Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

Tell Cissie I'll stand with her.

Dusty that's gorgeous. There are still whole banks of primroses around here and it makes you smile as you pass. I think they are my favourite flower. I used to have some with scent which I bought with me but I can't get down there to sniff now. Probalby all cross bred.

Like Farway I've been spreading the fertiliser. Still have the 2 boxes of chicken manure bought on sale last year but it was too dry to spread so this spring I've sprinkled libererally. Still only got through one box so it goes a fair way.

Reconstructed the false door in the fence but not sure I want it now everything has grown up. It can stay there till I think what to do. Pruned my blossom tree and the massive rose out front, killed weeds in the block paving and got to the tip. And I'm still standing - well sort of.

C;louded over today but still mild if not quite so much. Still we've had a good innings for march.

I've got some of my favourite yellow wallflowers come through and this purple is new. All self sown so it's a surprise each year.

Dustyevsky

Farway said: Dusty, I've wanted a damson, and a Gage, but never room. If your pear eating sheep are stuck, I have another useless one they can snack on, it's just waiting for the frost before the blossom opens

Love those primroses, I think they would do well in my grass, but I can never get them going, despite planting plugs etc.

We had a damson doing well until the storm that took out our original polytunnel.😒 The previous owners planted a gage, but it didn't thrive, and nor did most of their plums. I suspect our acid soil doesn't help, but it's probably the reason we have primroses as weeds. Swings & roundabouts. 😉

Hope they found your wheelie this time. Septic men found us OK and did the business with our business.😃 They've a double-take slogan on their lorry I snapped for you folk:

Why do I always have to post and then edit after a photo? This new interface is full of bugs! 😟

Also in the picture, the remains of a eucalyptus growing some bracket fungi.

We're with Cissie too, Bluey. Our oil consumption has plummeted, possibly as planned by the powers who shouldn't be.😈 Now we can ditch our petrol cars and buy solar panels and EVs from that ever-so-environmentally-friendly, democratic, China place! 😅 If we have rationing, our lawns may have to go wildflower, and Mr King will have a breakdown. He's mowed his field with 2 different ride-ons in the past 3 days alone!🙃

Yesterday was also a 'looking after small person day' (again! 😏) so very little got done until the afternoon, when I snuck off for 2 hours and almost finished the new hedge near the Canute Barrier. Mrs Canute went into their caravan and saw me from the associated decking when leaving. I think she told Mr C what I was doing, because his lawnmower stopped a minute later. Cat out of bag, but job will be completed today. Just in time too, because fronds of bindweed are now emerging from Canuteland, and they shall not pass into the no- man's-land between old and new hedges. 😛

Dull, cool, and very windy this morning, with worse on the way.😧 It's a blip….hopefully.

Dustyevsky

Just spotted

Farway said: Good luck with smallest GC Dusty, push chair all set to go? Difference in ages, news last night of my oldest GC has landed a job for when he leaves Bristol Uni, no idea who with or what, all security checks and things, probably have to kill me if he said, he did say requirement was driving licence, so some advice dribbled into him was worthwhile

Mrs Dusty went to post a letter (a mile) with GC in pushchair, but he slept through the sheep and coos.😢

Coincidentally, DD1 has just landed a job with a government agency in Bristol. Apparently, it cannot start for 4 months, thanks to security checks on her and close family. I was told: “You'll be down as a conspiracy theorist and far right, for sure. I hope that won't affect anything!”

I replied, “Far right? Don't you mean right, so far?” She hadn't heard that one. Still went down like a lead balloon! 😂

Farway

Cold wind, and dull, with worse tomorrow. I've left my broad beans inside for today, and maybe tomorrow as well.

All [2] round yellow courgettes have germinated, I may look into getting some square tubs to plant them in, I found last year large flower pots get top heavy with a mature courgette pants & a following wind.

Dusty said Coincidentally, DD1 has just landed a job with a government agency in Bristol. Apparently, it cannot start for 4 months, thanks to security checks on her and close family. I was told: “You'll be down as a conspiracy theorist and far right, for sure. I hope that won't affect anything!”

It would be a big coincidence if DGS1 finished up in same place, makes one wonder if some expansion going on down there? It is an area getting one of the new towns, Starmergrad or Angievostok 👿

Hot news, Garden wheelie bin has bin [sic] collected😀

Just found an open packet of purple podded Manky Toots. I grew some last year but they never really came to much, due to neglect I think, coincided with my back playing up so watering etc failed. I think I'll sow half a dozen and see how they go & maybe use up front step hand rail https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/pisum-sativum-shiraz/

twopenny

Well there's a thing 🙄 after a gloomy but not cold day I decided to leave my seedlings out with forecast for light rain tonight became wild winds and frantic hail.

I'm not going out in this to bring them in. They may survive and be thoroughly hardened off!

Only thing near gardening today was going to the men's shed and asking them to make me a trolley so I can get water to the pots at the front.

Congratulations on the bin collection Farway. It's a big deal. And to Dusty for his collection too.

