Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

Sunny start and no chilling wind but it's still too soggy out there for gardening.

The widowed pigeon of my pet one was all snuggled down on the top of the fence. Tried to get a photo but it wouldn't have it. Just waiting for me to fill the bird feeders.

Lovely sunset there Dusty 🙂 I think it's good you didn't submit it. It wouldn't be fair on the others 🏆

Off out this morning. I'm already stocked up on gherkins.

Maybe more later

Farway

Back from my "has to be done" stuff.

I di get into Morries, which was a waste of plant mooching time, apart from pumpkins there was not a lot there, the only daffy were bog standard trumpet mixed so passed on those.

To console myself I bought some jam doughnuts & a pork pie. Both on offer so it was really MSE, just like money in the bank. Missed the gherkins this time round

It's a gorgeous warm & sunny Autumn day at the moment, ideal for any gardening, hedge bashing, or finishing off any fence post banging

No sunset but there is a big ghostly moon in a pale blue sky at the moment, I don't think i can get a decent pic though

Rosanne geranium has survived the roofer boots 😀, one flower out this morning. took a pic but not a good one

Plus, on the scabby waste bit near my garage, there's a cosmos in flower. Typical, my carefully nurtured ones get slugged, and a stray pops up on the bit I drive my car over., Grrrrr.🤭

Spot of coincidence this morning, on GW and others there have been folks taking Salvia cuttings, 'tis that time of year. In the volunteer border I used to tend, and where the podiatrist is, a Hot Lips lives. A few cuttings came home with me. I'll sort them later.

Ordered some tom seeds off E bay and they are on the way. This afternoon I'll complete my Premier seeds order, has gourd, squash, cosmos and California poppy as well as a few different toms.

LessImpecunious

Good sunsets here too for the past couple of days, and appropriate weather to follow, these were the best pics I could get, they move surprisingly fast 😀

Tried to brighten this one up but it just became pale and uninteresting….

Dustyevsky

Farway: I did get into Morries……. Missed the gherkins this time round

Oh well, never mind. By the time you go back, maybe the vast price reduction we can expect from decisive gubmint action will have taken effect. 😁 But, similar to the gubmint petrol prices map, I can exclusively reveal Morries' gherkins are already a bargain; a big jar being £1.40, against essentially the same product at Sainsbugs costing £2. And don't bother with Lido. They're cheapest, but the gherkins lack crunch, and as we know, a soggy gherkin can seriously damage self-esteem. 😥

On a similar tack, I think our courgettes have almost had it now, the last few cool nights leading to a generally dispirited look within the bed. It may be time to plonk them on the compost heap and replace with garlic or greens. They've done well. What on earth will you do with gourds?

2p: Lovely sunset there Dusty 🙂 I think it's good you didn't submit it. It wouldn't be fair on the others 🏆

I'm doubtful it would be selected. As we don't have a great view westwards, I had to stand on a chair to take it, and it had to be toned-down. The unadulterated shot looked fake. I much prefer Less's views and sky. 😍

No gardening yesterday. Like Farway, I shopped, also picking-up gubmint-approved supplies for a couple of nonogenarians. Not sure how they'll fare if the SHTF.☹️ Maybe OK if it's <3 days. Out here in the sticks, we've dealt with being snowed-in at-15c, and the house wasn't up-together, but we're older now. Surely, there ought to be some kind of community planning going on, using resources already in place, linking them up better. There's a wealth of local knowledge out there. e.g. The surgery + the car service has a good database of vulnerable people. The village shop, PO, and the pub know many things (!) Local farms and businesses have intel and own specialised equipment. etc.

Today's photo is as far as I've got so far with sawing-up the fallen tree. You can see how fortunate our new cotoneaster was, being in the centre of where the collapsed upper branches landed. It's stake (absent from the photo) was snapped off at ground level. Sorry the picture's somewhat dim.

twopenny

Grey and chilly , not quite gloomy but not inspiring either.

I'm still picking small tomatoes to eat, just enough for the occasional meal but lovely to have some flavour. The survivors are all from smeered seed and rogue compostiei.

Some new ones of those are blooming but short of insects. I may go out with a pant brush and see what happens.

A rose bush is happily blooming making up for lost time but this damp misty weather is still not inviting me into the garden.

Got some photos of yesterdays sunset on the moors which need downloading. If it doesn't buck up today that may be a job to be done. It all depends on if the weather varmits have got it wrong and things buck up.

No plants for sale at the supermarkets here. Could have a mooch around the garden centre but it's been for sale for years and has a couldn't care less about it yet stuffed with bought in plants at high prices. Seems most stores now are 'we'll stock what we like and stuff what the customer wants ' . Lots of landfill tat for Halloween and Christmas which isn't selling.

Farway

Grey misty start, but the sun is creeping out & supposed to be bright & warm again

Good to hear the gherkin tips Dusty, next time I'm in Morries I'll try to swerve the doughnuts and head for the pickles pile. I like the Lido ones, in fact those steered one young DGD onto the path of righteousness when I took some along for a Christmas gathering a long time ago. Up until then, pickled onions were her only knowledge of the vinegary Dark Arts

What on earth will you do with gourds? They are the knobbly odd shaped ones, ornamental only. Cunning plan is to have them trailing over a bush thing at the front and maybe along my handrail, next to the foot path, just for curiosity of me & passers by. Years ago I did varnish some for ornaments, but they eventually rotted.

In my new order I have some Crook neck summer squash, never grown, or eaten, squash, but seeing the trombone type this year, Less? I thought I'd give them a go, I was after the long trombone ones but none at Premier, so hence the crook neck. https://premierseedsdirect.com/product/squash-summer-crookneck/

I managed to find a 10% off code on line for the Premier seeds order, always nice to save a few pence

Both my seed orders, E bay & Premier are on the way, guessing mid week arrival with the post around here, it's shocking, hospital appointments missed at times.

