Awful weather - typical Brits talk

ArbitraryRandom

Dustyevsky said:

If I grit my teeth, I might buy the most blight-resistant quince variety, plant it 150m away from the Medlars and see how it goes. It's a risky Christmas present, though! Over £50 and  no guarantee it won't succumb. But the fruit, ah, they're something special!

I really can't squeeze in another tree with the ones I have planned, but I am really taken by the look of the tiny leafless bush that I thought at first glance had a bucket of apples dropped on it... 

pink_poppy said:

I feel like Father Dougal on Father Ted - no idea what's going on in this thread  

I have an orange quince which fruits - no idea if they're edible though...

It seems it's the season for pruning, so it's not surprising if things are a bit of a confusing shape  

If it's a Japanese 'ornamental' quince, from what I can tell (with all due caveats re online research) all of the fruit is 'edible' (as in non-toxic) - it's the size of the fruit and the ratio of flesh to seed that distinguish the ones that have been specifically bred as fruit bush variants more recently. 

If I was you, next time I had the oven on anyway, I might chuck a couple in to bake just to taste? A few places online people have reported stewing or baking a batch then passing through a sieve to get a 'fake lemon sauce' with an apple puree consistency.  

twopenny

Can't remember if I posted this but it still makes me smile.

It was in a flower festival in a church and something different!

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

I feel like Father Dougal on Father Ted - no idea what's going on in this thread

And no wonder! There's you, thinking 2p has polished a Finnan haddock and stuck it on her door post, instead of making soup! I'll elaborate, if required, but I think you'll probably get that one.

All the quinces are edible, or can be made so, but the species Cydonia are the ones to go for, if you have room for a small and wayward tree.

pink_poppy said:

Just remembered I had a video come up on Facebook with 5 ferret siblings and a cat - wow, ferrets are mischievous little things it was on a link called The Dodo, if you want to mention it to your DD, Dusty.

She's probably seen all the ferret episodes several times already! I think you mean this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osnWDGHNF1Q

 DD has 3 ferrets. I should point out they're not normally allowed in the house, and especially not on soft furnishings or, heaven forbid, in the bedrooms! The bedrooms are even off-limits to the cats. Ferrets are OK in the conservatory if the weather's poor, but they'd rather be outdoors having a walk.

Our cats hate the ferrets. They hate anything unpredictable and obviously fearless!  It's  a little misleading, showing a happy bond between a dog and a ferret, possible at home. Walking your ferret in a public place means being vigilant, because some dogs may try to kill a ferret on sight. DD had to learn at quite an early age how to handle aggressive dogs, and their owners.

The new wee ferret I posted on here a while ago was cute, but not well. When we got him, we saw his rear legs weren't working well. DD did research, decided he was suffering from rickets and altered his diet. That did the trick, and now he's fine. 

OT: Showers all night, but a reasonably bright day in prospect tomorrow.B)  

YoungBlueEyes

Apologies to the confused folks, it's my fault the thread's been pruned for telling yous about the Irish folk at himself's work. And what I called said Irish folk. Mea maxima culpa. And I'll take the weathervane confusion too 2p, cos tbf I often misread posts and have to go back and read again before I post ha haa! 

I don't know who first called it on my happy green thing, but it is indeed a foxglove. Lovely neighbour gave me it (well 2 apparently...) so I asked her what it is and she confirmed foxglove. How can you tell my marigolds are French Less? I've only left them in there so the squirrels/cats don't have even more soil to ...utilise  

Good news on the de-ricketed ferret Dusty, jeez that must have been worrying. Least it's a simple cure and nothing major though eh. 

OT The drunkards were wrong yesterday (oh the shock) and it was dry all day, with a few sunny spells thrown in I reckon they're all on shots with the money from putting ads on their app.. Sobers and Ventusky were right. Similar forecast for today - drunkards say rain (they say it's raining now and it's not) sobers and Ventusky say windy and dry all day, and ever so very windy across lunchtime ish. Quite low humidity too so will I put a wash on....  

YoungBlueEyes

Bit of a dawn. I just missed a flock of birds going over. 

ArbitraryRandom

Our own fault - the MSE team keep an eye on the thread for pictures, so quickly spot when we get unruly

Tusky is also telling me it's going to be dry here, so I think I might join you with the wash day  

Reported a missed cardboard collection yesterday. I got sent a message telling me to take it back in and they'll collect next week... sent a slightly snippy response to the effect of it's completely sodden and I already got wet once putting it out so I'm not taking it back in and making my hall filthy; It was out on time and it's not blowing around/blocking the street so it can stay there. Apparently they'll send someone later today... we will see.  

-taff

Oh dear, I ordered a quince and a medlar for delivery later this year or beginning of next and I've only just seen the blight problems...I'd better separate them completely then. All quince are edible, f you cook them, we don't have the weather to ripen them as they would in hotter countries. I love the smell and the taste and have made quite a lot fo jelly and cheese over the years. I don't rink at the pub which was my preferred place to take them form the overhanging tree and haven't found anywhere else reliable yet. I love the smell as they ripen, it's one of the few really strong smells I don't get tired of [ probably because it only happens for some of the year, seasonality and stuff is a good thing]

Is the frame intended for people to go and stand behind for photo's? There's a massive one in a park in Cardiff for that purpose...

I was planning to go and garden tidy thid week but the weather put a stop to that and now I have appointments an visitors for the rest of the week, another week wasted...

Loving the boots 2p, really funny....

pink_poppy

YoungBlueEyes said:

Bit of a dawn. I just missed a flock of birds going over. 

It wasn't a flock of seagulls, was it??



You probably have to be a certain age to get that...

Dustyevsky

ArbitraryRandom said:

Our own fault - the MSE team keep an eye on the thread for pictures, so quickly spot when we get unruly

I also suspect someone other than staff keeps an eye on things, if you know what I mean. They do!

Anyway it's a lovely morning here and I'm due to be digging a hole or two, so I will leave you with another Rosemoor sculpture and save the naughty stuff for later!

pink_poppy

That looks like the same video, Dusty. The poor cat does not look impressed. Btw, another Father Dougal moment, because I didn't have a clue what you were referring to with the Finnan Haddock and soup comment. I think some things just go over my head haha.

The boots pic is a bit too realistic for me, twopenny, I think I would have freaked out if I'd seen that.

My quince is a very spiky bush, not a tree - it's lovely when it flowers though. The blackbirds seem to like the fruit so I'll probably just leave them, although I might give them a sniff, just to see if they're as nice as Taff says  

I haven't looked at the weather websites this morning, but looking out of the window it's cold, cloudy and looks like there's rain coming... again...