Awful weather - typical Brits talk

ArbitraryRandom

Yep, my primitive little weather station shows more than an inch of rain between midnight (when I went to bed) and 7 this morning. It woke me up a couple of times sounding like someone had a shower on full blast pointed at my bedroom window! 

The venti app says it should still be raining now, and for most of the day, but the air is very still and there's enough blue for a pair of trousers so I think we'll be okay for a while. 

YoungBlueEyes

Ventusky and sobers have given a bit cloudy, possibly drizzly later this aft. The drunkards have just put out a weather warning alert thing for desperate thunderstorms, lashing wind and rain, from 1100-2000. So I've put himself's work clothes on to wash. It was me buying that bbq wot done it  

twopenny

Got rain here too!!
A lovely torrent for 10mins then spitting. But this morning it's still raining a bit and so cold!
Down to 14c. I'm thinking of putting the heating on for a bit   
Forcast much the same for the day, just a couple of degrees warmer.
My January quince is blooming! Raggedy white flowers. Not worth a photo.

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

. Did anyone else get it?

No! All the nasty stuff missed us yesterday, but there was a thunderstorm centred about 12 miles away, so we heard it. I got more grass cut, zapped the remaining thistles and the youngsters refurbished their main ferret run, all in the dry.   It rained in the night, though, and it's still throwing it down, so we were just late to the party.

Cool with sunshine and sudden heavy showers today, when the continuous rain stops, that is! We have two boisterous children here over the weekend, and I've no idea what to do with them. Perhaps we'll go to the river on the basis that they're going to get wet there within 5 minutes of arrival anyway.

On the subject of 're-wilded' woodland, there's still a maintenance commitment, especially in the early years. Then, after about 12 years, it becomes necessary to cut down some trees to leave enough space for others. We're faced with that now in our mini-wood. In the winter, I'll be cutting down some cherry and Italian alder, so oaks and other slower growing trees can thrive. There isn't much work needed on the land under the trees now, and we'll get plenty of 'free' logs, but essential thinning will go on for several years.

As our fields are now species-rich, it would be plain daft to change them into woodland, but of course those offering the grants, trees etc don't know that, and they probably don't care much either. There's a very fine balance being struck here. I noticed yesterday, we've gained in coarse grasses this year, and that's probably down to a lack of sheep grazing last winter. Maybe just 5 years of poor management, and things could soon revert to what we inherited.

Farway

Sunshine mostly, no rain forecast, but I went up to the volunteer place first thing and watered the large pots, they were quite dry despite the recent rain, my watering and YBE BBQ should now trigger a deluge

Noticed on my way back indoors the last tomato, small cherry from West Country, has blighted overnight . I'll pick the few ripe ones off it and bin the rest later

Started early pruning / tidy of the white [now brown] buddleia yesterday, but now I'm down to needing loppers for the rest, a job for another day

Picked more blackberries yesterday PM, today is jam making day , I'm all set for later with my previously frozen blackberries defrosted

OT, wind farms, saw a bit on YT with some master cunning plan, Energy Hubs in the North Sea. Sort of huge Mulberry harbour cassions, towed out, fixed to sea bed and turns into enormous junction boxes linking all the countries with windfarms around the North Sea. Belgium has started on their one. So YBE, maybe some wise heads have been thinking about it?

Let's hope the mysterious explosions on the gas pipeline aren't contagious. Because no one wants to talk about it, I wonder if Buster Crabbe was involved, will we find a headless frogman somewhere?

Back to the garden, checking the pears yesterday, the large hard red ones came off in my hand, so I'm assuming they were ready to come away, the green ones remained stuck fast

I read somewhere that pears don't ripen on the tree like apples do, which is why they ripen in the middle of the night and are rotten by morning, not quite, but it does seem the case sometimes.

Anyway, here are this year's red hard pears, which hopefully will ripen on the window sill. 50P for scale

pink_poppy

Bloomin' heck, those pears look huge!!

pink_poppy

Right, I’m attempting to post this from my ancient phone so I can add a couple of pics.

This is one of my chilli pepper plants - you know, the ones I STILL haven’t repotted 🙄 I thought the fruit (??) was dying and turning black, but it’s actually purple, so I’m wondering if I have an edible chilli pepper, despite my neglect 😂



The next pic is a crab apple tree nearby that is absolutely covered in fruit this year. The apples are only tiny wee things, but I remember last winter when we had snow and ice for weeks they were snaffled up by a flock of birds (I can’t remember what they were) that basically stripped the tree over a couple of days.



Weather is looking a bit grey at the moment, but Ventusky is saying no rain this afternoon so I’ve persuaded DH to hang his washing outside 🙏

YoungBlueEyes

Hope you got your washing dry pp? Himself’s has been out all day, having a good blow about and I’ve just put it away. It’s sept on Friday so I think you’ve missed the potting out boat ha haa! 

Rain for 2p! Woohoo! Was it a useful amount or just surface wetting? 

Aww blight Farway :’( Did you get enough for a chutney in the end? And I like the look of ya big red hard (ooer missus) pears :y:yum:
I did think the wise heads must been doing something about keeping the lights on. A big jobber under the sea sounds good, as long as it’s only friends that have access to it. Ahem. We don’t want bare-chested stallion riders interfering when he doesn’t get his way over whatever. Now I’ve said that, was it a stallion? Anyway. Hopefully they’re on with nuclear too 🤞🏻Will have to DuckDuck Buster Crabbe… 

And everyone’s safe from the rain for a while cos I forgot to get burgers and bits out the freezer so the bbq will have to wait and it’s Chinese for dinner   

Dustyevsky

Well, after a wobbly morning with those expected sudden showers, we took a gamble on the afternoon weather and the river. It stayed dry and mostly sunny, but of course the grandchildren ended-up wet anyway! (As you can see, Grandchild 1 does his own thing, clothing-wise; it wasn't cold! )

While the kids and their Mum took the most direct route to the river, Mrs Dusty and I did a full 1.5 mile circuit of the woodland. We didn't see many good blackberries, but I spotted some tasty looking berries on a Guelder Rose. They can safely be made into jelly or jam, but not eaten raw. 

Any idea what the chilli plant variety is PP? It looks a little like Numex Twilight....If it is, it would be ready!

YoungBlueEyes

Fab pics Dusty! Jeez I miss messing about in the river, I really need to get a dog. Any treasure discovered or fishes caught?  And I never knew roses had berries, don't they look tempting  

Really quite cool here this morning, with condensation on the outside of the windows and everything. Nice and sunny though, and a tiny breeze. Good day for grafting - I've had enough of this never-ending patio nonsense now so we're having a full couple of days at it. As soon as he peels is erse outta bed like