Awful weather - typical Brits talk

pink_poppy

Glad your seeds arrived, YBE I hope they do grow up to be white aquilegia haha. So when does the battle commence?? When and how do we sow them, because I have no idea?? Dusty??

Btw, your walking partner must have the patience of a saint. I think I would have had a serious humour bypass on that walk. I do get quite grumpy when I don't know where I'm going and there's no end in sight Hope the arm isn't too sore this morning.

Tomatoes... I have another two ready to eat, but why are they always on different trusses (I think that's the right term)?? I'd love to snip off a whole bunch of ripe toms, but it's always one red one, 3 or 4 nowhere near ripe.

It's looking grey and windy out there this morning, with a few rain clouds.

YoungBlueEyes

Ooh I don't know pp, hopefully a proper person will come to our rescue and give us simple instructions It'd be nice if they're white, but when I Duck'd the images I thought the shape was pure lovely so they can be any colour they like and I'll be happy enough. Even that mucky mauve ha haa!

I'm the same with toms. I've one going a slightly pale red colour in the stripey ones I snipped off, and one more looking the same in my bucket toms. It is what it is I think.

Farway

Morning folks, rain just arrived in Dorset according to Ventusky, so I'm next, certainly dark enough for it

Dusty, I'm another follower of Mahya, actually I watch a few subversive channels, even K Hopkins who is marmite of course but often bang on target

Must be something in the West Country water, my DIL is on hols down Cornwall, and spent time in A & E with a strained leg and is now hobbling around Newquay on crutches, nice view of Fistral beach apparently even though of no use to her right now

GorseB, is the squash going to be edible or ornamental? I grew ornamental ones years ago, just for curiosity, and some looked similar

BTW, if you had a mishap, the dogs would probably eat you . Do you have What Three Words on your phone just in case the dogs start eyeing you up?.

A good haul in B & Q YBE, House price reduction, when we were selling my late mum's house three of us were going to benefit, two of us wanted to drop & one did not. Mind changed once the rates on empty houses doubled, and it was obviously going to cost money monthly just to keep asking an unobtainable price & prove a point

With mortgage rates as they are, and hence fewer buyers, you may find a sudden dose of reality comes along.

pink_poppy said:

Tomatoes... I have another two ready to eat, but why are they always on different trusses (I think that's the right term)?? I'd love to snip off a whole bunch of ripe toms, but it's always one red one, 3 or 4 nowhere near ripe.

As YBE, says, it is what it is. I think the ripe trusses you see in shops are specials, by which I mean cosseted and probably gassed to all ripen at the same time, hence the price

Just Duck'd how, yep, cheating & gas https://www.houzz.com/discussions/4011233/ripen-tomatoes-simultaneously

I noticed I have two Helen blackberries coming on, this plant is just a young 'un bought this year so was not expecting it to produce, be nice to have a taste though, if they come to anything

My apples are really coming on now since the rain, not a heavy crop but OK, enough for me at least

And I have the first Yellow Balcony tomato ready if anyone in the West is checking

Figs, also doing well, soon be time to protect using poly bag method someone posted on here

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

Glad your seeds arrived, YBE I hope they do grow up to be white aquilegia haha. So when does the battle commence?? When and how do we sow them, because I have no idea?? Dusty??

Btw, your walking partner must have the patience of a saint. I think I would have had a serious humour bypass on that walk. I do get quite grumpy when I don't know where I'm going and there's no end in sight Hope the arm isn't too sore this morning

Arm's almost better, thanks. An afternoon lolling in a chair listening to brass bands probably helped. Walking partner has some worries right now, so expeditions that go a bit wrong are almost a welcome distraction. There's also the satisfaction of doing stuff people of our age aren't supposed to do. It's all in the famous poem,' Warning' by Jenny Joseph, part of which I'll quote:

When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people’s gardens
And learn to spit......

Except we weren't that sober in our youth! 

Mrs Dusty thinks like you. She's much better at another sort of walking, where you go slower, use your eyes and ears and discover more than those who push on in pursuit of miles and physical challenges. There's no right sort of walking, though. You just do the kind that works for you...or the dog, if you have one.

I think aquilegia seed grows without special treatment. It would normally fall in the wild during June, so it's a bit late now to go 'natural,' but you could do half now and half in early spring. If those you start now romp ahead, so much the better.

Damp start and drizzly wet most of the day here, apparently. I shall do housework....well, that's Mrs Dusty's prediction, and she's usually right!

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

That was some video Dusty, I've not seen him before but he seemed to talk a bit of sense. One thing I don't like is this new (?) BBC Verify thing. Well aren't they verifying everything? It makes it sound like anything on their normal programs is a bit hit and miss.

Some of us only watch the mainstream now to see what they're saying, or more often, what they're not saying

Obviously, non-legacy media channels have distinct bias, but it's naive to think that there's none in the mainstream. On the whole, with the BBC it's implied rather than in your face, but it's there.

 OT, it's not raining here!

Farway

Dustyevsky said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

That was some video Dusty, I've not seen him before but he seemed to talk a bit of sense. One thing I don't like is this new (?) BBC Verify thing. Well aren't they verifying everything? It makes it sound like anything on their normal programs is a bit hit and miss.

