Awful weather - typical Brits talk 3 October 2020 at 5:41PM in Greenfingered MoneySaving 4.7K replies 118.7K views

Farway

A very sunny morning, blue sky with bit of a breeze though. Chilly as well, heating clicked on this morning

I'm going to have to water the pots at the front again, despite the recent rain some of the castor oil plants are droopy, nearing the end of life for them soon, but they are still good so far

While surveying my droopy Castor oil plants I spotted, at long last, one of the Bishops' Children dahlias I grew from seed this year , at last I have a flower, photo opp time once sun comes round

Today's photo, my gout is easier so out in garden yesterday PM, looking for Autumn themed images, sun on leaves etc and spotted these, Hibiscus seed pods, this year seems to be very prolific for them, maybe the hot summer?

Below the pod pic is one taken earlier in the year of one of the flowers

This hibiscus of mine was grown from a similar seed pod that fell into my pocket as I was walking along admiring front gardens a few years back now

In flower

YoungBlueEyes

That’s such a pretty colour. I love hibisci (?) (hibiscuses?) 

Thats another one for my mental shopping list….

Woolsery

I'm glad you didn't try the 'Mountain Magic' Farway, so it could still live up to the claims some make. We need little things to  inspire us and look forward to. Your pictures of the hibiscus today reminded me I somehow missed ours in 2022 . It probably did badly in the drought and DB says it suffered from being buried by more exuberant bedfellows.

Another of my posts has been removed. It's odd and disheartening when a web site  about saving money doesn't want people suggesting why inflation is at record levels. At school I was taught inflation is like a tax and it tends to follow when money is pumped into the economy without being earned by gainful activity. I suppose that's all old hat now, like double-digging. QE it's called now, not money printing. Makes all the difference.  Well, from a practical perspective, seeing all the QE, I started hoarding  collecting certain things in 2020 and I'm blooming glad I did now. So there!

One thing I collected around 2020 was seed from this plant, the perennial Candytuft:Now 'Betty' is popping up everywhere: in the border, on the soil heaps and even in other plant's pots. You could say she's become as common as muck, but unlike the £ she still gives a lot of bang to the buck by flowering most of the year!

Farway

Complete change in the weather, cold wet & windy this morning, typical Monday morning to trudge to work, or in my case turn over and have a few more snores

Woolsery, sorry non-consenting views are not allowed, it's all Putin's fault do pay attention. I happen to agree with your hinted diagnosis and told my "children" it would all end in tears, can't keep borrowing & never pay it back, well actually you can, I did read an article that the whole world system is really some giant Ponzi scheme with Devil take the hind most

Back to gardening, while the money lasts I weakened and followed the T & M seed sale link I had in my e-mail, some seeds reduced to 89p. I have more toms to try next year now, as well as Mountain Magic, in fact I have the son of MM on its way, Oh happy day, down from 2.99, also have Gourmandia, £3.99 down to 89p, plus old standby Moneymaker

 £20.32 original price, clear out six packets for 89 X 6 = £5.34 + 2.99 P & P + £8.33 invested for next year, far better value than many other things

Today's pic is one of my dahlias from seed, I was trying to snap another one, but the hover fly was begging for a place in the MSE picture gallery, so happy to oblige the little chap

Woolsery

That's a very acid yellow dahlia, Farway! It certainly draws attention to itself. Perhaps you should name it 'Edwina Currie' I love mixing it up with the dahlias and then choosing the better ones to keep, but it's very time and space consuming, so I generally cull many on the basis of growth habit and/or leaf colour without ever seeing what the flowers look like. Upsetting, but sometimes the only way to survive Dahliamania. Growth habit is why gorgeous bloomers like 'Bednall Beauty' don't win me over. Sure, it's a lovely flower but it droops and breaks if I so much as look at it. Maybe this windy spot isn't the best.

No wind this morning at first light and the merest hint of frost on surfaces further down the slope here. We're clicking-on the central heating around 21.00 for a couple of hours now, but perhaps it's time to get some wood in and save the oil. Apparently, this Putin bloke has now nabbed the entire stock from those bearded guys with the tea towels.....'NBM' that's what a local Head teacher used to write on the forms the training college sent him around the last time we had a petrol crisis. No one knew what it meant until one of my mates was assigned to his school for teaching practice. It was 'No bearded males.' Maybe he was onto something, though it's more likely he hailed from the days of skiffle and 'Beatniks' Remember them? All duffle coats, thick specs and 'Ban the bomb.' Perhaps it's time for a revival....

