Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Beautiful warm sunshine at last, I've got the bedding geraniums from Morries outside & having a day in the fresh air. Joining YBE with the sunny day.

Nice heron pic Blue, as Dusty says, clever birds and sit on things looking around, including, in my previous life, the bustard Heron that sat on my greenhouse eyeing up my golden orfe. He waited for DS to go in before clearing the pond. Well nearly, one was too big for him but forever more it had beak scars on its sides. Probably had fishy counselling as well.

Nature red & raw etc.

Arbs, well done on the garden even though it causes aches & pains, very worthwhile. And once eating some of your produce in your sitooterie you will be like the rest of us, thinking ahead for next year, can I move that? Would a such & such go in there?

Sideways toms, not tried it, but there is a YT where they flake down the stem while repotting, have to be careful not to break the stem but looked like a good idea

YoungBlueEyes said:

 Fingers crossed for your Love in a Mist, is there still time to sow more do you think? 

I do have time to sow more, but reading about 2Ps ones just popping up later maybe I'm impatient, perhaps they drowned?

Dustyevsky said:

Farway said:

I feel same about buying in plants, sometimes it is not cost-effective to get seeds, especially now compost is expensive & mostly carp plastic & mini dibbers and seeds not showing

Yes, I'm looking at you, Cosmos and Aquilegia

I've had no bother with Cosmos, bog-standard 'Bright Lights,' but Aquilegia are probably best sown fresh, or given a winter to break dormancy once it sets in. Anyway, although I had my tiny 'white' ones growing slowly through winter, they all perished eventually, so we're in the same place!   Lots of self-seeded ones from previous years around, though.

I think that's it with Aquilegia seeds, fresh is best. Brown fingered DS has a self seed one in flower right now on his front dry weed infested hump. I'm sure I could hear it mocking & sniggering as I was planting in there on Sunday.

YoungBlueEyes said:

Lovely sunny day here and it's forecast to stay all day, possibly. No more rain needed here, I've multiple big trugs sat full of rain cos himself had to let some out of the (still full) water butt it was raining that hard at the weekend. Instead of waiting for it to die I've decided to look for a home for my gorse when I'm out later, much as I love it I really don't have any room and they grow so big. I might go out late and plant it in the verge on the corner so I can walk past it every day, and that'll have to do. 

Good idea Blue, guerilla gardening at it's finest. I did similar with a buddleia, it grows huge on waste patch near my garage block, full of flowers, bees etc.

If placed wisely no one seems to mind, and eventually it becomes part of normal landscape

Update from Evri, my apple tree is on the way , luckily DD has offered it a home in her new garden, good, it will look nice there and help pollinate Purple Haze as well

And in keeping with the apple theme, here's bee pic taken yesterday

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

I don't know what it was Arb, it was only sat there a wee minute so I was lucky to get a pic at all. A heron or an egret or what I don't know.

Bluddy 'ell Dusty, you and Farway gonna have a forest-off?  

Egret's always possible now, but they're usually a bit smaller, and very white. Most of those toms will disappear. It's a case of “Grow them; they will come!”

The cuneform-leaved things are Centaurea gigantea and Echinops ritro; the latter recovering from normal conditions outdoors that weren't normal. There's some of SiL's chillies too, but all way too hot for me, so Shawshank for them!

Farway, I remember having 26 goldfish-coloured goldfish at our last house. One day, we had none, just the black ones left. Didn't see the culprit, but it wasn't a cat!

By the way, fishy counselling and prior experience doesn't work. I caught the same one-eyed pike in the same river pool 3 years running!

twopenny

My post vanished!

Hi Taff, yes this bag looked the same and came from Otter. Once water has washed out the tiny bit of compost it's lumps of bark and twigs. I'll try John innes 1 next year.

The heron, they nest in tree tops. Look up heronery. Good pic catch though 

Saw a small lilac tree with a really unusual flower on the edge of an overgrown hedge. I'll ask the owner if he has any suckers. If not ..........
Deep pink and purple flowers which would look good against the dark red of my ornamental plum.

YoungBlueEyes

I would never have noticed you got it wrong taff, there’s that many scandiwegians now ha haa! 

Glad you’re feeling better 2p, even if it does mean it’s back to the grindstone. 

Speaking of authors though - if anyone likes Jack Reacher (the books not those heinous films), try Robert Crais. His characters are Elvus Cole + Joe Pike, very Reachery but with a bit of sarcasm thrown in. Really good. Worth reading in order imo. 

I’m half keeping an eye out for the heron/egret/wosname in case I can get a better pic…. 

