General Chat

Morning all,

I need to read Vera's post and Anng's but thought I would let you know I am here.

good morning all. It is very wet and dark out there but is 12 degrees so not cold. It doesn't seem to be too windy at the moment. I have no plans to go out. In fact have PC man coming to give my computer a 'service' this morning He doesn't live far and usually walks but I hope he doesn't arrive all dripping wet. Hopefully he will come by car. Other than that nothing planned

I'd wondered about storing the geraniums bare rooted Mandy. I know you can put them in paper bags or cardboard boxes but I would end up with so many bags or boxes I wouldn't know where to store them. I wonder whether I could get a couple of our troughs into my mini greenhouse and put them there. Do you cut them back at all before you put them in your tubs? Some of mine are quite big. It would be quicker to do that than all the lifting, potting up etc that I usually do. Like you, once I've lifted them, I don't water them any more till spring.

We are having another bad day :-( This morning I dashed about getting showered and hair washed early as we were meeting several friends for coffee. I was then going to go into Sainsbury's and get some shopping. What happened? Car wouldn't start. OH knew the battery would be flat after standing at the bodyshop for nearly 4 weeks but it started OK when he picked the car up on Tuesday and he took it for a good run before coming home with it. I think the battery must have been on its last legs. As the car is a Volvo we have their own breakdown cover so rang and were told they would send a technician as soon as one was free. A chap turned up about 1.30 and after checking said the battery needed replacing. He then spent quite a while charging it up with his sophisticated machine so that OH could drive it. They then phoned Halfords locally to check that they had a suitable battery and would fit it. That's where OH is now. I feel I have just about had enough over the last couple of months.

At least the weather isn't too bad. It rained overnight and drizzled for the first part of the morning but has been dry since, though I think it's supposed to start raining again later.

As I haven't been shopping I'd better now go and investigate the freezer and see what I can find for dinner tonight. I hope you are all having a better day than me.

Morning Anng and all,

Very grey here today also and 12 degrees probably have rain later on.

I need to go and get some chickens food so thats one job for today. I wish I knew when they were coming to see about the low flow on my water as the shower won't work on the low pressure.

I have the chripodist (SP) tomorrow so will have to give my feet a good soak tonight.

Ah Mandy thanks, I did wonder.

Morning all, it has been raining but is just damp looking and grey now and 14 degrees, no wind at all at the moment, I think it might be getting worse later.
Nothing planned for today but several small jobs lined up. (I have a list or I would forget what they are), slept OK, hope all are well. :-) Vera hope son gets to you safely.

No Anng I dig them up and put them all together in a big tub and store them in the shed on the bench in front of the window but we do put some cardboard in front of the glass if it's going to be really frosty , I don't water them until the spring .

Pouring with rain here now and the wind seems a bit higher .

Hope your back improves by the time you leave on Friday Vera and hope the journey is not too wet.

Mandy you have both been busy, sounds like you will soon be ready for winter. Do you mean that you leave the geraniums in the pot outside?

Evening all,

We've been busy getting the greenhouse down and we've got the table and chairs away ,filled more tubs with tomato stalks and the runners are all down too .
We just have the gazebo canopy to get down , I got all my Geraniums up ,I just dug them up with a little compost left on the roots and put them all in a couple of big tubs ,they will stay in there till the spring ,I found they kept lovely like that .

Tomorrow I have my covid injection and Colin has his yearly tablet review so that will be the morning gone .

Vera have a lovely time away with your family ,safe journey, hope the weather is not to bad for travelling.

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That sounds an interesting talk AnnG. We could do with something like that at our clubs. Good speakers are usually very expensive and small clubs like ours can’t always afford them.

The rain did hold off although it is pouring now, but I didn’t get much done. I lifted and potted up 3 geraniums and took 4 more cuttings and also pulled up several dead annuals. The geraniums are in the conservatory at the moment but eventually will have to go in my mini plastic greenhouse. Btw, I mean pelargoniums when I say geraniums. The reason I didn’t do more in the garden was that my back was killing me and as we’re away I don’t want to risk being in agony all weekend. As well as fighting with the duvets I had done some more ironing and that is just about the worst thing for my back. It’s strange, I don’t usually iron much but the past 2 weeks everything I’ve washed has seemed to need ironing.

