Awful weather - typical Brits talk

YoungBlueEyes

Morning all, on back to bladdy work again day *sigh *

Thanks for the info folks :) Right, yacky bits have been cut off me tree. It’s made a mess of the shape mind but needs must. I don’t think it’s affected anything near it, the useless plum and honeysuckle look unaffected, and the rose on the other side has its own problems (namely everything but that). That’s next on the list.

Is that one fewer sheep than before Dusty..? 🧐😆

Woohoo for runnerbeans and dahlias Farway the Cobra ones will be next, they’re just waiting to see what everyone else is doing before going for it *nodding *

Taff’s back! I can see now why you’ve been away - that bed looks fab 😃 That is one stuffed greenhouse, have you room for everything or do you sell some at your garden gate? Colour of your tulips too, mine all came yellow this year for some reason. 🤞🏻your foot is alright now..?

I predict your runners will come good 2p after all the bug removal work you’ve done. Karma innit. What will you do about your apricot? Are pill bugs bad..?

Cool to the point of almost being cold here. 6’ but feels like 4, and that’s not a warm breeze either. Sun’s out though, sort of, but it’s clouding up and it’ll be gone soon. As long as it stays out while I walk to work it’ll be alright.
Oh and I text Adored Grandson to see what my tatties are, he says he’ll ask the turf coal man next time he sees him.

Farway

Sun's out at last, dull start but I went off to Home B's first thing for compost & flower pots

Compost, only carp Levington Essential was available, but any port in a storm so grabbed it while is was there. And two square tubs for my round courgettes, or maybe my Cafe plate dahlias, plan B, the dahlias are looking very sturdy and have all the signs of needing a good hefty base if they are not to topple over. If I had flower borders they'd go in them

Still not secured the tree lily, a job for the sunshine. And another one here with tomato seedlings popping up now the soil has warmed up a bit, I'll leave them and see how they go. There is talk of Super El Nino, which means hot dry summer allegedly, ideal for outdoor toms,and grapes if I had any 🤨

Pill bugs? look up Scale Insect If it is then it's a systemic insecticide or if CBA and not zillions, dab with cotton bud dipped in meths

Hard work Taff, but looking good, love the tile bed

Continuing to harden off the runners, toms next. Whisper, shhh 🤫, but I think I spy flower buds on Paul Robeson, and Bajaja is sprouting from it's armpits, as it should being it's a baby bush one

OT, but cheery pic, DD has new puppy, IMO she needs her head testing but I think with DGDs curly sausage dog DD went soft. This one is a young relative of DGDs one, same mum, just a generation or so later. Takes after me, gets up about 0300 for a wee, then back to sleep, and sleeps a lot during the day 😁

All together now, Ahhhhhh

twopenny

Oooooh that's gorgeous 😍😍😍

I rarely have a yen for a baby (I'd like them to come ready at 5yrs old) but puppies and kittens - I want one!

So have you got babysitting duties sorted out yet 😉

Dustyevsky

Lovely relaxed dog, Farway. 😀 I'm off cats at present. One of ours recently sat on the windowsill and threw-up into the double radiator below……😱

I agree with Bluey's assessment of temperatures yesterday; it was at least a sweatshirt down, or if you're a lady, a jumper. (I'm told ladies don't sweat.😊) The sudden drop is probably because we removed panels from the side of the polytunnel to get a better cross draught now things are heating-up.😟

Ah, spell check doesn't like 'draught.' It can't understand 'trunk,' either Yanqui nonsense, as Bluey might say.

I'm also impressed with your artistically enlarged tile bed -taff…. and your organised, productive greenhouse, making our poly look like a midden. 😔 We're still somewhat discombobulated, thanks to lurgy-enforced idleness. Mrs D is easing back into the daily routine again, and that's a great help. Do you think you'll get shot of your bugs before the 11th, 2p?

I've a horrible feeling it'll soon be my turn to need a new knee. Despite the exercises, it's not improving. I can get the gardening and DIY done, but a serious walk isn't on the cards. 😪 Reading about wort's recent outing along the canal made me envious. There's even a canal walk here in hilly middle Devon, and that's not including the largely 'dry' one being restored behind Rosemoor. I read the on-line progress records of the group doing that, and marvelled at their commitment. https://www.rollecanalsociety.org/

We still have all our 16 sheep, Bluey, and we also have LIAMS, discovered yesterday, growing in the fairly hostile dry border by the lane hedge. They must originate from one discovered there 2 years ago.Just the sort of place they like.

After reading about folks' plums and cherries, I checked our plum yesterday and found prolific plumlets. ☺️ Of course, that doesn't mean they'll all turn into juicy plums, but it's a good start.

I also noticed this apple tree, which had an 'off' year in '25, may well make up for that this year:

Farway

Cold, but sun's out so should warm up.

