Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Dry & sort of sunny in spasms.

I have also been on a medical jaunt, dentist for me. Just a NHS check-up, with a couple of bits on the "wait & see” list. No grounds to explore while waiting, just boring car park & non descript hedge.

Nice camellia Dusty, DD has one in her new garden, in a similar frost tinged state, but it looks like it is a cracker on a good day

Spotted some of my Snakes heads in bud yesterday, I thought they'd gone off to the fiords, so nice to see them again. Photo once the open.

Blue, slugs etc. like Dusty I have a stock of blue sweets which I now use only when desperate and left with either suicide or a slug massacre. I have tried the new eco ones, and they don't seem to work, maybe I'm supposed to choke the blighters with them?

I have tried beer, I think any old beer will do, get one you like to drink, so avoiding wasteful leftovers . Remember, you can recycle the beer onto your compost heap once it has passed through your kidneys.

Today's photos is post dentist, the cherry tree on council verge near me.

twopenny

Out again for the forseeable.
I've given up on washing stuff and waiting for a long spell of sunny and dry and do the lot.

Ditto the physio. Went in fine, came out aching though she seemed to think that I could get back to normal which was a surprising positive seeing that not only can I not walk again but ive irritated a nerve in my wrist so can't use the recommended walking poles either.

Went to an interesting talk on stargazing yesterday. The talk on photographing gardens was full.
Despite the decrepitude I'm giving dancing a go this afternoon.

Mild but the predicted rain looks like it's glowerig overhead so I wizzed around and moved pots, disposed of a couple of slugs over the fence, cut some bottles for watering in the heatwave we're probably due.


Bought a discounted Basil plant from the supermarket in a moment of optimism  . 
13c here with a warm westerly. Feels like spring!

Farway

And one of my slugged daffs

YoungBlueEyes

11’ degrees here and the sun’s shining Not warm tho cos it’s kinda breezy, so I’m pleased I put a wash out. 

I read that about the blue sweeties - the new ones don’t seem to work. Or don’t work as well as the old ones. I’ve a box of Magners so I’ll split a can into 4 wee dishes and see how that goes down 🤞🏻 I wasn’t sure whether to go out and buy some cheapo ale if that was the consensus. 

Nice camellia Dusty. The Oracle has one - same breed, possibly, and she loves it dearly

Those talks sound good 2p, did you get any interesting/odd/shareable facts out of them? 

And could you all stop dropping to bits please or I’ll be sat here talking to meself!  

pink_poppy

Two elbows and a knee dropping to bits here... my knee is from when I fell with style a couple of weeks ago (scab duly picked off, wort), one elbow is possibly bursitis and I whacked the other elbow at work last week - brought tears to my eyes and naughty words from my mouth.

Are there any knee strengthening exercises you can do, Dusty?? I'm due to go back to ankle/foot physio next month and I haven't been doing mine. The physio suggested doing them every time I put the kettle on for a cup of tea, but as I don't drink tea and very rarely have coffee, that was never going to work.

It's grey and overcast here - rain forecast for the foreseeable...

ArbitraryRandom

Home from my events - and that should be all traveling done until mid-May... a bit knackered (my feet are killing me!) but a quiet few days now to get ready for the builder hopefully starting on monday. 

Didn't get many good pictures, but was delighted to see a few precocious tulips on my wandering, plus a few other dashes of colour when I took the time to stop and look  

Not the best pictures, but I love the way you can see the distorted reflections of the surrounding buildings in the raindrops on the primula (?). 

twopenny

The wildflowers we call weeds are so pretty makes you wonder why we don't grow them instead!
And forgetmenots, lovely photo.
No slugs, snails or puppydogs tails get them.

Poppy you make me feel quite well! 
Hand now ok, other bits too. All random.

Been round lidl, tescos, and the garden centre for bits and bobs and all pointless plants.
Looks like a garden centre round trip but that scares me because I come back with something random because it was a bargain.

Bluey, ive not tried beer traps, couldn't bear to waste the beer. Tried upside down grapefruit skins and useless.
Coffee grounds - i could have a lot - useless.
I've found sheeps wool the best deterrent. Either in shop bought pellets or collect bits from barbed wire/gorse at this time of year when they're all penned for lambing and wrap around the plants.
If it's daffs, just buy a huge bagfull of bulbs and confuse the slugs by numbers    

Dustyevsky

Super photos Arb, wort and Farway, all proving spring is beginning to happen out there, despite the persistent damp and grey. Our predicted bright spell, late afternoon, didn't materialise.

pink_poppy said:

Are there any knee strengthening exercises you can do, Dusty?? I'm due to go back to ankle/foot physio next month and I haven't been doing mine.

I hadn't done any formal exercises either, but that was OK, because my physio said I've made things worse by ignoring pain and doing too much physical stuff! He says he'll start me on the exercises in a month's time, if I can get the inflammation down by then. Like 2p's person, he feels a recovery to a 'normal' life will be possible, albeit more restricted, so far as long-distance and rough terrain walking's concerned. I want to avoid a knee-op for as long as possible, because gardening involves a lot of kneeling, which is difficult with a knee replacement.

Returning to the photos taken in the hospital grounds, I spotted one quite unusual plant growing over an arbour. I grew one in our first garden many years ago, and didn't think much of it then, but people's tastes change. It's certainly early into flower....For those who like to guess, I'll put the picture in before naming it.

It's Akebia quinata, or 'The Chocolate Vine.' No smell of chocolate on the day I visited, though!

LessImpecunious

Darn! you named it before I had my guess...only recognised because I tried to grow one in a large pot in our garden in London many years ago - it never produced flowers, and therefore never the hoped-for sausages! (the fruits for those wondering...)

YoungBlueEyes

I know what you mean 2p, it made my stomach shrink to share good drink with slugs but needs must. They're eating me alive out there   I'll keep my eye out for wool scraggles... Good luck with your gc trip, random bargains are half the excitement ha haa! 

That's a cracking cherry tree Farway, hopefully we don't get a lot of bad weather and it gets to flower for long enough to give the bees a chance
There's one at he end of my road but it doesn't look anything like as advanced as yours.

Lovely photos Arb, the first one looks so delicate. Nice splash of colours tho eh Reminds me, I need to go looking for borage...

I wouldn't have got 'Chocolate Vine' in 1000 guesses Dusty but isn't the flower pretty? 

Raining and windy here but still mild at 10'. Cold coming tonight apparently - actual cold - poss minus figures for pp. Is your calamondin safely inside..?