Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

That's the one Duusty! Loojed really good considering it's living in fumes and untended.
There were yellow ones too.
Someone had done a lovely job of a mixed hedge but of course it's gone a bit manky from lack of care.

Forecast tipping it down again tonight, rain free morning and the usual suspect in the afternoon.
Perhaps we'll have a sunny Christmas      

Bluey hasn't returned here. Maybe concreted over the garden.

goldfinches

Thanks for the DG Hessayon link Arbs, you made me feel very smug as I've already picked up the vegetable and herb expert from a charity shop along with the RHS allotment journal and one of Geoff Hamilton's books for the first time gardener so I feel very prepared. All I have to do now is to pass the interview with the allotment association secretary on Friday afternoon so fingers crossed. Hopefully, this time next week I'll be "head down, bum up" as they say down under, maybe I'll even have a subtle bum from sun exposure, you never know! 

Cold, fairly sunny and still here today so my regular walk was muddy but not as bad as it was earlier in the week. 

@Dustyevsky - I agree with you about the yellow stemmed dogwoods but think I prefer the black stems rather than the reddish purple ones. You could always try recommending this Nigella recipe to those who dream of cider making, it's a good argument for something I've hitherto felt was a waste of good apple juice. Lovely rainbow photo, I am impressed with your swift reactions, by the time I've got my phone ready to snap things have often moved on.
@pink_poppy - very impressive photo of your DD and nice one of Steve too, I'd never heard of either before so thanks for the interesting link.
@Farway - sorry to hear your passionflower is being munched and join you in wishing for a fire to light in these chilly evenings.
@twopenny - why not be obsessed with something pleasant especially in a park and ride and sorry to see your lavenders having such nasty mould.

Wishing everyone better weather for the rest of the week and beyond, goldfinches.

Dustyevsky

twopenny said:

Bluey hasn't returned here. Maybe concreted over the garden.

Bluey's on a break to the land of her Father's..... Oh, hang on, now you'll think it's Wales! It's the very green isle north-west of there.

@Dustyevsky - I agree with you about the yellow stemmed dogwoods but think I prefer the black stems rather than the reddish purple ones. You could always try recommending this Nigella recipe to those who dream of cider making, it's a good argument for something I've hitherto felt was a waste of good apple juice. Lovely rainbow photo, I am impressed with your swift reactions, by the time I've got my phone ready to snap things have often moved on.

Thanks for the recipe. I don't do a lot of cake, which is just as well, because I'm finding it  hard to slim-down as it is! I don't need very good reactions for rainbows, as they appear naturally in the line of sight from the kitchen/diner, where we spend most of our daylight hours when not outside. As for the dogwoods, we do have the black stemmed one 'Kesselringii,' but because we know it's tolerant, we stuck it in an out of the way dark place and don't see much of it! I feel a cutting coming on!

Rain appears to have moderated or stopped early, but it's miserable. Here's the most cheerful picture I have. Still blooming away, as it will do until the frosts....

I'm going to use this dreich morning to make another cold frame. A friend  in the process of selling a garden building plot says exchange is imminent, so cuttings have to be taken swiftly!

Farway

It's tipping down, Dusty's leftovers I assume. Should brighten later today

Dogwoods, I always admire them in posh places, like Wisley, but don't have room for my own. I think they are supposed to be a doddle to propagate from cuttings, I prefer the yellow stems, but all brighten the place up in winter

With the rain, I trotted along to Morrison's for a bit of a mooch, just in case some wonderful plants had arrived. They hadn't, however, I did buy two small packs of mixed Violas,2 for £3 or £2 single, so had to get two of course

Plan is to plant in the non vine weevil ravaged pots with my new daffs in, near the front door which should be cheerful next year with the mini daffs poking through the violas

A job for the weekend

Vine weevils have scoffed the roots of a foxglove in a large pot, curses, that was part my Spring display . Only a common foxglove from own seed, nothing special, but still annoying . I may try and see if it will root elsewhere but not holding out much hope

twopenny

It's cold and wet, what else  
So cold that I've had to put the heating on mid day. Even with walking the ground chills your feet.
Tempted to work from bed just to keep warm.

