Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

No rain here ☹️, passed us by on it's way Norf and never so much as a dribble. I did hear a few thunder rumbles and that was it. Just dull, dry & gloomy, with sun due back later, sigh….. Enjoy the rain 2P, out there dancing?

Lego, Beaky Nun ?

2P Farway wonderful looking grapes 😀 now I'm tempted again. When the school holidays are over I must take a trip to the big garden centres and see what's for sale I think they are in same league as figs, wonderful when they work, but some disappointments along the way.

I've had my grape since 2018 and it has only cropped twice, took a few years to settle in, then it went into a coma for a year. Big show last year but no fruit. Would have been two bunches this year except for a spot of over enthusiastic pruning where I lopped the wrong shoot off.

if you do decide I think it would do well once the roots are down, given your drought riddled garden. Have a Goggle on grape roots. Think of all those vines loving it on dusty hillsides, like figs & olives. One thing I would say, get named, maybe grafted one and try seedless, nothing worse than small grape with large pip. Ask Dusty, who seems to have got a mis labelled Lakemont, red & pippy. 😁

All is not well here, in fact it's a disaster. yesterday I went ahead with making the blackberry & apple jam, using the frozen blackberries & fresh apples. All in 3Kg of fruit, 1.5Kg of each. For some reason it just would not set, I have made jam for years and never had this problem, maybe it was the frozen fruit? Who knows?

Anyway, it never set & I have burnt both the jam & the pan, it is a right mess and stove top looks like a mad axe man has been in. Bank holiday job involves elbow grease & Brillo pads.

I'll not be around tomorrow, dog sitting. DD has to go out & the GC are in France & young Rodney needs a friendly face. Because I may have some blue pellets knocking about in garden it is safer for me to go to dog than him come here. Should be a nice photo opportunity, except young Rodney is getting frisky & attempts nawty things with any leg he spots. 🤭

Here's some of the fruit I picked, the large red pear is the only one this year, never ripens, just rots. The smaller green ones are French type, which need to be stored in chiller for months, as they turn yellow, juicy & superb. Apples, just some from my old, unknown, tree, mixed sizes.

Dustyevsky

Less got it right. 😇 Peregrine. 😀 The feet gave it away, but they're the last thing people usually look at. I don't think they can have another go 2p…..superglue!

Well, being on the priority register, or some such, we were contacted by text message by National Grid, apologising about loss of service. I'll forgive them, but BT had a better solution for the part-functional phone line. They took some money off our next bill.☺️ At last, we're full fibre, and on broadband, it does seem somewhat quicker. If only it could make calls from certain people quicker as well! 🤣

Very little rain fell, but at least we had some. I'm glad the parched east is getting plenty this morning, and I don't mind if the deluge promised for tomorrow looks like it may not happen now. Bank Hols means the roads will be packed again. 😏

Having put up the confusing Peregrine, I'd better add something that looked easily recognisable.

twopenny

Farway sounds like you over boiled it. If you still have it leave it in jars for a month or two. It could be rock hard (in which case boil it briefly again with a little water and more apple and juice of a lemon) or it will set with time.

That's why I have some unusual jam mixes 😀

We have no pectin available now, jam sugar is more expensive than the heating bill. Supermarkets don't want people making their own.

Waiting in for the apparatus from post op to be collected and trying to catch up on all the jobs that I've not been able to do. Then yes, going dancing 😀

-taff

Shame about the electric Dusty, but yay to the books 2p..OH used to moan about me having them out, asking if I was going to have a book emergency,, and kept trying to make me put them in the attic which is not boarded out. I told him to put his lightsabres up there and then I would…my books are still in bags awaiting bookshelves but they're not in the attic…

We've also had some proper rain, at last! Too late but autumn work will be easier now.

Peregrine? hm…can't help but still think it's a pigeon..more work needed I think…

Lovely moon pic, very ethereal.

wort, I'd keep quiet about the erigerwotsit, and use a code name, otherwise there may be people coming round to stone you :)

Commiserations on your jam disaster, it probably was the frozen fuit, although you'd think that the extra water would just boil off…the pears look lovely though!

