Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Gradually finding my way round, on a desktop with an ad blocker and all the trimmings, which I guess are working because I have no drop-downs or pop under etc, so apart from huge font and lack of go back quick link seems to have been fairly painless

Taff, snap on paying for green bins, except mine is brown, and it's nearly full now with tree pruning so snap again, getting something back for my dosh

A bit of rain but nothing worthwhile, still had to water the fig & posh dahlia earlier this morning

Good news, while pottering yesterday I spotted a self sown hibiscus, which conveniently has popped up in a pot. Looking a bit pale due to lack of food I'd guess, so a bit of TLC may see it transferred to the volunteer border next year

I let it be known that I have enough socks, plants etc, but posh grub is always welcome, and I'm on a waiting list for HM ginger marmalade when the next batch is made

I don't think I'm going to have enough fruit this year for HM blackberry & apple, and I'm not sprightly enough any more to gather the small plums [Mirabelles?] on a round about near me

Gorsebush

Hello all! 
My experience of the upgrade is good, so far. It's nice and clear with not much in the way of extraneous bilge. I'm using the phone. I've had it up to here (points to the ceiling) with Windows. Android is so quick for everyday stuff. 
Dusty, your lovely picture of the astilbes reminds me that one I dug up four years ago - has suddenly sprung forth again and is on the point of flowering, ditto some golden rod. 
Yesterday I planted out two purple sprouting plants, that were left over from the veg plot, into the space where I'd grown mange tout. The other purple sprouting are looking ok, have grown a fair bit as went in three weeks ago. It's was rather hot at the time, and I'd had these tiny plants sitting about since April! 
I used lots of HM compost & BF&B, placed cardboard around them and stacked my "grass cuttings", which were not much grass, just ryegrass going to seed and general weeds, over the lot. It really went against the grain to put this assorted rubbish on my veg, I can tell you! 

My green bin was emptied today, the first time since mid March. It's quite expensive this year so I delayed buying the license for some months. It had several layers of, by now, well rotted materials, and was flipping heavy to get out on to the pavement. 

My car's in for a new clutch today, so by this evening I shall be several hundred pounds lighter 🙄

Dustyevsky

Black_Cat2 said:

Hi all.  Anyone else knitting whilst planting their veg?! 😹

No, but since I've been a'mowing, the knitting appears to have shrunk in the rain. Just a narrow band on my screen now.....Oh, hang on, that's only when I'm on a thread.

Never mind, I can see the knitting represents "Hobbies and Leisure," and presumably other illustrations will follow in due course.

Gorsebush said:

Dusty, your lovely picture of the astilbes reminds me that one I dug up four years ago - has suddenly sprung forth again and is on the point of flowering, ditto some golden rod.

They're tough old things. My friend has a relatively new garden which isn't well-drained, nor can it be, thanks to another builder constructing a row of houses where the water would naturally flow. In winter, one corner goes underwater at times. Rather than get into a dispute with the builder, like I would, she's hoping to find plants that will tolerate the situation. Astilbes, lythrum and half a dozen others, including Golden Rod, are likely to do the job.

ArbitraryRandom

Gorsebush said:

My green bin was emptied today, the first time since mid March. It's quite expensive this year so I delayed buying the license for some months. It had several layers of, by now, well rotted materials, and was flipping heavy to get out on to the pavement. 

I've been a cheap skate and not paid this year at all (so they stuck an obnoxious bright orange sticker to it to 'remind' me). I've been sticking the 'bad weeds' in there (the odd bit of privet, some bindweed, and a few brambles that have been trying to creep back in mostly) and I'm hoping that by this time next year I can tip what's in there onto the compost heap  

Gorsebush

I've half filled the bin already - only another 13.5 days before they come to empty it again 😕

It's got apple tree prunings in now, plus a fair bit of human blood 😄 I'm now sporting four plasters and a rubber glove...

Murphybear

Dustyevsky said:

twopenny said:

Well we had a cold grey day with some light rain, enough to scupper anything enjoyable but not enough to get into the soil.

I haven't made as many trips to Greencombe this year Dusty. I guess there's more going on generally. And they are on a 5 day week and afternoons only so it takes planning.

We're about 32 miles apart as the crow flies, but we could be in different parts of the country! The rain was incessant here and the ground had a good soaking. It wasn't enough to get the stream going, though.

I planned to go to Greencombe and combine it with one of the well-known local walks back in spring, but the weather and other things conspired against that. Mrs Dusty could manage Greencombe now, but not the walk, so I think we'll leave it till next year. As we move into summer holiday territory, I expect to go inland more for walking, but perhaps even the touristy coastal bits aren't too crowded on the Exmoor fringes, so long as one stays out of places like Dunster, Lynmouth and, of course, Bossington! Looks like there's an easy circular route there, at the right time.

A little rain on the cards today, but not too windy, by the look of it.....we'll see.

Lots of my favourite places  . We used to go Dunster a lot when we lived in Devon, a drive up the Exe Valley then park in Dunster Castle car park as were NT members and walk down into the village.  We’d then go to Lynmouth and end up driving over Exmoor.  

Dustyevsky

Murphybear said:

Dustyevsky said:

twopenny said:

Well we had a cold grey day with some light rain, enough to scupper anything enjoyable but not enough to get into the soil.

I haven't made as many trips to Greencombe this year Dusty. I guess there's more going on generally. And they are on a 5 day week and afternoons only so it takes planning.

We're about 32 miles apart as the crow flies, but we could be in different parts of the country! The rain was incessant here and the ground had a good soaking. It wasn't enough to get the stream going, though.

