Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Sunshine promised all day and getting more & warmer for a few days more, should perk up the garden a bit, perhaps get my grape moving on?

My runners are very mixed, some flowers but none setting, and in yesterday's rain I saw couple of snails perched on the cane tops giving me a V sign, unlikely a bean glut this year.

Even snaffled my dwarf French ones, it's just a bad wet year but at least my survival does not depend on my produce

On more woes, white fly have moved out of the rain & into my conservatory & onto the tomatoes, boooo . Yellow sticky traps are in the post, hooray

Picked some gooseberries yesterday, plus smattering of red currants. After a couple of mouthfuls the gooseberries are a it sharper than initially thought, at least next picking I'll know to add more honey / sugar

Not enough for jam, but 2P mentioning it triggered a memory of my Nan's jam, and us sitting there in the "scullery" topping & tailing before hand

2P, That Cox sounds a good one, I always thought they were difficult & not self fertile, obviously yours is a cut above the plebby ones

If this weather does as promised maybe I'll get round to lopping overhanging bits off my Judas tree

Today's pic is Shasta daisy, quite pleased with these because I grew them from seed, mainly to put in the volunteer border but a few spares are in my front wildflower style patch

quirkydeptless

Almost all of my cherries have gone now. I ate about 6. Most were eaten by starlings. The rest are being enjoyed by a family of blackbirds. I'm happy to share them with the birds.

I've been watching the blackbird parents for some time, feeding, filling their beaks with fat balls and flying back to their nest. Now I watch them with their two youngsters in the cherry tree and on the ground, the young mostly flapping around mum for some tasty bits of cherry that she's cut up for them, but also starting to feed for themselves.

Lovely to watch.

goldfinches

I'm up late due to a late start this morning and wondering if anyone can put a name to this very pretty creeper that I spotted in a hanging basket on this afternoon's walk. 



I wondered if it might be related to ipomea looking at the leaves but the flowers are more bell-like and also have the central darker tube.

Davesnave

Its a Rhodochiton sanguineum, goldfinches. Bit of a pig to germinate if seed isn't the freshest, but fun and that's a great way to grow it.

Not looking forward to the heatwave here, as it will limit some activities, but at least the hay will be cut and the recent rains have done wonders for that.

Had to dispatch a sick chicken last night; one of the two Sussex birds we've never really taken to. She'd stopped laying a month or more ago and we knew from her light weight something was wrong.

We had to visit a garden centre yesterday on other business and I couldn't help browsing. Spotted this Abelia I've not seen before, but it was £25, so stayed on the stand! Hope I've spelled it right....

Farway

Awaiting the heatwave here, but cloudy so far. had to water a fig first thing despite all the recent rain it was dry, large leaves sheltering the pot I guess

Shame about the chicken Dave, not a job I've had to do except with pets and final visit to the vet,  but it's one that comes with keeping any type of animal at some stage, unless you keep long lived tortoise or maybe elephants

Nice looking Abelia Dave, I've not heard of that but maybe it's the sort of shrub seen around but never knew the name of.

I see T & M have them for £8.99

Nothing planned in the garden today, except look & think about the Judas tree needing lopping

Davesnave

Farway said:

Shame about the chicken Dave, not a job I've had to do except with pets and final visit to the vet,  but it's one that comes with keeping any type of animal at some stage, unless you keep long lived tortoise or maybe elephants

The cats and the ferrets get the vet, but very poorly chickens can rarely be saved. Even though our vet is a chicken expert, she readily admits diagnosis is tricky and often futile.

Ganga

Can anybody identify this ,it is either a butterfly or a moth ,was on next doors lilac as i was cutting their grass .

greenbee

Red admiral

alt80

Ganga said:

Can anybody identify this ,it is either a butterfly or a moth ,was on next doors lilac as i was cutting their grass .

Yes it's a red admiral butterfly... sorry appears I'm wrong looks more like a small tortoiseshell according to wildlife trust. I was always told these were red admirals like the above poster ha.

greenbee

alt80 said:

Ganga said:

Can anybody identify this ,it is either a butterfly or a moth ,was on next doors lilac as i was cutting their grass .

Yes it's a red admiral butterfly... sorry appears I'm wrong looks more like a small tortoiseshell according to wildlife trust. I was always told these were red admirals like the above poster ha.

As soon as you see a pic of a red admiral you realise the difference! I must swot up on my butterflies and pay more attention!