Awful weather - typical Brits talk

pink_poppy

That’s a shame about your Calamondin, RAS, fingers crossed you can save it. It does seem to be a very thirsty plant - I’m watering mine pretty much every day and I fed it some citrus food a couple of days ago too. Mine had ripe fruit 🍊 on (presumably forced) when received as a present and it’s still got a few green ones. I also spotted a flower open on it this afternoon after it had been outside in the sunshine.


I’ve mulched the rhubarb (goodness me the chipped bark absolutely stank 🤢) so that’s a job done. It doesn’t look very happy at the moment, but hopefully it’ll settle in and give me lots of stems for rhubarb and bramley apple crumble next year.

twopenny

Poppy, brush it gently off the  middle of the crowns?
Otherwise it will stey soaked and rot the growing tips.
Good idea though. We're due a heatwave :-)

Hot and sunny here so the most I've done after paperwork and shopping was sit with cheese wine and olives in the sun reading a book. Bikini too!! 
Good thing I put the screening up so the neighbours couldn't see.

RAS

PP, Read up on James Wong and limes. His parent used unripe calamondin as limes.

YoungBlueEyes

It was going to be a beautiful dawn here then the clouds slinked in. Mild and no breeze now at all really.

I'll surely do espalier updates. Nothing attempted yet. I was deleting photos off my phone yesterday and found the one which showed their labels (I think I put it on here). They may be a Discovery apple and a Conference pear. I might still have to do the cane thing til the branches are long enough to reach the wires. Hopefully they'll take to that idea. 

When I was planting bulbs last year I put some late flowering ones in a bucket. One of them came out yesterday, all blousey and full of petals I think the rest are deed. As are whatever I planted in my big pots....

More bad news. I'm a bit worried about Mrs Blacky. She got injured breaking up the boys when they were fighting - she was on one leg for a couple of days whenever I saw her. She couldn't stand really, she'd sort of slowly sink so she was squatting. I've not seen her for a couple of days now and her Mr Blacky's made a new home in the hedge at the front. I've not seen the interloper (the one that used to look in at me from the gate - he's got a white dot under his eye) So I think she's a goner. I daren't go and look in her nest in case she's there and get spooked and abandons any wee babies. I hope everyone's alright.... 

RAS

Ok, Discovery is the bright red flattish early apple that doesn't keep with a distinctive flavour. Recognise it?

It is a partial tip bearer, so you will need to push it to produce spurs and accept the odd straggly branch. In the early days expect a poor one year in three or four but if you summer prune well it will flower on shorter branches.

Dustyevsky

Nature is cruel, or at least what we consider cruel, Blue Eyes. Any slip-up is exploited by other animals, none of which has a welfare state safety net; it's all about personal survival. I'm thinking of two young goldfinches that set up home in a standard bay tree here a few years ago and laid eggs. I was able to take some measures to stop the cats climbing up there, but the naive birds had built too close to the top of the foliage and the babies were picked-off individually by flying predators. Later, having learned something, the birds returned to the nest and disassembled it carefully, presumably building another with the materials in a safer place. We still have lots of goldfinches anyway! 

Nature red in tooth and claw means we have a particularly fine male pheasant in residence here at the moment. Being an alpha male, he has several wives, so I'll call him Henry 8th. He saw a lesser pheasant off on our lawn a few days ago, giving me no time to get that award-winning picture I'm after, which might happen if two pheasants square-up to each other. This one simply ran, then took off and headed into the magic horse kingdom across the lane.

Another picture of the crown in the making (has been removed now)

Lovely morning here, but I'm on hoovering and dusting today, probably not in that order! If I escape later, I might plant out the garlic I've chitted.

YoungBlueEyes

Helluva crown is that Dusty. Mind you it prolly needs to be that big to take account of his ears ha haa! 

Aye nature is cruel. I spent most of my childhood pulling hens/ducks/geese necks, and dipping em in a bucket of boiling water so I could pluck them easier. And collecting cat bits after the farm dogs had dispatched them. I don’t know why I’m so bothered by Mrs Blacky… getting soppy in my old age 🤨

Discovery apples - I do recognise them RAS. Nice eaters I think, when I can get them. I’ve screen-shot your posts so I have the advice to hand
Here’s the old label pic, and the apple and pear as they are now. 

  

Apple is the top pic, pear at the bottom. 

Farway

Dull start but expected to get sunny later

That is some Crown Dusty, nothing like that around here AFAIK, but I've not gone looking, I know my volunteer place is giving a Coronation lunch for regulars of the Lunch club but I'm not involved in that

My tomatoes are galloping away now, and if it warms up I'll try & get some potted into final pots in the conservatory, only about three for the moment, space is getting tight in there with the cold weather holding up moving stuff out

I've moved the runners that survived into there now, they have greened up and are doing well

My canna from seeds, the roots are poking out of the pot bottoms and will need potting on soon, maybe this weekend?

Apple trees, while over DS yesterday for the party, his apple tree, badly butchered AKA pruned, has blossom on it, Golden Delicious, if only I can get him to tend to it just slightly maybe this year I will be able to stop biting my tongue as I look at his fruit bowl while apples rot at the base of his tree

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

I don’t know why I’m so bothered by Mrs Blacky… getting soppy in my old age 🤨

Nothing wrong with becoming more sensitive. Like you, as a youngster I witnessed the death of many chickens, when playing at the processing depot where my friend lived. I drew the line at setting night lines in the river, though, and I looked down on kids who did that.

Now, I find I've gone off fishing. I feel sorry for the fish, but the dangers in the places I have access to also play a part. I remember the dentist across the road from our school didn't come home from a fishing trip. He wasn't popular, and we didn't mourn his passing, but I already knew then, rivers could be fickle friends.

YoungBlueEyes

Ditto weather here Farway. It was cloudy, getting lighter clouds now. Mild with it. Northern blast coming down this side from tomorrow, says CountryFile (my new source). The drunkards can poke it! 

Was it a good party? Good that it falls on a bank hol, then everyone can make it 🙂

In Aldi earlier I lifted a packet of “Mini San Marzano” tomatoes that are on offer -  just so I can squidge the seeds out and keep them for next year!

I’m blaming every one of you ratbags, this sorta carry on would never have occurred to me before