I planned to go to Greencombe and combine it with one of the well-known local walks back in spring, but the weather and other things conspired against that. Mrs Dusty could manage Greencombe now, but not the walk, so I think we'll leave it till next year. As we move into summer holiday territory, I expect to go inland more for walking, but perhaps even the touristy coastal bits aren't too crowded on the Exmoor fringes, so long as one stays out of places like Dunster, Lynmouth and, of course, Bossington! Looks like there's an easy circular route there, at the right time.

A little rain on the cards today, but not too windy, by the look of it.....we'll see.

Lots of my favourite places  . We used to go Dunster a lot when we lived in Devon, a drive up the Exe Valley then park in Dunster Castle car park as were NT members and walk down into the village.  We’d then go to Lynmouth and end up driving over Exmoor.  

When I'm walking, it's with an old friend who likes me to find places she's never been, so we've tended to visit less tourist-centred locations, but there are some good walks close to where the crowds are too. In Dunster, there's a circular walk that begins in the town, goes across the Deer Park, up to Bat's Castle, along to Gallox (gallows!) Hill and back down into the town. It's about 3 miles, which is a bit short, but I see we could extend it easily now I've looked properly.

However, things can go wrong when you start messing with well-waymarked routes, but that's part of the fun. When I walk with my daughter & her husband, they use GPS, which would kill it for us old-fashioned map readers!

OT: It has hardly rained at all here, but you wouldn't have wanted to be in the 2 'showers' we had! Virtually all the grass is cut now for our family day at the weekend, and we've erected a 30' marquee tent in the garden. There's faith for you!

YoungBlueEyes

I think I'm ok with the new layout now. The super-sensitive drop down menu is annoying but I'll not go up/down over it rather than d/l'ing another thing. My laptop will start squealing if I give it anything else to think about! I've shrunk the window in at the sides so all the link boxes have gone. The big red cross is quite annoying though... I was on here on my phone yesterday and the cross is hoooj on that! Also when on my phone - the little icons in the top right of the screen (search, notifications, messages, profile) have been cut down to search and profile, and the only one I use is notifications... grrr. I don't spose there's a way to change them is there?  Also also, I liked having a link under the comment box to go back to the main page and that's gone now. *Sigh*

Wow 4 years Gorse?! So there's hope for my hydrangea yet then ha haa!

Farway are there any loose children near you? Perhaps get one lassoo'd and send it out fruit gathering. A shame to waste unreachable fruit. The birds will be pleased though I guess...

Nothing to report from Shawshank Patch. The building work is going full steam ahead again. It was only a pause while they worked out an issue with all the security cameras they'd put up to protect the machinery they leave on site overnight. The angles were over-looking our gardens, apparently, according to The Oracle who came for coffee yesterday afternoon. 

Oh and my absolutely delightful and not at all screaming heathen scum neighbours left this morning for a long weekend away. Best news I've had this year :clapping:  

OT not a drop of rain appeared yesterday, it was cloudy and dry all day. Sunny here now with a lovely cool breeze  

-taff

AR, I'd drill some holes on the sides on the bottom then if you're going to do that otherwise they'll start anaerobically composting and stink the place out and you'll have a lot of disgusting [ but useful] liquid at the bottom. To be honest, you'd need holes most of the way up too to avoid that and something to mix it around now and again. Not easy when it's filling up and heavy.

Gorse, why are you putting your weeds on your veg? Mulch? don't use bindweed though! Sorry, but I laughed at the bloody prunings..too close to home, I can find and injury in a bag of cotton wool.

Dusty, you make it sound so relaxing to go for a walk of 3 plus miles...I'd be hanging after a half mile. I wish I did like walking more, it would definitely keep me occupied...and fitter.

Weather is both dull and sunny today so far. I took up all my rhubarb yesterday and gave most of it away on a local fb group, people were really happy to have some [ or they looked happy anyway], one took it for her, she made the mistake of telling her parents, who wanted some, then her grandparents, then the care home she works in. So I told her to ask at the allotments, they'll probably be happy to give surplus to a care home. She did take a fair chunk though so there should be crumble aplenty. I couldn't face shredding the leaves for the compost bin so they went in the green bin too. I will do the potato stalks though, it'll take a while, I have two hotbins who are finickety about how things go in. I bought myself one as a tidy solution [ after years of trying all sorts] and one of my neighbours gave me his, because he knew I liked gardening and he didn't have enough to keep it going. Result! Although we did decide it is merely on long term loan until he can use it again.

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

Nothing to report from Shawshank Patch. The building work is going full steam ahead again. It was only a pause while they worked out an issue with all the security cameras 

Oh and my absolutely delightful and not at all screaming heathen scum neighbours left this morning for a long weekend away. Best news I've had this year :clapping: 

Aw, shame about the building, but at least you know the council have been alerted and (hopefully) checked it. Here, we're still awaiting our environmental impact report for the council, but at least we've a good idea of what it will say. The enforced pause in our schedule has turned-out to be beneficial, as I've had time to question decisions we made and find some potential savings.

Good news on the neighbour front, for the weekend at least. Our immediate neighbours are so insular, when we saw one of the two youngsters leaving the other day to catch a bus, we weren't sure if it was the lad or the lass. When lad was last seen he had hair to his waist, while short-haired lass hasn't been observed for about a year and never goes out unaccompanied. We therefore concluded it was lad with a new image.

OT: Bit of a damp start. Getting sunnier and calmer than expected. Tomorrow looks horrid and wet, so I guess it's window cleaning today.

A sunny plant from Rosemoor's Hot Garden follows. I can't seem to grow it, but I liked this one so much, I've decided to have another bash.

Special note to drones: "Phwoar, look at the pollen sacs on that!"  Sorry, couldn't resist...