Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:
Update on my mono-petal - it smells a bit nutmeg/cinnamony, but only a bit

https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/item_401c_cosmos_bipinnatus_cupcakes_blush_seeds 

YoungBlueEyes

Ah that's the very one! I hope I can catch the seeds out of it cos I want them all over And I'll share them if anyone's after some. 

Weather has stopped play here now, it's just too hot. We're clipping along though, and might even get it finished up for the weekend

Also - congrats on getting your bathroom done 2p (seen on another thread) :applause:  

ArbitraryRandom

pink_poppy said:

A very cute ferret  

Or a very funny looking otter  

Apologies, a long post from me today - with a request for some plant ID help at the end.

I've tried to condense what I want to say, but I'm fit for nothing here - it's 24 in the shade and I'm just not built for heat (joking: 'if I liked to see the sun on the regular, I wouldn't live in the UK') 

Update:

I think the majority of my strawberries died yesterday (the ones in pots). If not dead then they look like they want to be - practically flat. I should have been out watering them, but now everyone's coming back from the summer it's got hectic at work and by the time I could do it, it was too hot and I was tired... I watered them earlier and I can do it again this evening (if it ever cools down) so hopefully they'll cope and I can get them in the ground/new raised beds in October if everything goes to plan. I think it was YBE who warned me about how quickly these pots dry out and hats off to you, you were right. They do a decent job but don't hold any water at all. The little alpine ones that I put in the shadow of the hedges seem to be doing okay, so they'll be a pest to pick fruit from but should be doing okay next year at least  

Better news on the squash front - it also didn't get watered yesterday (my bad) but it's got deeper roots and a much bigger pot, so that's okay. I also think (again, it's a little early to say) that one of the squash caught. One has I think gotten bigger and healed the blossom end. It's now about the size of a small mango maybe. I'm saying it's caught in comparison to the other one that opened a couple of days later - which when the rain was positively lashing it down constantly. That one hasn't grown, is a little soft, and has turned a bit yellowish. I'm going to give it a little longer but I understand when I'm sure I should cut it off so it doesn't cause problems as it rots. 

Help:

I had to go into town today (to return things and to try to get my screen laptop fixed again). I did a little casual scouting of the train station surrounds, and spotted a few possible forageable things. But before I pick (and eat), I'd like to double check my ID with you if that's okay? I think we can all agree I'm enthusiastic, but by no means an expert at anything  

I think we have dog rose (hips), crap apples (this one I was confident enough of to take a nibble at and it's definitely apple tasting - and reasonably edible if a little astringent)... and the third I'm less sure about. looks like crab apple, right firmness but the blossom end looks wrong and it has very serrated leaves - more like a cherry... but I don't think so. 

ArbitraryRandom

Dustyevsky said:

It is a Ferret, though a 'polecat' variety. Ferrets get a bad press. If they're 'brung up proper' they don't usually bite, and they're always either asleep or up for a game. They travel well compared with most dogs and cats. That one's going on holiday soon, and a little bird tells me it'll be doing part of the NC 500.

OT: 21c here at 09.00 and a humid misty start. Not planning anything in the polytunnel today!

When I was about 14, my parents had their mid life crisis and moved us to the countryside (bought a small holding, as you do). This led to my single (to date) interaction with a ferret: 

I was walking home from the school bus; it was deep fog and the monotonous rhythm of my footsteps on the weathered surface was the only sound. The embankments, rising on either side, framed the unchanging landscape, creating an almost meditative ambiance as I walked... then, emerging from the fog, a hissing ferret, with its back arched, was running at me!

Long story short, I legged it. My parents didn't believe me when I said I was attacked by a wild beast (I didn't know if it was a polecat or maybe even a mink - and to my brain it was around breeding season so not impossible something was feeling territorial), but it turned up in the garden later and my dad picked it up. It belonged to the neighbour and had escaped. Apparently it was hungry, and when ferrets want to be picked up they arch and hiss (which doesn't seem at all intuitive to me). It enjoyed a raw egg (very messy!) then dad took it home.

pink_poppy

Ooh, the third pic looks like an ornamental cherry I had in my last garden, AR. No idea about the other two.