Some of us only watch the mainstream now to see what they're saying, or often what they're not saying,

PS I shall remove this later. A problem now is not knowing what can be said . Going off-topic is an infringement, so OT, it's not raining here!

You and me both, but one day's conspiracy is next week's fact, of course

Funny how lots of flying saucer reports abound, just at the time there are other things going on but not reported

Not raining here either, was expecting it but radar show it has skirted my patch, or it's boiled off

YoungBlueEyes

Ah I'm glad you're mended Dusty, and hopefully between you being a wally and getting a bit lost you're providing a good distraction for your friend And as for the Jenny Joseph poem that will be me as long as brandy can be Bushmills, and the pensions are himselfs - I reckon that pot will be long empty by the time I get my paws in it.. I need to get organised and marry himself or I'll barely have a pension at all. Or start keeping meself in better nick so if himself drops deed I can replace him with a weak-hearted sugar daddy. Either or. 

Well if you're ready we could start today pp? I think I'll stick a few into some compost in my choc tray, drizzle with rain drops and sit it on a windowsill. When if they die there'll be some left for Spring  

Speaking of that K person - I remember her on telly a good while ago saying something like 'you can judge parents by their children's names. If it's Chardonnay you can write them all off' or similar. I was nodding along thinking well aye course you would, and then there was a huge backlash against her that surprised the life outta me! So, shows what I know  

Dogs Gorse, you can't trust them, not even properly trained and disciplined ones. I got my foot stuck in soft silty sand in a river once, and would my dog come to me so I could slip his lead on and have him pull me out? Would he beggary. That was the day he decided to obey one of the other dog walkers and kept well away. The lot of them were stood on the bank laughing at me (dogs included) while I had to slip my welly off and struggle back to dry land. And the second I got out he leapt into the river to exactly where I'd been stood to smell what the trouble was. Swine that he was ha haa!

-taff

Well, well done to the picture takers, they're more often than not on the home page now [ I check now to see who's flying the garden picture of the day flag]. If weather predicters could be more accurate it would help but I've always taken that with a pinch of salt anyway [ no, there won't be a hurricane..anyone? ] However, the BBC were kind of right [for the heat but not the date] because the weather was definitely stupid hot in Catania, last week .My cousins son sent my sister a pic of the temp in his friends car, which was under shade in a car park, and it was 51 degrees...Hot pockets, cold pockets..the only way to know for sure is go outside and look at the stone.

I mowed what lawn here is this monring and am going to attempt to grow the courgettes upright this year, aided by some bamboo sticks. I wasn't going to but after I chopped off a few of the !!!!!! leaves that were sprawling across my grass cutting area, I though why not. Todays veg is brought to you me by the garden, beans in oil and vinegar with garlic and parsley [ sadly not mine, bloody stuff will not grow for me this year] and potatoes [from next door] with lemon. I've picked a tromboncino this morning, a courgette, a few more beans and some plum cherry tomatoes [sorry!]  Weather stayed dry until I ifnished mowing, then drizzled light/heavy since then. I'm going to see my sister next week soI'm hoping OH can remember to feed and water, otherwise I'll be building a new patio.

YoungBlueEyes

51?! That’s unbearable. I’ve experienced 48’ and it near crippled me. 

Weather apps were wrong here. No showers, just v warm sun and windy. But I’ve some good gardening done (no seeds yet, tell me when you’re ready pp). You know those small jobs that takes hours? I only wanted to pull up some nettles and get my new climbing rose in on the back fence but jeez I underestimated the nettles. For one thing they were slathered in what DuckDuck tells me were Nettle Bugs, and the roots were as bad as tree roots 🥵 Getting all the webs up was hard going! Anyway, done now. 

I’m carefully avoiding all veg talk, I’m only jealous. And short on space to do my own. And lacking in capability. But next year…. 

Gorsebush

Afternoon all from a grey and soggy portion of this sceptered isle. Yesterday was surprisingly nice in an October'ish kind of way, but now it's back to normal 😕 
One bright spot was finding quite a bit of old stone very near a handy parking spot for the car, which I availed myself of. 

Let me reassure you that I love Mahya Tousi, and if I was 40 years younger I'd be trying to engineer a meeting with him! In his early days of YouTubing he talked about his childhood and how his family had to flee Iran. He has the occasional guest appearance on GB News. He could hold his own anywhere I think.

The squash is a winter one, Ukichi Kuri, Farway. I had just one decent squash last year, hung it up in an old stocking in the small bedroom I use as a store - and promptly forgot it 🤦 Found it in March, by which time it had dissolved into a small lump of jelly. 

Blue, I'm concerned that you will run out of space if you keep impulse buying plants, but I get that you're saving them from Big Store abuse! 
Your tale of the unhelpful dog resonated all too well. Sometimes I think they play dumb on purpose. My old collie had his "Lassie" moment once. Actually saved me. But that's a story for another day.

Is it ok to post a picture of a last year's tomato?  I'm not sure if it's the done thing to hark back to previous small triumphs. If its beyond the pale, I'll keep it to myself to furtively glance at now and then.