LessImpecunious

Farway : All [2] round yellow courgettes have germinated, I may look into getting some square tubs to plant them in

Hmm, round courgette in square tub, doesn't quite have the same ring as square peg in round hole…🤣

-taff

Sorry, I've been bare busy as they say, cat sitting, friend from Germany visiting, cooking a roast for her, birthday meal the next day, out lunching again today, March is a busy month. Got some respite for the next few days then sister is coming the weekend after next with another three birthdays to go yet…[ 11 total in March , peeps were obviously busy in Junes of previous years…]

There are some lovely photos going on, your sunset Dusty, your rhododendrons wort [ love your second garden photo, love the separation between the two parts and the textures], your robin James, more sunset, hedgehog [ how cute!] , beautiful moor view, lovely pink daffs [ I can get behind those ones] , primroses aplenty and ybe, I haven't even finished going through the estate gents photos yet, I'm both flabbergasted and impressed in a stupefied kind of way, my favourites so far are the Escher designed attic, the fourth dimension one, all the ones with horses and the dog pooing in the garden…and glad you like the black, it's like the Henry ford quote that isn't true :) it's just because we have black fence paint after only agreeing on that colour between us [ neither of us liked any of the others choices apart from that] so that's what everything wood gets painted :) Hope your Jay has stood the test of a little time so far. And your bee and ivy could be a book cover for something whimsical and cheery.

Less, i did see Emma [ she of the allotment diaries has some of those daffs too..Don't know about the northern lgihts but I did see a shooting star or whatever the correct terminology is..commiserate with cissie about all the doings too…Intrigue and excitement for you Dusty, wonder what mr C will do in retaliation…

Congratulations to all with relatives getting top secret hush hush jobs…Hope your seedlings survive 2p!

Weather was lovely this morning, Armageddon tonight with wind and lashing rain, all blown over now though, but still windy…if tomorrow is dry I will lotment, I need to dig a small bit for celery, fennel and spinach [ it's in the more haded bit behind the fruit cage. I'm also hoping the raspberry cuttings I took have rooted…

YoungBlueEyes

Morning all, on Manatee Appreciation Day. Do we all appreciate that there are manatees? So that's another one that works then.

Too bluddy cold to garden this morning, it's 4' but -2 if you're coatless. We've had some storm overnight, the place is soaking and I'd bits of stuff all over - plant pots and labels etc. Sadly no dead pigeons or squirrels but maybe next time 🤞

I'll let Cissie know yous are coming out in solidarity with her. When she said about it on Sunday I didn't know if she was serious or not, so I said well you've cold wintry conditions coming Cissie so wear a big coat ha haa!

Sounds like you got the hedglings in just in time there Dusty. Canute wouldn't do anything to harm it would he? The name on the septic truck made me double-take, and giggle 😄 I wonder what's going on down Bristol way that it's sucking all the good people down there… Starmergrad and angievostok Farway <snigger> Corbyn Garden City? Woohoo for your bin getting collected, hopefully they'll remember where you are and not miss you again 🤞 2p if all your wee seedlings survived last night they'll survive anything! That's a good idea asking the Man Shed folks to make you a watering thing, be better than anything you can buy I bet ☺️ Nice to see you taff, I was wondering if you were alright. No rest for you eh with all that going on. Yep Jay is still with us, but I got her wrong - she's not a Theyperson, she alternates between feeling male some days and female other days, and she helpfully wears blue or pink clothes so we all know where we are (😏) How did we fill our days before them damn yanquis gave us all these things to worry about? 😈

YoungBlueEyes

I've been getting some pics on the way to work.

Daffs 😍round the sitooterie and sitdownerie near me. It'd be lovely if they hadn't put it by one of the main roads through the village -

A CatWee tree in near full bloom. Bluddy thing. You could smell it before you saw it. With some clouds for you Less :)

And a cherry blossom tree ☺️I don't know what shape it'll be in this morning mind :(

That'll do.

greenbee

My oil tank is almost empty YBE, and I’m with Cissie too. Minimum order is 500l. So not filling it is paying for two heat pump surveys (second one due today, I hope) and once the oil is gone, it’s gone, The tank is too small for the house anyway, so a properly sized heat pump will be a lot less hassle (and the solar and battery mean it’ll be pretty cost effective to run).

Weather is cold here today too, but electricity is cheap and the sun is shining, so the heating and hot water has switched over to electric.

In gardening news, I’ve divided my snowdrops and planted more in the orchard. I’ve already planted 250 (more like 500) that I bought in the front, so hopefully the garden I’ll be full of snowdrops next spring. I also dug up some crocuses from the veg plot that need planting in the front and the orchard. Plenty more where they came from if I have time.

However, no seeds have been sowed yet, so I need to book some holiday and get on with sorting out food production given what might be happening to food prices this year. As both cucumbers and tomatoes are apparently going to be expensive, and I only have one greenhouse, I need to work out how to get them to share space nicely.