Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Morning folks, seems everyone arrived once I left, hmmm, that used to happen at parties as well 🤔

May I join the cider appreciation society? Even though booze is now forbidden, I have memories to fall back on. Tried making my own once, not a big success, so Mr Weston can sleep easily.

Welcome, Dusty to the Canard browser, and very cruel to reward the help from some of us with the erig whatits pic

YBE Farway daddy was out there for the liveliness, but he only ever told the two stories. Standing in the blazing sun for The Queen, and one about the umm troop entertaining fellah, and exactly what sort of young boys entertainment he demanded be brought nightly to his tent. He was a proper nasty diva apparently.

Having just had D Day, I was reminded of the D Day vet I used to speak to and Vera Lynn. He used to go mad and couldn't stand her; it seems it was Officers only, despite all the publicity of "Our boys". The irony was that they played Vera singing "We'll meet again" at his funeral; I suppose it seemed fitting to those who arranged it, it's a wonder that his spinning in the grave didn't drown her out 😁

MW My courgettes have finally flowered although not many bees around, so might have to resort to a paintbrush..... I thought that, but it seems bees are industrious little blighters, and I think I have two pregnant courgettes. Maybe get the Mackeson in?

2p, we used to prescribe stout to nursing mothers. I may have mentioned before that I was under instructions to take some Mackies in after the children were born. All the Mum's sitting up, puffing on Player's No 6 and swigging bottles of stout, with the newborns beside them. No wonder those kids grew up tougher than nowadays

Dusty I might stick with Canard x2, especially if he can fit in a grammer and spalchicker. 😇 My DD seems to have them built in, or maybe it's in my 'puter somewhere? Anyway, my mistakes get a red wiggly line under them, right-click or hover gives "correct" option choices

Damp & blustery out, not raining, but zero gardening. I may pop into Morries tomorrow after collecting the prescription. I need something to replace the battered & broken Foxgloves & Honesty, it'll be pot luck on what's available, and still alive

There is another thread, about what to pant under a tree, one suggestion was ferns, so here is one in my garden. Neglected and generally left to get on with it

2P Hmmmm what happened to sizing the photo? I liked that. Still works for me, windoze desktop

twopenny

Just a comment on double cropping autumn raspberries, maybe it was Less told me back along and it works a treat. Fruit all summer and lots of jam.

But I found by the 3rd year they were covered in rust. Heck of a mess. With the hot dry we get I guess it's too much for them.

But they did come back the next year after a good chopping down and disposal. Followed by replanting some of the runners.

Been picking the strawberries with my grabber. And feeding the birds by ways and means. Think I can do some weeding with it too, just not now

Dusty yes, I think that's it with the foxglove. Weird.

Enough now. Brain fog and exhaustion. But getting some daylight is a great help.

Dustyevsky

middlewife: I'm a west country girl, so it has to be cider

Bluey: Ooh I'm deffo with you on the cider over beer thing 🎶

Well, I'm a West Country boy, and I was ruined for cider by the age of 16. 😭 Too much, too soon! I was never ill with beer, because by that time I was 16, going on17, and almost responsible! 😇 If it hadn't been for the nice lady at the XXXXX Inn, selling us kids scrumpy at 9d a pint from the back door, things might have been different. 🤔 Honestly, we go on about kids nowadays…..

Right, it's quite pleasant out there this morning, but my seaweed says it won't last, so I'd better get a wiggle on.

Here's another nice garden photo from Friday:

YoungBlueEyes

Morning all, on back to bladdy work day 😏

Farway maybe it’s always been the case, smoke + mirrors and nothing to see here. I daren’t name the fellah in my story, he’s been dead these last …25? years but I don’t want his estate/family after me for libel.
Cider Appreciation Society - count me in! Years ago I used to live near Weston-Super-Mare, and there was a pub down there that served proper cider. From a jug dipped into a barrel, and into your glass through a tea strainer thing. Christ it was rocket fuel, there was nobody constipated in a 30 mile radius 😄

2p I’ve looked up about rasp canes. Is the secret to cut down the canes that fruited this year and leave the newcomers cos they’ll fruit the next year? Or is there another secret? Are the Good Drugs letting you get some proper sleep..? 🤞🏻

Those are lovely garden pics Dusty, so calm and peaceful. Not a sitooterie in sight but? is that the one you’ve selected for your club outing? Pfft kids nowadays haven’t a clue eh 😆

Has taff slinked off on holiday again?

OT bit Autumnal here actually. Cool and damp and drizzly/mizzly. 12’c currently, 7’ if you’re coatless, a high of 17 to come, they say. Oh and they’ve (Auntie + the sobers) backed down from the Big Heat Coming idea, but Tusky’s sticking with it 😥

I wonder if they’ll keep at it, or back down to match the rest…

twopenny

Sorry Bluey I've lost the story line over your raspberries and can't do anything that requires more than vague thought.

