Awful weather - typical Brits talk

-taff

No one is looking at your feet in an office so politely decline professional shoes... I did laugh out loud at Farways first contribution to proper shoes though...

Gladys is beautiful although very grumpy looking Dusty...the digger tracks sound very enivronmentally useful and recylcle-y...Yeah, I had cotsworld chippings in the front garden and got rid of them for exactly that reason, they're now adorning a hole in a car park somewhere, one of OHs mates came and took them so he didn't bounce his Mini all round the place...I know it wasn't a joke but it still sounded funny..27 logs...

Less, press save draft next time as you go through and it will magically still be there however you exit...

woop woop for your dd wort!

greenbee, are you even a gardener if you balk at paying 6 grand for a tree? Hell yes, you could pay 6 grand for a house where I'm from in the eighties That's my rule of thumb, if it's more than a house would have cost, it's too much  

I need a liqiud amber tree now too...also too big though..

Love the hedgehog feeding McGyvering...what's next? 

Rained all day yesterday, fine today, and warmer so no need to light a fire, picking up OH from his Thai travels, I'm not sure but he might have broken some bones in his foot/ankle but being the donkey he is [ no slight to donkeys] he hasn't had it seen to for one reason or another. I forsee a future in the hospital tomorrow morning....Have also spent my time working out carols for Christmas for the daily thread, so absolutely no gardening whatsever has occurred. I find I'm more creaky when I haven't done stuff so definitely making time for the lotment next week...

Dustyevsky

-taff said:

I need a liqiud amber tree now too...also too big though..

Love the hedgehog feeding McGyvering...what's next? 

I forsee a future in the hospital tomorrow morning....

We put in a Liquidambar about 12 years ago, and it's grown slowly and stayed quite narrow so far. However, it's being shaded by an Italian Alder, which hasn't! 

If not a Liquidambar, how about Cercidiphyllum japonicum? Or if that's still too large, there's Parrotia persica 'Vanessa' 

The hedgehog/cat segregation thing took up half the day. Mrs Dusty designed an improved selective entry contraption, using joist offcuts, which I had to build in the workshop when it was sunniest outdoors.  I did get a deep bed prepped for winter greens and salad stuff inside the polytunnel, but I'm very late with that this year. Outdoors, the Swiss Chard are sulking, but the giant garlic have come through.   

I hope you and OH aren't in A&E too long. Feet are worth looking after, though, so almost any wait is probably worth it long term. 

LessImpecunious

Dustyevsky said: LessImpecunious said: Cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) grows fast and would make a good screen, though RHS says it "has the potential to become a nuisance if not managed well" - something I confess to being familiar with

I am also familiar. A year ago I took our laurel hedge in hand, as it had grown to 20'. The larger stems are now in the '26/27 log pile. It was a hell of a job, especially getting rid of the leaves and useless bits. I won't let it go above 5' now, which means vigilance, because its speed of recovery has been impressive!  

-taff said: Less, press save draft next time as you go through and it will magically still be there however you exit... 

Sorry, quoting going wrong again.... I remember your efforts with the laurel hedge Dusty - we just have two small bushes - well, they were two small bushes once, when planted by previous owners probably 30 plus years ago... But things grow slowly here! Also,don't think they've ever successfully set fruit here Greenbee, so never had that worry... I never remember to save draft until I've finished composing, and it's not as easy as doing a ^S which can become second nature when typing... plus I would have had to do it immediately before my battery decided it was bedtime to save the lot...  

Took pics to post today, but it's getting late...look forward Mrs D's next hedgehog instalment - or installation

And now I'm being told my body is 9 characters too short, Forum doesn't like me at the mo! pologies if this all looks a little odd, not sure what is going wrong!

twopenny

Yes it's started hopping me past Dusty's posts again. Maybe because we often post close together.
And ignore the inappropriate apostrophe, for some reason my gadget likes it there and life is too short to sort it out.