No gardening today, and not until Tuesday hanks to busy calendar, now t2hat it's rained, I want to get going….

PS I think it's an otter but I don't recognise what's next to it…? :)

LessImpecunious

Well, I might have got the lego sculpture ID right, but I got the day of the lunar eclipse/blood moon wrong - so another chance to get up in the wee (😉) hours and look for it…

Think we're still going to have cloud here though, as we have all day - plus rain, a reasonable amount, mostly in the morning, with more in a brief thunderstorm late pm. That was followed by another rare cloud formation passing over, which I was able to snap - these ones are mamma…

twopenny

Well I woke up at silly o'clock because it was a cool night so slept well.

Those clouds look serious. Not sure I'm fond of them. But we've had quite a selection all in the same sky. Very odd. Looking at Wales it's dense with a lot of clouds.

Supposed to have had rain overnight and this morning but not so far. Blue skies again.

I'm hoping to get out for a swim before the crowds hit the road then it's Dom non as car insurance has come through at a silly price. Same company has 25%off for new customers. I thought that nonsense had been stopped.

Then it's up to the weather. I have garden table to sand down and a fire surround to make bigger. Jam to make. Got discounted strawberries. Not much to do in the garden. With plants shriveled and no fruit it's just a case of waiting to cut it down. It's like autumn out there with leaves all over the ground where the trees are shedding to survive but no grass to cut. The colours are autumnal too.

We'll have to see what happens next.

Dustyevsky

-taff: I think it's an otter but I don't recognise what's next to it…? :)

Yes, otter is compulsory in this area "between the two rivers," and the creature next to it is a Greater Spotted Grandchild, who's forgotten to shed his winter fur. 🙄

Less: I got the day of the lunar eclipse/blood moon wrong

Your day would have been better. Peak redness will coincide with thick cloud and heavy rain here, unless the drunks are wrong. 😪

2p: car insurance has come through at a silly price.

I can recommend the MSE comparison service and Go Compare. There's another listed here too, but I got bored after using two. 😔

Very little gardening to report. The late courgettes are in, and the plums are ready. Hedgehogs are virtually absent at the feeding station now.🤔

I've already stocked-up, as per government advice, so we now have plenty of layers' pellets, 2 whole bales of wood shavings, 9 months worth of cat food, and enough vine weevil killer to do 2 seasons. After such a dry summer, I've also hardly touched our supply of real blue sweeties, so they're projected to last until 2032. I reckon P^t*n can do his worst! 😜

It's not just here where I've read about people's difficulties growing runners in the summer heat, so I was surprised to find these at Rosemoor, situated in full sun. What kind of witchcraft do they employ to get these, and hostas, almost unmarked by slug damage? 😮

Sorry, forgot to look for the varietal name. Pale flowers might help. 'Sunset' perhaps?

twopenny

I remember when I started gardening and the secret to runners was to dig a trench at least a foot deep, line with newspaper, layer of compost then soil.

This was for moisture and feeding.

I tried it once but just took much hard work.

Dustyevsky

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82117760#Comment_82117760

But that's pretty much what has to be done on hungry soils, like ours here. If I want courgettes, it's 3 barrow loads of compost first, and remove stones as you dig them in. After that, hopefully, just a mulch for a few years.

One major regret I have, is not buying a big chipper early on. We could have made far more compost! 😫 We'll get one soon….or move!

Raining hard here. I'm supposed to be adding the training wires to my friend's long pergola, but the forecast shows pulses of rain falling all afternoon, here and there. 😕

LessImpecunious

Most of the beans are doing OK here at last, with just a bit of watering to help them through the drought, though were very slow to get going, and don't have masses of greenery waiting to catch the winds and blow over…

Lots of showers today, some quite heavy, and amazing how the veg garden has perked up. Much of the whitefly on brassica leaves (which I encountered yesterday when trying to pick a small bunch, surprised as I'd rarely seen them here before now) had flown (or been washed?) off to pastures new (or at least elsewhere temporarily?…)

Pic of the day - Vallota Lily, which has just sprung into flower, note PiriPiri Chilli and aubergines (a surprise on rather spindly plant) lurking in the background…