Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

I think I've already cracked the joke about people using far too much 'Wet n' Forget.' They don't recall using it, and apply several times…...😁

I've just awoken from a dream in which some rather nasty men entered our house, uninvited, and wouldn't leave until we paid our shed tax. Can't imagine why I might have dreamt that! 😉 Anyway, we haven't a shed, unless you count the chicken house, where some wild birds that identify as domestic fowl happen to choose as a safe 🙄space. 😋

Bluey: (I just D'Duck'd how to spell mivvi, and this site came up https://www.doyouremember.co.uk/memory/mivvi-ice-creams Could be an entertaining way to pass a hot afternoon.

Half the people on that site can't spell it either! 😄 It shows what a deprived childhood I had that Mivvis were considered the height of luxury. Still, I wouldn't have known Mivvis were much superior to Splits if it I'd been totally deprived.🙂

Farway: Dusty Oh, and we have manky toots, at last, plus a second courgette.😀Booo,
Hisss, Not even a flower on my mange toots, courgettes I am expecting a pregnancy soon, males are out but the female is still at equivalent of "doing her hair" 😁

So long as she doesn't develop a permanent headache next eh? 😏

In the case of my manky toots, they started flowering suddenly when they reached the top of the support poles. Maybe shorter poles? They'e not the short kind I usually grow……the name of both escapes me. Oh dear! That, plus my tendency to get confused on the big roundabout in Exeter, probably indicates dementia's just around the corner, as claimed by every other MSM article I see…..🤨 That's demographic profiling for you.😗

2p: Good to know you have nettles and you aren't perfect 😄

Dunno where you get the idea our garden's perfect! I suppose it's because I select what to show you. 😉 At this time of year, especially here in the wilds, it's a race between the weeds and gardeners. If I didn't know the weeds are sprinters and run out of puff by July, I'd worry. As for nettles, they get to stay in some places, but not the main flower beds.

-taff: 12km paddleboard? nuh uh, sounds very energetic…that's a very zingy combination too..

They postponed the paddleboard trip, as there would have been too little shade. The river chosen instead was good for a swim, but not for paddleboards. More folk should grow the Diervilla, but I don't see it in GCs. 😐️

Our pyracanthas ain't bushy and floriferous like yours, Farway! We picked the wrong spot.😥 In the right spot is this very upright wild rose. It's not showy enough for the garden, but it adds diversity to the wildlife area.

Checked the weather for today, and this is our very hot one; potentially 31c. 😧 Hot again tomorrow, then a decline into more normal levels of heat, plus some rain at the weekend. Suits me, but barbecue means I will have to shop, and the car's only air conditioning is open windows.

Farway

Another non sleeper here, up and about early before the heat gets going, the sun is already frying bare skin, presumably Mr YBE is cooked to a frazzle by now?, Do you have to turn him over, like a sausage, to cook the other side? 😂

Dusty In the case of my manky toots, they started flowering suddenly when they reached the top of the support poles. Maybe shorter poles? They're not the short kind I usually grow. Hmmn, I wonder if they are like Ivy, which only flowers when it gets to the top?, allegedly

Trouble is afoot, looking out the front yesterday afternoon, and urging my lady courgette to get a move on, I spotted furry long tailed movement nearby. A blooming rat! 😮 It ran off once I moved. Not much I can really do except hope it doesn't get a taste for courgettes. Should be lots of fun once we get compulsory kitchen food waste bins. There a couple of cats who consider this area their own so perhaps that may help, or one of the foxes grab them? Any spare red kites Dusty?

YBE Please god let today be a gentle one. Folk get all panicky when it’s a bank hol and don’t understand that we don’t work them (what with us being closed an’ all) so there’s no work done. Very difficult concept, evidently. Blame Mrs T 😁, she deregulated everything and once shops opened on Sundays etc the plebs expected everything to be open.

Eeehhh, in my day everything were always shut, or so it seemed. Half day closing mid week, close early Saturday, closed Sunday, closed Monday if a fish shop, banks open 1000, close an hour for lunch, open at two, close at three.

Left my watering until this evening, seeing te bit about soaking in overnight made sense to me

Today, in hot theme, here's some of my grapefruit flowers, in a large pot in a sheltered corner outside all year.. Doing well this year, about seven clumps [bunches, clusters?] of flowers, various stages of openness. It's never had so many, and never fruited either ☹grown from seed sown by DS when he was at college, so long ago his DS has now left college

twopenny

Up early because the sun rises on the bedroom side so it's 80c between 6-8 😕 lovely idea the rest of the year.

Like Dusty, massive heat expected here for the next couple of days. Leg working so I did some housework. Still have a load of sheets to iron but that will have to wait. I'm supposed to have clean sheets for 3 days before the op and when I'm showering in disinfectant and on the day for return home. Really?

You're right Bluey, it was cool by the sea in the shade but packed with overexcited children and motorhomes people reverse without looking. The supermarket was a nightmare!

Anyhoos it's going to be too hot to garden, the GC wants £4 a strip for veg and loads of Brussels only winter veg. So today may be thinking around that. Perhaps some encouragement and talking to my seedlings?

Love the grapefruit flower Farway. I never did plant my lemon pips. I think because I was too concerned about my veg not growing. I do have one runner bean though 🙄

Dusty, BBQ, standing over a fire in this weather? Couldn't you get an ice cream maker instead 😉

Greenbee that is far too much to be doing in this weather!

