Awful weather - typical Brits talk

YoungBlueEyes

Aye isn’t it. I’d offer to send you a few jars but it’d be cheaper making your own. You got a jam kettle? 

ArbitraryRandom

I was just thinking I could send people some of this rain! It's been two days now and probably not far off two inches of the stuff... 

YoungBlueEyes

Arb just build an aquaduct and you can send it straight down to 2p  

Lovely autumnal morning here. Quite a nice sunrise, and a clear sky now. Damp and fragrant and cool. Just a thought though, if we're getting this now, does that mean we'll be getting winter in a few weeks...  The sky cleared last night so I was out looking for the Perseids but I've missed them. It's the blue moon next and I'll hardly miss that. She said, hopefully. 

twopenny

Oh yes please! Cloud from tomorrow and Chance of rain at the weekend but only a bit. Just enough to spoil fun and not water the garden 
Having a bit of trouble posting as I took a bit out of my finger tip with my newly sharpened secutures
Beware Bluey!

ArbitraryRandom

This morning I 'harvested' my first nasturtium seeds - only half a dozen, but that's as many as I sowed in the pots at the start of the year. I'm going to let some of the plants just self seed, but wanted to gather some just in case it's a very frosty winter or something. Now I understand I just let them dry on a window cill until they're brown and wrinkly? 

I also bought the seed offer in martin's email (20 mixed herb and veg seed packets for £9.95) and picked up some sweet pea and more nasturtiums (black ones!) at the same time. I probably won't want to grow them all (especially given I already have a big stash) but I can keep spares for next year or rehome anything I don't want. 

Next job... whenever it's dry... is to build the raised beds I bought and get enough compost from the tip to fill them. But I'm not planting them up until spring(?) so plenty of time to procrastinate on that one  

Still no actually open flowers on the squash (sad face) but lots growing. Someone mentioned to me that you can eat squash flowers (stuff and roast them), so even if I don't get any fruit, I might try the flowers.  

Farway

YoungBlueEyes said:

Aye isn’t it. I’d offer to send you a few jars but it’d be cheaper making your own. You got a jam kettle? 

Not got a jam kettle, but if in jammy mode I use large s/steel pot wot I use for things like soup or stewed apples

Not averse to making my own, except for the peel chopping and general faffing about. I think my next jam making will be blackberry & windfalls. I picked nearly a kilo of my own blackberries yesterday, it has been a very good year indeed

ArbitraryRandom said:

This morning I 'harvested' my first nasturtium seeds - only half a dozen, but that's as many as I sowed in the pots at the start of the year. I'm going to let some of the plants just self seed, but wanted to gather some just in case it's a very frosty winter or something. Now I understand I just let them dry on a window cill until they're brown and wrinkly? 

 

Yes, easy as that, also works they are left in your pocket, top of microwave or on garden wall . Of course, the ones you sow and nurture fail, the self seeders just romp away. I've found the darker flowered ones, like black / purple, are a bit picky on growing when compared to bog-standard yellow or reds

Best of luck though, if they self seed you have them forever, I have trailing ones whose ancestors started life here over thirty years ago. Picture at end of posting

Nice sunny & warm, went to Morries for "bits" and came home with two packs of daff bulbs, £2 for 15. They also have tulips, crocus and alliums, I was tempted by alliums, but the blighters never grow here. Likewise, crocus is just squirrel fodder here

The yellow reduced stuff was terrible, dead anitirinaums, bunny rabbits that had long gone back to Valhalla & the fiords of home

The Happy Days tomato is still blight free [probably die right now], if it tastes OK could be worthwhile, except it's F1 and not cheap. Not tasted it yet

It is the large one below, the small one is Cherry Falls, early ripening, taste is OK when ripe, handy in patio pots I'd think. Saving some seed to try again next year

The apple is one of my windfalls, the bean is Firestorm

 Here is my one of the trailing red self sown nasturtiums whose ancestors arrived here over 35 years ago, with cabbage white caterpillar fattening itself up. I leave the nasturtiums deliberately as sacrificial plants for the cabbage whites

Dustyevsky

ArbitraryRandom said:

I was just thinking I could send people some of this rain! It's been two days now and probably not far off two inches of the stuff... 

We were out yesterday, hospital visiting 'oop norf', (virtually everything is north of us here! ) There were a few big showers around. We dodged all but one. Returning home on the A303 it was much the same story, but as soon as we crossed into Devon it was sunshine all the way.

Here's it looking somewhat threatening around Yeovilton: (and a big mushroom rather like the one PP posted last week! )

Dustyevsky

RAS said:

Another photo from Sunday's garden.

I've looked at various other hellebores but can't see anything that should flower at this time of year with these leaves. Or is it orientalis thrown by the strange season?  Any thoughts?

It is greenish white rather than pure white.

Yes, that happens with H. orientalis. Even some of mine are flowering weakly, and I haven't cut back or fed them. If cut back before seeding, and given good culture, they may well flower again.

Lovely sunny day here, but I won't be around much today again. Council meeting tonight, and after yesterday, I'm bushed already, so may have to get a nap in.

Here's another Rosemoor photo to make up for my lack of written content. Lovely bee-friendly Agastache with Heleniums in the background:

YoungBlueEyes

Gawd 2p! Was it a nick or a whole chunk? No fear of me harming myself with mine - I’ve been out a few times and seen stuff I quite fancied a share of but I never remember to take them with me. So that solves that problem! 🙄 

I was only in Morrisons yesterday and there were no bulbs or fig trees or anything. It’s a fair sized one with a garden bit too. I wonder if these things are sometimes regional…? And as for your tom pic Farway, my eyes skipped ahead to it as I was reading and I thought your apple was a blighted tom   

I’m sure I’ve read something about edible flowers in my cookbook Arb, I’ll have another look. If anyone’s after an entertaining read I can recommend it - Cooking with Elizabeth Craig, published by Collins. 

Good luck tonight Dusty, hopefully you’re on the home straight now

YoungBlueEyes

Here you go. The only flowers mentioned in the index are nasturtiums and this is the recipe it gives. There’s also a blackberry one and a green tomato one  

Squash flowers must have been mentioned as a garnish for something…