Farway

Nice & warm out, so I actually went out & trimmed the “things” growing round my old espalier apple, some suckers but including a couple of brambles trying their luck

Sod's Law, my old pond is now clear water not a swamp , I’ve just trimmed the long stuff growing round the front of it, now all it needs is frogs & dragonflies.

I'll still infill with a baby bath, can't trust it not to vanish again

Weather is due to change for a couple of days, storms & deluge, one hot day & that's it

Still no sign of L I Mist, but at least I've read the gas meter & checked for Lily beetles, none found.

twopenny said:

Saw a small lilac tree with a really unusual flower on the edge of an overgrown hedge. I'll ask the owner if he has any suckers. If not ..........
Deep pink and purple flowers which would look good against the dark red of my ornamental plum.

Sounds ideal 2P, has the lilac got nice scent as well?  

Watch out for suckers in case it's a grafted one, which it may be as it's unusual flowers, be awful if you trotted home & nurtured a cuckoo for years, your unspoken ....... may be the way to proceed

I went searching just to see and found one named Sensation, could it be that one?

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/90062/syringa-vulgaris-sensation/details

If it is that one, I want one now, also has good scent.

PS, apple tree has reached Rugby, gawd knows where it's coming from as I'm Hampshire

-taff

YoungBlueEyes said:

I would never have noticed you got it wrong taff, there’s that many scandiwegians now ha haa! 

Glad you’re feeling better 2p, even if it does mean it’s back to the grindstone. 

Speaking of authors though - if anyone likes Jack Reacher (the books not those heinous films), try Robert Crais. His characters are Elvus Cole + Joe Pike, very Reachery but with a bit of sarcasm thrown in. Really good. Worth reading in order imo. 

Read them all! And most on the kindle so I re-read occasionally just to get a fix of the strong silent ish funny type

It's my favourite literary cat too

Dustyevsky

Someone asked about the plastic trays I'm using in the conservatory. They came from a skip on educational premises, like the office chair I'm sitting on as I type. Obviously not a primary school!  There was nothing wrong with them, other than not being shiny and new looking. Like most plastics, they're date stamped, and the mid 1990s ones are stronger than those from the noughties.

I know this is MSE, and baby baths are cheap second-hand, but if you can't wait, or don't want something pink or white, all-purpose circular or rectangular tubs are an option from the usual Internet sources. I'd think 65 litres a good size to avoid overheating in sunny spots, but you could get away with less in partial shade.

It was still not warm or dry here today, though the wind has moderated and rain's lifted now. As Farway says, drier tomorrow, then more carp on Thursday.   Drunks promise dry 15c on Saturday. I will believe it when I see it.

twopenny

Lovely photo Farway! But it's not that.
Might be this one
https://www.google.com/search?q=lilac+double+pink+and+purple&sca_esv=568821e4bd74bee9&sca_upv=1&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiWpcnHwuqFAxUvXEEAHVQ0AB8Q_AUIBigB&biw=802&bih=404#imgrc=tjlhsYBVlXLDrM
The blossom is flat on a dirty pavement so no idea if it smells    I'll check it out tomorrow.

I put wanting small birds in the garden - and it's been flooded with them    
Most of the common ones have been in to feed, the baby sparrows are hillarious...chasing, barging and wizzing around..
I moved the bird table onto the lawn and the pigeons can't get in. They sit on top looking at me flornly and I feel quite guilty.
Even a couple of arguing seagulls passed by.

My ornamental plum has grown branches about a foot in the last few days blocking the path.
Perhaps they got stretched with all the thrashing in the wind.

Wet day, wind dropped as did the temperature this evening. Everything was grey - except for the colours in gardens 

-taff

Farway, that's a lovely looking lilac. I might have to get one for my cousin, she used to compain about my uncle chopping hers down every year befor eit had chance to flower. I think she'd love that one. Coincedentally, there appears ot be one available to buy online..

And I;m going to the Gardeners world spring fair this Sunday, I just thought I'd have a look and see. If there was anywhere I'd like to go it would be Chelsea but that's never going to happen with the price of tickets, the hassle of getting there and the ability to walk around, so i'll just accept a lesser one

Upshot of todays hospital visit is an op to fuse the bone so i can hopefully walk without pain. Not looking forward to another bloody op. I obviously need some plants to cheer me up

Dustyevsky

-taff said:

Upshot of todays hospital visit is an op to fuse the bone so i can hopefully walk without pain. Not looking forward to another bloody op. I obviously need some plants to cheer me up

Definitely. Plants can perform psychological near miracles cheer the soul. (Look mods, no medical information here!   )

Not a bad sunset tonight....also cheering this soul. I'd have missed it, but for others saying, "Wow!"

I hope the op relieves the pain and gives you greater scope to get around again.