Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

YoungBlueEyes said:

Funny you should mention shoes 2p. I was ...pulled up... for my choice of shoes the other day at work. OMM was doing her thing, and I might have said "ach yer hole" or similar. Next thing she's pointing out my "unprofessional shoes" I compounded the issue by saying - well you're quite right, they don't have a single qualification between them. That was not The Right Answer

Here are said shoes. They're marvellous and I love them. The colour hasn't come out right, in real life they're a beautiful rich-but-dull torquoise colour and they're heavenly comfy  



(I was out earlier looking round the charideee shops for some truly unprofessional shoes, but the price of them with xmas coming! )

Something like this YBE?

And for when you get home

YoungBlueEyes

  I was looking more at the ankle-breaker stiletto types, red 'satin'/silver sequins, dangly charms, open toed type jobbers, but I wasn't for paying £35+ just to prove a point.

I wouldn't mind the floorboards and fireplace in your second pic though  

twopenny

Did you not tell her about your severe arthritic condition in your feet that requires you to wear flat shoes?
Some horrible very contagious disease that you need to keep laced up?
Employing the disabled and so on.

Dustyevsky

-taff said:

As for the steps, i just didn't fancy concrete ones with some slabs on top, and besides, when anyone makes them, they always make them so tiny you can barely get your foot on it, I wanted something I couldn't immediately fall off. And that particular gravel, which I would love to know the name of so I can get more [hoping Dusty knows], knits together really well and is solid despite only being about two inches deep. Not like the other stuff...

I wish I'd taken a photo of the steps in a garden Mrs D and I visited in the summer, where the steps were formed from worn-out rubber digger tracks filled with gravel. Your gravel doesn't look like what I call 'hoggin,' but the colour of that and the exact constitution varies regionally. It has to contain some clay to help it bind, but the stuff we get here is grey and more shaley than clay. So long as it's not water worn, but sharp, gravel's usually firm. Here, we use granite chips,'cos it's the area's vernacular style, but some thickos people still use Cotswold chips or Chard flint. The latter's not too bad if mixed with a grey like Andesite. Anyway, Cotswold always ends up looking dirty. 

Where was I? 

Oh, yes, on the house wall murals, it's OK when people choose uncontroversial subjects, but then there are the others! Here's one I pass most weeks, featuring a hunting scene. It wasn't long before someone took exception to it, and threw red paint! 

https://www.instantstreetview.com/@50.998727,-3.985364,101.01h,0.89p,2.36z,SW5Kv_gR8dkQJa7iqmzUVg

I missed Farway's 'Caniles' this morning, but see they are F1 and PBR commercial etc. Still, they will have come from a big polytunnel, so probably nothing nearby to cross with and might therefore come pretty true. Now, all that's needed is a Spanish summer in '26! 

Bluey, I saw the weather you were getting a day or two ago when I put my friend's village into the drunkards place name thingy, and discovered you have one in Yorkshire too.   I'd prefer her weather rather than yours, if you don't mind. Still no frost there. Like you say, tonight it's back to 4c and piddling, so hopefully we'll get a bit more hedgehog action. It was a no show last night, but black pussycat turned up, as usual. 

Some gardening done today, but mainly by Mrs Dusty, who's almost finished her yew hedges.   I spent ages trying to get into the teachers' pensions website, but I was locked out, and it took about 2 hours on the phone etc to gain access. :'(  Apparently, I'm supposed to confirm my details at least once a year, but I'd been a naughty ex-teacher and failed to do my homework on time.The shame!  Perhaps they should have locked me down earlier and harder. That would teach me! 

Nice sensible shoes, by the way. Your OMM doesn't have a scooby when it comes to adequate toe space. 

greenbee

Dusty - what I always called Hoggin was called Scalpings in Hampshire. All very confusing - apparently there are standard terms for them for those in the industry thankfully, so there is some consistency somewhere!

LessImpecunious

twopenny said:

Morning everyone - again.
And a hi to Less 😉

I am still here, and in fact typed a long (ish) missive with a week's worth of weather to prove that I had not been abducted along with Poppy late last night, only for it to be kiboshed by laptop battery which I hadn't been keeping an eye on.

My fault for typing too many words...so to summarise it's been wet, then very very wet, then dry and getting colder, then frosty, frosty, frosty (resulting in 3" deep frost-heave in my veg plot, which unfortunately didn't show up well in attempted photo of (small dog's) apparent heffalump feet... Frosted some kohlrabi too, but harvested quickly enough for them not to have become inedible...

Loved Farway's photo, and the mural, not forgetting the googly-eyed shoes  

wort

Morning all, dd finally handed keys back, after I spent the morning doing my least favourite job, cleaning the oven. 

