Awful weather - typical Brits talk

YoungBlueEyes

So what's up with Sketchers/memory foam then pp? Guess who bought herself a pair in the christmas sales :rolleyes: I lost touch with Broken Bum Karen years ago so I can't even get you any helpful tips off her 2p Other than the pile cushion - I remember that. Ras's practicing undergrads is a good call, I'd try them. If nothing else they direct you to the right vids to watch. 

Gorse at this time of year feels wrong to me, gorse comes out for Easter so you can add it to the water when you're boiling eggs. I do like gorse though, if I knew it'd flower all year round I'd have big one in the garden. 

Speaking of religious festivals - how's your christmas cactus doing farway? It was Orthodox christmas yesterday so maybe it was waiting for that? 

Woohoo for your gardener Arb Now you can see the shape of the thing and start really visualising it eh. 

That's a lovely sheltered walk Dusty, yous have some good ones down there. I'd never be in if I had gorse-y walks like that round here ha haa!

Cooled right off here this morning. I'll only get to musical temp if it warms up a couple of degrees :brr: Breezy and dry though so the washer's on. Same tomorrow too. Possibly. Seems they've run out of 50p's for the sunrise/set meter though  

Farway

Sort of blue hint in the sky, but cold with “wintery flurries” maybe later today

Congrats on tree planting at last Arbs, you may get a bit of blossom this year because the flower buds are already “baked in”, if you do at least you'll know you have hopes for the future.

No further updates on the fruit trees via council I applied for, but it's early days. Hoping to get the OK to plant a cherry at the volunteer place, no reason to think I won't but as maybe Dusty can verify, some folk just like to stir it up.

Gorse pics, I remember the gorse & kissing saying. There's a lot of gorse near here, but not accessible to a wobbly walker like me. I remember loads of it along the A34 near Newbury, used it as a landmark to know “our” exit road was coming up soon and get over to near side lane once passed the lorries.

Your pic Dusty, I can imagine those banks covered in primroses later, are they?

My pic, found this on ground near volunteer car park. Somewhere I have a vague memory abut folks leaving a painted pebble to cheer folks up, I never picked it up, but maybe I should have?

twopenny

Sunshine but 3°c with a north east wild wind - so glad I bought those thermals now!
This is a long winter 

Not sure what to do today. I doubt it's gardening though.
Maybe all the Christmas lights detangled and such.

Don't want to be in when the sun shines but don't want to be out in the bitter cold.
Yup Bluey, tried the exercises, the wedge cushion, the back rest et al. 
I think what I need is holiday and warmth but that's not on the cards.

Dustyevsky

twopenny said:

Ha! Wearing sketchers but they are very old ones and have an arch support. I've been looking but only the memory foam ones.
Ras, yes.I started out with a muscular prob and pandemic, doctors retiring at 50 and it's all to pot. I think the clapping went to their heads.

 According to Skechers, the memory foam is secured with 5 blobs of glue and can be removed, although they can't imagine why anyone would do that.

I think the clapping/banging was a clever psychological device used to strengthen people's feeling of belonging to a group; essential if you want them to engage in group-think. It's also cheap!

A complete change of weather for us today, with brilliant sunshine and temperatures around freezing, even at midday. I'm hoping to get out and do some hedge tidying after the assault by chain-flail before Christmas. The quicker I can do it, the faster I can plant new whips to fill in the gaps, but I reckon there's a month of work in that alone. Then there's the grass cutting.....

Dustyevsky

Farway said:

No further updates on the fruit trees via council I applied for, but it's early days. Hoping to get the OK to plant a cherry at the volunteer place, no reason to think I won't but as maybe Dusty can verify, some folk just like to stir it up.

.Your pic Dusty, I can imagine those banks covered in primroses later, are they?

My pic, found this on ground near volunteer car park. Somewhere I have a vague memory abut folks leaving a painted pebble to cheer folks up, I never picked it up, but maybe I should have?

Some folk do stir things, but after threatening us with more grief, ours have fallen silent. In respect of trees, the legal document they lack knowledge of says none above 15' may be grown on the land immediately beyond our boundary. That's a handy thing, but unfortunately, we paid them £200 to remove two large poplars back in 2018!

I don't know the wildflowers on the stretch of coastal trail we walked. Neither of us had walked it before, but I earmarked it a while ago, driving on the other side of the river and noting how sunny it looked in winter. Sadly, we lost the sun in the first half hour, but there were a few interesting landmarks, like a lime kiln posing as a castle, a bridge traversing the salt marsh and a 200m tunnel. We might go back in spring if my gammy leg persists, but the number of cyclists is a turn-off.

