It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

timehastoldme

Strawberries are bonkers this year, we picked maybe five in the whole of 2021, so far this season we've also frozen some and are trying the jar storage method in the fridge to manage the volume.

Spendless

That just shows how things are different around the country, because I've just gone and checked on the strawberries that grow at the bottom of our garden and they are either still white flowers or very small green berries. The ones in a pot at my parents, the largest only became ripe within the last couple of days. 

FluffyBabyPenguin

Bluegreen143 said:

Re energy bills and arrears. My husband is a meter engineer and has been assigned warrant work many times in the past. They go out with a warrant officer, a locksmith and if necessary the police are called and attend. So I can say for certain that energy companies DO apply for warrants very regularly to change meters to prepayment and force repayment of debt that way. Once the warrant is out you’re unlikely to be able to avoid it because the locksmith will let them in if you’re out, and if you’re there but don’t allow access then the police will intervene.

Not sharing to cause alarm but merely to say, it is much better to open the lines of communication and to speak to them to arrange a compromise/payment plans rather than avoiding the issue.

Reminds me of when, a few decades ago, there were entire estates in NI who basically didn't ever pay for electricity. They were, let's say, "governed" by the relevant local paramilitary and it wasn't safe for an engineer to come in and do unwanted work like taking meter readings, or installing keypad meters etc. Hubby was at work one day (postman) and wondered what was going on as the estate he was delivering in (once he got in, because the roads in and out had been blocked off) was full of not just emergency vehicles and police landrovers, but the British Army milling around amongst the disgruntled residents. He wondered if there was a bombscare or some such incident, but no, the electric company was installing prepayment keypad meters...

In Lidl yesterday and was happy to see basmati rice had gone down from £1.99 to it's more normal £1.39 a kilo bag. Maybe i should start buying it in bulk, I eat so much. Asda's value rice isn't bad, but it's rarely in stock any time I go now. 

otb666

Yes i am getting a bumper crop of peaches on my tree last time that happened was four years ago, also i used to go out on warrants to change meters to prepay in my time use to go to court and get warrants about 50 a week.  The meter belongs to electric company not occupier and you have to allow access to their equipment They will charge you for warrant as well as locksmith dog handler police if required.  If you are not at home you may find you cant get in when you return and have to pick up new keys from depot

Floss

Spendless said:

That just shows how things are different around the country, because I've just gone and checked on the strawberries that grow at the bottom of our garden and they are either still white flowers or very small green berries. The ones in a pot at my parents, the largest only became ripe within the last couple of days. 

I just checked mine in the leafy Cheshire suburbs - lots of leaves, quite a few small white or green fruit but nothing near ripe.

euronorris

I figured out what the other tree by work is. It's a walnut tree! Heavy with growing walnuts 😁

I look forward to autumn.

annieb64

Watch out for the squirrels if you have a walnut tree. We had one at our last house and in the spring the garden was full of walnut saplings from where they had buried the nuts and forgotten about them. We did get a good crop of nuts some years. 

euronorris

This tree is by my office, so any squirrel created saplings are not for me to worry about thankfully. 

My boss also showed me where the community Orchard is on our lunchtime stroll today. It had a sign with a guide to what is in there and roughly where it is located and there are pear trees too 😍

QueenJess

Spendless said:

That just shows how things are different around the country, because I've just gone and checked on the strawberries that grow at the bottom of our garden and they are either still white flowers or very small green berries. The ones in a pot at my parents, the largest only became ripe within the last couple of days. 

But it depends on what type of strawberries you have. Late ones won’t be ripe yet, but the earlys and all season ones have been going mad.

Bluegreen143

Does depend where you live as well. The further north usually the later. We got our first three ripe strawberries today (Glasgow) ☺️ One each for me and the two children!