Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

I said that mouse was taking a risk..... Woke up to a smiley cat.  Mousie was stone dead on the kitchen floor.  :'(  When I opened the photos from the trail camera, I found the beginning of the story. As before, opening them full size, helps:

The camera takes a wee while to re-set, but it just caught Izzy in pursuit....

It's a jungle out there!  

OT: Bright morning, but no frost. East wind and a max of 6c. I may be shifting logs or clearing the bed that seems infected with rust. Tried beans and leeks, but they both got it.    I have an alert here for proper frost Tuesday night into Wednesday and a couple more later in the week. Found the Long Johns. 

EDIT: Just noticed, there are 10 minutes between those two shots above. Maybe it was a different mouse?   

twopenny

I've already been wearing mine so I might have to stay in bed 😲

Woke at half 9 after the usual early hours disturbance but it's not freezing out there though without the wind.
Sad about the mouse 😕 hope he/she enjoyed a couple of good meals before the long sleep.

Got some raspberry cane runners moved out of the veg bed to replace those killed by the drought and strawberry plant runners moved. Weeds cleared and found another tomato 😏
In the middle of repotting some shrubs and ferns that have recovered before I caved in.
Surprising how much you can do on your knees 😊

I'd also cleared a lot in the garage so a good day.
Daren't try any socialising while I'm on a roll here.
Think I deserve a treat so expecting to go out with the camera, have a 'picnic' before finishing the repotting 🤞

Farway

Bright grey, cold and darn close to a frost I'd say. I'll have to add another layer of mince pie blubber if it keeps up 

twopenny said:

Those pears seem a good bet Farway. I've made a note of the make and slipped it into my gardening books. Yup, still have and use them because t'internet is becoming all advertising and actual information hard to find.

That pear, if you ever do get one bear in mind it is not self fertile, so will need a different variety near by

I put mine very close to the neighbour's Concorde pear which seems to do the trick. 

If you ever have space, Concorde is a nice pear as well, I scrump those because neigbour never picks them

I've found Chatgpt AI is very handy for advert less info, you do have to be specific with the question though

Of course Google and chums are sucking the info out of you at the same time, so it's a trade off. 

At my age I've run out of caring about that bit

For instance, I'm looking into thornless Primocane [fruits on first year growth] blackberries, being a recent innovation they & UK info very hard to find, so I set Chat off to source some for me

First result was complete lie, had included Floricane [fruits on second year growth] and prickly Primocane ones, luckily I knew this or could have gone of chasing wild fowl

Found one suitable, only one, Prime Ark Freedom. Trouble is it is bred in Arkansas and not readily available in UK except occasional import offer., and it is over £30 which really beyond what I want to pay, so, sticking to Merton for the time being, but tempted by Loch Ness

YT has Prime Ark on it if interested

In other news, I think my Jap Ans may have survived after all. 

Spotted some leaves which could be Jap Ans, hard to tell right now, but they are in the right area. Little devils must have been snoozing during the drought and are now getting going. Fingers crossed everyone

Also spotted Aquilegias, [sp?], not sure if these are the posh ones I bought or wayward muddy purple offspring

All things to look forward to over the next few months

Dustyevsky said:

My parents didn't wouldn't give me a steam engine, but I had a couple of well-off pals who'd let me borrow theirs occasionally.  

 None of us owned a Jetex engine, but we used relatively cheap Jetex fuses for the purposes of igniting things remotely. In those days, they hadn't prevented people from making 'rapid combustion products' by doctoring sodium chlorate. I'd better stop there!    Our guardian angels must have worked overtime. However, apart from a friend, who set fire to his trousers trying to make his bike rocket-propelled, I can't think of any mishaps.

I had well off pal with a Jetex engine, very well off, had a plane & a boat Jetex. He also had lots of mates 

Ah yes, sodium chlorate, hmm, can you still buy it? Asking for a friend 

No gardening, except on line stuff

Dustyevsky

Dustyevsky said:My parents didn't wouldn't give me a steam engine, but I had a couple of well-off pals who'd let me borrow theirs occasionally.  

 None of us owned a Jetex engine, but we used relatively cheap Jetex fuses for the purposes of igniting things remotely. In those days, they hadn't prevented people from making 'rapid combustion products' by doctoring sodium chlorate. I'd better stop there!    Our guardian angels must have worked overtime. However, apart from a friend, who set fire to his trousers trying to make his bike rocket-propelled, I can't think of any mishaps.

I had well off pal with a Jetex engine, very well off, had a plane & a boat Jetex. He also had lots of mates 

Ah yes, sodium chlorate, hmm, can you still buy it? Asking for a friend 

My friend says sodium chlorate has been banned, but he still has some in his chemical museum, together with a number of other products, now held in safe keeping for their historical significance. After all, if NASA can somehow lose details of technology, enabling us to reach the moon over 50 years ago, one can't be too careful.

