Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

Reminds me of the electronic sheep dusty 😄

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vGOGOxtN2lM

Got to look up seed snails when I get back.

Tried to fertilise the apricot with a paint brush yesterday but as expected the weather wasn't right. Dull and damp today too. I have an enormous bumble bee living under my patio doors and I hope she's found them.

The winter plums have ripened but hard as nails.

Gardening man hasn't shown up so I'm off out for swim and art group. Too cold and wet to be outside and bits particularly bad in this weather.

Farway

Dusty posted Meanwhile, still dark and foggy, with zombie sheep on the prowl! 😱

They reminded me, not of zombie sheep, but electric ones and the book https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36402034-do-androids-dream-of-electric-sheep%2C which became the Film Blade Runner

Hope the pushchair trials go well, has it got a rain cover for GC? Our cover was a well used bit of equipment, as was the pushchair. The old style folding ones which would trap fingers when folding. but could also be folded flat one handed while holding a struggling toddler tight with the other hand. That was so long ago it was common practice to just leave them strapped in the pushchairs parked outside shops while shopping.

Dull & misty, but quite mild. I must pot on the M Toot peas today before Toot root shoot get too long 😁. The Control ones I sowed directly into compost in a pot are just poking through, so with fresh seeds there may not be much to gain from sowing on damp paper first, but at least non viable can be eliminated

I have some apple blossom buds just unfolding, not yet at Pink Bud stage, but coming along. On local [Solent] radio someone said they have apple blossom out already.

No sign of Castor Oil germination, could be ages ages, or never.

The recent rain + my BF & B has started to show results, nothing dramatic, but more buds, and rhubarb a bit longer

OT, but recent events have silver lining, I fixed my gas price via MSE not long ago, and the fertiliser investment by Dusty may yet prove to be a Big Bargain

And I think I'll keep on sowing / planting veg, just in case, and while I can never be self sufficient some tasty "free" food will be welcome

Next sowing is main lot of tomatoes during the coming week, not a forest, about a dozen will do

Refreshed, and 2P post. Plums and blossom, claps hands, I suppose you could stew the plums? Waste not etc. shame about apricot, but let's hope B bee does the job as nature intended

The clouds are brightening, could be sunshine?

Dustyevsky

Farway said: OT, but recent events have silver lining, I fixed my gas price via MSE not long ago, and the fertiliser investment by Dusty may yet prove to be a Big Bargain

And I think I'll keep on sowing / planting veg, just in case, and while I can never be self sufficient some tasty "free" food will be welcome

None of us can be truly self-sufficient, but 'Every little helps,' whether it's home produced wood for the log burner, or some cut & come again lettuce in a window box. 😇 And having just filled the jerrycan with Premium for the old mower 😮, someone like 2p, who's bought a Kia Picanto or Hyundai i10 (think it's the latter) has made a good investment if we get rationing, or similar.

We'll make the fertilizer last until 2030, when we're due to own nothing anyway! 😛

LessImpecunious

Quick jump in to say I have further info on the geographic distribution/avian affiliation of "spuggie" - it appears to have been in common useage in Borsetshire since at least the 1980s - apparently Britpop band Spuggy is fronted by, and presumably named for, its singer, Reuben Sparrow - very well-known and about to have a second reunion tour apparently, though I'd never heard of them before this week - was never a fan of Britpop though… 😉 So obvs not just oop north 😁

Fog for days now…can't complain - it's not wind and/or rain…

Dustyevsky

Less said: apparently Britpop band Spuggy is fronted by, and presumably named for, its singer, Reuben Sparrow

Ah yes, I remember now, though I thought they were more agri-grunge, perhaps along the lines of Shag Connors and the Carrot Crunchers. 🤩

You think I jest?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y54PpM9m0g

As a student, I encountered Shag and his band late one night after rather a few too many pints of Red Barrel. Seeing the cockerel and the sheepdog, I thought I was hallucinating.🤪 Obvious rip off of the Wurzels, but our Students' Union couldn't afford them! 😂

Farway said: I must pot on the M Toot peas today before Toot root shoot get too long 😁. The Control ones I sowed directly into compost in a pot are just poking through, so with fresh seeds there may not be much to gain from sowing on damp paper first, but at least non viable can be eliminated

Mine are just up. The seed was relatively fresh and germination (no propagator) looks to have been reasonable. Mine will go in the poly for an early crop….hopefully.😉 Even more hopeful, a couple of courgettes from Lidl will join them. I wouldn't risk expensive seed like that.

