Awful weather - typical Brits talk

ArbitraryRandom

Today has been lovely - Warm and sunny without being too hot. Not much of a breeze to speak of, but I've got a wash drying well enough. I hope this is a portent of the rest of September! 

My two female squash have both now lost their flowers. One (the first to open) is showing what looks like early end rot, so my manual attempts at pollination might not have caught, but I think it's going to be a few more days/a week before I can say for sure. None of the other embryonic flowers are near opening, but if the next couple of weeks are nice then there's still an outside chance.



Farway, strangely I've noticed these last few days a similar sight in my garden. I intentionally planted a half dozen nasturtiums in pots near my strawberries (to act as a sacrifice and pollinator attractor), but I dumped the reminder in a shady/damp spot near the compost heap (to perhaps help suppress the brambles and bindweed from returning) and, even though the seeds were supposedly mixed, when I look over that area now I'm seeing a mass of that same orange flowers. All of my potted nasturtiums have done (set seed and stopped flowering), but I don't recall seeing any flowers from this free range lot earlier in the year and I think they've just started. 

They've not entirely suppressed the brambles (not unexpected) and that area is going to need a good clear out once everything's gone dormant, but after a few dreary days, they do brighten the place up a bit  

Farway

Dustyevsky said:

Lovely stream picture 2p. I might have a photo of something from a stream later in the week, and also my Water-Forget-me-Nots. They've taken about 2 months from seed to flower! Dare I release them into the wild?

If Farway is putting up a seed raised dahlia, so will I. Had terrible germination, but this is one of three raised this year from collected seed:

Err....hang on, it's not there! ....I thought it was in my folder of MSE pictures, but no. How embarrassing!    Oh, look, a butterfly! Um, some winkles, actually. I wasn't going to mention foraging just yet, but here they are and jolly tasty too. Anyone else remember when you could buy winkles at the fishmongers? These were free from Combe Martin beach.

Hands Up!, Sir! Sir! I remember winkles, bloke with a barrow came round, and they were sold by the pint I think, measured in standard issue blue & white enamelled pint pot, probably a distant cousin of your colendar

Then it was Nan's hat pin to lever the blighters out for eating

Don't know where ours came from, cos this was in deepest Middlesex

Good crop of nasturtiums there AR, good job you like them 'cos they look like they'll settle in nicely

The dahlia pics are in progress, the masterpiece in my head somehow failed in camera

In the meantime, here are September tomatoes, the red is the one remaining outside plant & still no blight. I noticed whitefly on the Yellow, but I'll be binning those soon

Dustyevsky

Funnily enough, my winkle-eating started in Middlesex too, before my impulsive parents decided to move to the West Country. I recall early foraging on holiday near Ilfracombe before that, but with winkle-eating being frequent, those wouldn't have lasted us long. Oddly, whelks and jellied eels never featured on the home menu, but cockles made it occasionally.

I'll admit my dahlia pictures, when I can find them, aren't great either. The plants are OK. I have a slow one from Bednall Beauty seed still to dazzle me with its wonderfulness.

Good to know one small red cherry survived.

There's something more exciting foraged, but that too is in the ether somewhere. Maybe tomorrow. Meanwhile, well done to Arb for such prolific nasturtiums. We can't seem to get them to do a lot here.

pink_poppy

I think it is a seasonal thing with the blackbirds, YBE, I seem to remember them disappearing for a while in previous years. I don't know if they moult?? I know other birds do. I did see a blackbird a good few weeks ago who looked like he was having a bad hair day.

I used to eat winkles, but I don't think I could face them now. I remember a sign on our local beach that said they shouldn't be eaten from there.

ArbitraryRandom

Thanks both, but it was just the remaining few seeds in the packet that I dropped in a corner, so it's all on them. They obviously like it there. 

I'm hoping as I get to know this garden a bit better I can find more things that like to occupy neglected little corners that I can just forget about. My grandad always said the best way to stop things you don't want growing in the garden was to put in something you do want. If he was still around now I'm fairly sure he'd be one of the square foot gardeners I've been reading about  

twopenny

Yes Poppy, I've noticed that the Blackbirds disappear after raising 2 lots of kids.