I made a special trip to discover the fate of our pears. They must have fallen in the past two manic weeks. A few are still edible, although the flesh is discolouring in parts. Talk about a narrow window of opportunity! 

Shifted a pickup load of logs into their storage barn this morning. As soon as I stuck my head out of the door, the cloud cover became 100%, and by the time I'd finished, fingers were numb.   

It's still dry, so I'm off to shovel some composted bark into bags. It's easier to break up and handle when not saturated.

twopenny

Well I wasn't allowed trains and tracks because I was a girl!

I had a wind up one as a toddler and wanted the real electric ones like were all over the back of the toy shop. Still would enjoy it.

So no gardening got done today the lovely 'mild' start didn't last so I went out photographing and sheesh, even the wildlife were hiding from the bitter weather............

May get too tomorrow even if it;s only prep.

There were daffodils out along the road ! They are early ones but not even the new year yet. Still cheery to see though. Think it's something to look into because we don't get the wind around now like you do in March.

Taff here are the black helebores as they were in my last garden. I bought them from a little shop selling local produce in a tiny village on my way to work. The eggs were all displayed in baskets of straw. How different to the supermarket!

They look dark red but that's because of the sun, out of the sun they are dark purple/black.

Which reminds me. I must pot them up to take with me if I move.

-taff

twopenny said:

Taff here are the black helebores as they were in my last garden. I bought them from a little shop selling local produce in a tiny village on my way to work. The eggs were all displayed in baskets of straw. How different to the supermarket!

They look dark red but that's because of the sun, out of the sun they are dark purple/black.

Which reminds me. I must pot them up to take with me if I move.

Oooooo, they're nice aren't they? want want want...

Sorry Dusty haven't tried it yet, my sister is up so we've been doing stuff that doesn't involve being dangerous...

Glad the mince pies are doing their thing for people, [I made sticky toffee pudding and it is mince pie squared calorifictastic - if anyone wants the recipe, I guarantee it's a winner]   sorry about the still early starts...

Dustyevsky

That border looks a treat 2p, but it's a couple of months on from where we are right now, in winter gloominess.  The Exeter imbibers keep insisting we'll see the sun, but there's little evidence of it currently. At least we've dried-out, and it looks as if it will be calm enough to do some tree felling this coming week. For a start, there's a big willow that we ignored when it was a wee willow, and that one can't fall on anything important. Other trees need the ride-on attached to a long rope, and a really calm day, so they don't damage others or fall through a fence. 

Don't worry, taff, your experience with the mini chain saw can wait a while. I'll try a variety of tools on the top hedge and only do 10-15 m each time, as it's boring work. I don't think our post-Christmas bank balance will support a major spend anyway! The visitors go home today, having consumed incredible amounts of provisions.  Mrs D and I are planning an extremely quiet New Year, and then a month when we eat down the big freezer.  So, scrag end, liver, and unidentifiable long-ago leftovers in plastic bags for us! Yay! 

No action on the Hog Cam, other than cats, so here are two of our pears, rescued from the grass yesterday:

Not sure whether to cook or just eat as they are.  Big burgers! 

twopenny

That garden is now concreted over and a grey fence up. Everything chopped down out back as well.

Taff, it's not as vigorous as the new varieties but flowers well. I've only ever seen them on two occasions in the garden centres 
People want big and blousey quickly.

Woken at 6.45 this morning by Wos,  so tired, cold and grumpy because that's not what I planned and heating has to go on for an extra hour. It's one thing getting up because you have something exciting to do and it's quite another when it's daily not your choice.

Talking of which I had a drive round a bungalow. In itself nice but a 1/4grass slope out back garden and always in the shade so that's a non starter.
It's still bitter out there but there's a bit of brightness and a cold wind so what will get done depends on time and temperature later.
I hope I'll be more cheerful by then 😉

LessImpecunious

That's very sad about your old garden 2P... it looked fab

I think I have that hellebore too, lurking under a box bush which makes it extra hard to notice - must check when I go outside! Adjacent box bush was obscuring some cyclamen flowers a few weeks ago, but they seem to have disappeared, guess they were the autumn ones flowering late rather than the winter ones ... (somewhere I will have a record of what was planted...

Difficult to be cheerful at this time of year, but time outside usually helps 

Farway

I've got sunshine! But blummin cold, no wind that I can tell though. so it's just look through a window sort so far. 

If it keeps going, I may toddle down the garden to inspect for any progress

I'm thinking about starting tip rooting my Helen blackberry next year, so time to check if I have a suitable shoot first

Certainly won't be any daffs out 2P, round here are just showing leaves so far

Those pears Dusty, look fine, if just blemished. With mine, I played safe and cut slices off to eat, just in case the inside was rotten, which it often was with my hard big red ones

No gardening apart from mooching about a bit