Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

Dusty, the nail varnish works better than paint. My last cars I used red lipstick (waxy) which was quick and stayed. The blue was an eye pencil. Even easier. Takes minutes.

And at a £1 a pop a lot cheaper 🙂

Can't find non glitter at the moment but Christmas is coming so should be possible

Farway

Dull with spits of rain, waiting for it decide what next

Dusty We have elderly person unwellness in the family, so Mrs Dusty's off to assist today. It's unfortunate, just when we'd just recovered from the GCs and hoping to do more gardening together, but hopefully there will be a good resolution for the relative in hospital Hope the EP is improving, is the hospital reasonably close to home [for Devon] for visiting? Or a forty miles trip like we had in Wiltshire with my Mum?

On unwellness, I fell bum over bosom in the kitchen yesterday, managed to bonk my head on the counter top on the way down and now I have grand black eye, hurty left knee and did my back no good at all while returning to upright. Luckily it was near bed time, so popped a pill for the aches & had a reasonable night.

2P The blue was an eye pencil. Even easier. My newly acquired shade is black & blue, applied with a roller😁

Along with the weather the aches etc mean zero gardening today

However I did get out there yesterday afternoon, cleared the crocosmia and dying branches, plus trimmed back the fruited Merton blackberry canes. Just buddleia left before the Autumn clearances

Some of the remaining apples are looking good, going nicely red. My only Sunset has bird strikes, so picked it even though not really ready, I want to taste it, planted 2024 and this is it's first crop

Also, TaRa, the single and only 2026 plum had ripened, so i picked it and scoffed it there & then. It really is tasty & sweet, just a shame the tree always promises but never provides.

Here it is, the one & only Stanley plum

twopenny

Oh Farway, you've got to think before you do acrobatics 🙄

And remember to say you fell over. Never a fall 😲. I have a spare pair of crutches if you'd like. Good for the sympathy vote 😉

Cool and drizzly rain this morning. Had to go out early for a haircut. Nearly as bad as the dentist IMPV.

Not a day for gardening but the grass is greening up nicely. I'm very stiff and tired since I've tried to join in with the real world again but I can sit and plan.

Meantime I've found myself standing under walnut trees. My originals have given up. So having collected the skins haven't split. I usually roll them under my foot but they are hard as nails. Any suggestions for getting them off?

Dustyevsky

Farway: is the hospital reasonably close to home [for Devon] for visiting? Or a forty miles trip like we had in Wiltshire with my Mum?

Nowhere with big medical facilities is near us.😥 The relative is 100 miles from here, and 20 miles from their own home. That's why Mrs Dusty has to be up there. It's too soon to say how long. There are other family members helping, but they all work. 😏

I can manage. I even know how to work the washing machine! 😇

Sounds like you had a lucky escape yourself, if you can call a black eye, sore knee and back 'lucky.' 😕

Yesterday, after the chimney sweep had cleaned the flue and installed new fire bricks in the Woodwarm, it looked suspiciously like rain. 🤔However, as the big bottom gates were still dry, I decided to go for it and give them a coat of treatment on the weather side. Despite evil looking clouds, that was done by 19.00, so today's drizzle won't sink in.😊 It's blowing a hoolie now, so the other side will have to wait.

Going to the wire with the gates was partly due to a Big River order going astray, courtesy of Royal Mail, but there was a suitable one in the barn. Contacting Big River, which seems to rise in Hyderabad, I was told no brush was now available(?) but I could have a refund and a £10 gift voucher.😮 Additionally, the other item, unfortunate enough to travel with the extremely rare brush would be supplied within 24hrs FOC. Result! 🤩

Well done on the plum. Ranks alongside our 2 damsons.🤣

Back to Rosemoor today. Not all the sculptures were Lego. Here the artist accurately reflects the fact that when any number of sheep are gathered together, one will always have its bum facing you.

A cat bum was all that was recorded on hog cam last night, too!

LessImpecunious

Ooer on tripping up Farway, but congrats on the plum (and your damsons Dusty)….

My Sunset had a sort-of June (though it was more like end July) drop, of smallish but properly-formed green fruits - they were surprisingly sweet and tasty despite appearances. The remainder are still on the tree, not many, and not much bigger, but beginning to turn yellowy-red in proper Sunset fashion… Despite being against a wall and in the rainshadow of overhang and guttering, and having had no watering, I think they are going to be my best apple crop by far this year! Practically zilch on others…

Drizzle most of today, but warm, turned half of a very dry compost heap and watered it to supplement the drizzle with the now abundant water from butt-filled tanks (if I can say that 😂); and we keep having mini-hoolies here…

Green bits of grass are growing and looking in need of a trim already 😫, but dead-looking bits still look dead - but with an abundance of tiny (not grass) seedlings coming up in places.

