Awful weather - typical Brits talk

wort

Oh No YBE that’s terrible , did they at least ask you to move it and tell you it would be towed ? I would be fuming surely they should pay for the damage. We could come with spades in the night 😉
It’s foggy here too. Not too thick and the sun is pushing through.

Dustyevsky

Wow! Bluey, and respect for your commitment to the cause, even if the Telecommunications Act made the result inevitable. I've been there, and found the Act hard to use as a private individual. It took about 2 years to get a result, so I can understand why people take direct action. I believe some citizens of Hull have retaliated by way of chain saw, which has the added spin-off of a ready market for poles. They're allowed to have much better protection against rot than those supplied to us peasants for gateposts etc.

It seems strange, considering that about 8 years ago the utility company here managed to remove most of the very disfiguring wiring in the centre of our small town. The difference was amazing, with an altogether lighter, brighter feel to the place.

To answer your question, I don't know how long our garden area was neglected for. It was a failed permaculture type of project the owner lost control of, and they were absent for about three years towards the end. We found numerous labels for interesting plants, but there wasn't much worth saving by the time we took possession. We cleared what we could by hand and then, the following spring, brought in a digger. Some trees were small enough to relocate, such as the Medlar on the right of the photo. Leylandii and other inappropriate trees were taken out. It took a couple of years to sort everything and put up the polytunnel. Having all the digger work for drains in the future, we built our first ornamental garden on what was a neglected area full of discarded stuff behind the neighbour's bungalow. It's only since finishing the building work (and drains) we've made more garden/lawn nearby.

Whoops! Nearly forgot: 7c here after almost a frost. Clear sky and sunshine, expected to last until evening, with the potential for some light showers on the SE breeze. Outlook: Light rain overnight and more of this tomorrow. Not bad!

YoungBlueEyes

Sorry I didn't explain that very well did I. KCOM (used to be Kingston Communications) is our phone and broadband provider. They've a monopoly round here due to a quirky old law, and it's why we still have white phone boxes. MS3 want to provide the same thing, and they've been allowed, but they're putting poles in the most ridiculous of places. What's upset people is that they're putting poles where they don't have permission yet - they're just rolling them out and worrying about the paperwork later. We were guaranteed we wouldn't have them down our streets because we're on church land - private land - but at 0630 yesterday they turned up and planted one. We'd welcome the competition to kcom, but ms3 also have the option of putting cables underground, which they aren't doing because it's slower and dearer. It hasn't made the national news (I don't think) but it's a huge deal locally. It's almost enough to get me back on facefook so I could've called out for some backup. Not that they'd have got through because the pole people blocked the street off. 

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/broadband-poles-hull-explained-rules-8187429 

So much for my council of grumpy grannies. Tv aerials on the old school and now this at the front. And it's not even straight!! I'm waiting on the Oracle coming over because she won't be having it. And yes they're getting the bill for my car. 

Good of you to offer to come with spades wort, but could you make it a chainsaw thankyouplease? And a bunch of good strong fellahs cos the pole's a big bu99er  

Edit - yes they did tell me I had one minute to move my car or they'd have it towed, I refused and pointed out it's on private land, and within 5 minutes the towtruck was there. It's a common tactic to sit your car over the painted spot so they were obviously prepared this time. 

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

 We have poles and things in places where it beggars belief - no idea how they got (or even if they needed) planning permission for them. So annoying about your car too.

 No planning needed. They put them up with a notice saying where to apply if anyone wants to object, but that's much harder than it should be. The Telecommunications Act requires a certain form of words to be used.....I won't go there! Eventually I got it right and won....sort of!

YoungBlueEyes

Cancel the big boys with chainsaws - now it’s lighter I can see they’ve carefully put it up in between the existing wires  

ArbitraryRandom

Why do they need a new pole? can't they just add wires to the existing one (she asks, obliviously)? 

YoungBlueEyes

They could have, but kcom wanted to charge them for the privilege obviously and ms3 said no. They were granted permission for cables in some streets (not ours) but just thought "beggar it, we'll put poles up wherever we like and deal with the fallout later". 

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

They were granted permission for cables in some streets (not ours) but just thought "beggar it, we'll put poles up wherever we like and deal with the fallout later". 

It fits in well with "You will own (and have a say in) nothing, and be happy." "Duplicating infrastructure, madam? I'm afraid this is too technical a subject for me to discuss with you."

I have better news. One of the main stir-pots, who lied at the council meeting about our plans, has his house on the market. Deep joy! The bad news is he wants far too much, but don't they always?

Farway

Wet start, but Dusty's blue sky has arrived , nice to hear it's good down West 'cos DD & family are now on half-term holiday in the Newquay area

YBE, what a carry on & hope the car gets sorted, but I expect if they arrived with a transporter handy I guess they have car damage covered as well. With a legal printer puking out reams of small print to politely tell you to do one we are here to help.

ArbitraryRandom said:

Still no flowers/signs of desirable plant activity, but the buddlia that was hacked down has started to show some leaf, so I may need to ask the builder to remove any shoots he sees when they're back next month.

Quick question... I have a few seed potatoes. When do I put them on the windowsill to start sprouting? Now or in a few weeks?  

Is the buddleia in the way? or is it just a PIA? Asking 'cos my white buddleia is shooting up again, as intended, from it's hard winter pruning.

Now is fine to start spuds chitting, try not to get them too cosy & warm or the shoots get leggy & snap off when you plant them.

BTW if you miss it's fine to plant them without chitting, it's what millions of farmers do. I think a trial was done to see if chitting sped cropping up or not, I don't think it did, but perhaps that was maincrop & not super earlies?

Now the rain has stopped, I hope to squelch out later & get pictures of my pear buds and maybe Clematis Lazarusii back from its Fiord trip

YoungBlueEyes said:

Woohoo for the first daffs Farway, don't they make your heart smile  

Certainly does, and here they are

YoungBlueEyes

Hooray for the beginnings of getting rid of your neighbours Dusty, but booo they're over-optimistic on price. Think they'll hold out thinking someone will pay it eventually as it's still so early in the season? 

Sorry Arb, I missed your question (I've been unusually self-centered and ranty today, apologies all). Tatties are fine to get going now, chitted or not. I wouldn't even bother about starting them inside, I'd just do them outside if you can. Farmers don't have 'em all over their windowsills do they If you'd feel better hedging your bets, do a few inside now, keep a few for again later, and a few more for outside. I'm trying to remember what granda used to do... they were either just before or just after lambing (which is now time) so I'd risk them outside meself. 

That's a fab pic of your tete a tete Farway, I'd forgotten how much I like them. So that's snowdrops and tetes on my shopping list for later in the year.  And you're dead right about the paperwork, it has all kinds of ha ha sucks to be you here's our no-help-line number nonsense on it, but it'll not stop me for I wasn't in the wrong. 

I hope DD and family have a good time in Newquay, it'll be beautiful down there if the weather behaves eh