Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

It's stopped raining but heavy dew on the lawn this morning which is a sign it's all change. And now the grass is growing like mad so if I have time it's going to be grass cutting.

But I have apples to cook, a fragrant one from the Cider farm and some bramleys from neighbours. I need to go down the road to see if there are some blackberries.

Hmmm mowing or blackberry and apple pie?

Life continues to throw nasty surprises at me so I haven't been gardening or talking about it but the other day this happened

Glad to hear you're slightly on the mend Farway, hopefully you'll get your own rainbow.

Woolsery

Farway said:

Thanks for the memories Woolsery, I know Slough from childhood days, it was Paradise, there were shops there with wonders never seen, I bought a whizz along car with rubber wheels that only needed to be powered / wound up by pulling the car backwards a few times, let it go and off it would shoot whacking into the skirting board with a mighty thump.

The always green traffic lights at under Thirty along the Bath Road, a joy. I remember a car load of us trying this out after a pint of maybe Worthington "E" in the "Peggy Bedford" and then up towards the pub on the corner of Harlington Road, now a Sheraton Hotel I think

I lived in Wembley in those days and my playground was the Stadium where my Dad managed the general workforce, so my experience of Slough was derived from Sunday outings in our 'estate car;' actually a remodelled Ford van. In those days the aspiring middle classes seemed either to have a car or a TV, but rarely both. I remember I had to put up with a wimp called John in order to view the hour's ration of children's TV each day!

So, my best guess is we visited Slough en-route to Burnham Beeches or one of the other country places we'd go. Occasionally, I got a shandy and a packet of crisps, but it was the countryside that fired me up most. I'd an amazing amount of freedom to roam compared with today's urban 8 year olds, but the real countryside and coast was my thing, never bettered than on our yearly holidays to North Devon. I didn't know then that soon I'd have miles of countryside in Somerset and  Dorset to explore, before we finally settled in Devon and started a completely different life.....most of it in abject poverty! 

Not a lot to report here, except an improvement in the weather. No rainbows seen 2p, but yours is a cracker. I had a slight accident with a tree while frantically mowing the chicken orchard on Saturday; the blow to my head resulting in a lot of blood but no real damage. I just lost a few useful hours with the headache that followed.    Still the quiet time allowed me to start planting in the bit between the mini-wood and the stream which has been too dry for months.

Might get to Rosemoor this week, but today it's the Garden Club show, so all systems go....Will we fiond anything worth showing? Well, we're still self-sufficient in mushrroms at present, but I don't think there's a class for fungi!

This was before I mowed, but it's the Secret Garden, so no one sees it, except us!

Farway

Nice rainbow 2P, none here that I've seen, but I do have a toadstool near the wheelie bins Woolsery, not quite in the mushrooms in grass category, and it's a bog-standard scruffy beige one so hardly worth even a digital click

Shame you're not closer 2P, loads of apples here, picked my Elstar one yesterday, plenty for one, I hope to get down to the bottom of garden & check it my Champion ones are ready, they look ripe & ready but only handling will tell

I'm stewing a lot of my non keepers later, my fresh blackberries are just fungus blobs now with the rain

The recent rain also managed to ruin the ripening Sungold toms at the front, they popped with the sudden surge of moisture despite my watering, however the ones that were not split were excellent, with more to come if weather holds out

And more woes, my Cape primroses have some foliage pest, hard for me to see, but I suspect it's some leaf mite or white fly. For once, I'm prepared and had bought a proprietary spray at the same time I bought the CPs, soap based, but seems to work, or at least it has kept the whitefly off my tomatoes in the conservatory this year so seems to be worth the very exorbitant cost

Last but not least, the sedums are colouring up nicely now, but there seems to be a shortage of bees, typical, mine has bluebottles on them , I'll try for a photo later, hopefully smothered in bumblebees

Woolsery

Farway said:

 my Cape primroses have some foliage pest, hard for me to see, but I suspect it's some leaf mite or white fly. For once, I'm prepared and had bought a proprietary spray at the same time I bought the CPs, soap based, but seems to work, or at least it has kept the whitefly off my tomatoes in the conservatory this year so seems to be worth the very exorbitant cost

It similar with my lovingly tended Primula florindae. All the remaining 8 or 9 have greenfly, but I'll be coming for them soon.

Garden club show was not very well supported, making winning somewhat easier. However, we only got a first for our Alstroemeria 'Indian Summer,' which I thought rather old hat now. The things where we might have won with more honour were either seconds or not placed. That's how it always is though!

