Awful weather - typical Brits talk

YoungBlueEyes

Good to hear your knee isn't sore all the time sammy, fingers crossed you'll soon be back to normal and happily potting on  

Your blackberry is beautiful Farway, I wish mine had looked half as good as that - would’ve saved me the bother of digging up the bluddy thing 🥵

It's a shame your blackberries had no flavour 2p. Hopefully the rose will go mental when you remove it's competition 🤞🏻

Very pretty poppy Dusty, not a colour I see very often. And imagine your neighbours unwittingly helping you out like that Karma really is A Thing.

Near perfect weather here. It's 18' now, with lots of high white cloud and a gentle (if humid) breeze. I've dug up mare's tails and thistles and all sorts this morning from the grass, by the time I've finished writing this they'll be back again   We can but try. Other things are coming to life - not my toms, I suspect they've actually shrunk overnight - but one of my good roses is out, the other one is about to, and I've a variety of stuff about to burst forth. It makes all the effort worthwhile when it decides to play the game and cooperate  

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

Very pretty poppy Dusty, not a colour I see very often. And imagine your neighbours unwittingly helping you out like that Karma really is A Thing.

Near perfect weather here. It's 18' now....

Huh??? I must've missed that. The builder I did impromptu work with this morning is a friend from way back. He'd been employed by the landlady of next door to sort out new drain covers, so got me to lend him some extra bits & bobs needed. Then, we found there was a shared septic tank drain issue......   I'm now 14 rods along the pipe and and it's not looking good.   It seems we may have silted-up the drain field over the past 12 years, with renewal probably the only option. Luckily, we still have a digger on site, but it's not a 5-minute job, or one for septic tank virgins, so I'm praying our digger guy has previous.  or the landlady knows 'a man.'

 Add to that a £500 bill for the 4x4, which is gaily spewing out  steering fluid, and it's looking like a 'heavy' month cash-wise!

We've had rain too. Lots of it fell while I was rodding the pipe and I got damp in places I shouldn't be! As if that wasn't enough, we also had the Eurofighters practising WW3 overhead for 20 minutes, which is odd because WW3 is usually Tuesday.

That wasn't the best picture of the poppy, which has hairy, bluey-green foliage, different from that of the Welsh ones. I just felt I ought to add something after Farway's great blackberry pics. Yes please, Farway, to the Judas Tree seed. Maybe this will be the year when my shy coronilla actually produces some. Then it can take over a corner of  your garden!

EDIT: Sunshine now! Real mixed bag weather, with no watering.

-taff

Lovely aliums! And brambles! And poppy! My favourite colour. I have just purchased some orange paint for the inside porch woodwork [nineteen thirties house, the old front door was set in a wooden frame with glass in five panes] As the front door is orange, I thought why not...I also purchased a torch that can illuminate a mile away [ or seems like it, a good hundred yards anyway], a level and three geraniums. Of course. Pelargoniums even...I can't find the lovely coral colour this year, only reds and pinks. Sammy, I have felt your pain previously and concur, do nothing, ice up, take pks.

Grass is cut mostly, i left a bit that has daisies galore in it and finished weeding the giant litter tray. Did a bit of pruning of a rosemary, not much, deadheaded the geums and lilac, pulled up some willowherb - there are limits ot my rewilding.

Lots of weather apps said rain today and this week, but the actual weather has proved them wrong. Dusty, I think ybe means the delay and pssobiel prfiting from it re the neighbours..

Dustyevsky

-taff said:

 Dusty, I think ybe means the delay and pssobiel prfiting from it re the neighbours..

Ah, yes, thanks taff. I'm a bit shell shocked today, thanks to being drenched and the potential for unplanned expenditure.  

With the barn, it's not so much the profit as the possibilities. While it's nowhere near the size of that pig barn I posted, it should generate enough £ for us to finish our home off properly. I knew we'd run short on cash when we took the place on, but it's been OK until the inflation in recent years, plus things like cars and field fencing coming to the end of their useful lives. Even if we'd to sell-up tomorrow (and we won't) the 15 years we've had has been worth the leap into the rural abyss!

And in other news, the drain is now emptying a little faster than before, but I can't get the smell out of my nose. Reminds me of the time I microwaved kippers, and retained their presence for a week! 

Weather still worse and more pluvial than the drunks down the road admit. Far from keeping slugs from my waterside additions, the mini-tsunami knocked some of them over. Only valerian, though. Apparently, him with the small moustache was fond of its calming properties....errr...not perhaps when he made his speeches!

pink_poppy

It's a lovely evening here after a bit of a grey start this morning.

Saxon tattie is definitely poking through and the rest are growing fast. It's going to be tricky earthing up the Kerr's Pink because there's one quite big shoot in the bag and then three or four smaller ones.

There was a beautiful thrush in the garden this afternoon having a bath in the pond - the blackbird wasn't very happy about it though. I went out to check on the tatties and put some food out a bit later and I noticed a blackbird hid in the bushes. A minute later a sparrowhawk swooped through the garden. The blackbird was well hidden, thankfully, so no fatalities this time.

