Awful weather - typical Brits talk

wort

Ah PP the bees were hard at work on my heather yesterday, so should be ok for next batch😉 I had to avoid disturbing them .

I went out to garden at 10 for an hour so I thought and came in at 4pm . Bro in law came and got shut of the Ivy from the field.👏🏻 I gave some of the patio flags a scrub with bleach , he offered his pressure washer and mentioned the spray and leave stuff so hope to try that later in week if weather stays good.
It was hot in the sun and today is shaping up the same, filled the green bin and the garden looks much better, planted out more of the bulbs that had flowered indoors.
I never know when the northern lights are so never been lucky enough to see them.

Dustyevsky

twopenny said:

Woke up to a near frost and 3c  
This is not normal for this part of the world.

We woke up to what Mrs Dusty's car said was -3c. It's a pessimistic old thing, but there was ice on standing water.
A fine day in prospect and (hopefully) nothing to cramp my style either. Unfortunately, the wind has gone around and seems stuck where I cannot use it to power-up the next mega bonfire. :So....perhaps the first toms and courgette seeds will go in today. 

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

Thanks for that Dusty. It's something in the back of my brain that I need to look into. My employment history's been sketchy and I've a fear I've nowhere near enough contributions to be getting a full pension.

You've got until April 2025 to sort things. Roughly speaking, a person needs 35 full years, though that can be in the form of credits for periods of sickness, notified unemployment, or unpaid employment, such as giving care etc.

I would definitely sort out your seeds first!

YoungBlueEyes

wort have you got the Ventusky weather app? One of the settings on there is 'probability of seeing the aurora'. You can see it on the mobile app too, sometimes the twiddly bits/fun stuff is only on the proper website but the app shows you a % chance of seeing them. https://www.ventusky.com/  Credit to Farway for telling us about it all those months ago.

Proper heather honey is delish 2p but I'd not be paying all that for it either! If I had sun here I'd be out in it, we've nothing but grey wet misery here  

It's alright you saying to sort my seeds out first Dusty, but you've not seen the state of them I found an old shortbread tin that I thought would be good for storing seeds in, turns out it was already full of packets of seeds. Also the shoebox marked "small things that are not to be thrown, radiator keys etc" was full of seeds, the shoebox under the stairs that I thought had spare rolls of food waste caddy bags in - full of seeds, etc etc. Gawd knows where else I've stashed them.... and now I've got all these magazine ones... I reckon 5 hours on my pension might be quicker!

Farway

Blue sky & sunshine, a tad cool though at the moment.

Northern Lights, I went down YouTube rabbit hole yesterday & this year is going to be good, loads of sunspots & solar flares. Seems we are peaking a bit early at solar cycle in 2024

If you want to have a browse, start here, https://www.livescience.com/space/the-sun/solar-maximum-could-hit-us-harder-and-sooner-than-we-thought-how-dangerous-will-the-suns-chaotic-peak-be 

Probably not for the perpetually worried and doomsters, with Carrington events etc, but if we did the Aurora at the time was visible from as far south as Missouri. So perhaps us even Southern Softies would be in with a shout.

Your seeds YBE, could it be time for a bit of “Guerilla gardening” around Bluehaven ? A bit of seed bombing as you skulk walk about.

With the sun, I may squelch out and check the garden again. It hammered down yesterday but despite that there are more signs of life, even my outdoor fuchsia has fresh green buds appearing.

wort

YBE didn’t know it was on Ventusky I just look at the precipitation 😂 you could be the next Gertrude Jeckell if you follow Farways advice. I’m back from funeral quick change then off to theatre. 

Farway

wort said:

YBE didn’t know it was on Ventusky I just look at the precipitation 😂 you could be the next Gertrude Jeckell if you follow Farways advice. I’m back from funeral quick change then off to theatre. 

Blue Eyes ghost?

pink_poppy

I haven't been back into the garden to check on the Christmas tree bird, YBE. It was either a wren, robin or dunnock, but it was just too quick for me to identify. I know we had robins nesting in a different Christmas tree there last year, so you never know.

It's dry and sunny, but bloomin' cold again. Someone at work said it was an Easterly wind. Hopefully not another Beast from the East...

I'm getting over the shock of receiving the electrician's bill yesterday - it was double what I had estimated   

Dustyevsky

Farway said:

wort said:

YBE didn’t know it was on Ventusky I just look at the precipitation 😂 you could be the next Gertrude Jeckell if you follow Farways advice. I’m back from funeral quick change then off to theatre. 

Blue Eyes ghost?

That's apt in ways you don't yet realise.  I can't say more. :'(

As for Gertie, I believe she was a no nonsense type. There was plenty of room for a stash of Eryngium seeds under her voluminous skirt....but I doubt anyone would have them secreted there. They're extremely prickly!

However, it wasn't Gertrude who gained a reputation for seed bombing other folk's gardens. That was another Victorian lady, Miss Ellen Willmott, who's said to have been as prickly as the“ Miss Willmott's Ghost.” Sea Holly she's alleged to have distributed surreptitiously. I say 'alleged' because the story started as recently as the 1980s and may be mythical.

I grow 'Silver Ghost,' which is distinct from the Willmott variety. It does self-seed, but not wildly. 

This post has been edited (heavily!)

ArbitraryRandom

Lovely day today - beautiful blue skies and fluffy clouds. Spent most of it on a train (typically) then in meetings about the event tomorrow, but this is my view for tonight. 



I've spent most of the day sat on my bum, so I really should go for a walk... but my feel hurt and I'm a bit peopled out, so I'm going to set my alarm for early and go out before everything kicks off tomorrow