Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Lovely pic of the Alstroemeria Dave, I grew them once and was surprised how easy and they are given their exotic looks

Very dull here, part of a left over hurricane so they say on TV, mild though so should help ripen the last of my apples. I checked yesterday but Golden Delicious & Pinova are just not ready to leave the trees yet.

The grape is starting to ripen at last, maybe the warmth will help it along? Not that there are many bunches on it, about three very sparse ones

Found one toadstool while checking the apples, here it is, the slugs / snails have even had a go at this

phoebe1989seb

Super toadstool pic, Farway.... and agree, Dave's alstroemerias are lovely colours 😃 

Misty start here, before the rain set in mid morning....so much for an Indian summer, lol 😂😂😂

So - after all my labours of the past few days - I'm taking a break and browsing the plant catalogues I've received in the post (and online too), planning for our next purchases/planting plans.

It's been a terrible year for apples here - our ancient tree produced no more than three  - it definitely needs more TLC than we've given it recently - compared to about three hundred in previous years.....way more than we can deal with whilst we're doing the building work etc, so in a way I'm not complaining 🙄

The espalier apples (Ellison's Orange and Rosette) that we had in a huge galvanised trough before we sold our last house, then transplanted into the ground here in 2018 produced four fruits between them, whilst the mini orchard is all about crab apples this year.....

Really glad I moved the *rockery* plants (astilbes, geums, persicarias, veronica to name but a few) when I did  - they're now all established in their new locations and it looks like we've got tons of new plants 😄

Davesnave

A dull day here, but dry, apart from a little drizzle for 10 minutes in the morning. I thought I'd be planting in the stream and mini-wood area today, but the arrival of our hedge cutting chap with his John Deere meant that I was mostly chasing around and tidying-up after him. I did plant garlic in half toilet roll inserts early on and re-pot a few shrubs.

Here's part of the squash haul from yesterday. Only 56 this year and some very small.

When the hedge man trundled-off towards home and dusk began to fall, I realised he'd driven over the entrance to a wasps' nest in an old vole hole. I raked around trying to find it, but no joy, so I carried on collecting-up debris. The number of returning wasps grumpy and  unable to get into their nest increased, so I decided to beat a hasty retreat, but not before one had stung me on the shoulder. Luckily, I don't seem to react to bites and stings much now, which is very different from when I was young.

Farway

Dull & a bit damp but very mild here, ideal for mould

Just started typing & the postie has turned up, my polyanthus Fire Dragon have arrived, I had e mail yesterday saying dispatched and here they are, via Royal Mail, eat you heart out T & M

Just quickly opened them up & looking good, I'll take some photos later for tomorrow, I 'll have to think about potting on or get them out now, if I can't decide it'll be 50/50

phoebe1989seb said:

It's been a terrible year for apples here - our ancient tree produced no more than three  - it definitely needs more TLC than we've given it recently - compared to about three hundred in previous years.....way more than we can deal with whilst we're doing the building work etc, so in a way I'm not complaining 🙄

The espalier apples (Ellison's Orange and Rosette) that we had in a huge galvanised trough before we sold our last house, then transplanted into the ground here in 2018 produced four fruits between them, whilst the mini orchard is all about crab apples this year.....

It's also been a mixed year for apples with me, not as bad as you though, except my pear was zero. I think the spring weather was lot to do with it, my pryacantha is very spars with berries, but was smothered in blossom

However moving the Primova apple looks like it made a big difference, at least in colour, not yet ripe to pick & taste

Same tree, same time of year but 12 months apart and now getting long afternoon sunshine

wort

My Covid was very mild cold symptoms Dave, wouldn’t have realized except for doing rapid flow tests.  Lots of people seem to have it roundabout now! Just glad I’m double jabbed.

I had a large yellow mushroom appear out of the blue on the front lawn , rather attractive really. I’ve been out first thing today as weather is lovely, doing a bit of painting the fence, then chopping a few bits back until the green bin was full.I had one eye on the cat who was “playing with a mouse” on the lawn, and didn’t fancy it running at me. Thankfully I had closed the door to the house!

lovely colour of alstroemerias Dave, mine are a deep pink, I moved them from a pot to the ground early this year and they are very sparse this time, I like to cut them as they last well inside.

The mile a minute has turned a beautiful red colour this week so it’s matching well with the Red Robin, and picking up the red begonias.
Its been nice enough to sit out with a cupcake and a book a few times these last 2 weeks.

Davesnave

wort said:

My Covid was very mild cold symptoms Dave, wouldn’t have realized except for doing rapid flow tests.  Lots of people seem to have it roundabout now! Just glad I’m double jabbed.

Ah, well, the main thing is you're OK. The two people I know who've reported severe symptoms are 'double jabbed,' but both also have underlying conditions. My youngest and the guy who cut our hedges yesterday had similar experiences to you, early in 2020. They're over 40 years apart in age, but both are slim and fit and the 'well over 70 year old' is outdoors all year round. Me? I'm working on the slim bit....

Here's the tractor gentleman, cutting our garden hedge from the private lane side: And this is the result:

Pretty good, eh? It's a great help, but we can't get a tractor in the garden, so I have to do the other side! I'm about 3/4 of the way through it now and my arms really ache!

goldfinches

Fenriz said:

I visited Denmark several years ago and can say that the weather there is even worse than in Britain. I can even say that the British weather got somehow better in recent years. Am I right?

I also visited Denmark and Sweden a few (ahem) years ago and was washed out rather spectacularly in both Bornholm and Fredrikshavn as well as suffering extreme sea sickness between Harwich and Gothenburg and being butted by a miniature goat among other "experiences". We also lost a family sized tent on the road to Esbjerg and were so badly bitten by mosquitos in Sweden that we were more bite than not!

Now you know why I'll never, ever try camping again! I do, however, retain a fondness for salted liquorice sweets and runny and fruity breakfast yoghurt.

Anyway, lovely photos from everyone and I spotted this tree stump in front of the drainage ditch when I was out for my walk this morning, I think the fungi have fruited overnight as I'm sure they weren't there yesterday.



Sorry about the contrast levels, I was balancing on a very steep slope down to the ditch to take the photo and didn't want to tempt fate.

greenbee

Bleugh... salted licorice. The scandinavian tendency to put it in so many things is really irritating. On the plus side, chocolate bars called 'Plop' go down well with kids as presents when you get home. 

I used to work across Scandinavia, mostly in Sweden. I've experienced all kinds of weather, I don't think it's any worse than ours, just different. Summer can be fabulous. Winter is cold - I don't recommend wearing earrings outside  when it's -20.

Davesnave

Goldfinches, your post reminded me, we found 2 mushrooms peeping through one of our lawned areas at dusk yesterday. By this morning the slugs had all but polished them off.

Farway

GF, nice pic of the stump + fungi, good time of year for them, seems just a blink away when I was taking pics of them last year when we were allowed out again

The talk of salted stuff reminded me of time in US and salted "taffy" , I never could understand the liking for it, and now I guess I can spot the root of the abomination, Scandinavia. I can think of two children who would love chocolate bars called Plop

Sun's out, today's gardening will consist of finding the pots I'm sure I have somewhere and potting on the newly arrived polyanthus. I've decide to pot up & overwinter in pots, then come better Spring weather I'll either plant out, pot & all, or directly into ground, final decision to be taken next Feb / March

Here they are just arrived & opened, I have taken them out of box now and they look very healthy and undamaged except for a few bent leaves, very well packed and according to the blurb they are hardened off & could go directly into garden, which I'd do if it were not the space is full of plants right now

From DT Brown