Awful weather - typical Brits talk

greenbee

Wort - I'm also talking to a financial advisor today for the same reason. I'm struggling to work out day-to-day living costs as I've been doing up houses for the last 15-odd years! And I'm a bit concerned that if I'm retired I'll have more time to spend money on plants…

twopenny

More time to look for the bargains in plant sections 😊 grow from cuttings and seeds. Enjoying what you have. Buying stuff is a displacement activity when you don't have time.

I had a phase of going round garden centres in a 20 mile radius with coffee, cake or a picnic. Seeing what was on offer. A pleasant day out. Got my wisteria and apricot at half price.

Retirement means you don't take exotic holidays 4 times a year for some of us but tailor to something that interests you. And the joy of getting home and the feeling stays, not vanishing in floods of emails and catch up stuff. Depends on what makes you happy.

Farway

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82054185#Comment_82054185

Wise words indeed, and don't forget, wherever you toddle off to, take a handy camera, a penknife for helpful pruning of wayward twigs, polybag to remove the twigs or seeds to allow disposal at home

twopenny

Morning folks 🙂 it's raining 😃. Unpredicted of course.

Not something I'm usually glad about but the soil has been dampened and what's left of the flowers have perked up.

Ofv course todays plan to empty the tubs of trimmings into sacks for transporting when I can drive again and can get on with the deadheading is off.

But I sanded down the garden furniture yesterday, some already painted and a half sanded wooden table, the rain should help lift more paint off. So fingers 🤞.

Farway

No rain here unfortunately, slight chance of a shower, then it's back to meltio scorchio for the week

Rescheduled pot watering until tomorrow, on the off chance it may rain

I'm wondering if I'm on the way to more lurgy, very lethargic and tickly froat this morning. Could do with some of 2P rain to perk me up!

If I can get energised I intend to tie back the posh, dinner plate, dahlias to their canes. Nearly there, buds are now showing and earwigs on standby

Yesterday's estate check revealed I have carrot seeds germinated. but only in one tub. I sowed in three, so uneven germination or slugs have had them already

The runners, flowering still, no beans still 😠. The flowers are dropping off, which supposedly is common in hot weather clip from RHS Very hot weather, especially at night, which inhibits the germination of pollen grains, interrupting the pollination and fruit-set process. Cropping should resume in September, once the nights start to cool down Only another two months wait then 😒

What are setting are all the blackberries, I have loads, including prickly wild ones over my shed. I used to cut them back, but that's beyond me know, so I'll enjoy the fruit and ignore the prickly jungle. Be another fortnight or so before they ripen

The Asiatic lilies are open, having survived the molestations of Lily Beetles. Look nice but no smell to them. I have them in a large tub & they sprawl over the manhole shrub so are eye level with any one passing by. Top pic is more true to colour

Dustyevsky

Farway: pacing jobs is something I've had to learn, along with accepting there some things I will no longer be able to do and thus enjoy what there is.

I'm doing the pacing OK, but accepting the lack of long walks in wild places is harder. I won't willingly give that up when there are still so many unexplored locations, to say nothing of enjoying a vicarious reprise of teenage years with my friend. 🙂

Yesterday, I managed to do more than usual, starting construction of a new bed for blackberries/other fruit, outside the eastern end of the polytunnel. When I have anything worth a photo I'll show you.😉 Mrs Dusty says I've dug the holes for the support poles in the wrong place. As usual, she's right. 😥

We are very reliant on freezers and fridges here, so any malfunction would be a worry. The main freezer is Bernard Manning sized and dates back to the early noughties. 😧 Nowadays, like TVs, most are built to last about 5-6 years.

The rain for you was forecast by the drunks late yesterday, 2p, but they seemed to get our amount wrong. We've had a useful dollop here, due to end shortly.

Here is the totally unpronounceable Salvia I've planted in difficult places. Unlike most of the breed, it's very tough, and the leaves alone are impressive.

In other news, it dawned on us only yesterday, we've never seen a copy of the original planing permission for our bungalow, so in our world there's no definitive plan of where the original garden ended, or even any proof of the conditions of the agricultural tie. A quick perusal of the local authority's website tells me they will search for the documentation, provided I cross their palm with £362. 😲 Hmm, you'd think they were offering World Cup or Centre Court tickets, not getting office person to scan a microfiche and do a few print-outs! We've managed for 17 years without, so I guess we'll go a bit longer.

Meanwhile, having applied for another van permit yesterday, I received an email this morning from Rubbish Refuse & Recycling telling me my permit is no longer valid.

middlewife

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82055492#Comment_82055492

Ah, so it's your fault my washing got a second rinse😂, warm sun here, off to walk by Thames, where there are 2 cafes conveniently 1 mile apart on the level, so should manage that. Then back to harvest more blackcurrants

Farway hope you avoid the lurgy, I've never been able to grow runners, but have more success with French beans (if we're allowed to call them that?) got a few wild blackberries ripening nicely across the road, tried one and it was lovely

Dusty, i share your frustration re long walks, my pessimistic physio keeps saying I won't get very far until I have my knee replaced, but I'm going to eek it out as long as I can before achieving full bionic status

Enjoy Thursday everyone

twopenny

Farway if it's any consolation I got a handful of pea pods. too dry to eat raw so I popped them in with some boiling spaghetti for 3 mins. They tasted delicious then.

LessImpecunious

Rain here too o'night, as forecast, and a reasonably useful amount; blackbirds were "bathing" in the damp grass and sunshine mid-morning…

Picked first mankytoots (handful only), and courgette in greenhouse is producing strangely small but numerous fruits, pulled first carrots too, and first pick of some big pink broad beans (prefer them big, so could have been picked earlier). So, summer veg is here at last…🙂

Farway

Sunny & warm ahead. Out watering the front pots first thing, with the heat due to return, from today, I thought I'd better get on with it

It's looking quite good at the front, with lilies, buddlias & daises out, not quite the profusion I had in my mind when "planning", but OK

Dusty We are very reliant on freezers and fridges here, so any malfunction would be a worry. The main freezer is Bernard Manning sized and dates back to the early noughties. 😧 Nowadays, like TVs, most are built to last about 5-6 years. I'm more reliant on them these days, physical shopping & lugging groceries is not very compatible with my heart, lungs & legs. I have been looking into replacements, and the life is as you say, except for the Meile / Bosch etc. Never know about truth, but seems deliberately geared to be break even on repair or replace, so replace after 5 years or so keeps a factory in work.

My duff one is an old last for yonks one. Of course the modern ones with all the gizmos, are, like modern cars, just more bits to go wrong.

No gardening, I'm on great fridge freezer hunt today. Sod's Law is working, FB market place has a Bosch near me, but just sold 😢 Looks like I'll be browsing the standard places, I've decided that going to break in 5 years or so may well be longer than my bits last, so the good but dear options are off the table, unless some slightly bonked cosmetic damage is reduced. Years back I bought a reduced, bashed but new washing machine, slight dent on side, which turned out a bargain, it lasted years & years. The dent was never seen because it was under a counter

MW Farway hope you avoid the lurgy, I've never been able to grow runners, but have more success with French beans . Lurgy seemed to peak yesterday evening, shivering, I even had a blanket over me when ambient was over 70. Went to bed after Lemsip & all seems fixed this morning. I tried French beans, grew well, but found slugs loved them. I did try, and love, Cobra climbing French beans, but they failed to germinate this year, along with a lot of my beans.

Congrats to Less on Manky Toots, and carrots, can't beat taste of fresh own carrots. From memory of course, failed to grow any for a few years 😳

And 2P pea pods, summer is here.

Right, off browsing among the White Goods, plastic in hand