I’ve got an uncooked but prepared dish of chicken breasts wrapped in bacon and covered with grated cheese tonight. As the oven will be on I’ve done a tray of roast veg to go with it - little baby potatoes, carrot, parsnip, leek, beetroot and a few herbs. When it’s nearly cooked I might throw in some home grown tomatoes from the freezer. Should be yummy and will go very nicely with a glass of red for OH and a glass of a nice dry rose for me :-D

Vera hope the rain held off so you could lift your geraniums. Where have you put them now?

Very interesting talk today at U3a by a first generation gardener. Fellow about Greg's age with all the qualifications, But his father is not a farmer but a vicar and the story of his quest to become a farmer. He farma at Newnham on Severn beef and dairy cattle but as he has built up the farm he has studied the best way to do it, not blindly following the old ways, the farm he bought into was organic and he has kept it that way, cattle grass fed but he uses technology that measures the amount of grass each cow has eaten and the milk yield. All his dairy cows have female calves and the beef the opposite. cows can wear a special collar that monitors everything about them, how much they are eating, temperature, health etc. All very clever and he is so enthusiastic and 'excited' about his farm. When they wanted to build a new milking shed  they had to get planning permission (FODC took 18 months to pass it!!! Then there had to be an archaeological dig, but he only did that for part of the build as he discovered that is only needed if they will dig deep so they raised it. then the built that had to have the dig was thick hard clay and the archaeologists couldn't cope with it has they were not strong enough to dig. So he and his men did the dig under the eyes of the archaeologists. He was very entertaining and knew so much about not just farming but the technology as well. And they are training up apprentices on the farm for the future of farming. 

Morning all

12 degrees, dull as ditchwater and with rain on the way. I guess summer is really over now. Forecast is not looking good for the next few days. It looks as though son will be driving to his meetings and then on to us tomorrow night in the wet and then driving us up to Yorkshire in heavy rain on Friday. I hate the motorways and roads like the A1 when it's wet as they take so many heavy lorries and you can't see a thing for all the spray that gets thrown up.

I've just been making up a bed for son for tomorrow night. All our spare duvets etc are kept in a big but low cupboard. It just goes up to where our steep sloping roof starts so you have to get down on the floor to get stuff in and out. Why is it that the thing you want is always bottom of the pile? I had to pull out all the duvets etc to get to the one I wanted and then shove it all back in again. It hasn't done my back any good at all.

I want to get some geraniums lifted today if I can. So far I've only got up 3 and I have lots. I also want to sort out what I'm taking to Yorkshire and pack it as we are quite busy tomorrow. We're only going for 2 or 3 days but we still need all the washing gear, meds, and some clothes, plus a few bits I've got for the family and a couple of books that one of the granddaughters lent me about a year ago.

I had hoped for a little bit of help from OH but he has decided that all the hinges on the doors have got to be changed and he must make a start today! Why? All the doors have been opening and closing perfectly normally for the 10 years we have lived here so I am sure they will be OK for a few more days, but that's men for you.

Well, as I have got to do everything today, including providing my lord and master with regular top ups of tea and a couple of meals, I had better get on. Have a nice day.

Morning girls on this dark, dull, dreary, damp, dismal, dire, and drizzley day.

14 degrees and heavy rain forcast for me here so I shall be staying in as much as possible today.

Good morning all. 11 degrees and very dark/dull out there, dry so far, supposed to get the storm later. Friend taking me with three large bags of plastic pots, trays and cells for recycling at a small local garden centre. I have discovered the side of the shed against a fence has two slats missing. I don't think rain with get in but I need to look in the garage for something to block the holes. And I think the lawn mower can be moved into the garage for the winter to protect it. A new shed is needed but that means finding somebody to demolish the existing one and erect a new one. Oh and the old one will have to be cleared. And the greenhouse which is a small one attached to the shed.

Sounds like you really enjoyed it and came away with lots of information.

