunshine than today. It was grey and cold here by 17.00, but I was still in just a T shirt and shorts, so maybe that coloured my judgement! 

Oh Lord, it's getting dark now! This time yesterday, I was chasing the moon. Tonight I'll not bother.  Here's all I got in the semi-clouded conditions:

twopenny

That's a good idea of Mrs Dustys 🙂
What do you feed young hedgehogs on? I remember one was walking round here with it's mum so learning to forage I guess.

Farway did your cider vinegar trap work? I'm again plagued by fruit flies and they seem to be able to get into anything.
Tonight I think I nuked a few. I'd put my dinner in the microwave under a cover and they'd got in there 😕

Meteor showers tonight if anyone is up. 
Like Dusty it's cloudy and feels very cold. 

I managed to get the back lawn mowed. Pruning tomorrow I hope......,.. but I have plum blossom on the tree. Not just a little, loads of it!!!😲

YoungBlueEyes

Morning all  

That's a proper workman Dusty, clearing up after himself. His mother would be proud Have you seen any more of the hoglets or have they decamped to somewhere else...?  That's a good moon shot, the lovely softness in it Which garden yous off to today..?

That's a bu99er about your back coming out in sympathy with your leg 2p Have you had any joy outta the new doc yet..?  If/when we move it'll be closer to the sea or at least as close as we are now cos I couldn't be without it. Himself isn't a bit bothered - he just wants a garage :rolleyes: -but I'm looking a bit more earnestly now. I haven't mentioned the neighbour cos that fell apart really fast, to the point where I rang the police. Which is why I've not mentioned it. Next house absolutely categorically must be detached... Anyway. Plum blossom! At this time of year! Did you chop it all off or leave it because pretty? Or did you have to shop it off because brain-chewingly-wrong in October?

Jeez you have no luck with pears Farway eh. The sea is coming up 18ft is it? That might save us a move, cos I'm not sure how far above sea level we are but 18ft might be enough you know Ooh I'll ring @workingmum and let her know to buy a boat ha haa! Look at all those berries, they must have enough food being put out for them have they? 

I'd be the same as you worrying about the birds when you go away pp. Hopefully DD will feed them as well. You've no foxes round you I take it or the leggy bird issue would errr be resolved Ah it's taff in Leiderhosenland is it? Hope you're having a fab time taff  

OT it's 10'c currently with a high of 17' to come, they say. Another lovely sunny mild day, possibly, once this humidity lifts.

Dustyevsky

When Mrs Dusty wouldn't come in for her dinner last night, I relented and went out with the camera. She was hunting hogs, and I was positioning myself better for moonrise.  After that, we had some dinner, but Mrs D was out again till 22.30!  Final tally, 3, all now tucked-up in individual hay boxes in the chicken ark. Suitable food is kitten kibbles 2p...ours came from Sainsburys. They'll go to Hedgehog Sanctuary Lady today, and we can take along any other wee ones we find if/when that happens. 

Here's the best photo from last night:

Personally, I'd not worry too much about huge increases in sea level. All those billionaires, with their beach-side properties, don't seem to be too concerned.  The garden I'm visiting today is virtually seaside, but I'll keep it a secret for now. It's a place neither walking friend nor I have ever visited. We've not heard anyone raving about it, either, but I've a twofer ticket, so it'll be cheap enough, discovering what it's like. End of season, of course, but there should be a bit of easy country walking there too, and it's not far.

We had a little blossom on our damson last week 2p. It won't come to anything, but I noted it. I noticed a day lily blooming for the first time this year, too. Maybe it shut down in the dryness of summer and saved its energy? 

YoungBlueEyes said:

That's a proper workman Dusty, clearing up after himself.

We've used the same chap since 2013. He's skilled at other jobs too, so he's in demand, and we have to nag to get him here. People like him will never be replaced by AI, nor will he 'need' a certain sort of pass to find gainful employment. 

