Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

-taff said:

You need a point stick to point with Farway and a pith hat too if you're going to get a man/boy/slave in

Wrong gender, I had in mind someone like Charlie Dimmock in her younger puppy days 

She could also sort out my muddy puddle pond water feature

LessImpecunious

twopenny said:

And I love the firey red plants. I keep looking up their name and keep forgetting 😕

I keep wanting to call them Hen and Chicks but apparently Fox and Cubs is more commonly applied, plus various other names, many connected to the devil, according to online encyclopaedia... hence why one should always stick to the "Latin" name Hieracium pilosella aurantiacum...oh, no they've just changed that, it's now Pilosella aurantiaca, no doubt due to cladistics or some-such, still just as easy to mix up with another of my favs, Hieracium pilosella (not looked to see if that's changed too!). That was unexpectedly flowering in the garden t'other day but didn't get a pic, so will have a look out for it if we ever get any more sun...not looking hopeful this week, think we had more than our fair share yesterday...

twopenny

Well sat here deciding because the lovely morning turned to high winds and rain so I checked the posts.
Less it seems to be a thing now to change everything all the time not just plants.
I also liked the lichens. Clever shot.n

Wort that's posh. Cardooms and artichoke. I've seen them cooked but not tried cooking them myself. Sounds tricky.

Farway reminds me of the advert for cheap sofas. She could have spent lots of money but bought cheaper and got Carlos with the savings 😆

Had egg and tomato sandwiches (to show defiance) so here's the tomatoes . I live in hope 

-taff

OMG lookit that kale! I have zero, just zero kale thanks to butterflies and pigeons...

twopenny

The dwarf curly kale is something they can't get a grip on because they need a leaf with enough room to land.

The broccoli got attacked to start with but I think there must have been not enough leaves to consider and the drought made it tough.
It also had a heap of gifted manure - which is supposed to be a no no..

The best advice I was given 50yrs ago for brassicas trample the soil around them. They like it. 
Especially sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower. It makes them tighten 

Sorry if I'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs as they say 😀

What did suffer was the box hedge. With the birds disappearing there were none to eat the caterpillars of the box moth and they romped away 

Dustyevsky

I'm confused and somewhat alarmed, reading through..... Have you seen Charlie Dimmock recently, Farway?  The thought of her pummelling you playfully, conjured-up some alarming images, but respecting all tastes, and the undoubted good character of said presenter, I shall desist from elaborating further.   

The next mental rabbit hole was provided by Less, mentioning Hawkweed in Latin. This was closely followed by taff, whose Asturian tree cabbage soon had me perusing some esoteric seed emporia instead of finishing off the hedge reduction between us and Mr Canute.

I did, eventually, complete the hedge reduction, so now I'm just left with tidying 200m of field hedging. i.e. the bits the flail couldn't reach. However, it began raining rather conveniently, so that job was filed under 'winter.' 

Now I've just seen 2p's kale, so I have greens envy, but mine's recovering after the butterfly invasion. Assuming a reasonably OK winter, those in the polytunnel, along with the Swiss chard and spinach, should keep us going.

Sadly, despite the wind and lower temperatures, I'm still suffering from occasional caterpillar-like varmints.  Yesterday, I proudly gave son-in-law one of my Habenada chillies to take home and try. Today, he emailed to express approval, but with one reservation.....the fruit was already on another's menu! 

wort

I love your autumnal photos, such great observations the larch and lichen , etc.
2 p I think it’s Taff you mean I have neither long hedges or food stuff in my garden.

rain till Friday here and unfortunately I’m at DDs for the foreseeable painting and sorting. I think I’m more stressed than she is ,I’m back to grinding my poor teeth in my sleep. Sore mouth again today I need to look out my mouth guard. 
still trying to speed read your posts . 

Farway

Dull, mild with a slight breeze. 

I may even get out in the garden later, nothing strenuous, just mooching about conducting a casual survey of the immediate environs

Dustyevsky said:

I'm confused and somewhat alarmed, reading through..... Have you seen Charlie Dimmock recently, Farway?  The thought of her pummelling you playfully, conjured-up some alarming images, but respecting all tastes, and the undoubted good character of said presenter, I shall desist from elaborating further.   

Sadly, despite the wind and lower temperatures, I'm still suffering from occasional caterpillar-like varmints.  Yesterday, I proudly gave son-in-law one of my Habenada chillies to take home and try. Today, he emailed to express approval, but with one reservation.....the fruit was already on another's menu! 

Two minds about a CD lookalike for the gardening & oiling my creaky bits once my Premium Bond win arrives. 

Either old or new be fine, but the larger model obviously likes food, so perhaps once she had finished my muddy pond water feature she could rustle up a Kate & Sidney pudding?

Eek on the chilli  , Thought that was the idea of the fiery heat, do stop critters eating them? At least, to quote the old joke, it was not half of one

You've still go a good crop there 2P, those toms look like most would ripen indoors if they had to

Talking of toms, my large unknown tom seed smear went AWOL, I think I probably mistook it for mucky kitchen roll and not a rare seed treasure. 

Fortunately I had another large tom left, so now on round two smear

Still not caught up with GW at Rosemoor, could be another spot of gardening later

twopenny

Only just woken up. Neighbours son left early from outside the bedroom unknown he was going to do that and I went back to sleep so todays plans to go out scuppered.

Wort sorry I got the name mixed up. Put it down to random sleep patterns 😬 Hope your mouth feels better soon. A sore mouth is miserable and seems to take forever.

Hope you get into the garden Farway. It's good for the soul. You aren't the only one who looses scraped tomato seeds. I left mine on the garden table and they blew into wet bushes for a couple of weeks before I found them.

Good you're taking a rest Dusty, that's what the short days are for.

Onwards and upwards, let's see what today will bring. Sun is shining and the wind is wild but it's dried the washing over night and it's an even more sultry 12c.

Dustyevsky

It was quiet in here this morning! Perhaps you're all out, building dead hedges before the rain? I must say that's a genius way of using up old sheep fencing, taff. They hate that stuff with a vengeance at the dump recycling facility. 

I had an interesting discussion at the GC last week. Complimenting them on the great quality of their own-brand, peat-containing compost, the chap in charge said, “It's actually XXXXXX professional grade, re-badged, but don't tell anyone, 'cos it's only half the price!”  I looked up XXXXXX, and like the Erin stuff, it hails from Ireland, but it's not Erin. 

Farway said:

Eek on the chilli  , Thought that was the idea of the fiery heat, do stop critters eating them? At least, to quote the old joke, it was not half of one

Talking of toms, my large unknown tom seed smear went AWOL, I think I probably mistook it for mucky kitchen roll and not a rare seed treasure. 

Fortunately I had another large tom left, so now on round two smear

Still not caught up with GW at Rosemoor, could be another spot of gardening later

The chillis aren't very hot, which is probably why the critters tolerate them, but they're big on flavour. I found another with a neatly bored hole, and sure enough, a caterpillar inside.    I'm with you on lost tom seeds too. Found one from last year in a vase the other day. This year, I'm putting them in labelled envelopes. 

It was Carol Klein wandering about in Rosemoor on GW....she only lives up the road.  Much as I like S&K pud, and know exactly where to get an excellent one, home cooked, I think svelte Carol would be a better 'gardening advisor' for me. Since the outdoor work's paused a little, with all the rain etc, I've already put on 3lbs. 

twopenny said:

Onwards and upwards, let's see what today will bring. Sun is shining and the wind is wild but it's dried the washing over night and it's an even more sultry 12c.

Make the most of that sunshine. We're still dry right now, but more yellow rain on the way! 
Prettyish rainbow from Sunday: