Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Morning all, another scorching day ahead after a hot & sleepless night. I'm worn out before I start the day!

2P, hooray for your toms ripening, I think once they start the rest follow. Never tried San Mazano, mainly because I always thought it was more for cooking, sauces etc and I prefer raw fresh ones. However if I spot a cheap packet I may just try some next year & see how they go

I''m supposed to be out to a posh estate GC tomorrow, with cafe & Farm shop and small gauge train round the grounds. Bit early for clearance seeds but maybe lucky. The plants are usual stuff, nice but OMG. Same with farm shop. Unfortunately the tea is carp weak dishwater, ship & 'apporth of tar syndrome

My Sungold are at sunrise, not long now before real colour shows, and Divinity is at pale ripening. Both are in conservatory, none of my outdoors ones are showing much inclination to ripen yet, despite the weather.

Despite the heat I did get more blackberries picked yesterday, now in freezer. The wild prickly ones growing over my shed are excellent, but thorny critters

Here's pics, ripe are the wild, red are unripe thorn-less, Both tasty. I was trying to capture the shiny juiciness in them

Dustyevsky

You've shown us the blackberry juiciness extremely well, Farway. I'm now feeling guiltyabout neglecting our solitary Merton, down by the woodland. I might have watered it when keeping the newly-planted hornbeams alive, but thought "Oh, it's tough enough!" The berries probably will be too.😯 BUT… as Ana with the accent is always saying, I'm preparing a bed for 3 more up by the polytunnel, so next year they'll be supplying whatever the blackbirds don't find first. 😕

I'm hoping my cold peaked last night. Like you, I didn't get much unbroken sleep, so I'm having a morning indoors, scanning the horizon for those rain clouds. The drunks say Pembrokeshire can have them today, and maybe we'll get the dregs tomorrow. 😞 It's just dull and very warm currently.

Yesterday, with the prospect of the heatwave waning, I became enthusiastic and planted more courgettes, salad greens and mangy toots. Also, a few nasturtiums for salad extras inside the poly. Reading that my lone melon pear was unlikely to fruit this year, I exhumed it from its deep bed so I could get a few more chillies in. That's all the polytunnel space used up now.

wort, I should be terminating the rampant tops of the tomatoes, like you, but I'm not up to ladders today, and nor is Mrs Dusty, who still has vertigo. 🙃 She normally keeps the toms organised, and this year's chaos is down to me. 😢

The other night, when trying to get a picture of the Buck Moon, I turned around and spotted the Cardoons silhouetted against what was left of the sunset. They looked almost as spooky as the moon photo:

Farway

You've shown us the blackberry juiciness extremely well, Farway. I'm now feeling guiltyabout neglecting our solitary Merton, down by the woodland. I might have watered it when keeping the newly-planted hornbeams alive, but thought "Oh, it's tough enough!" The berries probably will be too.😯 BUT… as Ana with the accent is always saying, I'm preparing a bed for 3 more up by the polytunnel, so next year they'll be supplying whatever the lackbirds don't find first.

My Merton is not watered [Not Merton in my pic BTW] and lack of water is showing, taste fine but the berries are just not super plump. OK but could do better is on their report card. The wild one benefits from clay & more clay down that end, I'd guess once roots are down there's plenty of moisture for it

Your cardoons reminded me, the GC & posh house border I'm off to tomorrow has a huge cardoon, and I usually try & fail to get the super framed against the sky pic. I'll try & do better tomorrow.

Dustyevsky

Farway: Your cardoons reminded me, the GC & posh house border I'm off to tomorrow has a huge cardoon, and I usually try & fail to get the super framed against the sky pic. I'll try & do better tomorrow.

It might be somewhat easier than usual if their cardoons are like ours. They're about 2/3 of normal size thanks to the lack of water. I bet they still fall over in September, though! 😃

Nothing doing here in the way of rain. 😕 It's been a very hot day, and I've slept through at least half of it in an attempt to shift the lurgy. 😴 Mrs Dusty may initiate an investigation by the standards committee if I don't perk up soon, so I'll go and water things in a minute. It's looking as if that won't be necessary tomorrow, but I'll believe it when I see all these heavy showers first hand. Happily, it doesn't look as if they'll dampen your day much, if at all. 😉

I suspect blackberry roots go really deep over time. They must do to compete with all the other rampant stuff in our hedges.

