Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

So weirdly another shower tonight. Just rain thank goodness but will it be too damp in the morning to get on the garden?

The sun today was brief and welcome, the minute it went down it was bitter again.

On the other hand I was there when it did

The clouds were liquid gold but I took the camara down a couple of stops to get the sunbeams.

YoungBlueEyes

Bluddy ell 2p, that's a pic! There's a lovely serenity to it eh. Fingers crossed you get in your garden today .

Bit less keen on your pic Dusty... have you considered de-fooding your garden so they've nowt to come in for? Or give them ...something... to wash their dinner down with   Imagine those people getting all het up that you were in space badgeless! Hooray for the grey suit though bless him, karma will reward him  

Good idea about temp badges Arb. Maybe they could be different colours, like tax discs, depending on the type. Fully hobbled, hobbled for 3/6 months etc.

Bright here but cold. Properly cold. Phone says 2' but feels like -9' which seems right to me. My garden's fully crispy and the birds' water is solid to the core. I'm looking forward to seeing if we have snow tomorrow... Will it be 1mm, 2mm, lots, or fewer, or none at all? Place your bets!

Dustyevsky

ArbitraryRandom said:

Dustyevsky said:

Someone with a blue badge unloading their shopping noticed the absence of one on my car and asked why I was parked there. 

One of those 'if I was in charge' things, but I've sometimes thought a Dr/hospital should be able to issue a temporary BB or bus pass (with a expiry date like a sick note). For people with things like broken legs and other temp issues that limit mobility. But I'm assuming Drs would be very much against the extra work and it'd be open to abuse... 

It took ages for Mrs Dusty to get one; she even had to go 30 miles to Exeter to prove her level of disabilty in person! Then, when she got it, she could only use it for very close stuff like the hairdressers. Shopping malls etc were beyond her capabilities. Now, it's irrelevant most of the time, but handy for hospital visits.

YoungBlueEyes said:

Bit less keen on your pic Dusty... have you considered de-fooding your garden so they've nowt to come in for? Or give them ...something... to wash their dinner down with  

 

The freebies were to encourage activity and determine where the rats were coming from. Their base is in the garden, not the chicken run, so we'll put the bait station there. Didn't want it in the chicken area, and don't need to now.

Lovely sunset 2p. Not sure what ours was like, but think it was poor due to cloud cover. A different scenario this morning: sunshine in abundance and a touch of frost at dawn.

I've been fighting off a bug for almost a week. It seems like I've won , so I might not cancel the dentist this morning, as planned. Rather get it out of the way. Oldie birthday health MoT on Thursday. Weight's almost down to where it should be and blood pressure's OK, but will I be prescribed welding? 

Farway

Blue sky but very cold. DGD up near Aberdeen reports, with pic, full on snow, cars covered & and need digging out before she can toddle off to work. I'm guessing it will be greenhouse jobs today for them, unless of course it's snow shovelling, those drives still don't clear themselves.

Lovely pic there 2P, not so lovely pic Dusty! But I suppose it goes with the area & location.

Good idea on the disabled permits AR, I did ask my previous Dr when I was hobbling around but no go, seems I required at least double amputation to qualify at the time. 

I think the requirements are understandably quite strict but since the “Not all disabilities are visible” rules were introduced I do use the disabled loo, and very useful as well.

I still sometimes hang onto railings Dusty.

Pic today is not mine, but it's DGD and her car this morning

Dustyevsky

Farway said:

.Good idea on the disabled permits AR, I did ask my previous Dr when I was hobbling around but no go, seems I required at least double amputation to qualify at the time. 

I think the requirements are understandably quite strict

They are strict, and certain benefits open the door, but a failed application can be challenged, which is why Mrs Dusty ended-up at Exeter being assessed individually. She gets SFA from Mother State. The lady doing the assessment didn't take long to come to her conclusion either, saying it was all a waste of everyone's time when the disability was obvious, but rules is rules etc.

I would certainly give it a go if you are wobbly at times, even if it's only 'some days.' Can't guarantee a kind assessor like ours, but I think most of them will use common sense and weigh things/people up quickly.