Supposed to remain cool for a few more days, wish it wold warm up more, my runners desperately need to get climbing up canes, they will just have to go out this weekend and take their chances. Pic below

That apple blossom is late Dusty, mine are done & dusted with applets forming now. It was a good blossom year, and same applies to the Merton blackberry, it's heaving with blossom, and bees.

Last year I missed the blackberries because I was laid up with bad back & could not get out to pick them, let's hope you knee keeps going and you don't need an RHS Electric chariot to go round Rosemoor, good fun but being able to walk is better.

Watering the front & back pots first thing, I'm trying to keep on top of them, with no real rain forecast, shower maybe the best we can hope for

Here are my galloping runners, the young tom plants behind are mainly Balcony Yellow, own saved smear seeds

LessImpecunious

Could you give your beans a small stick to wind themselves around until you can get them outside Farway?

My apple blossom only just getting going - the Sunset, pic posted earlier, up against a SW wall - is very much an outlier compared to other trees dotted around the garden… I have wondered whether other things are going over very quickly though, despite mostly cool weather for the last few weeks - e.g., some of the Aquilegias seem to be losing petals almost as soon as gaining them…speaking of which:

They're dratted difficult to get good close-ups of so this will have to do instead.... and I promised some cloud pics a while ago:

Rare Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds spotted a couple of weeks ago (well, I think that's what they are…); and a miscellaneous selection from t'other day:

Farway

Raining! Not real good wetting stuff though, just passing showers, enough to stop wimp me putting the pots out to harden off right now, maybe once the rain's gone?

Could you give your beans a small stick to wind themselves around until you can get them outside Farway? What a good idea, Ta muchly. As said, hoping to get them out this weekend, but weather is still cool so may have to linger a bit longer

I'm surprised at the apple blossom dates mentioned, mine are long gone, so either I'm in tropical area or I have early blossoming apples, but the local crab apples are also long gone, so maybe it's relatively mild here?

And, talking of mild & blossom, my grapefruit had flower buds 😎, it is from a pip sown by DS about 35 years ago, when he was in college, it's in a pot, outside, but in sheltered corner. Never borne fruit and has only flowered a couple of times in all those years. Wish it luck everyone. Photo once the buds open

I fund LIAM 😁, just one, while checking pot where courgette may go. It has Honesty in it but that is going over now. Plus a self sown borage

Dustyevsky

Farway: That apple blossom is late Dusty, mine are done & dusted with applets forming now. It was a good blossom year, and same applies to the Merton blackberry, it's heaving with blossom, and bees.

Last year I missed the blackberries because I was laid up with bad back & could not get out to pick them, let's hope you knee keeps going and you don't need an RHS Electric chariot to go round Rosemoor, good fun but being able to walk is better.

Most of ours are over, and they were nowhere near as floriferous as that variety, whatever it is. Hardly surprising when last year was a bumper year, though smaller apples due to drought.

I'm sure the knee will keep going well enough for Rosemoor and NGS gardens this year, but there are still many more challenging rural walks planned. 😥 I guess it comes to us all. My Dad didn't stop riding his bike till he was 89, so that's the yardstick I've tended to measure by. He didn't have my more 'solid' frame, though. 😕 What was it Dunn & Co the outfitters used to call it, before they went bust? 'Short portly'? 🤣

Interesting developments here overnight, making me like cats even less. 😠A very large long-tailed field mouse has finally been evicted from the grandfather clock, alive, but probably quite dehydrated. 😐️We left the back doors open overnight, but it didn't take the opportunity, and we were freezing this morning! 😨 All the furniture has been moved….so it's spring-cleaning day! 😔

Other intriguing news I'll leave till later, but a dam neighbour is apparently hoping to 'get out of Dodge' after New developments on the southern border. 😉 I think you might work that out!

Mrs Dusty is after me to get the hoover, so here's a quick picture of something…..Oh, no, more sheep!😲

They're trying to send that thing down the hill, the bu99ers!

-taff

Oh my god! Farway, you've cracked it!

twopenny

Beautiful aquilegia Less. My favourite colours 🙂 don't they look lovely as a bunch. I haven't seen that for years.

Congratulations on the baby Farway 🎉

Dusty you've lost me. But I'm sure I'll catch up in the coming days. Do you grow a patch of mint in the sheep field? In fact if they grazed on it ...........

Actually did some gardening today without dire consequences.

I decided to tidy up a bit and trimmed the edges of the unmown lawn with a pair of scissors 😵‍💫 and looks a bit more like a garden now. Debugged the cherry again 🙄 and blackfy on a broad bean. . They are only 4" high and flowering so no chance to wipe. Must remember to squirt with something tomorrow Cut back my triffid sage so the herbs could breathe