Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

Farway said:

I may get to fulfil some items on the list sooner rather than later, we have a shop I've never heard of taking over where Wilko was, from gossip it is sort of Poundland tat shop, so maybe they will have a dying plants section?

Cullen skink, we used to have that despite being in deepest Middx with the furthest North connection of Watford. I think Mum did it that way because you couldn't easily burn it

Good bit of luck for Boots in the park that night Dusty.

I have a tiny bit of inside info on the Poundland takeover. It won't be just the very cheap stuff, but still 'cheap,' including clothes. DD2 is on the case, hoping to get into the training of staff, but secretly I'm hoping she stays where she is for a while yet. A 'better the devil you know.' situation in the current economic climate. 

Funnily enough, I met my first smoked haddock in Middx too, but Cullen skink would have been too extreme for Dad, who could just about be persuaded to 'enjoy' kedgeree.

Like some other times in life, it felt like I was meant to discover old John, or whatever he was called. On a filthy night like that, I could have walked 1metre to the left and missed him altogether. The dog didn't care!

Well, it was a dry day, though we lost the sun. Believe it or not, we dry out so fast, I was riddling stones out of the soil I'd dug up by 14.30. No chance tomorrow, though after lunch I might get back to prepping for concreting.

That's a very swish wall and fence Arb. I'm not commenting on the err...items... you were planting because after a whole year of focused eradication, I'm still not free of them!

Dustyevsky

-taff said:

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.

You won't necessarily have problems, or they'll be mild. In the video, Bunny had some blight spots, but still got fruit. Ours was so bad it killed the leaves, so the tree went bare and didn't fruit at all.   Yes, we picked up all the fallen leaves, burned them, sprayed  etc. Made no difference.

We're lucky in being able to plant a field away, but it's not the sunniest spot, so maybe I'll leave it for another year.

Dustyevsky

twopenny said:
Love the sunrise/set photo.
Yes I want one of those dogs Dusty posted. Just gorgeous! 
The orangutang is so lifelike! Sheesh they must be making a fortune to buy those for the site.

  Bluey's dawn came up so quickly, we almost missed it. Lovely!

The sculptures aren't a permanent feature at Rosemoor. They display them for the winter months, and all are for sale. The other thing they do is have evening light shows called 'Glow.' I'm not keen on that, having glowed back at Westonbirt Arboretum in the late 1990s - early noughties!  All the light fixtures, cables, and junction boxes are difficult to keep out of shot when taking daytime photos. Some photos I'll feature have been cleaned-up by cloning, but you might still spot the odd bit of cable.

So, poppy is Generation X, then!  Wishing (we had a photograph of her!) Another not too cryptic clue.  Great hairstyles!

ArbitraryRandom

Dustyevsky said:

That's a very swish wall and fence Arb. I'm not commenting on the err...items... you were planting because after a whole year of focused eradication, I'm still not free of them!

At the moment I'm scattering them and nasturtiums everywhere - in the hopes they help suppress the inevitable bramble and bindweed comeback - the old philosophy of pick your enemies  

YoungBlueEyes

I hope you fare better with that then I have Arb. I've strawberries running mad and the brambles and bindweed and mares tails couldn't give a monkeys!
I like your fence setup too - what kinda colour you gonna paint it, if at all? 

Imagine, just a few feet would've made such a difference to Old John Dusty. Funny way to pass the time though eh. I wonder what kinda response he'd get now from ambulance staff....
I couldn't tell you the last time I had smoked haddock, well any smoked fish really. Daddy liked kedgeree (he also liked rabbit - bleurgh - so he wasn't the compass for good taste ha haa!) One Christmas I got a smoked fish pate' but that was not worth the money.

There's a Poundland near here, but I'm rarely in there. They (B+M/Home Bargains/£Land etc) all seem to sell the same stuff and have the same offers at the same time so there's no real point in going to any specific one....

No dawn, pretty or otherwise, here this morning cos it's too cloudy. Grey and miserable and cloudy but dry and mild and no wind today. They say. I'll have to get some gardening done, I've done nothing out there for weeks and it's starting to show  

YoungBlueEyes

Forgive me going completely off topic but I don’t know where to start with this. Where would I find info about the differences between doing your job as an employed person and doing it self-employed? Can anyone recommend some good plain speaking websites…? 

wort

Farway the pound land in town has a pep and co section, it’s just cheap clothing that I can see , no garden bit. Unless yours is different.

