Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

Bluey I've decided the bad/good habits are what kill the bugs so I've had enough of the good life. But it's a bit of a bug......erm to get covid and my first chest infection in the same quarter. Just not on. 😬

Farway I cut the pots with scissors. They are thin now. Can you find a small child somewhere to do it?

I found that letting mint grow into the lawn makes the chore of mowing the lawn delightful. Of course now I want that, it won't!

I want for a rare walk one morning before I got crook and counted 9 ladybirds on the path. The maintenance man says they overwinter in the dog poo bins between the plastic and metal. Crowded in there. But no one has directed them my way.

Dusty, I envy you a stream. So pretty. Id make one if it didn't involve gazillions installing electric pumps.

Thanks for the good wishes Less.

Laying around with my sinuses and chest creaking watching the birds in the garden. The blackies have raised a sturdy brood already and being shown round the food sources. Dunnocks too feeding in the lawn. I've let it grow and they seem to find lots there.

LessImpecunious

Good news with the dunnocks 2P! Maybe another excuse to avoid the lawn mowing chore, especially as it's now (no mow) may😊

twopenny

I had a no mow April too 🤣

Partly the difficulty but also saw interesting results last year. I saw a grasshopper then, they don't usually make it into town especially with so many gardens paved over for cars. Large public areas mown regularly. Don't think there's any long grass till you get to the fringes.

This year a black beetle. I haven't made a study of it. Time to lay in the grass for a while and look.

In the past everyone had lawns. No electric mowers so they weren't regularly scalped. Villages the gardens were not kept pristine but allowed some freedom. Now folk have moved in from cities and want Instagram ready gardens like they see in magazines.

Chunky baby blackbirds, blue chests and sparrows all singing away out there and enjoying a feed out of the rain 🙂

wort

YBE it’s the Canaries, can’t wait for some R and R and family fun.

2p that’s a shame about the op 😢 now you’ve psyched yourself up. Hope the chest clears quickly.

Dusty nice Aquilegia,hope you find more. On our walk on the canal the pother day we could see loads of white across the water then realized it was wild garlic. The river that runs alongside the canal was very low in places, barely more than a stream. Hopefully now the winds have eased and today I’ve woke to rain it will get topped up.

My toms are still growing but I had to throw four out as I got drain unblocker on the bottom of them and I’m not trusting them to be un contaminated. I’ve joined Farways yellow leaf brigade, even though I’ve been adding a touch of feed to the water. What’s the deal ? Epsom salts ? What do I do with them ?

Farway

Dull after rain, for which I'm grateful, the rain that is. It's maybe "showers" today. The garden looks a bit more "sprightly" after the rain, it's perked things up a bit

Wort I got drain unblocker on the bottom of them

See you, and raise you with leaving new a packet of runner seeds out when the rain started yesterday, all soaked through this morning. I bet every one will sprout and leave me with a bean jungle 😫I have just raked them into a pot to wait & see

I’ve joined Farways yellow leaf brigade, even though I’ve been adding a touch of feed to the water. What’s the deal ? Epsom salts ? What do I do with them ?

I watered with full strength liquid Miracle Gro, it's all I had to hand. Not seeing any changes yet, but it's only been a few days. If I had some I would have used Epsom Salts, or a full strength seaweed + minerals all singing & dancing feed of some sort

2P Farway I cut the pots with scissors. They are thin now. Can you find a small child somewhere to do it?

Small children run faster than I do these days 😁I rechecked on Halos and they are borderline fitting in my pots, so Plan B is get some thin cheap pots, H Bargains etc, and cut their bums off if I choose those with flimsy bums. The pots I have to hand are quite brittle hard plastic and I reckon would just crack or split.

Patiently waiting for my foxgloves to open, nearly there, with coloured bits showing. Not quite timed right, the Honesty flowers have gone and now the ornamental seed pods are forming

Also forming are future crumbles, this is Elstar, from Asda in 2016, £2.25. Bought mainly to provide a strong & stable [snigger] hand grab for me, deliberately planted near some steps. It fruits every year but the apples, while OK, are not as tasty as others I have. It has RHS AGM

Dustyevsky

Less: Dusty - what are your blue geraniums? Seems very early - only have macrorrhizums in flower here (just)…

They're Geranium phaeum. I featured them in a photo abut a week ago. I think most here are a variety called 'Lily Lovell,' but I couldn't swear to it. We have others. The only one I know for sure is 'Album'🤣 This page lists a few: https://www.rareplantfair.co.uk/news-and-articles/geranium-phaeum/

We grow the G. macro-whatsits as well, but what I like about phaeum is its size for weed smothering, or rising above wild grasses. It also looks 'natural.' 🙂

2p: Dusty, I envy you a stream. So pretty. Id make one if it didn't involve gazillions installing electric pumps.

