Awful weather - typical Brits talk

YoungBlueEyes

A smart person would put the photos side by side but… It was your hair that made me think of him. My uncle knew him, he was a calm and serene man apparently 🙂 

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

A smart person would put the photos side by side but… It was your hair that made me think of him. My uncle knew him, he was a calm and serene man apparently 🙂 

He has a parting and I didn't (don't) Not an option, because some numpty child hurled a rock out to sea and got me instead.    I was about 6 and I lost the hair where it struck, exactly on my parting line. Everyone seemed to have partings and Brylcreem in the 50s. The mop top fashion came along just in time for this sensitive, spotty youth! Not a bad guy to be compared with, though.

In other news, I've sent a polite but sharply worded email to the planning officer and just received a new chain saw chain. The two things aren't linked....yet!

RAS

YoungBlueEyes said:

A smart person would put the photos side by side but… It was your hair that made me think of him. My uncle knew him, he was a calm and serene man apparently 🙂 

Used to watch him when I was baby sitting. Don't think he featured at home? Younger siblings.

I was at college out of town. So a lot of my socialising was on Sundays. Which meant I could charge a premium for Saturday night, sometime get fed breakfast, and afford to catch the train to meet my mates.

Dustyevsky

I love threads like this, where we go randomly from discussing the weather to Dave Allen and planning permission in the space of a post or two.

Anyway, to begin on-topic, it's been foggy this morning, though on more argumentative parts of this site, someone would declare it mist. If I can't see t'other side of the valley, it's foggy! The sun is burning it off now, though. Good day ahead.

As regards the planning, I got a very muddle-headed reply late yesterday which amounted to, "I'm still not sure, and there's no one else around, so forget what I said about a decision on Tuesday, and I'll 'revert back' to you tomorrow!"

The above was not a lot of use, because the contractor arrived just after receiving it and decisions had to be made there and then. Sooo...we scrapped our plan, and we'll be submitting a much larger plan in a month or so to be carried-out in September.

That will puzzle everyone, hopefully. It certainly puzzles me!

This means we're focusing our attention on the polytunnel now and going for covering it on Sunday, weather permitting.

Does anyone else have this problem (see photo) I have no idea where the seeds came from, or what they might be. They were in a scrunched-up tissue removed from a pocket before a coat was washed.

Farway

Dustyevsky said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

Jeez Dusty, you do look like Dave Allen! 

OT:  "You only remember the sunny days" ....can't remember which advert that was from, but that's not true either. How could any kid alive then forget the winter of '63?

I'll trump you with winter of '48. Eeeh it were grim , t'snow came over top of my wellies as we trudged to get my forgotten train set when we went to Nan's for Christmas

Winter '63, pah I smirk. Being paid by Her late Maj to sit around the pool in HMS Terror [Singapore] defending the Empire Malaysia against Indonesian claims, mind you the Tiger Tops were a bit chilly at the time.

Back to gardening, none expected today, showers may occur later which would be handy, spot of watering my newly planted toms & beans is about due

The volunteer border was inspected yesterday, not looking too bad considering nothing has been tended since last year. A few docks have popped up but nothing drastic. Weather permitting, a couple of us intend a spot of "sorting" it this Sunday AM. Just remove large docks mainly, and prune back the Hot Lips which has gone straggly

Looks like a car has gone into the Rosa Rugosa, but that was its purpose, so I guess that bit of garden planning worked, it'll recover

Couple of pics from there, first is the "planted in Memory" crab apple, Laura, always good and seems to just get better year-on-year

Then Elderberry Black Lace, it has struggled with the weather and poor soil, but looking like this could be the year it finally gets going. Hopes are high, and ever an optimistic gardener. Mostly the buds fall off once the weather gets hotter and so never sets berries

Crab Laura

Black Lace

RAS

Dustyevsky said:

OT:  "You only remember the sunny days" ....can't remember which advert that was from, but that's not true either. How could any kid alive then forget the winter of '63?

We were in the same area, I think? Both parents remembered 1947, although I think Feb 48 was also a stinker.

Woke to find snow piled up against the bedroom windows leaving a strange light. My father has kept a passage way from the front door to the landie clear, and driven to the cross roads every hour all night. The main road was blocked for days, although we could get into the village.

No leccie, no running water, just one spring at the top of the lane.

And when some prisoners escaped from Dartmoor everyone was really concerned for them. 

