Awful weather - typical Brits talk

YoungBlueEyes

Love the tree pics LL, a good tree-y tree cheers my heart

I'd sink your bottles now twopenny, one less job to do if they're required. It'll ensure you'll absolutely not need them, because Sod's Law.

Woolsery

Fab trees, LL  I must try to snap a few of ours before they go past their autumn best. To be honest, some have already 'gone over.'

News of DB is positive, so I expect the crutches will be ditched by the weekend, much as predicted. I hear it's not just DB for whom Netflix is losing its appeal, now password sharing is being clamped-down upon. Naturally, I've no knowledge about stuff like that.

Bottles or no bottles, next year will be what it will be, 2p. It can't hurt to sink a few while the ground's soft. It may seem that parts of our country are seriously challenged by fickle weather, but it's a minor trial compared with what goes on in some places. This morning I woke to news of flooding in NSW and came sharply awake when the very small town where a friend lives was specifically mentioned. It appears 90% of the properties there have been so badly affected, they will need a full or partial rebuild. After guiding the renovation of our house, friend and Aussie wife  emigrated and built a house from scratch on an acre plot over the course of 5 years. When he last visited the UK in September, he said there was just some internal painting to complete....

Some furious research followed! Thanks to Mr Google, I could pinpoint our friend's house aerially, although the road's too new for a Street View. A topographic map then gave me the exact height of the land on friend's plot compared with the centre of the town, and as there's a 27m difference, I think he and his missus will have escaped the worst of the flooding, described as a "tsunami." We'll email later. Regardless of the situation at home, I'm sure they'll be very busy helping others.

EDIT: Received our first Christmas card this morning....from Somerset!

Farway

It poured & woke me up during the night, but brighter now, no gardening is contemplated though, too soggy to even squelch about.

Nice tree pics LL, the ones round here have "gone over" like Woolsery mentioned, but I suppose there is chance of bleak bare branches pic, especially with a frost due Friday

I'd also sink your bottles in now 2P, I leave mine in and find even without drought it makes watering much easier, at least I know the plant had two litres of water at the roots, and I can squirt my hose into the bottles from afar, actually I'm getting good at squirting on target from a distance, sort of muscle memory I guess as it's something every boy learns growing up

Woolsery

I reckon you might have been woken again Farway, judging by the weather map for last night.

No let up here yesterday, after the rain began at around lunchtime. I finished my chores and headed out to grab some 'autumn photos' in the gathering gloom, but found quite a few plants looking amazingly fresh and jolly.

Here's a Buddleia down in the stream garden, still thinking it's August. I think the varietal name is 'Honeycomb.'

And here's an Italian Alder nearby, imagining it's basking in Salerno....

They'll be in for a rude awakening; the stream area's our frost pocket!

 

EDIT: Heard from friend in OZ. As suspected, they're untouched by the local flooding, but were too busy to respond immediately as they're running a mobile barbecue service for those made homeless from the back of their UTE (truck.)

YoungBlueEyes

Bladdy awful weather here, bit of a breeze and it's persisting it down! I've put my houseplants outside the back door where the rain is gentler for a drink/wash. 2 ficuses - I hardly water them this time of year but they seem to enjoy a good raining on

That's such a pretty buddleia woolsery, I've only seen them in purple or white. 

Edit - I'm glad your friends are ok. Far flung friends can be a worry sometimes!

Woolsery

YoungBlueEyes said:

That's such a pretty buddleia woolsery, I've only seen them in purple or white.

They do pink, dark purple and fancy yellow foliage too. There's even one with orange balls....

More sunshine and showers today. We've not had as much rain as many places, but it's soggy enough for me. Managed to paint my neighbour's flowering Convolvulus during a dry spell yesterday; not exactly in the style of Van Gough, more Monsanto!

YoungBlueEyes

Monsanto 🤣

Ooh the orange balls are striking, I’ve never seen those before. 

I’m so glad I found this part of the forum, I love it! 

RAS

Buddleia globulosa. Saw it in a public planting and nicked a cutting. It's a thug. Wonderful for bees and much earlier than the Davidii but not for a small garden.

Weyeriana may be better tempered but is very late flowering.

Woolsery

RAS said:

Buddleia globulosa. Saw it in a public planting and nicked a cutting. It's a thug. Wonderful for bees and much earlier than the Davidii but not for a small garden.

Yes, I once used it in a school planting scheme....in fact it's probably still there!

Woolsery

Not a lot done here yesterday due to assisting DB, who's still on crutches, but improving. After more than 3 years without so much as a sniffle, dodging every iteration of the Wu Flu without a safety net, she spends 13 hours in A&E and gets a bug! Is it Omicron? It's doubtful, as we had that living with us for a week in early summer.  Whatever it is, we know she isn't the only one. Some camaraderie developed during the protracted wait, emails were exchanged, and two others also present now have the same thing!

First proper frost this morning; not that we have a lot of improper frost, but it was a bit silvery down in the dell one morning last month and I didn't investigate further, being in PJs at the time.  Looks good till around tea time, and then it all goes downhill again overnight. It's flushing out the stream nicely. Tomorrow, more pick n'mix.

While our Italian version of Alnus was in denial of autumn, as pictured the other day, the good ol' native version was behaving sensibly, with a stiff upper lip....or a stack of false cones anyway:

Incredibly sensible, don't you think? Oh, and I know someone who makes silver earrings based on casts of these. Not really my thing, though.