Weather still hovering around 4c but a southerly so not as cold as it has been,
On the other hand it buckets down hard every so often. I despair of the sodden garden, lol predictive wanted to give me a naughty but more appropriate word. Still all the leaves aren't down yet.
The bird food and fat is uneaten and getting black mould so I guess scrubbing can be done in wet weather ☂️👢👢🌡️💊🩹

Tomorrow is assessment of my decrepitude plus a bit of fun with friends after. So not much time to do anything 

Waving at Poppy if she's still reading 👋

YoungBlueEyes

Morning all

Anyone wondering how to describe the temperature when it's 5-8' - the answer (according to this insulting whackjob nonsense) is "bitter" :rolleyes: 

UK weather: Britain to be colder than Sweden as 400-mile wide -7C Icelandic shiver hits 

In case I'm not on tomorrow, good luck for your decrepitude test 2p

twopenny

Thanks for the well wishes Bluey 😊 

You're watching the wrong weather forecast. Mine keeps promising 10c but only delivering 4c but it's the optimism I read it for.
The southerly wind helps.

Still raining.

Dustyevsky

We're forecast to go down to about -2c for a couple of hours early Wednesday morning, Bluey. That's hardly unusual in late November, nor Swedish or Icelandic, but any old garbage will do for the MSM.   Even the drunks say that nationally “Temperatures will likely be close to average or slightly above overall” for the next week or so. No Beastie from The East....apart from Putin, of course.

I might as well start on topic....Right now, it's peeing down, like it has all night, but later it will stop, and I shall then go forth to buy comestibles. 

twopenny said:

Tomorrow is assessment of my decrepitude plus a bit of fun with friends after. So not much time to do anything 

Do you mean the annual MoT they give us over 65s, or is this something more focused? Our lot ask us to take our blood pressure 3x a day, find an average, and record it for 2 weeks.  By the time I've done that, I've put in a lot more effort that nursey does, weighing me and asking a few personal questions etc. About a week later, the pharmacist rings to say I should be taking Youthinasia 2, or whatever, so I reply, “No thanks, I'll stick with the water pill and Viagra,” and that's it for another year.     (Some details may have been changed to protect my privacy.  ) 

Anyway, over the year Mrs D and I take a variety of older folk to and from the surgery as part of the local voluntary service, and so long as they seem less lively than me, I'm happy.   

Now to hedgehog news. There's none.    The new labyrinth we constructed yesterday managed to defeat 3 cats, but Five Spot (the hedgehog) failed to appear.   Hopefully he/she will return, but Sunday night's experience with the flexible toilet connector may have been too much.  Here is a cat looking defeated:

Back to gardening proper, and before the short freeze last week, I took pictures of plants looking good in November.

The others have turned to mush, but this one still stands out. Don't know the variety:

twopenny

That is one very smart hedgehog house Mrs D has devised.
Interesting seeing just how the cat has been defeated, or has it just gone away to think?

Not general mot, I've avoided all those. It would say stop smoking, stop alcohol, drink more water but I'm still standing despite my dissolute living and so far I'm not on any pills.
Made me laugh about relying on other people being comparatively more creaky 😀 I've been known to do that in supermarket queues. Now I'm the one that's more creaky.
No idea what this assessment is going to produce but I have a feeling that I won't be any further forward.

Farway

Rain overnight, now just watery sky & breezy. 

No idea of temperature, my phone says 46F, but phone also tells me I've been rewarded by the FBI, if I just send bank details, they'll forward it 

Congrats to Mrs D on a cat proof feeding station, 

My garden has turned mushy, soggy and rank after the frosts, the only flowers left I can see are some pelargoniums [sp ?] near my front wall

If there were a frost some of the seed heads could look attractive I suppose, but AFAIK no frost due down here, a lot of junk out in the Channel which I think was last nights rain.

Back to plants, I now have two Amaryllis starting into growth, these are the ghosts of Christmas Past that have withered & dried in situ on my window sill

When my Zombie hyacinths showed life the other week I started to water the amaryllis,and now life again. Flowers by Christmas? Peace in Our Time?

twopenny

Morning folks. Only 3c but no wind or rain yet 🙂
Cloud of course but bright.

Not long now to the solstice and the sun getting higher in the sky.
https://www.almanac.com/how-much-daylight-do-we-gain-after-winter-solstice

Lots of birds calling this morning, gathering to go out foraging, even a blackbird giving an alarm chunter.
Not in the garden feeding yet so perhaps the weather will be equitable.
Funny old day today and I don't know what I'll be doing of the many things I should do so it's a mystery. Probably won't be gardening but you never know.

Congratulations on your bulbs Farway. Result! Always feels like something is on your side when that happens.