Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

I didn't know people could get on here with a Kindle, 2p. It sounds a little like getting Radio programmes on a toaster, but perhaps Kindles developed beyond the early model I bought Mrs Dusty one Christmas. She said "Lovely, thank you!" then put it in a drawer, and I never saw it again! Anyway, I hope you fire up the laptop often, so we keep hearing your reports from sunny Somerset.

Not much to report from here in the shire of Devon-ness, where it's been cloudy, dry, and rather cold. With the grandchildren approaching, I decided to mow all the grass, so spent a couple of hours on the ride-on. 'No mow May'  is all very well, but when we have 4.5 acres of buttercups etc in the fields, it's a bit unnecessary! Out in the front garden, the Geranium phaeum are going over, but I resist the urge to Chelsea chop them until June. This is because the Greenfinches love the seeds. Sure enough, we had 5 of them out there today. They've made a great recovery after a disease reduced numbers dramatically.

Edit: Photo of Greenfinch added....forgot!

YoungBlueEyes

I can't help with the technical things but I hope the site resolves whatever it is soon 2p They are doing something cos when I refresh a tab it takes longer to load then goes down to the "MSE News" banner thing at the bottom, whereas it always used to load quickly and gave you the page from the top iyswim. Check back often won't you? I don't think it's too bad a weather forecast for this weekend so I hope you get plenty done in your lovely garden  

I don't know what's up with the Cox Orange, I looked up coral spot yesterday and DuckDuck is messing about. I'm not 100% sure that's what it is and when I dug it up the roots look alright, so I've replanted it in a bladdy big bucket with some of the good soil that himself's produced from the trench. But that's it, that's all I'm doing. Live or die pal. 

Aww lovely wee birds Dusty, aren't they gorgeous colours. Look at those feeders - you aren't infested with squirrels are ya *sigh* 

Coolish and overcast today, they say, and it is so far. I'd sooner have this than a while lot of heat mind, you can get on and do stuff when it's like this  

Farway

Dull to start, and weekend weather is OK iish except for the Monday, but it's a BH so what else would we expect.

Hope the Kindle / forum sorts itself 2P, I've found Duck duck was ducked as well, someone not fed the meter?

Nice bird pic Dusty, nothing comparable from me. There's a car show in town tomorrow so OT, but I'll be snapping away there, perhaps find a Mayflower? 

You'd have to be a certain age to get that tenuous connection. How about a Lotus?

Bit OT but garden related, just had news the two huge oak trees where I volunteer, both have TPOs and must come down, at the charities expense.

Claim of subsidence from nearby property, a bit of a bummer and condition is two replacement trees, from a list supplied by the Council, must be planted

Looking like a squabble between insurers now, but an expensive job due to size of the trees and roads needing to be closed

Only bright bit is the trees are half owned by the bloke who complained, so he gets half the bill Which he was not expecting, he was expecting the Charity to pick up the whole tab

Mooching on my Lily Beetle hunt yesterday, I spotted what may be the Long Lost Love ITM, Persian Jewels. Just a few feathery seedlings, very late germinating if so.

Sod's Law of course, I was about to plant some geraniums [pelargoniums] in there.

YoungBlueEyes said:

I don't know what's up with the Cox Orange, I looked up coral spot yesterday and DuckDuck is messing about. I'm not 100% sure that's what it is and when I dug it up the roots look alright, so I've replanted it in a bladdy big bucket with some of the good soil that himself's produced from the trench. But that's it, that's all I'm doing. Live or die pal. 

It may surprise you yet, once it gets the whiff of doom they sometimes perk up. 

My Muscat grape has done that, was on it's way out due to vine weevil munching but since bunged in a pot, much the same as your Cox, it has decided live is the better option.

pink_poppy

AR, I think I put too many tatties in the bag (3 in each) and it's all getting a bit overcrowded. It's tricky to earth up too, same as you, one hand holding the bag open and one hand grabbing compost. I folded the tops of my bags over several times and am slowly unravelling them, the bigger the foliage gets. Is that something you could do?? The proper tattie sacks I saw on Beechgrove were square and looked bigger than my bags, so maybe easier to earth up. I'm just really surprised how fast mine have grown, but we have had very warm weather here, so maybe that's why. I'll have to go out today to do more earthing up...

twopenny, hope you come back soon.

YBE, fingers crossed for your apple tree.

Dusty, lovely photo of the birds. We get bluey pink rhododendrons here, which is my favourite.

Farway, sorry to hear about the oak trees, a bit of karma for the person who complained having to pay half, although I wouldn't be happy if trees caused subsidence in my house to be fair. I do love oak trees though, so would be very sad to see them chopped down.

