Awful weather - typical Brits talk

RAS

St David's Day might have passed but......



This is not the only thing that ends up attached to door knobs and knockers, or left on doorsteps round here; apples, rhubarb, runner beans, and plants.

Woolsery

Farway said:

A sad tale there regarding Bishops Children Woolsery.  A frequent poster here before he was sent to the naughty step forever, Dave from way down West had similar tale of promises from a seed company that came to nowt.  In the unlikely event one of the Bishops babes is a stunner I’ll have to seek my fortune carefully

This Dave character sounds as if he may have been prone to intemperate language so I doubt he'll be missed. I too am from the West Country, as my username suggests, being a contraction of Woolfardisworthy. However, as there are two of them I'm not giving too much away, especially as I don't live in either of them! I have the feeling you might not live in Farway, Farway, but that also has a nice ring to it's name. Judging by the house prices around there, it's every bit as desirable as it sounds. 

Wherever you are exactly, those super pictures show clearly you're further ahead than we are; very encouraging indeed.

Seed raised dahlias are a lot of fun and if you start with good named varieties most of the progeny will be good too. I weed out the ones with poor or long-jointed foliage as there are always far too many.

Yesterday was supposed to have a 'moderate breeze,' but here it was more like a gale and I was pleased to finish outdoors where I just did more wild planting and some soil relocation. I always seem to be doing the latter. I'm glad I held off from sowing grass seed; the bare area now being far too dry for rapid germination.

Today was less windy, but cool, so it was mowing, mowing and more mowing. It's not the first cut this year - I did that back in January!

goldfinches

It was a lovely sunny and fairly warm day today and all the local magnolias are out and looking magnificent. Here's my favourite soulangeana.



Gorgeous isn't it.

Farway

Mild & a bit cloudy but sunshine promised all week

I’ve removed the tomato seedlings from the propagator now, and the coleus are definitely showing, plus first castor oil seed has germinated, just the one shoot so far but the rest must be close behind.

The Bishops Children dahlias, there’s one child with yellow / red seed leaves, either it’s a sickly child or perhaps it will be the one that brings fame & fortune?

That was very quick germination all round, I only sowed them last Tuesday in the heated propagator

Yesterday I did manage to pot up the self-sown gooseberry, found  it has a couple of flowers on so with luck It’ll fruit this year and I’ll then decide  if it is worth cultivating & keeping or not

Also found my few strawberries in a pot the roots have been scoffed by vine weevils, I’ve cleaned them off and potted on without much hope but reluctant to bin them right now. I do find strawberries more trouble than worth but I like a few fresh ones from the garden, cropping before most of the other fruit I grow

Next things to think about are beetroot sowing and maybe a few Little Gem lettuces in modules

Woolsery, the Farway tag is where my Devon ancestors lived, as parish paupers of course having been chucked out of Branscombe, my direct ancestor worked as forced child labour in the Glebe garden which I saw was still there opposite the Church when I went looking a few years back, maybe that’s where the garden bit got into the DNA. I’m not far from Portsmouth these days

Lovley picture GF, so nice to see all the trees this time of year

Woolsery

Branscombe's an awfully nice place to be kicked out of Farway, but I'd settle for Farway and less tourists nowadays, I think.

I have only loose connections with that area, the first being a holiday at Beer when I was about 5 or 6. My Mum and Dad took me for a walk through fields there and the path went via a free range pig farm. One of the beasts decided to make a bee line for us and instead of just standing still, my Mum took off and literally shoved me head first through a barbed wire fence that hung above some corrugated perimeter sheeting. I had the scars for some time, but fortunately never developed any great fear of pigs.

The other connection was through a severe case of disappointment when I found the remains of a walled garden for sale in Sidbury. There were a few problems, like a leaking septic tank from the big house above and a listed wall which would have precluded opening it as a nursery, although that didn't worry the eventual buyer, who smashed part of it down! Anyway, we were having problems with my Dad, who was suffering with dementia and we lost what would have been an ideal site for a small business. I've kept half an eye on it ever since, but the present owner seems to have given up, so maybe there was something besides the ancient wall hindering modest resurrection. He hasn't rebuilt the wall.

I can't post links yet, but it's in Church Street , just over the River Sid, travelling away from the main village on Street View

Farway

Small world Woolsery, when I was touring the area doing my family history research I used to have my evening meal in the Red Lion pub in Sidbury

twopenny

Some lovely pictures.

The sun came out this afternoon but was chasing bank and BGas problems. I'm feeling really rough and the morning was trying to get LF tests.

Not up to anything at the mo. Compost and seed packets await outside the back door but it's more settee and gardening programmes right now.

I did go for a short walk to see how the bluebell walk was coming on. Someone has been trimming trees and branches all piled up over the bluebell beds. There are wild Orchids there too. They will be smothered!

What is it with these people?

But there were some lovely Primroses on the way.

Woolsery

Hope you are soon on the mend twopenny.

I too have been tree trimming, but yesterday afternoon I tidied-up and put them in two piles, ready for a quick bonfire when the wind changes, which it doesn't look like doing for quite a while.

Today the boiler man cometh and the temperature's gone up a notch outdoors to compensate for shutting it down early for him.

Maybe the joys of weeding this afternoon....

Farway

Warm & sunny

Spot of early gardening, in Home Bargains. I was looking for cucumber seeds,none, but did buy a pack of Grownmore fertiliser and a dead looking Black Satin blackberry. The berry is now in water with my fingers crossed. I’ll pot it up later

I now have some plum blossom opened, picture time tomorrow when a few more open in the sun

RAS

I got one of those Black Satin a while back; it had a nice fat bud at the base although there was only one bud left on this year's stem after it was packed/hacked.