Well you would wouldn't you?

And they come back as the days get shorter in order to stock up on bird table fats and such.

Dusty do you make Dulse (seaweed) crisps too?

I'm growing Nastury-whatsits next year. Maybe they'll take some of my bugs. Seems my Garlic Chives which are so precious are covered in tiny black flies again this year. Stuffs only just reluctantly recovering from the infestation last year

Had a good go at the garden this afternoon. Carefully pruned the massive Sage plant that was taking over. It was beautiful shape but marching relentlessly across my veg patch in two directions. I found a few deceased plants under it too and relocated some horrid orange slugs. Shame they're not food, they're the size of a decent meal put together..

Really neatend up but I'm to old and cream crackered to mow the debris out of the lawn from my tidyings straight after. So annoying this getting older thing.

Farway I've got a hat pin along with some wooden tooth picks in my kitchen cupboard. Really useful for getting all sorts of nooks and crannies cleaned out.

Good luck for your Squash Abs, what are you going to do with them? Eat or decoration?

My neighbour gave me two enormous Courgettes again today. Looks like a healthy diet this week. Any easy and tasty fillings anyone know?

Bluey, no tree for neighbour. It's been too dry to plant anything and I'm short of cash what with the windows, bathroom, car, heating falling to bits.

Have a sneaking hope that when the new people move into 'Vickys' house they might want to relocate her white pebbles and tiny tree out the front

YoungBlueEyes

Ok so blackies appear to have become seasonal, that's a new one on me. I put food out all year round and I don't remember them taking a break. My stoopid brain really is turning to mush! I've seen some properly tatty ones when they've finished having babbies, I'm sure I'll have a pic in my phone somewhere.... I know they're only plain and common but I'm very fond of them. I like their habits and cheeky ways, and their dawn song in the early spring is near unbeatable    Fingers crossed for your new people 2p, and the pebbles and tree For your courgette filling I would just do the standard chopped pepper/red onion/garlic, maybe a wee bit of carrot in there for the colour? Maybe a dash of worstershershire sauce. Yum  

I like your grandad's notion of planting something you do want to take over something you don't want Arb, that's brilliant And your nasturtiums do look happy eh. That's another one I'll have to look out for, the colour is so cheerful. I might even go mad and treat myself to a packet of seeds! 

Am I gong blind..? I don't see a butterfly in your winkles Dusty? The only winkles/cockles/mussels I remember eating were in a little pot from a van on Brid/Scarborough beach. Ma used to drown them in vinegar  The only thing we ate with a needle was pomegranates - we'd get one each as a treat, around my birthday/Hull fair time, cut in half and we'd sit there with newspapers on our laps and pr1ck out the seeds with a needle. I've never eaten them since in probably 35 years!  

All those toms look delish Farway, and doesn't that one on the bottom of the small red cherry look like the moon  

OT Well it's already warm enough for me, and it's domestic nonsense day today so I need to get me erse in gear before the heat gets up. It does actually feel like a summer's morning, the pressure is high and I think it makes such a difference. The sky cleared last night so I got a good look at the stars. The winter constellations are upon us  

Dustyevsky

Still some computer issues, so there won't be much from me today , especially as we're off to the hospital, but here's the other bit of foraging from a clean river not far away. Definitely not native, so OK environmentally speaking....

A healthy filling for your courgettes, 2p ? I bet you have some of these up your way too!

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

I used to eat winkles, but I don't think I could face them now. I remember a sign on our local beach that said they shouldn't be eaten from there.

Oh dear! But I'm still here, just about, and if truth be told, DD had most of ours.....like 90%. She's fine too. Makes you think, though, given the wide open spaces and amount of H2O where you are.

YoungBlueEyes

Mil wanted to go to the beach yesterday, and it was littered with dead jellyfish and mean exoskeletons. The colour of this in real life was beautiful, and a deeper blue than it looks here!