Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Woolsery

in_my_wellies said:

I've not been able to buy sunflower oil for more than three weeks in any of my usual supermarkets. Fortunately I only use about one bottle a year

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I'm sure it was there in our local one last week when I did the big shop. I bought some of the oil we use months ago, but not too much, as a year seems about the maximum recommended storage time. Might be able to stretch that a bit.

Raining here this morning and very welcome it is too. According to rumour, we're getting some sheep and lambs soon! Sorry no pictures yet. I'm not allowed. Can't even edit and posts still keep getting caught in whatever filter is applied.

Farway

Rain here this morning; very welcome for the daisies I planted at my son’s last week. The frost caught the magnolia two doors down, it’s very brown now

Better news on my pear blossom front, frost missed that and next door’s Concorde pear buds are big, fat, white & ready to go once a bit of sun hits them, should take care of pollination of mine which was my cunning plan

And yesterday I saw bees on my plum blossom so maybe I can hope?

Not surprised at the sunflower oil shortage TBH, not that I use it, mainly use rape oil but not fixated on it, any will do me for cooking, except Castrol XL. Do they still make that? Answered my own question, yes they do. I remember that one from my first job leaving school & topping up customers' engine oil

More good news, my radish have germinated, it was opened packet from last year so I was not 100% certain they were viable

Today’s picture was in yesterday’s sun, good old muscari, common as muck but so dependable and a cheery sign of spring

twopenny

Drizzling here. Not a bad thing but cold as well with a strongish wind.

I've got some solar lights and put in the garden to illuminate some. I love looking out and seeing a 'ghost' garden at night.

Still feeling so tired after the bug so I went for an early visit to Greencombe Gardens yesterday and got my season ticket.

It's looking beautiful, so wish I had a garden I could do something like the moss paths and woodland feel. It seems to reset my soul.

Photos later. I'm going to try doing stuff today and will need the sit down after

Woolsery

Much warmer this morning, so rain or shine, the grass seed goes down today in the muddy area above the stream.

No sign of sheep and lambs yet and the grass isn't that plentiful, but we're happy to have a few. They'll have to be gone by May though, or we won't get enough hay.

I predict a good season for small gardens like Greencombe. Prices will keep people local and they will need their souls 're-setting' quite a lot, I fear. I've not been in yet, but Rosemoor looked packed a few weeks ago. We can usually arrange things to dodge the crowds....it can be a bit of a bun-fight in there at weekends. Haven't seen the NGS booklet out yet, but it's due. Those are the gardens I like best of all, especially the 'frayed at the edges' ones like ours!

Great Muscari photo Farway. I used to dislike a clump that came up untidily every year in our old garden; sole survivors of the previous owners handiwork. Now, I wouldn't mind some....well, a few!

Blooming daffodils I won in a raffle a few years ago have all turned out to be horrible double things; totally out of place in our wee woodland. They were in their full vulgar glory for about a day and then, without exception, collapsed!

Where's me mattock?

Farway

twopenny said:

Drizzling here. Not a bad thing but cold as well with a strongish wind.

I've got some solar lights and put in the garden to illuminate some. I love looking out and seeing a 'ghost' garden at night.

Still feeling so tired after the bug so I went for an early visit to Greencombe Gardens yesterday and got my season ticket.

It's looking beautiful, so wish I had a garden I could do something like the moss paths and woodland feel. It seems to reset my soul.

Photos later. I'm going to try doing stuff today and will need the sit down after

I like that look as well, does need the "right" garden and feel though, my neighbour has solar lights in the garden but it looks more like a cheap pub garden than a tranquil sight of solitude, that does sound snobby doesn't it?

This week’s sunshine arrived today, and milder, however nothing planned for gardening except turning my seedlings round on the window sill

phoebe1989seb

I also like gardens lit the *right* way - and a *ghost* garden sounds perfect! People we know have vastly expensive electric lights flooding the whole area around their property (huge, multiple acre estate with golf course style lawns surrounding the house, rows of perfectly trimmed lollipop Portuguese laurels and barely a flower in sight 🙄) and it looks awful at night when - due to its elevated position - you can see it from miles away....

