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