Speaking of Lidl, their seed selection was miserly this year. Many items missing and only 2 sides to the display instead of four. 😕

With CG teething, I didn't get much done yesterday, even if Mrs D did 90% of the looking-after.😇 The pushchair rain cover came in handy, though most fell as a fine mist. Mrs D is very good at research, so this one doesn't trap fingers like our old one did in the 80s. It appears extremely well-designed, and even fits into the boot of a small car, which many don't, despite fact that mums often drive a Fiesta-sized vehicle. 🙃

After lunch the hedging from Buckingham Nurseries arrived, well-packed, but having spent the weekend in a depot somewhere. 🤡 I'll be saying something by way of a review later, but overall it was as expected.

Today, it's calm, dull, and due to be wet from 15.00, so I'd better get going. So far it's “Look Mum, no Paracetamol!” so, with luck, the sciatica's fading and I'll get the planting trench dug…maybe!

Winter plums 2p? All right for you folk on the Costa del Somerset! 😉

greenbee

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81915725#Comment_81915725

I came across the same source of information last week 🤣

Dusty - I’ve had hedging from Buckingham Nurseries several times and it generally seems to be ok even if delayed. I think they’re prepared for the fact that the courier companies don’t always stick to their schedules.

Farway

Beat YBE to it, can't resist, apologies. Anniversary of discovering Uranus rings 🤣

Today is Dull but bright, sun is trying very hard to break through, idle chatter about frost & snow on the way, Shirley not dahn 'ere 😯

Pushchairs, seem to go in fads don't they? Remember those rugged ones, sort of Range Rovers of the buggy world, and the three wheelers with chunky tyres for sporty folks?

Ah, good old Red Barrel, fuelled many a party in it's time. I know it fell out of favour, but TBH it was often better than some of the badly kept, hand pulled cask vinegar that was around.

If the sun keeps going I may get the first lot [four] broad beans planted. I was going to leave them but noticed the roots are thrusting out of the bottom of the pots, big strong roots, not namby pamby ones. If it rains overnight, as forecast, they should romp away

My Mangy Tots were potted on yesterday, in the sunshine. I was surprised at the amount, Peas, thousands of 'em! As was nearly said in Zulu 😀

Final tally, three sprouted per module, 36 modules = 108 pea plants. Ooops, a pea plantation 😯Quick rethink on growing "A few" up the handrail. I'm now going to have a line of them growing up chicken mesh. Good job I like MT peas, and may get some peas shoots while growing

Starting on damp paper, I had three non shows, so a very high germination percentage with fresh seed

Here's some of yesterday's work. They are now covered in compost & in the unheated conservatory to grow a bit, give me time to prep the tubs they will be in

LessImpecunious

Wow, that's going to be a lot of mangy touts - from experience (even with not as many plants) you'll need to pick them small, or will be quickly overwhelmed - or feeding the neighbourhood😄

I can't see Shag and the band doing a stadium tour now somehow; and don't know whether Spuggy had any agri-themed material, despite their presumed rural origins… Think I would have preferred grunge band Dross, anyhow, who hailed from the same neck of the woods, but never progressed beyond pub gigs (apparently)…

OT, following my complaint about more fog, yesterday afternoon a brief breeze sprang up, blowing same away, and then followed a brief sunny and pleasant spell - enough to bring out the first bumble of the season…🙂

Dustyevsky

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81916808#Comment_81916808

Thanks, but the courier wasn't to blame, it was posting on a Friday that was responsible. In 7 or 8 orders, I've only had raspberries from Buckingham fail. I thought it was hard to kill those! 😂 Heeled them in immediately too. 😕

Quite pleasant outside this morning, but I couldn't get the whole trench dug. At the top of the slope, I hit thick clay and shale, which was foundation spoil we buried with a digger years ago. It's returned to haunt me! 😬 Having shifted that, further down I met two huge non-standard blocks, which had to be removed with a crowbar. I've met these before. They're part of a nearby building demolished in the late 20th century and deposited, with other detritus, near the stream. I know there's a back axle assembly buried close by, but I'm sure I'll miss that! 😉

When I gave up for today I'd got this far….

It looks like I've only gone a few feet! 😆The line is well over 20' long. Also, bear in mind I've had to barrow the carp away too.😖

This afternoon, with a chilly wind drying things out, I had a go with the newly serviced mower. Didn't pick anything up, just whizzed around for 1.5 hrs. Grass was 10 cm in places, so none too soon! 😦

twopenny

That's quite a trench Dusty! Continuing sure is either going to kill or cure that sciatica 😏

Farway sell all the mangy too at the gate when you harvest. That can buy you a new camera 😄

Less how you doing up there? Has the mist gone? We are supposed to have sun all day so I'll waft you some up.

As above, I'm exhausted with all the prep here but have some business this morning then going to take off with the camera and a picnic.

Loads to be done in the garden but not in a fit condition to do it so hoping the weather forecast is wrong about more rain for the foreseeable and I get a chance at the weekend. Seeds are sitting there with just the two leaves and too wet so 🤞 the sun will dry them out. I did get the potted Christmas plants in the ground and the patio apple tree in a pot. Lovely roots on it and well wrapped.