YBE, don't talk to me about Calamondins - we had an infestation of compost gnats (??) in the porch and I think my dead Calamondin was the culprit. It's now outside and will probably end up in the bin.

Lovely pics, as aways   

twopenny

I haven't got much to say today, watered the pots and a bucket of water for the lilac in hopes that perks it up. It's suffered much worse so it has 2 choices.

There's an old song about that which I can never find, Shame because it's funny.

Tried to get some lovely slabs on offer for my sitting spot but they will only lift them off with the crane

I can't move them, can't leave them on the pavement/lawn/drive so it will have to stay unclassy.

So I'll post a pretty picture from the other day. There's a frog in there somewhere.

Weather warm and bright with showers.

Decided to skip the first big open gardens and enjoy my own.

Hope everyones aching bits hold up for the weekend.

Dusty, would your soaking class as currative cold water dipping and have done your knees good?

YoungBlueEyes

Dustyevsky said:

sammy_kaye18 said:

Afternoon all
I am sulking here. 
After a few warm days and much frolicking in the garden I have somehow stuffed my knee up. No idea if it was fighting idiot dogs out the door for a walk or overuse or what but it hurts. It feels like I have a tennis ball stuck behind it or that something needs to pop.

<snip> 

Interestingly, the regulations about barn conversions were altered last month, making the planning options more flexible. We may yet benefit from the delay our neighbours caused!

I meant that bit Dusty ^^^ I really should spend time quoting, make it clearer Fingers firmly crossed your digger guy has previous and can sort your drain field. As for the cash flow - well it never rains but it pours eh  

Taff which weather app do you use? If it's the drunkards they're back to being wrong here too. I think they've been ...taking the (local) waters.... and left the Saturday girl in charge, which is why the forecasts were right. Not now they're not, it says it's raining out there (no it's a bit misty) and a fair breeze (still as you like and there's not a breath out there). Today will be calm and warm with the humidity finally dropping  

Yay for cunning blackies pp Have yours got their babies up and out...? I don't know whether mine are still to come, or if they're inside the Holey Roamin' Terror. Suspect the latter   Robins don't get much molly-coddling do they! Mine one is on it's own already but it looks to be doing well for itself  

Aww I love your flower/pot/frog 2p That's a bu99er about your slabs... would your neighbour lend you her feckless son to shift them in...? It's a shame to miss out on a bargain.

Today's guess forecast is warm and mild and cloudy, possibly. No gardening today cos it's a standard Friday. Flowers up to mum and dad, go and do for Posh Friend, food shop on the way home

YoungBlueEyes

A couple of pics. My first rose out is the Winston Churchill and it smells amazing - 

and a bee bum

pink_poppy

Lovely pics, YBE. I do love a traditional smelling rose, but hate the thorns of roses. We had a red David Austin rose here when we moved in (possibly Prince of Wales??) and it was the nastiest thorniest rose ever - I ended up digging it out.

We've had two baby blackbirds here, but no robins, not even the adult robins lately. I'm wary about putting food out now though, knowing there's a sparrowhawk about   there was one time I put some food out for the pheasants at my last house and a blackbird flew down, only to be snatched by a sparrowhawk - scarred me for life...

Did anyone else have 'vanilla' problems with the site again last night?? I was on my phone and couldn't get back in to edit after I'd posted.

Forgot to say thanks, Dusty, for the granite chips info - even if it's out of date it gave me a ballpark figure to work on. I keep changing my mind about what to use - the latest idea was to lift the bluebells, daffodils and lily of the valley after they've finished, cover with cardboard and then use the compost heap stuff to cover that area and replant. Maybe cover with chipped bark to mulch/stop weeds. The reason for doing it is to raise that area and flatten another area to make it level with the lawn, but whatever I do, it's got to be cheap.

Anyway, it's a lovely morning here, nice and sunny so far  

-taff

Morning, it's sunny! I have to say, they were sort of right, there was a thunderstorm last evening about eight, proper big thunderclaps, very good...Not raining now though. YBE, I only use what's on my phone, I mostly like to be surprised when I look out the window  

That rose is lovely isn't it? But bee bums are better! 

PP, how about concrete roof tiles? A bit out there but they are or could be next to nothing if anyone's having their roof done near you, or you could ask some roofers.  Bit of sand under them for stability, bobs your aunties wotsit. 

2P, it's very annoying when the body doesn't want to do what it used to, but in this case, have you got a local fb group or simiar where you can ask for some labour to move them? Cute frog too!

Dusty, I'm impressed you deciphered the typo central that I wrote, my brain says things my fingers don't match up to with the typing sometimes...OK, a lot of the time..hope your waste shennanigans are sorted today, sounds...errr...really carp

I've got rescue missions planned for today, hoiking out what's been muched in the hopes it will recover , a probably forlorn hope but hey ho.