2P your walnuts have reminded me that I spotted one miraculous fruit (the first ever, in over 20 years) on my walnut buried at the bottom of the garden (the tree, not the nut) a few weeks ago - must check whether it is still there but suspect squirrels may have made off with it 😥 Would immersing your nuts in water work? (No tittering at the back please…) So that the husks would rot off…?

Dustyevsky

I missed your walnuts 2p, which now make me wonder whether we are missing ours, like last year.☹️ Maybe I won't look!

Yesterday our hazelnuts began falling, and I've a bowl full already. These are the 'proper' nuts, not the empty shells which fell about a month ago. We didn't expect much of a harvest, but they seem OK. 😁 Similarly, we should have apples for the Autumn Show, though some trees have also produced zilch, Less.

The Show is going ahead, but entries are well down.😐️ Ours certainly are, as I don't do flower arranging stuff, and Mrs Dusty won't be here. Our relative had an exploratory procedure yesterday, and awaits further decisions, so Mrs D is still needed in that Zummerzet place.

I managed to spot, but not photograph, a Clouded Yellow, so they're still about. 🙂 Similarly, a pair of Commas fluttered by at the wrong moment. 🙄 The big surprise came at about 20.30 last night, when I saw a grass snake illuminated by my head torch, appropriately on the lower 'lawn.' It froze, and I rushed off to get the camera, leaving the cat in charge, but snakey had vanished in the minute or so I took to return. 😞 That's the first snake in 17 years here.

Mist and drizzle presently, but it's forecast to be replaced with sunshine later. I may have to continue excavations in the potential pathway, unless I can think of something urgent that needs doing….

More Rosemoor sculpture of the naturalistic kind. Could our grass look like that next year?

And for a sense of scale…..

twopenny

Hmm Less, if the shells rot then so does the nut 🥺 which is my problem. But thanks for the idea

We have a lot of walnut trees on a village green. Grown for gun stocks back in the 1700s. And those are too hard to crack.

My favourite deceased town trees used to drop the perfect nut 😩. The roadside one, dodgy to get to, seems to be the best wouldn't ya know.

Reply was last night but seems to be still in the reply box 🙄

I'm a bit short of birds for the last few days because I surprised a sparrow hawk in the garden. You can't choose your wildlife.

Still damp out there and I have to leave the overhanging plants that need trimming because the little birds need the cover. Also I can only do one thing a day without muscles complaining and it is dancing this afternoon. So Dom non this morning. There's plenty of that. It seems like an infinite circle.

How's the bruises this morning Farway? Have you used anything on them?

Farway

Damp but not really raining, sort of dreary damp air. Supposed to be brighter & humid later, sounds similar to Dusty's

2P How's the bruises this morning Farway? Have you used anything on them? Past their best now and beginning to fade.Not sure if Old Wives tale or not, but I was told as a child that bruises need to "come out" before any pain will fade. Mine "Came Out" yesterday & I looked very battered. I didn't use anything on them, but did take another pain pill during the night for my knee, which worked, and is now just an irritant and not wincing pain. So, happy to say I'm on the mend.

Hope the Mrs D situation also has good outcome.

Greening up, the road verges here are now greening with new growth, a bit sparse but it's only been a couple of days

Less, congrats on joining the single fruit club, one walnut after twenty years trumps my lone plum and a pair of Dusty damsons

Walnuts, none I know of around here, but as a child we used to pickle them, and I still have taste for them, except the price is gob smacking, if you can find them. Just checked, W8rose have them on offer, very tempting if one was nearby. I've spotted some Up River as well.

No gardening today, weather & generally feeling a bit worn & wary post tumble, watching very closely where I put my feet. I'll be later clocking on tomorrow, chiropodist first thing

Here's my solitary, bird pecked, Sunset.

LessImpecunious

Could our grass look like that next year?

Some of mine does this year 🙄

2P I was presuming the nut wouldn't rot just because the husk has, otherwise it wouldn't be able to germinate if just left lying on the ground. Maybe the nuts are not ripe and have just fallen too early? Have you tried the ones you've been able to husk? RHS say husks should start to split when they're ready, and I found one mention of leaving nuts just lying on the ground (presumably with some squirrel-proofing) to encourage them to do that… But admit to no personal experience! (and have yet to visit my walnut tree to see if I face the same problem!)

Your Sunset looks a lot more Sunset-like than mine at the moment Farway, even if currently with partial eclipse 😁

LessImpecunious

Walnut tree visited 🙂

Firm husk, and still firmly attached to tree…