Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

Have you cleaned the lens on your phone Blue? Could it be a sploge that caused the weird bit when all else wasn't?

Yes, I want a gnome. Which reminds me, I wonder where my rescue gnome is? Has he gone on holiday or sheltering somewhere?
I got taken with a stirling silver one someone posted and painted mine silver 

I have no idea about bugs in pots unfortunately but sounds like you're on top of the situation.
Didn't know you could still get fly papers. I could do with some in summer for the fruit flies thet take over my kitchen and house flies as my neighbours bin is right near my back door.

I did some gardening yesterday!! 3hrs of it!
I was really good and did just the one area instead of 'I've got the tools out so I'll just do this and that as well.' I even cleaned all the tools and put them away.  . 

So currants out and heeled into the veg beds, gooseberrys in, lemon verbena pruned and tied up.
Big pot with tree in sawed bottom off and sunk deeper, veg beds weeded, compost heap house wedged up straight, veg beds weeded and lawn edging done, pots and canes emptied of water or tied up.
I was also disciplined enough not to try and root all the trimmings..but ready to dispose of. Otherwise I take on more than I can deal with.

Weeds and plants are popping out with it being so wet so that's to be continued.
I know they'll grow again but there's tons of shepherds purse ready to flower so hopefully I've reduced them.

Cold last night but have dodged the bullet of a frost just after moving stuff.

The moon was gorgeous last night. I went to the sea after shopping and it was huge! Reflecting in the sea.


Of course all of the led to numerous sticking plasters which were deep in the cupboard as I bled from rose thorn cuts where I tried to rehang the Jingle Bells out of the massive climbing rose. That clematis doesn't half grip onto any thing so I was only slightly sucessful. But it's survived the drought last year and romping away. I may have another go but will fill the kitchen draw with ready plasters first :-)) 

Must go to the shop to see what they've got in the way of cane trellis. Some that I tried to put up disintegrated. It's about £5 so works out a £1 a year. It would be nice to have the real stuff but that would be very pricey and need a handyman and by the time you find one of those all the plants would be grown again.

Today is flat grey, 5c and very low light. Not encouraging to get out there again.
Lots of bulbs up though, found another small pot of daffs so there's one each side of the door. 

Hope y'awl get to go out there soon.
Of course we haven't had our snow yet. Usually Feb. So who knows what will happen next.....

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

I'm glad it's not just me that thinks the moon wasn't fully round, it definitely looked squigged didn't it Less. It's out there now with a tiny wee sliver missing off one side now that it's waxing/waning..? I can never remember..  but it still looks round. I must have jer-jer-jer jiggled it as Farway says. I was hanging out the back bedroom window at the time like.

But if you jiggled, all the edges of the roofs etc would be squigged too, wouldn't they?  And they're not.

Perhaps it was a glitch in the matrix. There's this theory that our reality is actually a simulation, and every so often there's a discontinuity in the programming, leading to what's known as the Mandela Effect. Things you always thought you knew, suddenly turn out to be different. So, the Moon is round, except when it's not.

Alternatively, the Moon moves across the sky, so if your photographic exposure time is longer than a second or two, the Moon doesn't come out perfectly round. The chimney pot could be wonky, but it's not far out. The uneven flaunching around it is maybe creating an optical illusion there.

OT. It's cold here this morning and there may have been a frost at 03.00 when I looked out, or it may have been the moonlight. The bonfire I had planned has been scuppered by the SE wind, so it's back to more chain-sawing. Flat grey cloud all day, and tomorrow too, according to the Exeter lot. Oh well, it could be worse!

YoungBlueEyes

Here’s the mushy fuschia. I’m having to hold the bits up for they’ve hardly any structural integrity.  

And I can’t remember what the bulbs I planted are but they must be on the brink of flowering! 

There was something on the Big Bang Theory about that Dusty... the world isn't physical but a giant imagined hologram and we are figments that play upon it. The theory does have a name (which I've forgotten, naturally) but it was interesting. Long exposure would account for it, my phone does stuff automatically that I don't ask it to, so that sounds like the reason. Or my screen is dirty, one of the three

That's a good whack of gardening you got done there 2p. Do you feel better for it being done?  

I was thinking of you and your chainsaw last night Dusty. On QI they were talking about what the chainsaw was originally invented for. In a smaller incarnation than what we have now, but it was based on a fellah looking at his watch chain and realised if he rocked it back and forth you could cut through stuff with it. A bit of tinkering later it came out for midwives to cut through the pelvis of a woman in childbirth so the babby could be got out easier. It's a wonder anyone made it out of the 1700's alive, really it is. 

Edit - thank you DuckDuck  https://allthatsinteresting.com/symphysiotomy  (bit gory mind).