While I was wandering about the place on Tuesday night, waiting for moonrise, there was a pretty pink sky in the east, so here's a bonus picture of it:  
Very cool this morning, and certainly not 11c as the cider drinkers claim, but nor is it 'overcast' either.  Sunny later, they say, so I'll hold them to that bit! 

pink_poppy

Lovely moon pics, Dusty, I’ve just taken one 5 minutes ago after it suddenly appeared from behind the clouds. I like your pink sky too.
I’m glad the wee hoglets have been caught and will be getting checked over. I do miss seeing hedgehogs 🦔 

No foxes 🦊 here, YBE, but we do get sparrowhawks 😳

Did you catch any of the meteor shower, twopenny?? No chance here - it was pouring down last night.
Btw, I rescued the hydrangea branch that had snapped off during Storm Amy and it’s now in a vase. Fingers crossed it gets some roots.

OT - it’s looking like a nice morning so far, but definitely a wee nip in the air.

My moon pic from this morning, with photobombing pigeon…

-taff

I might start liking pigeons if they can look that aerodynamic, a far cry from the usual huffing and puffing flying...fab photo!

I was in Germania, i ate a lot of Germania food [ delicious, I love a good hunk of meat]. Amy didn't really seem to have an impact, it just rained and was a bit windy, but the supermoon was mahoosive there...Didn't take a pic obviously because I didn't know it was a supermoon. My friend informs me we saw Jays, a woodpecker and some great tits in the garden of the air bandb we stayed in so her bird twitching senses aere gratified..And we saw a lot of kites considering we were quite close to the city. 

Shame about the hog Dusty but yay to the rest being alive. We have now got stumpy tail fox for feeding who seems to have regained her coat after having mange, good job too because it's getting parky in the night and she's now bringing her nephew along for feeding too, which is no big deal because they are just eating what the cats won't or don't. 

Weather is parky in the morning but was quite warm and muggy yesterday.

My apple tree at the allotment has fruit that shape and colour 2p, but no one knows what it is so it can now be just like yours

Glad you found your toms farway, at least you had a result, mine were rubbish this year, made no salsa at all, just cooked some in the oven and whizzed up in the freezer.

We're having a new boiler instaled this week so to anyone who wants a good sturdy unbreakable apple corer, a length of 2cm copper pipe with a push on pull off t junction on the top for a handle is bloody marvellous and I highly recommend! 

No gardening was done in the last week or so but there may be some next week and a bit of allotmenting. 

Farway

Bright & sunny, nice looking day so far

Bit later clocking on today, I was involved in a spot of DIY, replacing my door bell, again. 

My hearing is as expected after donkey's years spent in a noisy engineering environment, i.e Carp, so I never hear doorbells or phones unless under my nose

I had a bell with a remote dinger, but that relied on batteries & I never knew if or when the batteries were flat or just my ears

Then had a smart, webcam, internet thing, Like Ring, but more Rong   , which never really internetted or bonged on my mobile, so a completely useless & unreliable waste of money

Latest attempt has plug in bongers, with lights, so I can have them around the house and get disco lights as well as Jingle Bells or whatever tune comes along.

It is possible to set the tune, but my life span is too short for me to bother

No moon pics, or meteors, it was cloudy last night, but sun is on the Ash leaves so I'll see what I can get there

twopenny said:

Farway did your cider vinegar trap work? I'm again plagued by fruit flies and they seem to be able to get into anything.
Tonight I think I nuked a few. I'd put my dinner in the microwave under a cover and they'd got in there 😕

I never got round to it, but I've read since there is a plague of fruit flies, Global Boiling, seems their life cycle is linked to heat, more heat, shorter lives but more babies, bit like our ancestors 

They are not restricted to fruit though, they love bread & moisture, so any old plug hole or damp cloth will do

Trap is cider vinegar, plus bit of honey / sugar,  with a spot of washing up liquid in, to break the surface tension

Talking of nuking them, I wonder if those blue light zappers work on them?

Hope weather holds down there for a walk Dusty, if it's like here it should be pleasant and photogenic

No proper gardening planned, still got the wheelie bin to move, and thinking about getting some daffs out of their packets & planted

pink_poppy

Welcome back, taff. Germania sounds fab   

Disco lights and jingle bells - love it, Farway    

What about those sticky strips that you hang up for the fruit flies??