Only a little work done on the polytunnel yesterday. Somehow, the doorway at the western end is a few centimetres narrower than the other one and, try as I might, I couldn't make the wood stretch. We'll have to get some longer bits.

Today's photo also contains an interloper, not quite so benign as your hoverfly.... It's ornamental, but they don't taste too bad.

Edit: The grapes, not the lurker!

Farway

Tasty looking grapes there Woolsery and looks can be deceptive as we all know, no grapes for me this year, mine all failed but maybe next year

We also have a sunny start here, no sign of frost, but it's cold, I may poke my hooter out later and pick the ripening large toms at the front, get them in before a real frost arrives, orange coloured at the moment. The ones I bought inside last week are reddening up nicely on the window sill, so the others can join them

MY "Champion" apples picked the other week have ripened up indoors, and now live up to their name, a very nice & tasty apple. The Concorde pear I scrumped is turning ripe yellow, any day now it will be ripe for eating

Today's pic is blackberry Autumn leaves with sun behind them, growing in an arch near my conservatory

YoungBlueEyes

Happily I can contribute a photo that is of neither weeds nor a pigeon (which is about all my garden contains atm!) 

Here’s 2 wee birds having a late lunch 

twopenny

It's been sunny here and I've been taking advantage of driving all over 2 counties it seems with fabulous stunning scenery.

So, the garden hasn't been touched since the last time reported, I can't produce photos of glorious produce.

I can say that the tomatoes are ripening again with this sun so fingers crossed it lasts.

I'm reaping the kale that grew from a cut down stem and it's better than the seed ones.

I noticed my rogue Candytuft was producing masses of seed heads. Hoping to collect them as it's one of those past neglected plants that thrive in any conditions and self seed.

So hopefully I'll start on the garden again when the travel isn't so inviting. If not the randomly left pond pot will have something ornimental in front to hide it until it can be dealt with

Woolsery

YoungBlueEyes said:

Happily I can contribute a photo that is of neither weeds nor a pigeon (which is about all my garden contains atm!) 

Here’s 2 wee birds having a late lunch 

So it's you who have our Long Tailed Tits... We aren't feeding at present because there's so much natural stuff about, so a lot of our regulars have gone elsewhere. Don't see many of those TBH; though sometimes hear them. Lovely birds.

Is that an old school behind the wall? The Victorians and Edwardians had great ideas about education, like buildings with high ceilings that are impossible to heat and equally high windows at a level few children can see out of when seated.

Those crab apples look inviting. My crab tree I paid £1.99 for fruited for the first time this year. They're not crabs. Methinks someone planted a load of pips and told porkies.

Edit: Hang on, those aren't crab apples, they're hawthorn! Just viewed the piccie full size. (Embarrassed flush smilie)

YoungBlueEyes

Yep it's a hawthorn. I want to seriously trim it back so it's tree-y cos it already has a kind of trunk. It swaddled in that funny ivy (?) plant I don't like - the berries are green for ages then turn black and grow in balls. Wasps and hornets love it but it's too close to my back door and kitchen window and I don't like them in the house.

That building was the village school up until fairly recently. They're doing it all out and turning it into flats. There's 2 gorgeous buildings, they're part of what sold the house to us The council are being really strict with the developers - apparently they've been at it for 5 years because they want to change their plans due to whichever problem they found this month but the council never back down.  

The houses on our side of the cul-de-sac all look on to it., our gardens were the school's allotments. When the council sold them off not everyone bought 'theirs', I think mine is the only properly sized one (itms?) So my attached neighbour didn't buy theirs - they have a little paved area of about 15'x20' ish. Their neighbour bought a double whack and have a lovely big garden but are doing nothing with it other than a rotary drier stuck in a load of grass. My other neighbour bought hers and half of the next neighbours cos he didn't want it. Then the woman on the end bought the other half and the rest up to the corner. 

I'm looking forward to getting going with the garden - it's been sat these last few years so hopefully the soil is rich and happy having not been taxed with growing anything!

Jeez that turned into a long post  

Edit - They're lovely wee birds, very chiruppy and cheerful.  Oh and also I've a robin