Awful weather - typical Brits talk

ArbitraryRandom

I'm on my phone so the picture is a bit small, but could it be a battered privet?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privet#/media/File:Schurenbachhalde_11_ies.jpg

goldfinches

Haven't the faintest idea what that might be PP, I don't recognise the leaves at all, sorry. Lovely photo of the crab apples, much nicer than about 99% of the Christmas tat currently infesting even the charity shops.
I managed a walk yesterday morning before it poured down and snapped the parakeets against a lovely blue and white sky.



There's only one in the frame because all the others kept flitting around so much I couldn't capture them.

LessImpecunious

ArbitraryRandom said:

I'm on my phone so the picture is a bit small, but could it be a battered privet?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privet#/media/File:Schurenbachhalde_11_ies.jpg

Agreed - looks like a privet (the wild rather than usually-cultivated) species...

Dustyevsky

I think the Welsh Poppies doing a second flowering in Scotland at this time could be 'normal,' but not the Ceanothus. I was stumped by the black berries, thinking maybe Rhamnus cathartica (Purging Buckthorn) but the leaves were wrong and no spines. Aronia, was also considered, but it would need to be in a garden. So, I believe Arb is correct, though I've never had that many berries on my wild privet or had the leaves go battered like that this early.

Poppy, you were lucky seeing those waxwings. I don't imagine they'll come this far south.    There may have been an early fieldfare here the other day, but I was rather dopey early in the morning, so it might have been a woodpecker.Still no parakeets!

Not much news. I'm filling-in the side vents on the polytunnel with polythene windows for the impending seasonal weather. Can't put the doors on until this storm passes through!

wort

Dusty love your description of the GC.😂 and your fab pics.
Farway I hope your throat is better, one of the reasons I’m going to put my jab off till after my hols. Not sure if it’s the right reason though.
2p I would love the view from your bedroom, so pretty.

I have worked all weekend so am envious of your blue sky pics and tales of drying washing. My days off are today and tomorrow and the forecast is wet wet and more wet. I need to wash uniform though. Also need to dig out the thick thermals as yesterday the heating at work broke and was pumping out freezing cold air. Which is a regular thing in winter🫣🥶 even with 2 jackets on it was Baltic, I had to resort to putting the heating on for an hour when I got home to warm up.
washer is on and I need to go to lidl at some point.

sorry I can’t help with coal storage, though a quick google of garden storage brings up a range of ideas.

twopenny

Some early birds on the forum. I seem to wake at 7 since the clocks went back because my body thinks it's 8!
Yes the skies are blue between the clouds. Fabulous shapes. Would like to see some parakeets and remind me of sunny days in oz.
Nothing much on the bird front here. Don't know where they have all gone.

It's wet outside already but bright. I'll take that. Only gardening on the cards is trying to secure pots. One large one in particular. I've tried all sorts but nothing works so far.
Can't afford to loose them as they cost a fortune now and if you can find replacements among the Christmas tat it's not going to be great.

Hair and car today. Can't decide between a trip to the moors or stores 50 miles away. It's freezing on the moor and wet. 

Yes to the privet. Knew it reminded me of something.
Hope the post jab ailments are easng Farway. A lot of people seem to have had a reaction. In your case an expensive one if you're inside browsing gardening catalogues. Perhaps research coal bins for Abs    

pink_poppy

Privet - I didn't expect that haha. It was on a main road, not in a garden, so that could explain the uncultivated bit. We do seem to have a lot of berries around at the moment - sign of a harsh winter to come??

I've only ever seen Waxwings once before, when we lived in the NE of England. They were eating the Cotoneaster berries if I remember rightly. Really lovely looking birds.

We have another dry and sunny day forecast for today - the moon was still visible at 8am.

ArbitraryRandom

Builder's starting this morning - just made them coffee and they're stood discussing which garden (me or neighbour) has the easiest steps to get the mini digger up. I've taken my 'before' pictures in anticipation... 

Dustyevsky

wort said:

Dusty love your description of the GC.😂 and your fab pics.

Farway was spot on with his report too. Not sure about the penguins, but apparently I missed the singing reindeer,, which were there somewhere or other. It was all one huge cacophony to these ears, well-ravaged by far too much heavy metal.

It's also worth saying I've not been into one of these massive GCs for many years, the local ones being more modest in scope for extreme tat and still remembering their primary function. Mrs Dusty usually visits them around the time some fairy lights give up the ghost, and I decline the offer to accompany her.

I'm very short of pictures at the moment; so the only thing I can offer folk today is a Morrison's rhomboid roll, without the filling. It's perfectly acceptable texture-wise, in a sourdoughy way, but why that shape, and how does it help one fill it with stuff that won't fall out again?

 Answers on the back of a Lidl stone-baked roll, which is a sensible shape....and bigger!  Yes, I'm the guy who buys whatever's there, if they still have any by the time I arrive! Sorry! 

pink_poppy

I would just rip that roll to bits and dunk it in some homemade lentil soup