Dustyevsky

RAS said:

Dustyevsky said:

OT:  "You only remember the sunny days" ....can't remember which advert that was from, but that's not true either. How could any kid alive then forget the winter of '63?

We were in the same area, I think? Both parents remembered 1947, although I think Feb 48 was also a stinker.

I was in detention   so just made the last bus to our town out of Barnstaple. The road was down to one lane in parts and the bus didn't attempt the homeward journey. Went around town with candles for OAPs. You couldn't breathe in the blizzard, so we ran from doorway to doorway.

Next morning, I was able to jump out of my upstairs bedroom window into the street, filled with about 5' of snow.

Dustyevsky

Farway said:

Dustyevsky said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

Jeez Dusty, you do look like Dave Allen! 

OT:  "You only remember the sunny days" ....can't remember which advert that was from, but that's not true either. How could any kid alive then forget the winter of '63?

I'll trump you with winter of '48. Eeeh it were grim , t'snow came over top of my wellies as we trudged to get my

I thought it was winter 46/7 that was the terrible one? Not that it matters. I recall lots of cold mornings, equally cold schools and cold school dinners, all around the time when you were enjoying your Tiger beer. It wasn't until 1970 I discovered other countries' beers were better than the muck served-up in the hostelries of my misspent youth!  

I like the look of Laura and might well plant her, or something like her, when we stop charging about with big diggers. The current ornamental garden's full. It does contain a very large Black Lace, which flowers well. Must admit I've not noticed much in the way of fruits on it either. The yellow one by the chicken pen produces well, and the fruits are thrown over to the birds as they ripen.

Looks like another good day here, so we'll be prepping the polytunnel for its cover. Yesterday evening it came in very grey and tried to rain, but didn't.

YoungBlueEyes

I love a rambling thread too Yous are making me miss daddy. He was a teen in the 40's, and if we ever whined about anything he'd tell us about that winter. They'd moved to a Yorkshire village a few years earlier and he got work on a farm. They were getting turnips up outta the ground with pickaxes cos that's what there was to eat. Also similar stories of him and his sister taking care of neighbours and jumping out of bedroom windows into the feet deep snow. He hated the cold, always hated the cold, so first chance he got he joined the army. Knuckled down, became a REME (sp?) and spent a lot of time in the middle east. Afterwards he joined the prison service, really took to that, and they offered him Hong Kong as a posting. He turned it down because while he loved the heat he hated high humidity.

Anyway. Those 2 pics are fab (as always) Farway. The crab apple looks like it'd smell heavenly sweet

I don't know what your mystery seeds are Dusty, but they look an awful lot like the weeds my garden would be covered in ha haa!

Speaking of weeds, there's all sorts coming up in my grass cos I've been a bit slack with the mowing. I'll get some pics when the sun comes round. It's all bowling along now with the bit of heat we had. Rasps are ever so happy with the BFB I gave them (thanks 2p), and there may be signs of life in the hydrangea. Well one of the stalks is sort of pale goldeny yellow colour :fingerscrossed:

OT It's a beautiful morning here, almost Autumnal. Calm and misty with the sun out now. Lovely  

Farway

Beautiful but breezy morning here, sun all day it seems. We had a similar narrow escape weather wise late yesterday Dusty, dark & threatening, and I saw on local Beeb hail & lighting down Dorset way, very wisely it missed me & you!

Laura crab apple, no scent that I've noticed, but it is a very striking tree, and the red small crab apples are prolific, a bit too small & fiddly for making jelly I would think, but perhaps not for the experienced?

I reckon your dad would've liked Hong Kong Blue, it wasn't too humid as I recall, and sitting outside drinking a Tom Collins is quite cooling .

Chelsea update from DGD, their exhibit is now under way and progressing well. She's been told about being interviewed on Beeb South on Monday, press and celebs day, no doubt she will let us know then, but of course it's down to editors what turns up on TV

Gardening for today will be feeding the pots at the front, if it's going to be a dry as forecast then a good watering + feed will be the first of many for this summer. I need some BFB soon, to feed the dying daffs

This pic is a white lilac I planted in the volunteer border, it is near the Black Lace and is as close as I get to garden design, the idea was a beautiful double lilac [yep, the white is another mislabel] and the BL side by side brightening up the corner of the car park. Maybe in years to come once they grow & spread a bit?

Purple double lilac, thanks Morrison's