Awful weather - typical Brits talk 3 October 2020 at 5:41PM in Greenfingered MoneySaving 4.6K replies 118.1K views

Woolsery

YoungBlueEyes said:

Be steady with your neck Farway, easier said than done I know… Love the pic (tho not the subject!), you take such good photos.

Farway will always get a good photo, even with a cricked neck.   I hope it's eased over the course of this sunny day. (It was here anyway.)

Woolsery that’s some polytunnel, not at all what I was imagining! 

Are you cursed with truculent neighbours? 

The polytunnel is smaller than it was by about 40%. Previously, it was part hidden by a barn. We set it into the slope when it was moved, so it wouldn't poke above the big hedge and upset the residents nearby.... but then the residents found out why we'd moved it, and they were upset anyway!

I won't say much more, except our neighbours live close to each other in a small development with communal areas and rules, whereas we don't and would never choose that lifestyle.

YoungBlueEyes

Gotcha

I was picturing something more like one you'd put on a little allotment - 15ft long by 5 wide or summat ha haa!

Woolsery

YoungBlueEyes said:

Gotcha

I was picturing something more like one you'd put on a little allotment - 15ft long by 5 wide or summat ha haa!

There's nothing wrong with smaller ones, but 5' would be claustrophobic in the heat, which is why we went for one 10' high and 24' wide. We used to sell plants, but don't any more, hence scaling it down to 24' x 24'. I'll share it with my daughter, who's already taken over the best bit  of microclimate here.

Our first greenhouse was an aluminium lean-to used for more tender plants in a city centre garden shop. It cost £10 when they redeveloped and turned the place into a nightclub. The fun bit was reassembling it from dozens of similar-looking bits of metal.

Our second greenhouse covered almost the entire garden in a 2 bed terraced house a young couple had just purchased. It was cedar, measured 25' x 10' and cost £150 + £20 to an old bloke with a van who moved it in 22 pieces for us without breaking any of the glass.

The polytunnel we put in here initially was....err....a lot more expensive, but it's done 11 years and refurbishing it in cut-down form will come in at under £1k. I'd really like another 'proper' greenhouse, but there are other projects more important to us at present.

While I was 'on holiday,' Farway put up a photo of his named variety of Spindle tree. This was my bog-standard, seed raised one back then. Having two, I notice they seem to alternate; one good year followed by a less good one for fruiting.

Farway

Woolsery said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

Be steady with your neck Farway, easier said than done I know… Love the pic (tho not the subject!), you take such good photos.

Farway will always get a good photo, even with a cricked neck.   I hope it's eased over the course of this sunny day. (It was here anyway.)

Woolsery that’s some polytunnel, not at all what I was imagining! 

Are you cursed with truculent neighbours? 

The polytunnel is smaller than it was by about 40%. Previously, it was part hidden by a barn. We set it into the slope when it was moved, so it wouldn't poke above the big hedge and upset the residents nearby.... but then the residents found out why we'd moved it, and they were upset anyway!

I won't say much more, except our neighbours live close to each other in a small development with communal areas and rules, whereas we don't and would never choose that lifestyle.

My bold, do they also complain about church bells & cows mooing?

Damp overnight but dry by the time I trotted off for my Covid booster. Today's photo was intended to be a lovely pampas grass glowing in the sunshine at the Health Centre, but it's been pruned to knee-high during the week with just stumps left now, the curse of the hired in tidy up jobbing gardener

My neck is still cricked, needs some WD40 probably, before my health scares I would have taken lots of neck oil internally to numb it a bit, the neck oil distilled produced in the West Indies usually worked quite well

Woolsery

Farway said:

Woolsery said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

Be steady with your neck Farway, easier said than done I know… Love the pic (tho not the subject!), you take such good photos.

Farway will always get a good photo, even with a cricked neck.   I hope it's eased over the course of this sunny day. (It was here anyway.)

Woolsery that’s some polytunnel, not at all what I was imagining! 

Are you cursed with truculent neighbours? 

The polytunnel is smaller than it was by about 40%. Previously, it was part hidden by a barn. We set it into the slope when it was moved, so it wouldn't poke above the big hedge and upset the residents nearby.... but then the residents found out why we'd moved it, and they were upset anyway!

I won't say much more, except our neighbours live close to each other in a small development with communal areas and rules, whereas we don't and would never choose that lifestyle.

do they also complain about church bells & cows mooing?

No, the nearest church bells are a mile away and there aren't many cows here either, so the main opprobrium is directed at tractors and the machinery they pull around. It's terrible that a farmer still drives his tractor through the (converted) farmyard a couple of times a week in order to reach his fields.

Being a bit of a farmer myself, I was contacted this morning by one of the local agri-merchants from whom we'd ordered a galvanised drinking trough* a month ago. Would I care to pay up-front for it? It seemed if I didn't, the likelihood of it turning up around New Year would be slim. I weighed the chance of the price increasing against the inconvenience of funding a multi-million £ company......and got out the credit card.

This is the way things are going, folks. At the risk of being sent off on another 'holiday,' I hope you guys are already well stocked for Christmas, including the stuff that frees necks better than WD40, whichever variety you prefer. I have a 'few' which may come in handy when we get to bartering....

* I wouldn't buy one of these for the sheep. They get plastic. This one's a pressie for DB, who wants it as a pond!

YoungBlueEyes

Your neighbours sound like proper trying sorts The worst thing is you're not allowed to shoot them, even if you'd be right to do it. That jobbing gardener sounds like they could do with an enthusiastic thrashing too. Also not allowed apparently. 

Christmas dinner is sorted here ('cept the veg). Presents are bought throughout the year, cards/wrapping paper are gathered up in the Jan sales, and neck oil is well stocked. Tesco's stocked my favourite champagne for a wee while the other year, but it clearly wasn't popular cos a few weeks later it was on the 6 bottles deal thing so we *ahem* took advantage. To an almost indecent degree actually. But as father always said - you're better looking at it than for it. Strong brown neck oil is sent from home on a regular basis  

We had to go do a thing the other day, and in the car park was a lovely looking tree covered in yellowy berries. It was so pretty in the sunshine - 

Farway

That's a lovely tree, YBE, and no doubt plenty for the birds when the weather gets worse.

I'm also sorting for Christmas, a pud & wrapping are on the way in my next Asda delivery, very wise words by your father as well, I'll pinch that, so I can smugly quote it next time I get an earful for "hoarding"

I was raining when I got up, but it's brightening up now, just maybe I will mooch down the garden later if it dries up a bit, looking out of a bedroom window I spotted a bindweed making a dash for the sky for it in one of the borders, if I can get it sharpish it should sort that. I get the occasional bindweed straggler trying to settle in but so far have kept on top of them

Cricked neck is on the mend at last, just a bit of an ache but at least head turning now works without pain

YoungBlueEyes

Good to hear your neck is easing up, dicky necks are so restrictive

Yeah the tree was so pretty, my pic doesn't do it justice. I think the birds were making full use, there were very few berries on the ground anyway.

I should really write a book of all father's sayings. He's not around to ask now and I fear I'm slowly forgetting them.

It was raining here earlier too, now it's a miserable dampy wet-air nonsense. Very Autumnal Sunday sort of weather. 

Woolsery

YoungBlueEyes said:

Your neighbours sound like proper trying sorts

They're no different from most people when they fear someone's about to do something that will harm their interests. I'm not saying we'll be greatly enhancing their life experience with what we intend, but I doubt there will be any down-side. It seems Brits care most about their property's value and prefer the status quo to any kind of change, unless they're initiating it, of course.

Back on topic, I think your tree is a very productive crab apple and there are many potential jars of jelly there. RAS will now probably prove me entirely wrong!

YoungBlueEyes

Think you have a crabapple addiction/bias Woolsery, they’re only tiny wee berries ha haa!