As mentioned above, we've had lovely warm weather here for most of May - in the 20s. Not yesterday though - it said 11 degrees in the car and I was so cold last night we put the fire on. It's grey and drizzly today, but feels slightly warmer.

Farway

Look away Now, Devil Calling

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ArbitraryRandom

pink_poppy said:

AR, I think I put too many tatties in the bag (3 in each) and it's all getting a bit overcrowded. It's tricky to earth up too, same as you, one hand holding the bag open and one hand grabbing compost. I folded the tops of my bags over several times and am slowly unravelling them, the bigger the foliage gets. Is that something you could do?? The proper tattie sacks I saw on Beechgrove were square and looked bigger than my bags, so maybe easier to earth up. I'm just really surprised how fast mine have grown, but we have had very warm weather here, so maybe that's why. I'll have to go out today to do more earthing up..

Truth be told, I just gave up and filled them  they're only covered by an inch or so and should be fine - I'm just not going to bother using the bags again. The tubs which I planted the spuds in then completely filled are showing growth on the surface now - and the 'experiment' tub is also nearly full at this point, so now it's just a feeding schedule and counting/weighing the produce down the line (and hoping to avoid blight...) 

Local gardener man just texted me to say he's going to come and mow next week. I will never get over the unpredictability of him just turning up whenever, but I do appreciate it when he does get around to me. 

Speaking of, it looks dry here today - heavy cloud but no actual rain. Cool but not cold and I think the forecast is dry until Sunday (typical for the bank holiday). It's been a really busy couple of weeks work wise, but I'm done now for the long weekend, and I need it! Hoping to take a lazy ish day today (just a bit of weeding but mostly just 'being outside' a bit) and then get on with some housework tomorrow that's been neglected. Need to clean the kitchen so the dishwasher repair man can be booked in  

EDIT: YBE, that looks a bit like my cherry... I bought it from tesco and best guess is it was pruned at the wrong time of year. It 'bled' horrible yellow sap during the first lot of hot weather (I thought it was infected but couldn't figure out what to do about it and gardener man said to leave it be. There was some kind of copper liquid you could paint on it to help cure it), then the next winter that bit of stem died/went like yours looks. Now it's just hard and dead at the tip and fine below that. Not sure if it's the same for apples as they're supposed to be okay being pruned whenever I think but it could be a similar infection that will pass? If I were you I'd probably be looking at if the badness was moving or staying where it was. If it's moving I might trying cutting below it? But that's not any sensible advice based on anything book wise. 

pink_poppy

Hmm, I appear to be growing mushrooms as well as potatoes...   




I don't know if it's the same problem as twopenny's kindle, but I can't look at MSE on my phone now It's an ancient iphone that I can't update because it hasn't got enough space (too many cat photos), so I'm not sure if that's the issue, or MSE have been tinkering.

Enjoy your lazyish day today, AR. I'm finding the potato growing harder than I thought because they're all growing so fast. I was earthing up earlier and was thinking how robust the stems were... and then I managed to snap one. Bloomin' typical. It was one of the Maris Pipers   

Farway, you really are a devil with your little temptations haha.

LessImpecunious

YoungBlueEyes said:

Anyway I came on to say does anyone have a notion of what I should do with this poorly tree? It’s the most recent buy -morries Cox Orange Pippin - and it’s not looking healthy at all. I’ve DDuck’d it and it might be rust (?) which they say isn’t a fatal problem so leave it be. Which is fine but now the bark’s taken a funny turn too so any suggestions of what I should do? 

Does it want hoiking out before it infects anything else or Shawshank? 

Maybe canker? In any case I'd prune it off well below the browning bit, just above a bud...

pink_poppy

I've just realised those mushrooms look a bit rude...   

Dustyevsky

Horrible morning! I intended to use my Honda push mower to pick up the mess the ride-on left yesterday, but would the blimmin' thing start? No! Soon, I'd worn myself out with the pull-cord, so was sitting there with a variety of bits, all nicely clean, but still no idea what was wrong.

Then I noticed the fuel switch I never use. It was in the 'On' position, but what if......? I put it to 'Off,' gave a couple of pulls and away it went!  As I said, I never bother to switch off the fuel, so perhaps 'someone' used the mower and turned the petrol off afterwards.....but why is 'Off' actually 'On?' And why didn't they notice if they did?  Not exactly 'Twilight Zone,' but weird all round. 

I agree with pruning well short of the dead bit too, Bluey, or scrape the bark lower down to see if there's green underneath. If not.....you've got the Norwegian Blues!

I think we need more birds on this thread, mainly because that's what I have for you!  This time it's a pair of Siskins, looking sweet:

 “Hey, Siski, baby, stick with me.....soon you'll be on MSE!”

"Not by  Kindle or an old iPad.....and you look old enough to be my Dad!"

OT; It's dry, reasonably warm and even a little sunny at times.