Dustyevsky

We were on the subject of RHS gardens and others 'glowing' at this time of year, and lo(!) an email popped into my inbox yesterday evening, offering a photographic tutorial opportunity at lit-up Rosemoor. Here's the promo picture:

Hmmm....it so happens I took more or less the same shot last Saturday!

 I'll stick with mine, especially as it doesn't have a random bit of signage in the bottom right! 

In other news, it rained all night and it's still raining, but due to stop  a little earlier than predicted yesterday. It's colder though. If I do any gardening today, it will be more weevil slaying, and just possibly some planting by the stream. Those water forget-me-nots have been forgotten too long!

Farway

It's just wet & 'orrible outside this morning. According to weather map it's some Spanish chap, Fredrico,  pharting around in the Channel, and I've got a whiff of it. Certainly not gardening weather

Update on DGD doing horticulture apprenticeship near Aberdeen, still rubbing shoulders with the famous, she was at a horticulture job seminar at Edinburgh Botanic gardens yesterday, chatting with Adam Frost & Arit Anderson

Friday she has a chainsaw exam, certainly varied, dried flowers one week, chainsaws the next

Dustyevsky said:

twopenny said:
Love the sunrise/set photo.
Yes I want one of those dogs Dusty posted. Just gorgeous! 
The orangutang is so lifelike! Sheesh they must be making a fortune to buy those for the site.

  Bluey's dawn came up so quickly, we almost missed it. Lovely!

The sculptures aren't a permanent feature at Rosemoor. They display them for the winter months, and all are for sale. The other thing they do is have evening light shows called 'Glow.' I'm not keen on that, having glowed back at Westonbirt Arboretum in the late 1990s - early noughties!  All the light fixtures, cables, and junction boxes are difficult to keep out of shot when taking daytime photos. Some photos I'll feature have been cleaned-up by cloning, but you might still spot the odd bit of cable.

They do same at Wisley, never been but I believe it's good. Somewhere around here does the Winter Wonderland stuff but I know some have been big flops with muddy fields & drunken elves

I've decided to try Russian Sage in volunteer border, where the car went. If I spot free postage I'll try from seed, otherwise a plant from a GC somewhere

wort said:

Farway the pound land in town has a pep and co section, it’s just cheap clothing that I can see , no garden bit. Unless yours is different.

My £land has garden bit, Chinese forks, string, small bags of compost, plastic flower pots and plants, quite handy at times. The shop that is replacing our Wilko is One Beyond, part of £world, apart from that I know very little, but they do not support slavery, so I won't have to worry about any future reparations if I buy a ball of string from there

OT

YoungBlueEyes said:

Forgive me going completely off topic but I don’t know where to start with this. Where would I find info about the differences between doing your job as an employed person and doing it self-employed? Can anyone recommend some good plain speaking websites…? 

Try You tube, found this one, is there an employment or legal MSE forum?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z2fpOiYZ-E

ArbitraryRandom

YoungBlueEyes said:

Forgive me going completely off topic but I don’t know where to start with this. Where would I find info about the differences between doing your job as an employed person and doing it self-employed? Can anyone recommend some good plain speaking websites…? 

I'd recommend the employment board on here - they know a lot and are good at explaining. 

For what it's worth, my understanding generally speaking (i.e. not always) - as an employee you normally only work for one person/company (they might tell you to go to different places, but they sign your cheques), and if you're sick/on holiday you can't send someone else.

Self employed, you can work for multiple people (you don't have to, but you can if you want to), and you can sub-contract if you need to. 

YoungBlueEyes said:

I hope you fare better with that then I have Arb. I've strawberries running mad and the brambles and bindweed and mares tails couldn't give a monkeys!
I like your fence setup too - what kinda colour you gonna paint it, if at all? 

I'm not doing anything with it this year, but with the little fence in the front and I've asked the neighbour to tell me when they're doing their side as I'd want it the same colour - it's too small to have a dividing line on the top - so that'll probably decide what's the back as well. 

I'm hoping my local gardener man can get hold of one of those spray packs and do it for me - it's a bit much to be out there with a brush... I'm not sure if I can even reach the top of some of the panels