Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

You;ll never guess what I found in January!

Saw my broccoli was looking sick, had taken some baby snails out of the deformed head but the next week I found this

Dustyevsky

Large White larvae in January are a sure sign of your mild climate, 2p... Anyway, whatever you do, don't tell that UN chappie! 'Cos, if you haven't worked it out yet, we are the carbon he and his mates want to reduce! Be grateful. As his Bond villain mate would say, "Ze larvae are a vunderful source of protein!"

And in other lies news it's heavy drizzle here this morning, which wasn't predicted by the old adage about red sunsets etc. It's not predicted by the drunkards either, because on my forecast they say drizzle will not reach us until the afternoon.

With nothing major to report here, I can at least submit evidence of last night's lovely sunset and save the hellebores for another day:

twopenny

That's a good one Dusty! 
Beautiful day yesterday. Sunshine that was actually warm sunshine   
Of course I was indoors all afternoon but still proper daylight when we came out at 4.

Only a light shower overnight. 10c this morning whch is a bonus.
Predicted dark grey cloud so the lawn won't be dry enough to mow. May have a go at the front garden this afternoon if I don't get any better offers   

YoungBlueEyes

Oh noo, beasties 2p In January!  Bet it's that mild weather wot done it, critters thinking it's spring already. Did you get them all successfully squidged to death? (The colour of your broccoli is the colour of my wellies btw ) 

No gardening here today, unless buying flowers in Aldi counts. I've done a fuschia-sticks check, all still there but I should've binned the main stem. I planted it, thinking why not, but His Holeyness is using it as a scratching post My mouses continue undisturbed...

Damp out there this morning but mild and a bit breezy. They reckon properly windy today but I don't know. So they've finally shut the bar at that Devonian HQ place have they Dusty? The Sobers and Ventusky it is then. They both say 9' out there now, high of 12' by lunch and that'll hold stable 'til tomorrow midnight. Not right isn't that. 

Did our friends north of the border all come through the storm ok? It was on my news/weather last night that the wind speeds topped all kinds of records, both here and in Norway and Sweden. Ever so properly blowy it was. 

YoungBlueEyes

Wow now that's a sunset Dusty Is it just general gorgeousness or a Saharan influence..?

Word of the day. The feeling of warmth you get from the sun's rays is apricity. Isn't that lovely  

twopenny

Oh I like a good word.
So I had to look it up and found a load more
https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/winter-words
I'd also like to read an interpretation of hard English words......

Farway

No red skies here, mist & fog grey. No wind though, so I suppose that's a plus.

ArbitraryRandom said:

Farway said:

I need locking away , also in my electronic mail was an offer from T & M, ten quid off if spending over twenty, and the Purple Haze apple tree I was coveting was £24.99 reduced from £44.99. 

Although the £44 price seems OTT to me, the now £14.99 sold it to me. Now ordered dammit.

And it does look lovely (I checked it out when you mentioned it before). The only thing stopping me is that literally the only place I could put it is where I want my new shed... 

Which size rootstock did you go for (I think I remember you saying you were getting a patio cherry before xmas)?

It's on M26, there was not an option with it, guess maybe hence the offer price? But being columnar and M26 it should be just fine.

The patio cherry eventually turned into a subsidised offer price from council of £12, on Colt rootstock. I intend planting this at the volunteer place and training it by tying branches down. I collect it end of Feb, planting in ground by March, hopefully.

Variety TBD when I collect, but the intention at volunteer place is ornamental really, any fruit left by the birds will be a bonus

Thinking back about buying the Purple Haze apple, I'm not one to generally think spooky, but it was only last weekend I was looking through the fruit catalogue & spotted it, never having heard of it before.

Lo and behold, an offer I couldn't refuse turns up before the week is out.

More likely Mr Gates' algorithms than fate

DD is moving into her new to her house this weekend, I think a Purple Haze apple would be a nice house / garden warming pressie. Can I convince her ? If not, I have space with a bit of apple tree shuffling.

While You Tubing looking for Purple Haze, not there except exotic smoking materials of same name , I went down rabbit holes, and I'm convinced more than ever that bending down fruit branches is the way ahead

Plus I rediscovered bud notching, I did know but had forgotten.

If the weather gets warmer this weekend, I'll be out there notching away at my figs. I'll try both methods, above & below, to see what happens. The fig I have in mind fruits up high, if I can encourage lower branches that would be handy.

ArbitraryRandom

Some beautiful images to enjoy while eating lunch, but I do find myself wondering how much 'editing' a photo can stand before it should really be called a mixed media or digital picture? 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-68127991

This one is still my favourite from about 10 years ago (I have it as a desktop background): 

twopenny

That is gorgeous Abs!!!!!!!!
I agree with you on that thought. I was wow'dd by a Japanese photographer until I found the images were manipulated with a,specific tool. So disappointed.

You've reminded me that I have a photo from a calendar of an autumn scene that I used to have framed. Never seen better. Wonder if I still have it?

Dustyevsky

ArbitraryRandom said:

Some beautiful images to enjoy while eating lunch, but I do find myself wondering how much 'editing' a photo can stand before it should really be called a mixed media or digital picture?

It's hard, even for the photographer, to know how accurate a photo is in the digital age. The sunset I posted wasn't quite right when I viewed it for the first time. I dimmed it till it looked more accurate, but how good is my visual memory?

Our memory for other things may be faulty too. I thought it had been quite a mild start to the year, and 2p's caterpillars seemed to confirm this, but according to official statistics: " Devon and Cornwall was much colder than average. The provisional figures show that temperatures were around 1.5C chillier than usual.” Hmm....it wasn't just the terrible grammar which raised my eyebrows there! 

The mizzle stayed with us here all day, along with a good breeze and temperatures around 10c. I did some foundation work in the sheltered east doorway of the polytunnel. Two hours of it and I'd had enough!

A semi-opened hellebore to lighten the evening. It's not been manipulated, but it may have been tweaked!

PS Bluey, I took my own advice and stuck some fuchsia cuttings in the cold frame today. It's 'Genii' one I don't see in Morries or the nursery we use. Hardy and good, bright, yellowish foliage.