Off to see a friend now. Helped them find a place to move to earlier in the year, but regrettably it was 40miles away. I shall be quite close to 2p in a village suggesting the crossing of a shallow river and getting something clean. Hope the weather there is somewhat better than here, as we've had early rain, despite last night's beautiful red/orange sunset. I'm so glad I hurled the entire trailer load of logs we received yesterday into the wood shed, though my back and arms are regretting 2.5 hours of non-stop manual labour. 

Woolsery

Quiet in here....

We visited our friends yesterday and found their new house and garden most exciting. It's been a cared-for, pleasant place in the past, and it will be again after about 25 years of neglect have been addressed. 2p will know how hard it is finding an affordable 4 bed detached with a garage and a good garden in that area. No doubt, when a large sum and much effort has been expended, people will tell our pals how 'lucky' they were, finding such a gem. 

We'd hoped for better weather, but the drizzle continued and turned to heavy rain as we watched one of the steam trains on the nearby railway calling at the station. The smells and sounds brought back a few memories. I once took about 70 children on that line from Crowcombe Heathfield to Minehead for the day. I recall a violent hailstorm caught us out on the beach and we were soaked through. It wasn't that bad yesterday, but visibility was pretty poor going home over the hills.

Today has opened much the same as yesterday, but I'm assured it will all change by lunchtime. I hope so, because today my walking friend and I will be nosing around Rosemoor, hoping to catch the last of the summer inspiration missed earlier.

Meanwhile, here's a picture of our second prize apples before we picked them. No idea of the variety, but they're prolific.

Farway

Ooh, lovely looking apples Woolsery. I've nearly picked all mine now, I did hear on R4 Farming the weather was good for sugars in the apples this year, and I can confirm that, mine are really tasty, just enough sharp / sugar balance IMO. They also said apples are smaller due to dry, yep, same here, but luckily UK consumer quite likes smaller apples so selling the crop will not ba a problem for the growers

I've also picked my pears, hard to tell if ripe as still feel hard, but we all know what pears are like, turn to pulp in an hour, if you turn your back, plus scrumped a few of next door's Concorde pears that they never pick

Raining today, as it was yesterday, my Sungolds outside continue to split, picked some more of the tasteless large toms, not growing those again. I do have some of them ripening outside, and I wonder if they will have more flavour?

Here's one of my Sedum, just one bee, which kept fidgeting about as I was taking its picture

liberty_lily

I've been missing in (in)action - gardening-wise at least - again 🙄 Although as my time has mostly been spent tidivating the covered area of the walled courtyard I suppose you could almost say I've been gardening, lol! I have been reading along, though, and love everyone's fab pics 😄

Anyway, we've had dry, mainly sunny days so far this week with just the occasional overnight shower. The last promised bout of thunderstorms missed us too 😉

Of course, I know exactly what will happen  - the minute we remove the boarding from the old extension frontage (not to mention the remaining stonework) to allow rebuilding ahead of fitting the new massive double glazed panels and oak framing, the heavens will open! As DH and I are DIYing this we can at least pick and choose when we do it - or theoretically we can - but as he's still playing catch-up on his paid work projects, it's going to have to be fitted in as and when, covering with tarps in between....

Not much happening that's photo-worthy either, so here's a rather pedestrian Phlox Paniculata Herbstwalzer from one of our herbaceous beds....

Apodemus

I've just been outside to watch our first skein of geese of autumn pass over the garden.  Heading slightly west to avoid the mountains, then they will turn south again.   I think they are a few days earlier than normal, as I don't normally expect them until the equinox.

Woolsery

I like all Phlox, lily. We have the species too; what it lacks in showiness it makes up for in scent.

I'm so glad we visited Rosemoor yesterday. It was a lovely, bright afternoon and almost possible to imagine the month as August, but today's a different story altogether! I've been up on the polytunnel frame this afternoon and feeling the chill of the NW wind that's brought temperatures down 7 degrees on yesterday.

The hot, dry summer had left its mark on the Rosemoor planting in both Cool and Hot Gardens, where much of the colour was over. However, we'd both forgotten an association that worked well last year, so I took a (bad) photo this time. The Golden Rod (a smaller variety) was covered in insects, but they don't seem to be visible. The contrast with the Verbena bonariensis is what we liked most and the wildlife value is a bonus. Also doing well in the insect league were the Sedums...err..Hylotelephiums which looked suspiciously un-floppy. A quick nip into the border revealed a  framework of steel supports.

Some swallows are still with us, but I read night time temperatures are going to fall to 5c at the weekend. It can't be time to light the wood burner already?

goldfinches

I've spotted two herons in places where I wouldn't normally expect to see them until much later in the year, I managed a couple of not very good photos.





This one was a big surprise on my way to my evening class. The disobliging bird began wading toward the bridge almost the instant I spotted it so I had to snap away quickly.