Dustyevsky

Well, that's everything 'put to bed' after a glorious sunny day. I was on the big hedge with the chain saw, while Mrs Dusty was lightly trimming hydrangeas etc. Next time I looked, she'd reduced a large and wayward medlar by about half!   I had to break off halfway through to have a tooth filled, but even so, the weather made for much better productivity. Blue Monday? Nah!

Temperature's plummeted now, mind.  Fleece deployed...

ArbitraryRandom

Turned out nice today - cold (very!) but bright and with a bit of a breeze. 

Unfortunately the app has been lying to me telling me it was going to rain every day, so I didn't put a load on late yesterday and that meant I couldn't get any wash out until nearly lunchtime... still, it had a good 3/4 hours before I brought it in to finish on the rads and I find even a little bit of a blow helps it feel/smell fresher than if it's been only dried inside  

Talking about random health symptoms, not sure what's going on with me today but late last night everything was feeling a little spinny when i moved too quickly (I assumed I was tired and a bit dehydrated) and today has been the same with sometimes the room just feeling like it's moving at speed. No ear pain/obvious infection, so hopefully whatever it is will get bored and go away quickly - I'm in London for most of next week (hence being keen to get some wash done in preparation), and I've booked myself a theatre seat one of the evenings to watch cirque du soleil, so I better jolly well be feeling better!  


Also in the next couple of days I'm supposed to be having some perpetual leek bulbils delivered (I ordered a few on impulse a while ago and had completely forgotten)... I don't yet have a bed to plant them in... would they be okay do you think in a large tub for a few months? (I'm thinking the one I put the lavender sprigs in) I'm not even entirely sure how to plant them (would they be better in little cardboard pots in a propagator on the kitchen windowsill?). 

twopenny

Perpetual leaks sound interesting!

Can you tell us more?

No experience but someone will have. I'd have thought a bigger pot together as they will be dormant about now.

I kept a plum tree just by proping it up and slinging some soil over it's roots in winter.

I've been meaning to get some Perenial Broccoli seed as I've grown it before and it's a great idea for one or two of you. It got some fungus or other at the seed places so went off the market. Seems ok now but of course it's not in their interests to sell us something that lasts at least 3yrs so it doesn't pop up anywhere.

On the same subject, used to have Japanese spring onions. Same idea. They grow in clumps so you harvest some and leave the others to reproduce.

Taste isn't quite as good but a lot less work and they're always there.

Nothing done in the garden but there's a sale of trees at the garden centre and a nice little James Grieve for £30. I need to consider.

Also saw some wild flower seeds. £1,80 which not cheap but a darn site cheaper than many that seem to go for £2-3 now.

Sunny day, chilly but not too bad. Tonight the temperature has dropped to 2 even though cloudy so I got my cake nets out again to cover my struggling Thyme plants just in case.

No plant pics to show, all much the same and too tired to download the photos I took to cheer myself up but here's one from yesterday when I was photographing that sunset. Note the gorse is blooming

ArbitraryRandom

twopenny said:

Perpetual leaks sound interesting!

Can you tell us more?

No experience but someone will have. I'd have thought a bigger pot together as they will be dormant about now.

I don't know the exact variety (there's apparently a few that are sold under the generic term 'perpetual'), but this is the article I read originally: https://www.gardeningbydesign.co.uk/2023/02/04/make-your-veggies-permanent/ 

From what I can tell, they make skinny leeks (spring onion sized) that come back each year for 3-5 years and you can either cut the tops before the bulbils are ripe to stop them spreading, or let them develop to grow more plants without much input or effort from you. 

More 'garlicky leek flavoured' than strongly garlic or onion, but that's not something I have a problem with so I figured they'd be worth a shot to establish a bed of them over the next couple of years. Just completely forgot that I'd ordered them a few months ago until I got the dispatch email this morning  

twopenny

Sound delicious!

I had something growing in the grass in my last place that had bulbs on top and onioneee. But too tough to use. Facinating though.

I look forward to seeing what happens. I'm all for 'do something once' rather than every year.