Spoiler Alert: It'll be another Mrs Dusty photo tomorrow. She spotted something not very common around here… No, not a lobster that needed saving, but on that theme, here'a picture DD1 sent us after her trip to the river Barle on the way home. If you're Noel Edmunds, look away now! 👿

twopenny

Been stupidly hot today. 28c in the shade, 34c in the back garden and no breeze.

I watered a lot of stuff but it was exercise day. I covered the tomatoes with fleece in the hope it would do something good as they are cringing in the heat.

Hope you're venture out beyond Morrisons is a good one Farway. We await photos.

Dusty you really need to take a day to get over your bug. Get some earplugs if Mrs Dusty nags 🙂

Thunderstorms tomorrow according to one forecast, rain according to another. I'll have either.

Farway

Morning all, a quick pop in before I tootle off. Not feeling much like tootling with this heat, at least I slept a bit last night, worn out, sounds a bit like Dusty. Just the constant draining heat . Hope you improve a bit Dusty & may storms pound down for 2P & Dusty. None due here.

At least you have watered 2P, just seems to suck it all up though. It'll be interesting to see how, or what, the posh house border has done, they do concentrate on things like canna & cone flowers, so def sun lovers

My canna is flower spike less, still. Lovely leaves but zero flowers 😪

Right off to sort out MOT & then GC, carp cup of tea, posh border & Farm Shop. catch you later, maybe.

On a bright note, Ta ra, I present my first ripe toms, taken this morning

Dustyevsky

No sign of rain yet, although I can't see Dartmoor, so that's promising. It's not raining in Westward Ho! or Bideford. Ilfracombe looks dreary and damp, but when doesn't it? 😆 Nothing going on in Minehead Harbour either, except a lady putting out a flag. Luckily, it's not an England flag, so she probably won't be arrested. 😉 From my limited research, it appears to be an Exmoor flag, like this:

So, a militant Exmoor separatist. The flag's telling me there's a strong breeze…Ooh, hang on, she's put out another one like sail….I think that's Wall's Ice Cream. There's a hint of sunshine, but it's a little early for ices. 🤔

2p: Dusty you really need to take a day to get over your bug. Get some earplugs if Mrs Dusty nags 🙂

That was yesterday, and I've slept much longer than usual overnight too. If I don't respond to Mrs D, she'll send me for a hearing test. 😨 It'll probably be another day of administrative nonsense.

As promised today's photo is of a butterfly Mrs Dusty snapped yesterday on the oregano - a Holly Blue. Unlike another Holly I can think of, it's making quite a good comeback, with numbers up about 10% on a few years ago.

Yesterday evening I was buzzed by a Humming Bird Moth, which alighted 2' from me on a buddleia flower. By the time I'd reached for the camera, it was already soaring over the hedge.😪

Hope Farway has a grand day out in this posh place, wherever it is. 😀

LessImpecunious

Well done on the Toms Farway, and congrats on another great lepidopteran image Mrs D - our Holly Blue numbers definitely up too this year - I actually saw three at once t'other day, usually lucky to get one or two sightings a year.

Many thanks for all suggestions for moneysaving tweaking software, will be looking into these; was away with poor internet connection over the weekend, hence lack of immediate response. I did spot another seems-to-do-well-in-dry-conditions option, with Pelargoniums - apparently it's a Pennisetum 'Purple Baron', appropriate as we were in Evesham where a Battle reenactment was taking place - annual only though, apparently...

Also enjoyed the wellyboot planter as I have done some myself this year, pic to come, but need a bit of manual tweaking first...

And, in weather news, it has rained! Waterbutts are mostly (inspection required of one🫤) at least part-full, and here is a puddle in front yard as proof...

wort

We’ve got the thunder and rain , just started. It’s been boiling all day so I’m sat with the doors and windows open, the wind has got up too.

It had forcast showers all day, but I got washing out and dried in 2 hours. Did a bit of dom non this morning before heading to town in the heat, I took an umbrella but didn’t need thank goodness I didn’t take a coat. Back at lunch then off to dd2 to see to the animals and spend 3 hours cleaning at her house, as they are due back tomorrow. Of course I had watered dgsons tomatoes , now they’ll be singing in the rain.

wort

Hopefully It goes your way too