Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

Glad you're new trees are settling in Bluey.
Love that book Farway. The t,internt is ok for quick answers but if you really want to know about something a book is the way to go.
Imp, mixed blessing the birds eating the bugs but getting at the blossom. I guess they live in the moment and don't give a thought to the future.
Dusty, the cat pic is priceless   

Woke up to a bright day with high cloud. Sheesh it was hot yesterday. Some where around 24 with no warning. Loved it but so tired.
And, having bought lots of runner beans mine have suddenly popped up to meet them 
Still I'm covered for any sacrifices to slugs.

pink_poppy

I hope you get a white aquilegia, YBE. I've never tried samphire, so aye, bring it along   

What's the name of your apple tree and when did you plant it?? Exciting to have fruit forming. I had a James Grieve in my last but one house - planted one year and fruited the next. Another garden I miss...

I don't 'understand' this garden, itms?? I think it's because it's a funny shape and not traditional. At the moment there are no sitooteries and I end up sitting on the back step (which I'm a bit wary of because I saw a wee mouse run over it one day haha). I'm reluctant to buy plants because I don't know where I would put them (the snakes heads and hollyhock I bought months ago are still in their plastic pots and have probably shrivelled up and died with the sun). I've never been like this with previous gardens, but this one has me totally flummoxed.

OT - It's a gorgeous morning here and I heard the cuckoo again  

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

Righto I'll fetch plenty of crabs then pp, and how about some samphire while I'm at it, yum  
I think only 1 of the aquilegia seeds you sent me has come up (I planted a good few), but then one's all I need for my own seeds. I wonder what colour it'll be. The one the Oracle gave me is a bright purple and white, so something different would be good.

That looks like a beautiful book Arb, a real treasure. Lime leaf sandwhiches - I've never even heard of them! They do sound nice, just right for a hot afternoon. Maybe want a squidge of mayo on them...

I can let you have 2 spider crabs that have been lurking in our freezer for a while. Bought alive in Cornwall, we had others a few months ago, but I wasn't taken with them, and they were darned fiddly to deal with. I'd rather go to a fishmonger and get a dressed, 'normal' one.

I wonder if it would be similar with lime leaves? Out on the walk last Monday, I tried a couple of wild plants known to be edible, like Stitchwort, but they didn't taste of much. That's not an accusation I could throw at dandelions, mind, but as we all know, eating those makes you wet the bed!

We had a lovely evening yesterday, with a Fighting Temeraire sunset I failed to capture due to barbie and beer. Luckily, I was in the right place earlier in the day, when we had a visitor, not normally seen so close to the house:

-taff

Thanks Farway, i had a watch of both [but why do people use such stupid loud music over them talking...I'm not so addled that more attention keeping stuff is necessary...One thing you didn't see on the fashion designers one, was ripped up pieces of jeans used as ground cover. While the pockets were a great idea, those tiny bits will blow all over the place. And oneof the popular [ on ammost all flower stalls] was a tall thistle like plant, wish I'd paid attention to the name..uh oh, I'm rambling again.

My father used to pour a kettle of boiling water over any ants nests he found. Me, i just make sure its wet, too wet for tunnels to stay intact. Never had crab either, it's on the list to try. And I've learned something new, never having known that much about trees that a Linden tree is a Lime tree...I like the thought of a bossy bark too. Samphire, nom...you can grow it n your garden butwhether you'd need to chuck a bit of salt on it I don't know..what does ITMS stand for? I did google but I coubt it's something to do with management systems?  or is it? pp, I'd work out where I want sitooteries and then work around that...and watch loads of garden rescue or similar of course. It's the hard landscaping stuff I have problems with, mostly because I don't want to pay for it though...

I picked up some roof tiles yesterday to make a spot in front of the garage dry for OH and his bike when it rains, had a commiserating conversation about lawn mowing with the original owner...There's a plant sae tomorrow and my contributions ot it are very small, [tagetes about 5 mm..] so am hoping to shove some cosmos in one of the trays they gave me And it starts at ten,,,what kind of time is that to begin on a weekend...but then I suppose it gives you the rest of the day to play with what you bought...

Dustyevsky

-taff said:

It's the hard landscaping stuff I have problems with, mostly because I don't want to pay for it though...

Hard landscaping costs a mint. We've had the bill for ours, and we're flat broke now, but it was reasonable by today's standards, and we had to do it.

If and when we get solvent again, we might have the patio we've wanted for 10 years, or a paved front pathway would be nice. We can sit on the lawn, like we did last night, but a proper sitooterie needs a good, solid base.

Your trendy thistle-like plant. Could it be Berkheya, Cirsium rivulare (popular years ago, due revival?) Morina longifolia, or good old Echinops, which I'm having trouble with from seed?

ArbitraryRandom

LessImpecunious said:

Dustyevsky said:

LessImpecunious said:

Your May has beaten ours Dusty - but we're in the (rarely sunlit) uplands of Wales. No apple blossom yet either, which is worrying me somewhat as bullfinches have been more in evidence this year than usual, and one or two trees I've inspected closely look as though buds may have been removed...