Love the story about the hissing ferret - I think I would have done exactly the same as you and legged it  

Hope you manage to save your strawberry plants - they're one thing I would love in the garden because I eat loads in the summer. Well done on the squash too - it sounds like it's growing well.

twopenny

Don't give up on the strawberry plants. I thought mine were gonners in the long dry months but have bounced back with the cool and drizzly spell and producing some runners which I'm encouraging - as they should be replaced every 3yrs or so.

Tough old beasts

Abs, the first are cultivated rose hips. I've heard on google that they are edible but it's the wild ones you make syrup from. I'm wary of the ordinary rose ones.

Second goodness knows.

Third is ornamental cherries I'd have thought. You can make stuff with some but it's not worth it. The birds do like them so I'd leave them for the feathered friends. The stones you find left around as Bluey did.

Farway lovely array of foliage in that photo.

Sunny and hot, hot, hot. So after chatting to neighbours, taking one for a run over the hills in the car I hasten to add and going for a swim with friends I got down to seeing if my pressure washer would work today. Meah, better but no cigar. So cleaner slabs.

Then the plaster came and used my front patio to cut stuff and not clear up

At least my efforts watered some hedging.

A surprise when pruning I accidentally lopped of a frond from a giant fern.

It's covered in spores so now I need to research 'how to grow ferns from seed'

Photo to follow.

Sorted out the poles for my arbour but it's taken so long to wait for someone to do it properly and not coming, then rain, then rock hard ground etc that it's already shady from the old rose growing. Such is circumstance.

It's glorious and I have a day off from praising workmens efforts so no plans for tomorrow other than a Devon beach

ArbitraryRandom

twopenny said:

Third is ornamental cherries I'd have thought. You can make stuff with some but it's not worth it. The birds do like them so I'd leave them for the feathered friends. The stones you find left around as Bluey did

I'm an idiot (I'd blame the heat, but then what's my excuse the rest of the year?) I just fished one out of the compost tub and cut it in half and I'm now even more confident it's not cherry. 

I'm going to guess something apple related, but it doesn't smell like apple. Smells a bit 'vegitationy' rather than fruity... brings to mind a weed that stinks when you cut it but I can't for the life of me remember the name. Something in my brain is telling me 'do not eat' so I obviously associate the smell with something not nice. 

Dustyevsky

It's too late for wild cherry. It's a crab apple, Arb. See cut-through example here:

https://www.frankpmatthews.com/catalogue/ornamental-trees/malus/malus-dr-campbells/

I'm not suggesting it's this particular variety.

Dustyevsky

Hmm, looks as if we might have a small shower soon, and then more scorchio, though with greater cloud cover. That's OK with me.

Yesterday, we cleaned out and disinfected the chicken house, which is a shed with adaptations. I'll have to renew the roof covering, and today would be ideal if I had the materials! I'll be lucky to do it for under £100, the way DIY prices have gone.

Looking at Arb's pics reminds me, it's been a good year for wild fruits. I'll try to get a picture of some hawthorns we have, or the rowan that's bending under the weight of berries. There's a good crop of hazelnuts too.

Thinking about 2p's self-seeded aquilegias, the ones I pictured a few weeks ago in a 9 cm pot have mostly succumbed to recent extremes of rain and heat, with the 'interesting' variegated and golden-leafed ones being the worst casualties. I won't cheat and sow more, though!

YoungBlueEyes

Arb that reminded me of one of my favourite misquotes - "Forgive the length of my letter, I had not time to make it shorter." Maybe Spike Milligan...? Anyway. I think your strawbs will be ok with a good watering, I've near killed mine a few times but they bounce back I'll not even try with your ID's, but I do like the speckled-y mottled-y look of the second pic, almost artistic. The sliced in half fruit - the flesh looks familiar, have I maybe eaten those somewhere along the way? I've only got 2 coffees in me so far, I'm not to be trusted  

I hope your fern's successful 2p, do you think it will be? I do like a fern. Aren't they a squillion years old and have never changed since the dinosaurs were eating them? Have you got a quiet beach to go to or will it be full of people? 

So how are the girls settling in Dusty? Did it all get a bit red in tooth and claw in the henhouse or were they alright? 

Meant to be a bit less scorchio here today, and may or may not be cloudy - sobers and ventusky say cloudy ‘til about 4ish, drunkards reckon sun from 9ish through to sunset. Time will tell. They all agree about the humidity though, they’ve given the same damp and drier levels through the day. I wonder why that’s the bit that’s so easily forecastable….