Been to the garden centre. Was taken by a small book of The Tomato Seed Book for under £5. It had several varieties, description and 8pks seed. Not many seeds by the feel of it.
But a pretty present.
Otherwise it was help I went for. See other thread.....some lovely plants at lovely prices and 2/3 Christmas stuff.

YoungBlueEyes

I've finally got caught up, and jeez I missed plenty! Cracking photos, especially the autumnal tree-y ones and the lily (?) that looked like the sun was shining out of it, more front page material there I'd say  

I was in the Land of my Mother, well my land too. Father's land was Northern Cyprus, of all places. I got hundreds of some good photos and I'll sort a few of the very bestest to put on here. We've covered some miles getting round all the family, and Himself got approval from everyone except Cissie (90 yo aunt) who said "so d'ya not think he's a bit quiet for you then, no?" We all thought she'd love her (very basic, family and a few close friends only) tea party but she was pure raging that people had gone to any trouble at all and didn't we know there is a cost of living crisis on? Once the rose'  wine started flowing she got a bit happier and then it was "there's a lack of presents here isn't there? Do these people not know I'm 90?  90!"   God love her.  

I was watching a bit of news to see if the storm was as bad as they predicted but I think it was mostly alright over here? Lovely neighbour was looking after the house and she text me that it was fine despite the dire warnings. Dreadful floods in Newry/Downpatrick though, those poor bu99ers are screwed and it's so close to xmas too

We went to L'Derry for the huge Halloween show they put on, it was amazing! I'd never seen anything like it, the streets were thronged with costumed people and it was great fun. The drone show was brilliant, well worth having a look for it online. https://derryhalloween.com/

Did the aurora reach anyone here? We were in Portrush that weekend, and my cousin got a facefook group notification that they were out there, so we ran round the beach to the darkest side and got some great photos (not much to see with the naked eye though). Top tip - sometimes your phone can see more than you can see, so just take a picture of the night sky and see what it shows you. I'll put some pics up in a min. Cousin got better photos than me, but ours were all worse than the proper ones on the fb group thing. We were just the wrong side of a cloud bank for really good photos, but the ones round Dunluce Castle were spectacular (if anyone fancies looking them up online). 

OT they all said it would rain all morning and it did, but it's brightening up now. My garden's in once piece, even if it is all kinds of soggy and bedraggled and sorrowful looking. I'll need to have a good go at it tomorrow, get it back into shape. There's hawthorn berries everywhere!

YoungBlueEyes

Lots of photos coming. 

Northern lights - none of this showed up to the naked eye  

A double rainbow, and the actual end of a rainbow! 

Autumnal trees 😍 

Clock faces lit up orange for Halloween

That’ll do. 

ArbitraryRandom

Lovely! and lovely to see you back as well  

My books arrived today, so I might be missing for a little while  

Edit: Squash number three just picked (baby squash!). I haven't weighed it, but it's about the size of a mango or decent baked potato. Maybe 200g. This is the one that I 'found' when picking number two a few weeks back, so it's not had long to grow. Only picking now as I think I'm tempting fate with the frost and builders so figured I should take it. There's another 'maybe pollinated' one on there but the size of a duck egg... so who knows if it'll develop into something? My parents are visiting at the end of the month so I'll roast them up and we'll have them for dinner one evening. 

twopenny

Bluey, welcome back! Lovely photos, weren't you lucky    
I'm dead envious.

Abs (would love to call you something nicer but can't think what) those are brilliant squashes    
You're too modest. Hope they are tasty. I like squash but generally hard work cutting up.
Have you heard of Spaghetti Squash? Open them up and run a fork down the flesh and it's like spaghetti but no calories.........doesn't taste as good as pasta though   
I got them from a roadside stall after hearing about them from an American on a forum.  That's where the net is amazing!

ArbitraryRandom

My favourite way to eat squash is with chilli (and with cheese on top) - it's buttery and creamy, kind of reminiscent of sweet potato. Plus, if you just halve the squash and deseed, then you can fill the cavity with chilli and bake. It's looks really posh on the plate for something that takes 10 mins prep  

EDIT: like this https://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/squash-and-black-bean-chilli but with a ton of melty cheese