We tried some unobtrusive *pretty* solar lighting back in 2012(ish) when we had the Wiltshire house, but never got enough sun for them to work properly. I gave up on solar lights after that, although I'd love to do some discreet lighting in the garden here as wandering the paths at night by torchlight with the dogs isn't much fun!

Drizzle here the last couple of days, so no gardening done, but lots more plants are appearing now. Sadly, when we had that mini heatwave DH had removed the winter protection from the gunnera, which was promptly caught by the frost a few days ago. As a result of flowering relatively late, Magnolia Susan is doing well though.

Managed to move much of the edging stone to the pond area with DH's help at the weekend. Also transported more recently chopped logs to the store(s) and got rid of hideous/rotten decking laid by the PO, finding a pair of my long lost and now mouse-chewed gardening gloves in the process 😁

twopenny

The lights were £2.50 each and work even among the foliage. I may buy more because it's fun ;-)

Wish I could post a picture after those comments but I'm not clever enough for night photography.

So, bitter NW wind today but bright if not sunny. I've walked the grounds and planned. I saw a hand made bench from local timber but no price and too big. I'm going back to see if they will make a small one. So not entirely wasted. At least I didn't buy any plants, I looked and thought but walked away. There may be hope.

Now here's photos you could only post on a gardening forum. An empty vegetable garden at Greencombe. I just loved the gateway arches and would so like a walled plot like that.

twopenny

Woolsery, I was taken on a path behind a village where native daffodils grow.

You really notice the difference. The only reason they've survived is the generations that have appreciated them and told the children not to pick. And the path is rough and rugged and hidden.

There used to be a couple of fields of them locally but new buyers got rid of them.

There are some at Edford Wood Nature reserve near Shepton

https://www.alamy.com/360-degree-panoramic-view-of-wild-daffodils-by-a-lake-in-edford-woods-somerset-vr-image219202016.html

I found searches needed 'Native' and not wild. Wild seems to mean someone's planted them outside of a garden bed

Woolsery

Ah, twopenny, you were not to know, but Dearly Beloved hails from the area around the Mells Stream, so we know those and other woods nearby. It's a valley network full of sink holes, underground watercourses and industrial archaeology. Not far up from Ebford there's a valley where trilliums grow. I've never seen those anywhere else in the wild, but there was once a posh house down there, now just a ruin. I think the owners fell into debt, so their creditors pillaged the place for building materials.

In Devon, similar daffodils may be found in the Teign Valley on the edge of Dartmoor at Dunsford where the Wildlife Trust have a reserve. I was hoping to walk there again this spring, but my walking partner isn't able to leave home much at present, so that's on hold for another year. I have photos from when  the family last went there in 2011, but until I pass some sort of MSE milestone photos aren't allowed.

Lovely to see Greencombe. We'll have to see how things go, but we might manage a trip there later in the month. It's not a long walk all the way around and we can take our time.

I did get the grass seed spread yesterday and more plants into the wild area, hopefully to naturalise. It's looking good this year so far and the rain will help. More strong wind today and tomorrow though.

Farway

Rain to start the day, cleared now but dull & bit windy

I was out this morning checking Home Bargains for quick fix bedding plants but nothing there, except lavender in flower, that’s a lot of disappointment being sold to the unwary

2P, think we’d all like a walled plot, I already have a fig against one of imaginary wall, another one has a fan trained peach. We’re gonna need bigger walls

Mooching in the garden yesterday afternoon in warm sunshine, my plum blossom had loads of bees around, and next door’s Concord pear blossom has opened, fingers crossed for my pear now.

 Spotted this little ‘un sheltering near the path, forget me nots seem to behave in my garden and don’t spread far & wide