The winds been very strong here most of the day but its been dry up till now when it started to rain a bit.

I don't feel hungry tonight and don't know what to get to eat. Perhaps I will just have bread and jam I like that and its no cooking. Followed by manderin oranges I think.

Hello again. It has been another beautiful sunny day 16 degrees at the moment but the wind is strong and cold. The visit was really interesting and was mostly not cold as we spent a lot of time in the large greenhouses following plants from tiny cuttings to full plants. Goodness knows if I will remember what we were told. We had a very enthusiastic young man speaking to us. It is a small garden centre, a very large nursery and a college of up to 100 horticultural students. They are the Main nursery for growing and protecting Penstemons and have the national collection but also grow lots of other plants such as geraniums and they supply Garden centres, Local councils, hotels etc with plants.

They do have a garden as well which at the moment is still bursting with colour of all sorts of shrubs. They have a large bed of many types of Forsythia as this is an endangered plant. they are working on the preservation of the plant with a lady in Dorset who over the past 2-3 years has taken many cuttings and is growing the national collection.

One interesting piece of information was that when you grow a plant from a cutting it should not be allowed to grow 'up'. Before it is ready to plant out it should have been reduced by cutting back up to 10 times, this will make a really strong bushy plant. When buying plants we should look for a specimen that has obviously been cut back many times.

we went to a very nice pub in Pershore called the Angel for lunch. It was extemely busy and we had a fairly long wait but we were all happy chatting so it didn't matter. I went out at 0930 and got in at 3.45.

O so you know what I meant by Dirty McSquirty Vera.. Thought that would make someone laugh. Yes oh got his brother with it when we first had it over my pond. My pond seems to be quite safe as it has netting all around and over the top but the Heron still stands on the wooden supports over the top to support the fine netting.

I have just turned my heating on as it is bitter here today with a very strong wind blowing all the leaves in oh's pond. I have given up netting them off as there are so many and I am hoping the wind will drop later on and I can do it then.

O gosh what on earth is that yellow thing in the sky out back????? Its not out the front.

Good afternoon all

I had a very busy day yesterday so didn't find time to post and today is going the same way so I thought I'd do a post while I have got a moment.

I hope you enjoyed yourself at the Pershore Nurseries AnnG and it wasn't too cold.

Mel I laughed at your Dirty McSwirty. We had a water squirter that had a motion censor and would squirt the heron if it landed on the wall round our pond. The trouble is I regularly got squirted as well. OH had fixed up a switch nearby so that we could switch it off if we were going to be passing by the squirter but I kept forgetting. In the end we took it down and put a fine black thread about 6 inches above the top of the wall the heron would land on. The bird wouldn't step over it so couldn't get to OH's prize fish. Btw, has the waterboard been to sort out your low pressure yet?

We had our Club AGM last night followed by a quiz which we did in tables of 4. It was good fun with lots of laughter and I won a raffle prize.

Now I must get on and make some phone calls. I have to rebook my choiropody appointment that I cancelled last week, phone the pharmacy at the surgery about reissuing my repeat prescription and phone the hospital about my overdue eye appointment. I am not too worried about that as my eye isn't too bad at the moment but I need to remind them that the doc wanted to see me in 6 weeks and we are now at 10 weeks. I can make these appointments now as WE HAVE A CAR. At last.

It has been so cold here that OH put our heating on this morning. I was hoping to hang it out till after our weekend in Yorkshire but we were both so chilled yesterday that we gave in and put in on. It will be on till next spring now. I expect the bills will start to climb sky high again.

Now I really must get on.

Just went out for a ciggy and there on the decking between the two ponds was a heron.

I shooed it away but it came back and I think it will be back again. I shall have to try and fix up Dirty McSwirty. It may not work with low water pressure but it worth giving it a try.

Morning all,

Pc says rain starting in the next 3 hours and 10 degrees. Its cloudy out there and cold too.

Shopping comes today and my driver is Jamie and I don't have ANY subs which ius surprising as I have been having a couple recently.

May do the ironing today and run the hoover round arm permitting.

Enjoy your time out Anng.