Awful weather - typical Brits talk

pink_poppy

Sad news re Mr Blackbird I went looking for him in the garden yesterday and found a few black feathers underneath the hydrangea. I think he's been taken by the sparrowhawk or a cat He wasn't in a good way and I knew he wouldn't survive forever, but I still feel quite sad about it

I used the Merlin app yesterday as I could hear twitterings in one of the nearby crab apple trees - it was long-tailed tits, my 'bird of the day' apparently. Funny that twopenny and Less had them too.

It feels chilly this morning (I was up early again) and I think rain is forecast today after the lovely day yesterday. I'm going to have to make a decision on getting new storage heaters (the old ones conked out months ago when we had a prolonged power cut) or looking again at ASHP...

YoungBlueEyes

Morning all, on Back to the Future Day  

Boooo to missing blackie pp, do you think nature has taken it's course?   Maybe Mrs will find another Mr and all will be right again :fingerscrossed: Is your flower not a primrose? I've a few and they're waking up now, all leaves and diddy half-hearted flowers but they're a joy to see again  

Ah so the tiny cheerios are galls, thanks Farway That mug is brilliant! I think sculptors are a special breed too, well all the creatives tbh because I'm not one. Have you seen those folks that carve tree trunk chunks with a chainsaw There'll no doubt be hours and hours of it on ootoob.

I'm with you on finding a lot of things galling Dusty. Interesting etymology of the word there... so apple is from gallas? That's another one for the Pointless Doubles List, like Alpine Mountains and Sahara desert. You have some cracking walks down there, no wonder you're always out in it  

I've just D'Duck'd the Pieta and it's deffo going on my list, ta 2p I need to stop learning about interesting stuff cos my list is getting very dear. Did I tell yous about the woman I got talking to when we were at the Bowes Museum watching the Silver Swan? She was contradicting the museum fellah while he was saying about it being the last surviving automaton of that era. IIRR her father-in-law (or summat) was the curator/worked in a Russian museum (Hermitage..? Grrr stoopid brain) and they have one. It's the same thing entirely except for it's a peacock and it's gold. We should go see it, and the Pieta, and the Silver Swan. Will somebody give us a shout when they win the Rottery cos we need a big bunch of money thankyouplease

Ahh gb, is that the death knell for your apple tree then? Can Honeyfungus be killed off and not harm the tree? Even if the fruit weren't worth the eating, it'd be a shame to lose the structure if it could be saved..?

Dead Man's Fingers, very apt Less  I’m still loving the Merlin app (thank you again, lurker) cos it picks up and differentiates between all kinds of wee birds that I’d miss otherwise. I’ve Long Tailed tits here but my sparrows have all gone They’ve been replaced with Greenfinches and Goldfinches (both unseen by me) so that’s a fair swop I spose. 

OT filthy damp and dark and mild out there, again. It’s to lift today, they say, with sunny spells coming later, possibly. Currently 10’c and a high of 14’ to come, perhaps. The temps are dropping off sharpish in a couple of days though, which is odd when the winds are from the south or sw. We’ll see. 

YoungBlueEyes

I only came back to say "are you still out there wort" and saw your post pp. I'm sorry to read that

twopenny

We had a sunny spell yesterday.
Just the one.

Dustyevsky

Looks like a day of sunshine and showers ahead, but with around 90% chance of rain in the morning hours, that doesn't leave a lot of sunshine!  No matter, we have to go shopping, and pick up an item bought on the Bay, so those things will eat into the daylight hours....what's left of them!

I can't comment on heating systems now, pp, having made our decisions on those well over 10 years ago now. I know storage heaters have improved, and so have ASHP systems, but it's probably the construction of your house that will be the deciding factor. 15 years ago, the talk here was all about wood pellet stoves, and oil was supposedly on its last legs. I'm so glad we didn't go down that route!   At least you have the wood burner option, so if the lights go out, that really will make a difference. 

I often find small piles of feathers, but more often than not they belong to pigeons. Hardly surprising when the ones here are so chubby they struggle to take-off! I don't mind them, as they do a good job, together with the sparrows, cleaning-up under the bird feeders. 

Speaking of apples Bluey, I found a 'Siamese' one yesterday. It's from a tree like GB's, with indifferent fruit, but in this case, I know why. It was me who bought the so-called 'crab-apple,' which was obviously just grown from a pip. I paid £2, thinking it would be OK to give the chickens some shade. Even they avoid the fruit! 

I'm shocked by all you folk who drink your tea from stone or earthenware mugs.  Don't you know it tastes much better from bone china?   

I've not seen any sign of blight in the polytunnel here, Less. Lots of whitefly and sooty mould, of course, but the toms usually stagger-on well into November. Here they are: (picture taken yesterday)

And then there are the self-sown plants, hiding at the other end, and just coming into production!  The cucumbers are long-gone, though. The ladder was for removing the net they climbed-up.