I'd love to have more bullfinches than we do. I'm sure they'd not dent our apple crop, though it's a Heinz 57 mix, and only half of them fit to eat. The others are cider and 'weird.' Among the latter, we have 'Kirton Fair,' an apple bred to be ready for that event, but barely palatable.

 we have two trees that (almost) always fruit well - a Keswick Codlin whose fruits develop brown rot and/or go soft as soon as they ripen, and a Winston whose fruits eventually go from being hard and inedible to just about palatable in February before turning soft and mushy 

Worth/feasible taking out and replacing with more palatable varieties? If you don't get edible fruit now then is it that much of a loss to wait a few years for something new to mature... 

Dustyevsky said:

I wonder if it would be similar with lime leaves? Out on the walk last Monday, I tried a couple of wild plants known to be edible, like Stitchwort, but they didn't taste of much. 

Can't think it would be much worse than cucumber sarnies   

-taff

Dustyevsky said:

Hard landscaping costs a mint. We've had the bill for ours, and we're flat broke now, but it was reasonable by today's standards, and we had to do it.

If and when we get solvent again, we might have the patio we've wanted for 10 years, or a paved front pathway would be nice. We can sit on the lawn, like we did last night, but a proper sitooterie needs a good, solid base.

Your trendy thistle-like plant. Could it be Berkheya, Cirsium rivulare (popular years ago, due revival?) Morina longifolia, or good old Echinops, which I'm having trouble with from seed?

It might be ths one, Cirsium rivulare, there was foliage at the bottom and very long stems with the thistle bit being really really strong in colour, a real smash you in the face purple. Kind of like a scabious form.

I commiserate with your expenditure. I'm toying with the idea of paying someone to lay some slab type surface down the bottom where the original owner put a massive concrete edged bit, 8 inches deep in gravel with concrete pavement edging on top of conrete shuttering, it's about 19ft by 9 ft and would involve a lot fo digging, smashing concrete  and skips unless we use it for something sitooterie eaterie type thing. I've already riddled the gravel and given away the edging [a very enterprising Polish guy came to fetch it and managed to fit it in his tiny car that didn't have much in the way of suspension for his allotment shed base, took a few trips mind], but what's left is full of mares tail and currently covered with a tarp and the smaller pieces of stone and sand. The cats love it, its the biggest cat litter tray in the world.

Farway

Another scorcher on the cards for today, and I've started the annual Summer Watering this morning, the pots at the front are drying out, baked by the house walls and facing the sun. 

At the moment they have foxgloves in so get droopy, but once FG go it's Morries bedding geranium time so all should be well.

Will you lot stop going on about Aquilegias , even the living one I bought is looking weak and looking forward to Valhalla

Perhaps the bullfinches swooped in one night & scoffed my Aquilegia seeds?

The slugs have gobbled all my beans , so much for a head start. Grrr. I have a few badly nibbled ones in another pot which may survive.

The gobbled up bean pot I think I may as well pot up a few toms in there now, I've got a forest so can sacrifice a few, #Shawshank

Nice woodpecker pic Dusty, the few times I've seen one it's never been still long enough for me to even try a pic.

Dustyevsky said:

Farway said:

And I have found a goosegog under my baby bush, or is it the other way round?

I hope not, for your sake....and the baby's! I also wonder if the Gen Zs and onwards will 'get' that, given they had a more honest biological education than we did!

YoungBlueEyes said:

Those cannas look alright eh Farway, hopefully they’ll decide to properly go for it this year 🤞🏻

I must've missed that, but if Farway has cannas, I'm not looking! There was something resembling a canna leaf in the washing area border the other day,, but I'm ignoring it. No doubt my friend's one, down by the coast has turned into 3, all of them 2' tall and slug-free!

If a picture of my Cannas could bring on the vapiurs I'd better give you a trigger warning now . There are sightings of posible flower bunches on my lakemont grape, so much so I am investiging those litle bags you tie over the bunches to stop wasps & birds

-taff

Oh dear, my erigeron went the same way as your aquilegias seem to be going..[psst, they love it in the front garden though, you just have to find the right spot for them, awkward beasts]

I'm going to wow you with my zantedeschia [arums?] when it opens it's flowers, see if I have canna envy then!

pink_poppy

I think I'll pass on the spider crabs, Dusty   Fab pics of Woody Woodpecker - always exciting to see something different. I'm being mobbed by blackbirds every time I go outside - obviously feeding babies and demanding any food I can throw out (but preferably dried fruit).

taff, itms was if that makes sense - I probably should have just written it out in full haha. I've got a couple of sitooteries in mind, but it's the cost of the landscaping that's stopping me too. I was originally going to go for slate, but now that I'm not working, it's going to have to be something cheap and cheerful.

Are Lime/Linden trees the ones that smell gorgeous?? Like honey or something, I can't remember. If so, they had them along the entrance to Inveraray Castle and also in Inverness and the smell on the breeze was just lovely   

Farway, you have grapes growing - no chance of that here.