Right off to peg foil blankets to the blind at the back. Hopefully the light breeze will still be there when the shade goes round front and I can open the door

twopenny

Here's a question for you 🙂

My irises haven't bloomed in 7 years since the move. I thought too shady, moved them to bake. Nothing. Moved them to sun and shade. Nothing.

Now one has bloomed. Think it's the huge bog standard purple but it looks lovely on its own.

Now how do I mark that one corm so that I know which it is?

Because there are expensive dark red (that bloomed every year in a pot with no attention) and a deep blue I bought from a roadside stall. I'd like to get them grooped by colour again if I can.

greenbee

Someone told me recently to tie a label to the stem with the colour/variety listed, 2P. Then I guess you move them before you need to cut it right back.

Someone else is doing the digging (and hopefully finishing soon and going to do some sorting out in the compost area, which is cooler).

I potted up squash, aubergines, and cucumbers this morning. More to do later/tomorrow morning. Also acquired some agapanthus in the supermarket, so more planting to do (I have two days off coming up, and a trip to a nursery tomorrow monrning).

twopenny

Thanks Greenbee. Think I need something sturdier than that. I'm not very good at labelling. I forget/loose/destroy accidentally etc.

I was thinking maybe of paint marking the rhizome? I wonder if nail varnish would stay? Then I could use the colour of plant to varnish 😊

Well I did actually do a bit of gardening. I debugged the seeding winter veg. And the little cherry. Sadly a lot of the cherries have gone brown so probably just enough left have a handful.

Worked on the patio step and moved stuff to accommodate the trolley and watering.

Farway when I went to fill the bird feeder there was something in the shrubbery moving off.....rattus rattus 😲 they are desperate for food to breed. Thought I'd blocked them out and there's nothing for them here. The pigeons clear it all. But my annoying neighbour doesn't clear up.

But I got distracted. 4 enormous strawberries ripened. Some raspberries too. I ate the ripest delicious and warm from the sun. Picked the raspberries as I thought why not. I then thought perhaps I should have photographed it first 😄

Dustyevsky

2p: Dusty, BBQ, standing over a fire in this weather? Couldn't you get an ice cream maker instead 😉

It won't be too bad by 19.00 tonight. It's another family get-together before DD1 and co go home. Having been the family 'hotel' for almost 2 weeks now, we're ready for a return to normality! 😉 People think they're just dropping-in on our everyday life, but that's usually suspended until they go! And with this weather, doing more than catering and watering has been tricky.🙄

There were still grockle accents about when I shopped yesterday, but no great busyness. The main problem encountered was a random road closure, taking me miles out of my way, and into more meetings with silage makers than I'd prefer. 😕The pessimistic car recorded 31c in the shade at Barney Rubble, where it's impossible to find shade without a long trolley push.

Meanwhile, the GCs got their paddle boarding done in the sea, here:

https://www.camsecure.co.uk/combe_martin_webcam.html

Looks pretty quiet this morning. 😀

After yesterday's wild rose, here's another good shrub for a wild area: Viburnum opulus or 'Guelder Rose,' though it's not rose-like at all.

twopenny

I like that a lot ♥️ you hear about it in old stories so it must have history.

You're weather must be different. It was 35c here yesterday and 24 in the house overnight with no breeze. 🥵

A lovely nor easterly at the moment so all doors and windows open.

No gardening planned just running round trying to get things organised for not being able to do anything for myself for 6weeks.

The only thing I can't solve is I won't be able to pick raspberries and they are coming on like mad now.

Picking strawberries with a grabber will be interesting.

greenbee

I have lots of guelder rose here, and love it.

Have potted on my billions of squash and cucumber seedlings. I think I might experiment with cucumbers and tomatoes (also have billions) this year and put more outside in the ground (just need to get the supports set up in advance - like decorating it's all about the preparation!). I also have a small blow-away greenhouse (which I was given as it landed in someone's garden and they couldn't find an owner) which I think I can cable tie to the IBC cage and try cucumbers in. I do need some more big gravel/grow bag trays for the greenhouse, as the ground is far too compacted to grow in - and I haven't got round to doing no-dig beds in there.

Gardener did some digging yesterday - the borders that I'm making out of lawn by the patio had the turf turned over and were then cardboarded and mulched with woodchip in February but he didn't make them the size I wanted. So that was fixed yesterday. There's a definite contrast between the nice damp worm-filled soil under the cardboard and the dry, sandy, dead soil he's just turned over… so at least he now gets why I want to mulch rather than dig (there's a LOT more to do). I've got a bit of spent compost, some composted chicken manure, some random plant food, and some coir compost that needs using up that I'll put in there before I plant anything, and I'll then cover it with wool insulation from veg boxes, water well, and mulch with woodchip, and hope it works!

Day off today, so more plant shopping and planting :) So much cooler than yesterday, and we had rain overnight too!

Farway

Still hot here after another night when it felt just as hot as daytime, supposed to continue for a few more days here. Seems like just last week, oh it was just last week, complaints about frost killing tomatoes 😁

Asda have just delivered, and a touch of forward planning, some choc ices were in there, a taste test this afternoon I think

2P The only thing I can't solve is I won't be able to pick raspberries and they are coming on like mad now. My sympathies, I was in same predicament last year with my blackberries & laid up with my back and unable to pick the berries. No choice except to let the birds enjoy them.

2P, some of my cherries are also brown, a poor year this year. You were lucky Ratty left you the strawberries

Lady courgette is still being coy despite all the young bucks hanging about waiting to !, can't say more until I have age checked you lot, don't want you getting ideas, and one wouldn't want the servants to read it.

No gardening planned, way too hot and I've more or less caught up. Emergency watering may occur