Children were painting stones a couple of years ago and placing them in parks and the like. My grandson produced a lot at the time. I think it was for other kids to find and collect by recording where they found them, rather than take away, but we're all kids at heart. Maybe it was to make things more exciting close to home when travel restrictions were in force?

I'll go look at the one mature gorse we have here today and see what it's doing. The tiddlers I bought last year are fine, but not in flower.

The lime kiln mentioned above. If you look very hard towards the bottom left, there's an Egret, but I forgot it was there!

twopenny

Oh beautiful! 
My machine missed Farways post  seems to happen a bit.

During the lockdown someone wrote uplifting sayings and tied them to trees with ribbon along a path.
At first it was lovely to have the contact. Then irritating.
Children and others still paint stones to find but less so now. They've started crayoning en masse on beach pebbles which looks more like vandalism....about them, not the recipient.

Farway, couldn't you use the pebble in with plain ones as a decoration in the border?

Icy wind blowing hard now. There's no pretending it's ok. Just beeping freezing. But bright.
Anyone notice it wasn't dark until 5pm last night  . 

pink_poppy

It's like a Winter Wonderland out there today - frost instead of snow though. I'm not at work today as expecting an electrician (tradesmen here don't finish their Christmas break until today) so I might have a wander outside, just to hear the crunch when I walk on the grass  

My Skechers are the arch support, twopenny. They did make a difference initially, but I think they're a bit worn out now. I can't remember what the podiatrist said about the memory foam, YBE, just that it was bad and I should hot foot it to Glasgow to buy some non-MF trainers. If you don't have problems with your feet then MF is probably fine. I didn't know Hotter did arch support shoes, so I might take out a mortgage have a look at their website. I saw on another thread that M&S have slippers that offer support (quite expensive though).

We get a lot of gorse here and I love it - really brightens things up when it's a dreich day. I googled it and apparently the flowers are edible and you can also make 'wine' out of them...

YoungBlueEyes

Those painted pebbles were all over the place where I used to live,  I did like seeing them. I never knew what the deal was though - stand and look at them and leave them for the next person or take them with you… Not seen one for ages now I think about it. Maybe they’re making a comeback?

I’ll see how I get on with my new trainers then. Seems they exacerbate issues rather than create them? Speaking of arch support - I’m sure I’ve seen insoles like that that you can put in your own shoe. Not sure where mind. 

Cold here but breezy so my wash is dry, even though the sobers keep saying the rain will stop in a few minutes and I’ve not seen a drop  

And yes I’ve noticed the nights are drawing out again 2p, isn’t it welcome

Dustyevsky

twopenny said:

Icy wind blowing hard now. There's no pretending it's ok. Just beeping freezing. But bright.
Anyone notice it wasn't dark until 5pm last night  . 

Yes, nightfall's drawing out just a little. I'm coming indoors at just past 5pm now, when it was about 4.50 in the days before Christmas. One of us has to stay out until the hens go to bed!

I braved the icy wind for about 4.5 hrs today, with the aid of thermal underwear, beanie, and gloves. It wasn't very pleasant up on the hedge, but I stayed until the chain saw battery conked. After that, I made a new ramp for the chickens to reach their pop-hole, but they looked at it suspiciously and leapt inside instead! It was the same with the sheep, which still aren't going near the mobile hay feeder we put in their field yesterday. I've arranged large lumps of tasty hay to hang out of the top, but the nearest one didn't go closer than 2m before scaring itself silly and running off!

pink_poppy said:

We get a lot of gorse here and I love it - really brightens things up when it's a dreich day. I googled it and apparently the flowers are edible and you can also make 'wine' out of them...

Checked our gorse and it's blooming. Even the tiddlers, at about 50 cm tall, are forming flowers. If I recall correctly February is when the dandelions start, providing food for early bumbles.

ArbitraryRandom

twopenny said:

Children and others still paint stones to find but less so now. 

As it happens, I've been painting a few on and off, inc the last couple of weeks. It's something to do when it's grey and wet outside and I fancy doing something with colour. They only take maybe 10-20 mins (depending on how complicated the design and allowing for drying time) so a nice break from a screen  

I've been taking a few with me when I'm traveling for work and leave them around (I've left them around the hotel, in train stations, in parks). No specific motivation other than I fancied painting them but not keeping them... 

Possibly reflecting my mood, my current collection have been leaning toward grumpy monsters.