Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

Beautiful rose Bluey. You must be so proud!
I loved the caterpillars too. Brilliant shot....love the way their backends stick up and over. It's worthy of enlarging and stuck on the wall.



Cloudy wet and feels cold.
Also hoping the garage man remembers to pick up my car. He forgets but gets grumpy if reminded.
The garage is out in the sticks and he's a friend. Well he is until he tells me the car's to be scrapped.

Got the lawn mowed out front roses deadheaded and giant lavender trimmed yesterday so that's something.

Not sure about today. No car, plumber at 4pm, car result 6pm.........I'm going to need therapy after this.

Farway

Rain this morning, Ventusky radar shows two area of rain, loads over Midlands, and the only other blob is over me + Isle of Wight, supposed to brighten later though

Lovely rose & critters Blue, any ideas what they turn into? A beautiful butterfly or some dull old brown moth?

No further news on my water leak, so hoping no news is etc etc.

2P Fingers crossed for your MOT BTW

And for all the best the show Dusty, but front page on MSE must come close to fame

I was thinking of getting on and final prune of the fruit tree new growth, but the rain has stopped that, it will just get me wet lunging among the leaves, I'll settle for browsing in the new DT Brown catalogue that has arrived

My posh dahlia from a cutting has fallen over in the rain, slugs have been informed and are on the way to nibble at it

Here is a pic of it before it fell over, quite pleased actually because it was a soft cutting in May

Dustyevsky

Well, yesterday went more or less as the inebriates said, enabling me to get rid of old brash that would never compost. Hurrah!

Must be MoT testers' nightmare at the moment; all resulting from the lurgy restrictions that allowed us to save lives by driving around in untested vehicles....until autumn anyway. Many of us hadn't used them, of course. It's my turn tomorrow for the old van, so I'd better clean it and take the bags of cement that improve the roadholding out! Oh dear, how on earth can I clean it without a hose? Oh, I know, get  Mrs Dusty with her Blue Badge to do it!

Feeling somewhat more cheerful this morning, having spent much of yesterday on the Planning Portal and other exciting sites. I now believe the Council have made a rooster-up by telling us (and the world) we need to apply for planning permission, when our proposals really are covered by permitted development. Totally unhelpful. We'll see how cheerful I am after I've rung to put them right!  Either way, it's important to know. I'm fed-up with uncertainty.

In other news, someone who's just sold a property has phoned to say we can have the run of the garden for cuttings. I think there's a law about that too! As if.....

The picture this morning is self-explanatory, but I'll have a toughie for you soon.It won't be  MountainAsh/Rowan as those berries turned to mush some time ago. Birds couldn't keep up.

Dustyevsky

Farway said:

And for all the best the show Dusty, but front page on MSE must come close to fame

My posh dahlia from a cutting has fallen over in the rain, slugs have been informed and are on the way to nibble at it

Here is a pic of it before it fell over, quite pleased actually because it was a soft cutting in May

That's a great dahlia, Farway. Mine have all been S  l  o  w this season.

I'll be happy if the show just goes ahead. One village nearby had to cancel due to lack of entries.

YoungBlueEyes

Ahh now that's a beautiful flower Farway  That's something to be proud of I only bought and planted mine, it did the rest itself ha haa! A shame yours didn't last long but at least you've got a cracking photo of it    

I don't know what the critters were, I just carefully nipped the leaves off and gently put them in the garden bin so they didn't fall off. I paid a bunch of money for that rose, I'm not for bladdy sharing it! Whatever they were, if you bent down and listened carefully you could hear them munching *shudder* If any more appear I'll try and get a better/closer photo so yous can see and maybe id them

You're car-less today too 2p? I was cross when the news came on in the car that wilko's has finally sunk, and me with no car to get there and scoop armloads of bargains into my trolley Mind I don't think they've much left now have they? I hope the staff get something else soon. In the wind-up to christmas they should fare ok. I hope.

Soggy walk back from the garage earlier, still raining now but only gently. It's not cold still, but a nice coolness.

Dustyevsky

Farway & 2p have said it already, but that's so good, the way they're all doing gymnastics! But which one is the instructor? 

Farway

YoungBlueEyes said:

Ahh now that's a beautiful flower Farway  That's something to be proud of I only bought and planted mine, it did the rest itself ha haa! A shame yours didn't last long but at least you've got a cracking photo of it    


You're car-less today too 2p? I was cross when the news came on in the car that wilko's has finally sunk, and me with no car to get there and scoop armloads of bargains into my trolley :( Mind I don't think they've much left now have they? I hope the staff get something else soon. In the wind-up to christmas they should fare ok. I hope.

Ours had nothing much in even a few weeks back when it was announced. Ours seems to have been spared, not the staff unfortunately but the shop. It has a car park next to it, I read B & M only wanted ones with car parks, bulky items needing cars to take home

Never used B & M, maybe handy here, if they sell plants they may water them unlike the Wilko branch, it was pitiful seeing all the dead & dying once healthy plants in the racks at the front

Oooh, just Duck'd and seems B & M are into garden items, hooray

ArbitraryRandom

I'd say Rose Sawfly caterpillars - The adult looks like this - it's is one of the few creatures I kill when I see it. 

They lay their eggs directly into the stem of new growth (you can see the darker line/scar) and killed off half my buds last year. If you v. firmly run your thumbnail up the stem (inc above and below a scar) you can crush the eggs before they hatch. 

YoungBlueEyes

Jeez I'd be having conniptions if after all this it comes under PD Dusty. Grrr

My B+M does some gardening bits, nothing startling, it's like Lidl/Aldi - a rack full of stuff that sits outside and gets dragged in overnight. Inside are a few more bits of fashionable tat of gardening extras but again nothing spectacular. I still like trotting round it though. Hopefully yours is a good one Farway.

I've heard the same about the wilko stores. B+M aren't having all of the shops/staff but are carefully selecting the right parcels of land... Well I spose you would really wouldn't you. 

I'll tell you a funny thing about the critters, they were chowing away without moving their bodies. It kinda freaked me out  

YoungBlueEyes

Thanks Arb. I didn't check the stems tbh, I just gently nipped the leaves off. I'll have to go out and do a scar check when it stops persisting it down. 

That's not an unattractive bug though. The wings look a bit Lacewing-y