Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Back in from prowling round the garden, now I'm an unwilling member of 2P's stolen apple club

I had three Golden Delicious waiting to turn Golden, gone, nicked, pinched, vanished, de-materialised

They were not large ones, about tennis ball size. No sign of them on the ground, not neighbours cos they have their own, and they don't even pick them

I think it's squirrels because I do have plenty of them and I can imagine these apples would be ideal size to carry away

Little bu66ers

Dustyevsky

twopenny said:

Farway, only thing I'd be planting would be water forgetmenots!  Coming down in sheets every 20min or so.

I've just grown some of those. They haven't been planted out by the stream yet. The idea is they seed themselves there, but I won't know how well till 2025.

It's too late to cook the fungi in the picture. That was taken a few days ago and now they're brown & soggy.

ArbitraryRandom said:

Farway said:

That does look nice space Arbs, I think brambles tend to leave nice soil, just PIA getting them out. Not wanting to rain on your panda, [actually it was typo of parade and autocorrected to panda  ]but I'm wondering just how many dormant weed seeds will be liberated, if lucky it's poppies, but I bet its thistles

I've dumped a load of 'wild flower' seeds on the area over the last couple of years with nary a sausage to show for it

Wildflowers take their time. We've never grown St Mary's Thistle  (Silybum marianum) in 14 years here, but once the digger disturbed the polytunnel area, up they came!

pink_poppy said:
The rain on your panda autocorrect made me laugh, Farway  
Another dry and calm day here.

I assumed it was a slightly rude military expression!

Not a dry half hour here today, though bright in between. Seems dry now for fireworks, and I can hear a few bangs. Some people were shooting pheasants today for an hour or two, and it sounds exactly the same. Perhaps that's why no one seems to bother with displays here. With a gun shop and range in the village, plus numerous corporate shoots in the area, bangs are fairly usual at this time of the year!

twopenny

Sorry to hear that Farway   
Not sure what the answer is.
On the upside I have been given a bag of wind falls by new neighbours. They are in my much missed gardening neighbours house. Not as good as my Cox ones but a very kind thought.
Now I just need to work out how to eat them with my first tooth bridge!

Still wet here. See we have new laws about fireworks. No police though.
Fireworks now on the 5th day loved them but now   

ArbitraryRandom

Apparently they don't like mint or capsaicin (chilli)... so I've seen some suggestions to spray your apples with a mix (but then remember to wash them before you take a bite!). 

Or I guess netting, but I can see that would be a potch.

My plan is sacrificial fruit and cats - I'm hoping the wildlife will take the harder to reach offerings and leave (just a few) for me lower down  

goldfinches

Commiserations to all who have lost their apples to marauders, must be very disappointing. I like the colour of the fruit on the Scarlett @Dustyevsky, should make lovely colour jelly if you can get to the fruit before the squirrels. It's been rain, rain and more rain here and the paths are all over muddy puddles while the river is lapping over the banks so I've been hastily adding a snorkel to my charity shop wishlist.
I'm still trying to make contact with the allotment association secretary who hasn't replied to my voicemails so tomorrow I'm going to try texting, wish me luck.
I noticed that the trees on my regular walk have finally started to turn into their autumn colours and spotted this virginia creeper doing it's best to be a chameleon against a brick wall.

twopenny

Woken up repeatedly by the amount of rain hammering on the roof.
Pink clouds so I guess it's going to be a wet day again. No need for weather forcasts online.
Temp 7c but doesn't feel that cold because so far, no wind.
It's all weird weather for this part of the world.

Lovely photo Goldie. I love Virginia creeper. The ones here have already lost their leaves to the storms.
Wonder if I could grow one and keep it small like that?

Hmmm to the spray Abs. First there's the continuous rain and second I'm still getting over the failure of cinnamon to repel bugs on my magnolia which deceased last year.
Cedar or sandalwood does work on keeping cats away from the doorstep though.

Farway

Weather here is fine & sunny, even the wind has dropped. I may even get out later & finish off pruning the huge buddleia, nearly did it yesterday, but there was a cold wind cutting into my old bones

I think next year I'll pick the Golden Delicious earlier and ripen indoors. I was hoping for tree ripened but looks like that is but a dream. 

Listening to Farming Today it seems the more fruit we grow as gardeners the better off we will be, fruit growing commercially is just not very profitable, with the inevitable results in a few years time

Lovely V Creeper GF, I've always liked that, but never had a suitable area for it

Here's today's pic, taken while looking for the stolen GD apples.

Raspberries that will never ripen, but maybe will give some creature a feed this winter

Dustyevsky

goldfinches said:

Commiserations to all who have lost their apples to marauders, must be very disappointing. I like the colour of the fruit on the Scarlett @Dustyevsky, should make lovely colour jelly if you can get to the fruit before the squirrels.

Yes, Scarlett is in with a shout. No squirrels where it will be going, and a possibility the owner will make something with the fruit, sometimes.

I wish I could give those who've lost apples access to ours. People who see them often declare they'll make cider 'next year.' In reality, they keep the Redwings and Fieldfares going through the lean months. I don't drink cider, though cider vinegar is umm...beneficial.

We had 2p's rain. Biblical, it was, around midnight. However, we were shooing a long-tailed field mouse out of the conservatory and into it!  From a field mouse perspective, it was the lesser evil.

Hope to finish off the polytunnel windows today. The doors are done, but the strong person to help put them on their tracks has gone to that county west of here for a few days.

The fungi near the yew hedge I was to photograph has lost its charm. The slugs got there quickest.

Instead, here is another example of autumnal bounty I spotted on a walk a week or two ago.

ArbitraryRandom

Lovely contrast there. Where I grew up there were a ton of oaks, but I've not seen one in a while. A few chestnuts, and tons of maples (seedlings everywhere!) 

Yesterday we had around 5 hours in the day of dry, so I took full advantage of getting a load of laundry 70/80% done before putting it on the rads overnight - one disadvantage of the building work is not being able to just put a load in during the week, but I should have enough clean pants to last

Today the forecast is light rain... nothing really yet though. Doesn't make much difference to the builder other than they can't listen to the radio - as long as the coffee keeps coming! 

Late yesterday I indulged in a little book shopping and picked up a few vegi growing books, including one of these - which I believe were recommended?

Posting here as there's currently a 4 for 3 offer (free delivery) on if anyone is interested: https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/author/d-g-hessayon 

pink_poppy

Lightly stewed apple, twopenny?? Nice with porridge, which would also be kind to your gnashers.

I have a Virginia Creeper creeping into my garden from a neighbouring garden - the colour is/was lovely - I think it's died off or the wind got to it.

I was out in the car at 8am this morning for the first time in a while and the autumnal colours were gorgeous - jaw dropping gorgeous - I'm glad I wasn't driving haha.

The Northern Lights were visible in the North East of England last night and my DD got to see them (through a camera) so lucky  

It's started to rain here, just light, but I was going to be hanging my washing outside in a few minutes (I'm running out of pants here, AR ) so I think the dehumidifier is going to have to go on. Bah humbug.