A stream or a pond was something on the 'essential' list when we were searching for property. However, the financial crash of 2008/9 scared us into buying this smallholding PDQ. We'd no idea a seasonal stream or a view came with it. Everything was unkempt and overgrown. The trees on the right side of that picture were touching our bank, hiding the stream bed. 😬

You can buy Epsom salts in many GCs, wort. I just add a tablespoon's worth to the watering can and hope! It's a magnesium deficiency causing the yellowing, I think. So far…it's still there. 😕 Yes, I noticed the River Taw was very low when I decided to go shopping in the rain yesterday. A good amount fell, but it will have soaked straight in and hardly affected watercourses. We had a dry time at this point in 2025 too.😟

While I was pootling-about in the stream bed on Friday, I had an opportunity to snap a butterfly associated with this time of year. Easily identified, they don't usually hang about, but this one posed in just the right place:

It's dull with potential drizzle now, and brighter with some heavy showers later, so dom non today, probably. 😪Tomorrow looks similar. I can't say it felt much like a Bank Holiday weekend yesterday. Our main road to town was very quiet, but looking further afield before setting out, even the M5 was running normally all the way to Bristle. 😮

YoungBlueEyes

Morning all, on International Leopard Day 🐆 ←- that, apparently, is a leopard.

Black spark plug ends was a new one on me Farway… I'll have to read my mot sheet thing and see what it says about oil. He put me in new ones that'll last 25k miles though, so that's one expense that won't crop up again. I'll have to sit this aft and read what it says in my manual about the clock - the hour's come right but it's 2 minutes out now *sob * And no I can't remember if it's fast or slow, naturally. Your droopy broad bean will be happy after all that rain you suvveners got is it? That's such a clear pic of a ladybird too, lovely 😊 Could you dry out your soaked runners and keep them 'til next year or is that them started now?

I nearly guessed aquilegia for your red+yellow flower Dusty, I don't know why I hesitated. They've the same bums! Woohoo for shed base being finished, what's next after the bench base..? State of your poor stream, did you get plenty out of that rain band too? Aww lookit your butterflies ☺️ I think I read somewhere that butterflies (and flying bugs in general) come out when the air pressure is right, so they're a good indicator of weather.

I'll have to look up macrorrhizums Less. I thought that was the stuff they scattered in when they're planting stuff at BG. Which reminds me, I missed it on Friday cos the soddin snooker was on. For hours! I'll get it on catchup.

I didn't realise you had covid on top of it 2p 😣 Hopefully lounging about will let your system catch itself up again 🤞Have you got plenty of painkillers n stuff in? Nice of your birds to keep you stopped still by entertaining you. And a babby blackie too, my favourite ☺️

Ooh the Canaries wort, that'll be warm. Are you a heat lover? Looking forward to the pics already 😎 I don't think I'd trust the Drain Unblocker'd toms either, you'd probably only need the least wee bit to be poorly 🤢

Quiet weekend here too, I think folks are stopping in cos they can't afford the petrol prices. Our diesel is nearly £2 for chrisake - himself filled up yesterday and about 3/4 of a tank cost him dead on £99 😮Funny how the prices don't drop as quick as they go up eh 👿

OT damp and cool here at 11'c and that'll be about it for the day. We did get rain last night, not a while lot but enough to wet the place. I got my toms and sweetpeas and tatties in, but I've lost the packet of peas that I know I bought 😪

Oh and will I start a collection to buy @-taff out from under the Don't Touch My Pile Of Stuff police ha haa!

ETA - macrorrhizums are not the stuff they sprinkle on BG, they're a lovely pink geranium. And I have one! It's flowering lovely atm, looks well next to my diddy orange wosname (can't remember if it it's a geum or a gaura, it begins with 'G' anyway. Possibly).

twopenny

Before I forget there's a seaweed mix knocking about in DIY/Poundland shops.

Garden centres have crates of plastic pots in the carpark, free to take and usually the medium to big thin ones because they are no use to them. Excuse for an outing and you'll need tea a scone to recover 😉

I bought the general liquid fertiliser. It's ok, not as good as Phostrogen - which I can't seem to find as powder anymore - but ok for things like geraniums. I think I'm going to have to try harder on the search and fork out for the branded stuff.

I was eyeing up the comfy growing at the side of a walk the other day but it's illegal to remove stuff from the wild. Even if the council can strim the heck out of it. Make my own feed again.

The birds are happy with the rain, singing away. Thundery showers predicted today. Feeling a bit better today but like I've been hit by a train. Should stay in really but wondering if there are any more tomato plants left. Delivery was Friday so probably not.

Oh and only 3 apricots remaining after the rain and heat 😐

Dustyevsky

2p: I was eyeing up the comfy growing at the side of a walk the other day but it's illegal to remove stuff from the wild. Even if the council can strim the heck out of it. Make my own feed again.

You're not removing it from the wild, you're encouraging side shoots to grow. The original plant is staying where it is and gets a growth boost. All good! 😇

LessImpecunious

YBE - I'll have to look up macrorrhizums Less. I thought that was the stuff they scattered in when they're planting stuff at BG.

ETA - macrorrhizums are not the stuff they sprinkle on BG, they're a lovely pink geranium.

I have macrorhizums in white, pink and dark pink - the last from a dumped plant in our local forest - a good source of invasive ground cover plants..😁

Had forgotten your pic of phaeums Dusty - only have the very small and dark original and that usually disappears amongst whatever it's growing with! Must go and have a look for mine!

Very mixed weather here! May post a cloud pic but too late at night for that sort of thing now!