Are they autumn or summer ones?

But I'm a relaxed gardener. If it's a dead cane (dry, grey, doesn't have green if scraped bark and usually has dried leaves) then cut it out about 4" from the base.

Leave the rest, keep what grows sturdy and green. The little ones that don't make it much you can cut or leave.

If you know anyone with a wood burner get a bucket of ash from them and chuck it round the roots. Rocket fuel.😀

Right back to sleep. Don't need any stuff. Horrible deep sleep. Hoping it will change soon.

Dustyevsky

There's been heavy rain, but we have a decent forecast for most of the day, so Mrs Dusty and I are going to visit a garden we've not seen before. 😀

Yesterday, we finally got the remaining bush tomatoes in, and planted a solitary cucumber. Other cues are refusing to grow; presumably affected by something in one batch of compost. 😥The courgettes destined for outdoors are similar, but may yet grow through it. I'm planting new seeds for both, in case they don't. 🤨

Yes, Bluey, the garden pictured 3x is the one our garden club will visit later this month. There were several sitooteries, and two of the photos were shot while relaxing in them.

Oh dear, I chose Vera Lynn for my Dad's funeral, but he wasn't a serviceman, being in anti-aircraft gunnery installation in various cities / airfields etc. It was a job which got him bombed quite regularly, but he was treated particularly well by the services. Of course, after it was over, they didn't want to know him! ☹️

So we're not being globally boiled this month then, Bluey? It certainly didn't feel like it when I let he hens out at 07.00. 😬 I think what we're experiencing is more boiling frog than planet.😉 That's what Dr David Bellamy thought too. Look what happened to him! 😨

2p:  Horrible deep sleep. Hoping it will change soon.

After effects, And don't forget, some people would pay good money to have the same.

I had a weird dream last night, where people kept calling me 'Steve.' (I'm not a Steve, or a Brian)I also spotted Concorde doing some impossible acrobatic manoeuvres above my old school playground, and I cursed that my camera was indoors. Analyse that! 🤣

Here's the Queen Mother's rose garden at Rosemoor last week, before the worst of the gales. Some of the 'roses' were Philadelphus. We weren't sure why they placed these alongside white roses. Maybe their season's longer?

Farway

Dusty [Steve 😁] said There's been heavy rain,

Yes don't I know it, a waterfall arrived here about 0930 ☹️ I was at Morries at the time, on the hunt for "something" to replace my battered foxgloves & Honesty. Nothing, except loads of small pelargoniums, which are not suitable for that spot. Came away very wet & empty-handed

Raspberries, as 2P says, Autumn or Summer ones? I only have Autumn, easier that way, just chop them down in the winter, which is why getting fruit now surprised me, mind you, I may have missed a cane when chopping down.

QM garden at RHS must be a theme, there is one at Wisley, but it goes under her maiden name, Bowes Lyon. Sponsored by some insurance Co. I think. It's on a hill and zillions of roses. I always note names of some, but never buy them.

On roses, for me, one big disappointment was Mottisfont, NT near Romsey. Walled rose garden gets featured on TV etc but IMO nothing special. Maybe it was when it first started, with innovations like growing other flowers under & between the roses.

No gardening today, soaking wet & soggy out there. looks like slump in chair with GW will be my limit

LessImpecunious

It was me who mentioned the double-cropping autumn rasps - the RHS website (amongst others) mentions it -

To prune for a double crop:

• In February, instead of cutting all the stems to ground level, select six to eight of the strongest ones per 1m (3ft) of row, and prune off just the upper fruited part
• Cut all the other stems to ground level as normal
• After the half-pruned stems have fruited in summer, cut them down to ground level, leaving the current year’s stems to fruit in autumn

I have found that just forgetting to cut down the stems in the spring has the same effect…😁

Dustyevsky

Farway: a waterfall arrived here about 0930 ☹️ I was at Morries at the time, on
the hunt for "something" to replace my battered foxgloves &
Honesty. Nothing, except loads of small pelargoniums, which are not
suitable for that spot. Came away very wet & empty-handed

Sorry about that. There probably wasn't time for it all to fall on us.😁

We also popped into Morries on the way to the garden visited yesterday. Apart from the not watered, half-dead stuff, there was a 3fer2 offer on healthy-looking clematis, so Mrs Dusty bought 3 for £6. I thought that excellent value, considering the last two she planted, never to be seen again, cost £24. 😮

The garden visit was lovely. Reasonably warm, sunny weather helped, and there was so much to see, thanks to the very knowledgeable owner who really knows plants and plant associations. There was a bit of everything within the mini estate surrounding the big house. Even the entry over a footbridge beside a ford on the drive was interesting.

And the setting of the house itself was impressive:

More through the week, I expect. I've not finished with Rosemoor yet!

Today, it's back to brisk winds, showers, and shovelling compost into the beds……. but enough about my ablutions! 😂

twopenny

That house would do me nicely 😊