Farway

Frost here first thing, and it was a cracking moon last night. Now of course everywhere is flat & grey.

Good news for photographers everywhere, Saharan sand is on the way for Sunday / Monday. Not linked to Global Boiling this time.  https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2024-01-27/covering-of-saharan-dust-expected-across-uk

My my 2P, that was a busy day, nice to be able to crack on though.

My efforts yesterday were replanting the squirrel dug up lilies

YBE, FWIW my fuchsia looks like yours this winter. It always regrows from the base. So don't give up on it. Once new shoots show, you'll know where or if to prune the beast.

What a terrible method with the chain saw, but I suppose TINA [Maggie T TINA] at the time.

No gardening planned, but I have yet to check for seeds with the free P & P this weekend, and I have a new fruit catalogue arrived to drool over

twopenny

Aw fruit catalogue - I'd best not get one of those. Enough temptation v space as it is.
Yes, have to get stuff done as the body allows so it's always a bonus when weather, time and mobility comes together  . 

Sand eh? I was thinking of rinsing down the car. Silly idea when the lanes are running mud and such still so I'll cross that off the list.

Dusty chain saw sounds serious. I could do with something mechanical that digs out holes in solid root strewn soil. At some point I have to tackle the badger run with its very thorny blackberry, sycamores and such. 
I fancy a hedge, mixed for the birds to shelter in. Not that I'm over ambitious or anything  .

Bluey your garden will come together all of a sudden and be twice the florifouriness that it was last year.
Panic ye not.

ArbitraryRandom

Good morning (just about) all. I had a good trip, thank you. My feet are absolutely killing me and I've had to hunt down some painkillers this morning Looks like it's going to be dry though, so I've got the contents of my bag on a quick wash so I can hopefully get them dry and packed back into the bag ready for next time I need to dress like an adult. 

As an update, two dragon/dino rocks left at the national history museum (one under the table in the cafe, one in a bathroom); two grumpy rocks in the V&A (in different galleries); one on a wall on exhibition road; the happy/dancing monster in the Royal Albert Hall (under a seat towards the back of the area); and the remainder passed to a friend who is under instructions to leave them places and take pictures  

Happy belated birthday wishes to Dusty. Any wisdom you want to share from your venerable (checks spelling...) position? 

Re gardening, there was a T&M catalogue at the door when I got in - tempted by some bulbs 'in the green' but not sure were best to buy them from? (blue bells and snow drops for preference - not a fan of daffs...)

twopenny

Wow that's really classy high end joke   
Hopefully that will cheer up a lot of peoples day - or two!

Welcome home.

Dustyevsky

ArbitraryRandom said:

Happy belated birthday wishes to Dusty. Any wisdom you want to share from your venerable (checks spelling...) position? 

Re gardening, there was a T&M catalogue at the door when I got in - tempted by some bulbs 'in the green' but not sure were best to buy them from? (blue bells and snow drops for preference - not a fan of daffs...)

Welcome back to the fold. The only wisdom I can impart is, “Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see.....especially if it relates to anything in a T&M catalogue!”

twopenny said:

Dusty chain saw sounds serious. I could do with something mechanical that digs out holes in solid root strewn soil...

A chain saw wouldn't work for that 2p. Once the saw contacts soil or stones, it's blunt before you can say “Oh, drat!” A small bump means it can be re-sharpened (about 30mins)  and a big one might mean a new chain at £20+ As for symphsiotomy.....it was only a week or so ago pp said my mentioning the squits was TMI!  And I thought I was brave, having a filling without a numbing injection last week!

It's been a bonus having some un-forecast watery sunshine today. Some back-up from SiL also means I'm further ahead with the hedge than I imagined I'd be at this point.

twopenny

Went out looking around village churches and one little one was surrounded by snowdrops which were in the lane banks too! Even some wild primroses, camelias are about to burst forth at another. It seems spring is well underway - and it's only January!

What's going on?

It was housework today, sun popped out in the middle of the day but this afternoon felt icy so my plan to move plants out front or mow the lawn took a nose dive

Says 8, feels like 4 and heavy cloud.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow. Another cloudy day but dry? That's what's promised - with high winds of course.

ArbitraryRandom

It definitely feels like we're about 6/8 weeks ahead, but looking at some longer range forecasts, it seems mid to late feb might be another proper cold spell. 

Weird thing - you know I've been feeling dizzy for a couple of weeks? I didn't feel dizzy in London. Been home just over 24 hours and I've just had another dizzy spell. I've got a carbon monoxide detector and brought that upstairs - no sign of that being a problem. Not sure what else it could be that happened/changed suddenly a couple of weeks ago. Maybe it's something random like I need to replace my pillows...