My phone was showing minus 2 in the morning yesterday and only got up to 2 degrees, don’t know what happened to Shelia F 😜 started quite blowy too cut right through you. Walked into town after lunch for an appointment,glad to get back and hunker down.
my cyclamen near the front door was showing frost damage first thing but looked fine later 🤔

YBE I like your blue shoes ,look really comfy. I wear black trainers to work now I need comfort, I once had navy shoes that I used black polish on as they were comfy and I needed them to be “suitable” for work.
Beautiful falcon photo, you did well to catch her there. 

Dusty the logs and 2027 remark made me chuckle. I bet Mrs Dusty is glad to finish the hedge.
off to work ,have a good weekend.

twopenny

Oh less, I know that feeling! But stuff happens, sometimes more than others 😬
Nice to see you anyhoos.

Woke to a sultry 4c, it's rained a bit overnight but the wind is strong warmish and they are promising warmer temperatures today. 🤞
May get around to some dead heading and a wash if it stays like this. The whirligig is whirling out there.

Good news on the end of one episode in dd escape.

I have no idea where this idea of fancy shoes for work came from other than the telly.
I got annoyed when viewing houses and the so called estate agents were unable to show you round properly because they were tottering around on sky high heels and tight skirts - and that was just the men 😀

greenbee

Raining here, overcast, and chilly. Stinky doesn't care, and wants to know why we're not outside right now and when I plan to move from the sofa to take him for a nice long, cold, wet, walk. 

I may sow some broad beans and plant the last of the garlic and onions today if it isn't too soggy. And I need to move some logs and sort out more kindling. Neither of which are appealing right now.

Roses were planted yesterday - including one that was incorrectly delivered. Supplier has dispatched the correct one and (as expected) told me to keep the wrong one. Replacement crab apple for wrong variety supplied last year has also been planted (let's hope it's the right one this time or I'll start running out of places to put them!).

I'm also having a think about what to do about screening at the back. I have a tall (12 ft?) beech hedge at the back which screens the neighbours garden. The straight top looks really odd with the rest of the planting both in my garden, and other neighbours. There's a huge conifer in the corner, and a rather sad horse chestnut - both clearly either left or planted to screen the house behind which would otherwise overlook my garden and probably let them see into the house if they wanted to. Obviously the leaves are now off the chestnut, but it isn't a massive issue from a privacy perspective. However, these are the neighbours with the stupid outside light on their gable that shines into my house like a concentration-camp searchlight. They are using it less, but clearly haven't worked out that they just need to move it below the level of the hedge/trees/fencing in order not to light up their neighbours' properties.

As this is on my northern boundary, I don't have to worry about shading, so I've decided to let the beech hedge grow up further (effectively becoming trees at the top, but clipping the sides) but within the limit that I'll be able to clip the sides every year or so. That won't entirely deal with the problem, so I'm looking for an evergreen to grow in front of it. I'm not a massive fan of conifers TBH, and I don't want something that will be a solid block of green  or need much TLC, but I do need it to cut the light pollution in winter. And to grow up fast! I can get our local digger man in with a mini-digger to make a big hole, so could plant something that's already fairly large. It would be nice to not be annoyed by it next winter. So all suggestions welcomed. (I did think about moving one of my camellias, but the ones that could be moved are only about 4ft at present and I'm not sure how long it would take them to reach a useful size!).

YoungBlueEyes

Morning all, it's National Tree Week

Nice to see you posting Less It's a !!!!!! when things don't play nice :rolleyes: but it's nice to hear from you regardless  

Fingers crossed you keep the 'good' weather and get your wash out 2p. I did laugh at male EA's tottering around in hooker gear I love that mural, such a good idea! No weeding or dead-heading or compost sourcing, and cats can't !!!!!! in it...

Still no pp or arb but. @pink_poppy @ArbitraryRandom  I wonder if pp has got sick of the cold and sodded off to warmer climes  

Good to hear dd is sorted now wort, I bet you're as pleased as she is eh. I never look forward to cleaning the oven either and himself long ago announced he'd never ever do it (he used to be a chef, and even ex-chef's wouldn't lower themselves, apparently).

Speaking of birds, did one of us say we had a white blackie..? 

Dusty I know the place you mean - I had to be careful when I lived in my one to pick the right <town name> when I was doing weather apps or summat. I always fancied visiting there just to see if it was a nice place...

OT warmer but still cold out there this morning, at least we're in + figures now. 5'c my phone says, with a high of 7' to come, possibly. Feels Like is -4 but even that doesn't feel to bad, relatively. If the rain could just give it a rest that'd do me rightly