Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

Dandelions are beautiful if they don't intrude and excellent for insects - if that makes it any better.
Sorry about your finger. You really are going through the mill at the moment.
My immune system is scuppered what with one thing and another so trying to take things easy and slowly.
Bitter out yesterday then the sun came out later and sunbathing weather. Same happening today.
So I ran round last night watering and soaking but everything is suffering with cold wind then baking heat including doing my back in again.
Must try to cover the rampant redcurrant as it already has fruit and flowers on. Amazing what happens when you let a plant do its own thing.
Went to look for pots for this baby tree that needs moving but £30 + compost......
Going to try and put some plants into the gravel. My rescue lavender is pathetic so I've got more box and will try and sink the ailing lavenders somewhere and see how they do.
Lawn must be mowed now. 
This relaxing, moderate the days doesn't seem to be working.
Love the photo woolie, well done. 
Tulip in grassland? Did you see Monty Don s tulip orchard?

Woolsery

The dandelions in our fields are never sprayed because they're the first flowers in quantity for the bumbles and they don't negatively affect grazing or hay. The tulip would have survived all that haymaking and grazing, if that's what it is.

Watering in April is becoming a thing when it never was before. I'm spending an hour on that a day, plus the same on grass cutting.

You and Farway are both having a tough time health-wise and so are our guests. Still no sign of them making plans to leave yet, but their appetites are pretty good! DB and I are fine, just frazzled and keen to get our lives back.

Absolutely no sign of any life among my 4 pots of carefully shaded primula seedlings, so I will probably buy some for the stream.

I still don't have photos on my 'puter, but I've found I can import them from a USB stick, so I'll do that for now.

Farway

More sunshine but seems clouds are on the way down from Oop North, not real rain forecast though, as you mentioned Woolsery, the weather lady was saying this morning another dry April is very likely, I’ll have to get out later with watering, especially my plum in a pot because it’s a critical time for it now after blossom fall

My finger’ s still swollen, beginning to think it’s Gout, I used to have gout years ago in my foot, I wonder if with my medication & general run down Covid or whatever my Uric acid is higher than it was? I may mention it to consultant when he rings next week. Hospital visits are so passé these days

Seems we may need a new thread “Gardening for sickies”

Apart from watering later on nothing doing in the garden, grass still needs cutting but the bees etc can have their fill while the dandelions are there. I may try & get a good “cowslip style” shot of them this afternoon, and my Judas tree is in full pinky bloom, I’ll try for one of that at same time

Woolsery

Sore finger time here too, but with a definite cause: trying to pull a hawthorn seedling out! 

I did have what I took to be arthritc knees earlier this year, but the ibuprofen sorted that out and I'm not taking it now. Sadly, my partner for longer distance walking has a family crisis and won't be able to accompany me for the foreseeable future, so we've already missed some good opportunities. From experience, I've learned that when the guides say 'can be muddy' it really means 'will definitely be muddy and bloomin' impassable if it's been wet.' There's a valley like that nearby and I will just have to go alone. ....if I ever get free time.

Meanwhile there are the Covid invalids to care for, so yesterday it was shopping again as they'd cleared us out. I did get the watering done and a few seeds sown, but along with cooking and washing-up, there wasn't much time for anything else.

Escaping for DB's hospital appt today, and maybe a very long drive home for her to enjoy some scenery! Not sure what this is. Is it BB ....err... Melittis mellissophyllum. It looks wrong? 

in_my_wellies

Can I join the sore finger club? Mines from too much digging but the allotment is ready to go, it'll just need a final rake and hoe
I need to let the garden have a turn

Woolsery My niece was symptom free and only tested positive for a flight to a new job abroad. She continued to test positive for 7 weeks and only then could she fly. I hope your visitors have more luck! The bungalow, with a path through the garden, I had my eye on has sold. If it hadn't been for circumstances I'd have been down like a shot to view but the sold sign on the church next door might mean a redevelopment project so it's perhaps for the best. Definitely got me thinking about downsizing being more sensible about the long term though. 

I'm watering here too which always seems crazy considering where I live - next to a reservoir.  

Can I add a photo? Testing.....


I can't believe how much they've grown in two weeks 

Woolsery

Lovely scene wellies. We have some in the next field, but still none here.

To answer my own question first, it's Lamium orvalla. Funny, it suddenly just popped into my mind a few hours ago.

Wellies, our daughter and her husband aren't symptom-free, unfortunately, otherwise they'd  drive home. Logically, they should  be protecting us older folk, but they're too unwell to undertake a long journey with children. Their 86 year old grandparents beat this version of Covid in a few days, but who knows what individual reactions people may have? 

Sorry you didn't have time to visit or put a bid on the bungalow. I'd downsize soon if our other daughter and her husband weren't hoping to convert the barn. There are many lovely places around here to choose from. I used to see myself sitting, watching the tide coming in on some creek or other in my dotage, but the tide would need to be a pretty big one to reach here!

I'm editing some of my post about the kerfuffle the other night. It appears the person arrested in our house had form and might be recognised by locals.

And finally, humour runs deep in this family. About to bring my tiny tomato plants in for the night, I found a carefully placed snail shell in each pot and 7 year old grandson looking smug!

wort

Very chilly up here today . I got a whoopsie Peonies plant which I dug in before work yesterday, then heard there may be frosts this week!!  I'm experimenting with moving one of my Acer plant pots to a more prominent position, then I need to decide wether to dig up a bit more lawn to put it in the ground. 
Dandelions a gogo round here , a field full at the back and just about half the neighbours lawns . Lord help me when the seeds start to fly! 
Had a good hack at the viburnum,  that's all in the wheelie bin for today's collection. Got my eye on a couple of other suspects once it's empty. 

wort

Farway,  have you tried nettle for gout ? It helps with uric acid, either tea or tablet form .

twopenny

Gone from hot yesterday when I ran round watering again. Needed the hose pipe and dousing in buckets to really cold.

It's too dry to cut turf, dig up and move plants and late to do that, later by the day.

Did a lot of slug relocation too. How do they keep getting across to my plants when it's so darn dry.

It's certainly a weird year.

My autumn fruiting raspberries are in flower and buzzing with bees in April!

And here is my rampant Red Currant already fruiting. Stuck in a corner. I may trim it when it's finished to try and get more of the tangerine fence covered

Think I'll have a day off today. I'm too tempted to do things that are so wrong just because I have the time and inclination.

Farway, thanks for the encouragement. Both small apple trees are blooming. Not much but they are babies yet. If I realised how long it took for them to get going I'd have spent the money and got more mature ones.

Farway

Dull and a tad chilly today but the plants are still getting moved out for hardening off. The toms I potted on are romping away now, in the conservatory, I think before long they’ll need final homes

My plums have set, some at least, picture to follow, and I have currants as well, white ones which I never prune or care for but they keep coming, which was one reason I chose them, plant & forget

wort said:

Farway,  have you tried nettle for gout ? It helps with uric acid, either tea or tablet form .

No, not heard of that but there's a patch of nettles near my garage so will look into that. I did make nettle beer once, it was awful

In yesterday's sunshine, my Judas tree, grown from seed about thirty years ago and always makes a nice and different show