Surely, there ought to be some kind of community planning going on, using resources already in place, linking them up better

That requires planning and thought, far easier to virtue signal about climate emergency than do something useful. Actually I did see something around here about a Council register of vulnerable people, but not seen since.

2P Some new ones of those are blooming but short of insects. I may go out with a pant brush and see what happens. I believe toms are wind pollinated as well, plenty of that about.I'm still eating the last of my HG toms as well.

but lovely to have some flavour.

That's what I'm aiming for next year with the ones I've ordered, tried to pick ones where taste is mentioned. Merrygold is one, I did order Sgt Pepper, just because, and Black Seaman, taste & OK with hot weather. Plus I have my smears. Reading that back it would sound a bit weird read out in Court, but we know what I mean. 😁

I'm thinking of trying the bottomless pot idea with my toms next year, 2P I think mentioned it.

Ta Ra !, my pak choi has germinated, that's one stage over, only have to grow them now

Today is the volunteer cosmos, growing on scruffy bit of baked ground near my garage

twopenny

Scruffy will do at this time of year 🙂

Re the bottomless pots. The roots didn't grow down. They stayed near the top where most of the moisture was because the ground dried out so much.

But it was great for being able to water easily so I'm going to cut more off so there's a ring around the stem to stop it running off but should allow the water to go further down.

I can also do periodic watering around the outside of the pot to try and get the roots to spread.

That's the theory anyway 🤔

It's all unknown and we really didn't expect it to be so bad.

Dustyevsky

2p: Got some photos of yesterdays sunset on the moors which need downloading.

You're lucky being so close. I don't like driving after dark, so no moor visits here in the autumnal evenings. I did get another shot at the sunset yesterday, still standing on a chair by the back door!

The misty murk probably did dissipate for many, but it hung around appropriately for most of All Hallows Eve here. 🎃

We had plenty of dom non to do, so it didn't matter. Then, around 16.00, our guests cancelled. 🙄 At that point, I gave up fitting a new toilet seat, so I've that to look forward to today! 😪 The seaweed sniffers reckon it will be sunny intervals later, but predicted temperatures are well down for the week ahead. Glad I bought a couple of thermal tops on Friday. 😁

It doesn't look as if we shall see any significant rain to help local rivers and reservoirs for a while yet. ☹️

Farway: In my new order I have some Crook neck summer squash, never grown, or eaten, squash, but seeing the trombone type this year, Less? I thought I'd give them a go, I was after the long trombone ones but none at Premier, so hence the crook neck. https://premierseedsdirect.com/product/squash-summer-crookneck/

I recall inheriting some crooknecks here, and they were good, but they failed when I tried a year or two later. 🤔 I think a hot summer helps. The trombocinos are best eaten when around a foot long, so unless there's a reason, like a show, getting them to a metre isn't that useful.

Very quiet here this morning. Everyone else seems to be having a good lie-in! 😏

Farway

Very quiet here this morning. Everyone else seems to be having a good lie-in! 😏 Guilty as charged, too warm & cosy under the duvet to get up on this dull & grey morning.

Lumme, big pat on the back to Premier Seeds. After my mini moan about post delays, the seeds I ordered from Premier Friday PM came through my letterbox yesterday, Saturday. 😀 Now that is quick, more like 1926 post speed, not 2026

Plus Premier sent a Halloween special, free pack of "Dills Atlantic giant" pumpkin seeds. I may give them a go next year, but I certainly do not have space if it really grows. sod's law, it will take over & my crooknecks will fail

More gardening completed, Hot Lips Salvia cuttings now in pots to root over winter, and hopefully next Spring all will be well. I already have in mind alternate planting of Hot Lips & what I call Blue Lips, if I added a white one I could be in clink for extreme right wingery 😂

Caught up with GW yesterday, it was more like Builders World & Visit Britain than a gardening programme. ☹nice cats & dogs though. And it did not go unnoticed that Adam F has caught up with me and is using thornless blackberries as hedging, even if he has ignored Mrs D & me on the variety.

He has Navaho, and to be fair the taste notes sound OK, sweeter but not as pronounced blackberry flavour. Maybe suits more modern tastes, sweet, bland and mild.

Also noted chrysanthemums have caught up with my grandad, he was growing the smaller flowered hardy chrysanthemum years ago, in fact I grew up thinking that was what chrysanthemum were, not the blowsy monsters. Sit back and it comes round again.

OT, some may recall I am trialling changing over to 4G mobile internet, with my copper wires are being discontinued. Good job I jumped, my landline internet & phone vanished yesterday, gone, zilch. may be a fault somewhere, but thank goodness I have a 4g router or I'd be in a mess. Not bothering attempting to sort it until Monday, I'll wait until the normal office staff are around.

On the technology front, not one for me, and probably 2P and her mobile, but the premier seeds do not have growing destructions on them. Instead it has a QR code on the packet to scan and supposedly it's all there.

Just asked AI how to do it, it worked, code takes me to the catalogue page with the cultivation notes. To me it seems an unnecessary complication & step but I await the future discovery of printing cultivation notes onto packets 😁

PS, forgot to mention, according to Adam, who was busy laying weed infested turf, now renamed bio diverse. Worlds gone mad. Is it just me who thinks the Emperor has no clothes? Once upon a time hours and pounds would be spent riding lawns of "weeds" now they are amazing things.

I'm ahead of the curve in this, my "lawn" is very bio diverse, with dandelions, daises, escaped sorrel, chickweed & toadstools