Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Black_Cat2

Sounds like you had a lovely weekend am, can't beat a beautiful sunset (apart from on a warm summer evening lol).

Some things were pretty bad in the old school days D.  Our old PE teacher would make us go out cross country running no matter what the weather.  She had no time for any kind of injuries or the such, you had to run no matter what!  We didn't have the nylon shirts you describe - sounds horrid 🙀

Aaah cobwebs with morning dew F, beautiful 😊. I see a man from Wiltshire has found a new variety of apple whilst out running so there's hope that on your usual daily walks you'll find something that will make you a fortune (or at least be named after you) 😸

in_my_wellies

Black_Cat2 said:

Aaah cobwebs with morning dew F, beautiful 😊. I see a man from Wiltshire has found a new variety of apple whilst out running so there's hope that on your usual daily walks you'll find something that will make you a fortune (or at least be named after you) 😸

Amazing isn't it? I visited Brogdale a couple of years ago where they hold the national collection of apples.  On the tour I asked if they had an apple which the Germans call 'Summer Apple'. It's a small green apple which ripens very early. My German friend in Bavaria can buy it easily in the shops there. They hadn't heard of it, they looked in the reference books too.  By chance there was a German couple on the tour too but they hadn't heard of it either. They were from the north of Germany.  It goes to how how local our apple are. 

Davesnave

We've got a local apple called 'Kirton Fair.' Kirton's the old local name for Crediton. It's a very early variety, supposed to be ready to eat in time for the Fair, but like many things which sacrifice time in the making, I don't find it very palatable and doesn't store. It goes under a few other names as well, like Newquay Prizetaker, so some people obviously like it!

There's a lot of other old apples in our orchard, some obviously cookers or for cider. At this time of year, the fieldfares arrive and clear up any still lying on the ground.

Davesnave

Black_Cat2 said:

Some things were pretty bad in the old school days D.  Our old PE teacher would make us go out cross country running no matter what the weather.  She had no time for any kind of injuries or the such, you had to run no matter what!  We didn't have the nylon shirts you describe - sounds horrid 🙀

Nylon shirts came in during the 1960s and their main attributes were cheapness and never wearing out. Eventually they'd go yellowish and look horrid. The fabric didn't breathe well or wick away perspiration, so it was nasty stuff.

As a small lad, I loved cross-country, which we did instead of rugby when the pitches turned to goo. Rugby wasn't great if you were small and couldn't run fast. You got hurt! I could do cross-country though, and it really was in the country, which was my favourite place. I'd watch the big lads go steaming off ahead at the start and laugh; they never seemed to understand that steady and persistent is what's needed, or that a big body is a handicap. So, a few miles further on I'd start passing them; burned-out, half walking, half-jogging, knackered!

I was too small to be one of the best runners; they were a few inches taller than me, but I could do quite well, so maybe in the first 20- 30 out of 200 when we did the annual big race over 5 miles or so.

Eventually, teenage lethargy caught up with my age group, so then we'd tuck a couple of fags and some red matches in our shorts, take a smoke behind a hedge, then find a short cut back. The teachers were also lazy, so they didn't usually check us through at the half way point as they should have done. I suppose in the upper years it was more of a  a skive!

RAS

Farway said:

I plunged a couple of prunings into soil, hardwood cutting style, nothing lost if they fail

And picked the last of my apples, Pinova, my first harvest year with this one, promises much but I'll leave them a bit longer to mature, supposed to store until April allegedly

Almost anything with GD as a parent will keep right through into the late spring. Remember "le Crunch"?

Chosen by the French agricultural bods because it stored really well, was tough as old boots and coped with mishandling by their post-war co-operatives.

I've been harvesting a friend's Relinda; we ate that last year in early June, from the picking the previous autumn.  Hoping to offload it on the foodbank in April, by which time it's current storage facility might be wanted for other activities. Hopefully.....

Farway

Sun's out today, quick flit up to my volunteer border, just checking really, all's well

Apples, when I was looking to get some more I looked for local origin ones but further investigation found them to not really be suitable, cookers for instance or wrong root stocks or just not good 'uns. One of the well know local ones is Bramley, not for me though, not enough room plus not a cooker fan

Apples discovered at road side, this is one I wanted but never bought Christmas Pippin, still hanker after it in my dreams.

There's a cracking looking one by a roundabout near Romsey, over the M27. Big red apples that would tempt Snow White but it would need an intrepid person to risk trying to reach them to taste one

Davesnave

We had sun here till around 1pm yesterday. Although I was feeling somewhat grotty from Monday's flu jab, it was too nice to sit on my bum, so I did some hedging up by our nasty neighbour's place. He'd gone out. If I do anything that close while he's there, I get sworn at. The numpty isn't bright enough to understand that I'm cutting the stems back to thicken the hedge, not to intimidate him! Also, I've planted there pre-emptively, because his major cover in summer at that point is a mature ash tree....and we all know what's happening to those....

In the afternoon it went grey, so I started removing the tomatoes in the polytunnel that are 10' up in the roof and sharpened up tools, but didn't actually use any. Apparently it stays grey and cold today, then gets worse.

Farway

Dull out this morning, not much is planned for the day ahead but at least with the CV vaccine news days out & garden visits in 2021are something to look forward to

Black_Cat2

Cold and crispy here with all the looks of rain brewing.  Ventured out briefly but just to feed the birds.  Not much to be done in the garden just at the moment. 

Vaccine is excellent news, as long as peeps believe it is safe and don't go down the thought of thinking there is any danger with it 🤞

Davesnave

I'm not getting over-controversial on this thread, but I won't be in line for the vaccine until it's been around for a while and I'm sure it won't be like the other flu ones, needing renewal and always a year behind. We already know mutation is possible. The talk of vaccine passports to become a fully participating citizen worries me, but I doubt if things will work out that clear-cut.

Anyway, we appear to have a government which thinks a Scotch egg is a passport to 3 pints of lager, so I'm betting  their continued ineptitude will see the virus peter out of its own accord, till the next variation and another big financial killing in the pharma industry....

As for gardening, I'm sure there will be visits next year. We could have done more this year if only my Dearly Beloved's normal NHS treatment had continued and we'd had sensible people running things. Whoever thought having folks in the open air, getting exercise and having their spirits lifted was a bad idea needs shooting a good talking-to!