General Chat

Ah zi saw that padlock locked but thought you were seeing one somewhere else.

Evening :-D
Just popped in so I don't get behind LOL

Padlock showing closed on my laptop = my only device.

I was going to say earlier that some of my beans were 12" long but didn't want to risk exaggerating so said they were about 9". I should have trusted my eye as a lifelong pattern cutter - some of them were indeed 12" long and the rest of todays pickings not far behind. I can't believe how fast they had grown and sadly, they were a bit stringy.
I think we shall just pick the smaller ones now and leave the long ones for podding.

Night night

Morning all,

WE have a nice bright sunny morning here today blue sky with looks like a huge vapour trail to the north but it could be cloud. Its in a straight line and tapers off to the west.

Nothing planned for today so will see how it pans out.

Hope you all slept well.

Good morning all, bright and sunny so far. We might go for a walk this morning other than that, who knows.
Grandaughter's 18th birthday today so I hope it stays fine I think there is a garden party of some sort planned.

Morning all

Bright and sunny here to, but not very warm, hopefully it'll warm up a bit later.

Happy birthday to your Granddaughter AnnG, hope the weather stays nice for the garden party.

What a pity about your beans being stringy Island, maybe picking them when they're a bit smaller would be better.

We water our toms a few times a day Ann, but I think it might be the cheap compost we bought from Aldi, it doesn't hold the water as well as the one we normally use and we can't get hold of our normal one now as B&Q have stopped selling it, so maybe I need to water the toms more often. We do have some on one plant but they are very small. The trouble is we don't know what type of toms they are as they were given to us off my mum, who in turn got them off her friend, they were grown from seed but none of us know the name. They could well be cherry toms for all we know. Still plenty of flowers on them all but it's getting a bit late in the year for them to grow and ripen if they don't start showing toms now.

My padlock is showing locked Mandy, it's strange how it showed locked on your laptop but not on your tablet. I wonder why that happened. Hope your wipe down doesn't take to long today.

I've decided to do a bit of sorting today, I've got lots of things in my bedroom that have been shoved into drawers and now I'm having problems shutting them, so it's time for a good clear out I think. I might put some stuff in boxes and pop them in the loft, at least I'll be able to close the drawers properly then.

Has anyone seen the new Battersea dogs and cats home advert? The tune is really good and the animals are so cute, it's quite funny in parts to, especially the dog on a skate board looking at the camera as if to say "what do I do now" It looks like he's been put on there and pushed in front of the camera LOL. :-D :-D I like the little kitten licking the woman's face to, it's so cute.

Island, really hate it when beans or anything else are stringy. Shame though, you will be watching closely now and picking them young.

Gill, last year we had awful compost, Jack’s magic this year we paid a small amount more and bought. Growsure container compost Which has really paid off. With tomatoes, as long as the compost holds water, which of course yours Doesn’t you shouldn’t water little and often but give them a good watering several times a week depending on the weather.

We give our toms a good watering twice a day or more if the compost dries out in hot weather AnnG. Our toms are in the greenhouse in full sun so that might explain why the compost dries out so quickly. At least the flowers have appeared so they must like the compost even though it's not as good as our normal one. I'm still holding out hope the flowers mature into toms but whether they'll grow very big or ripen is yet to be seen.

The days are growing shorter, so we might not have enough time now for them to ripen if they actually start growing. With all the shops being shut because of lockdown the only place we could buy compost was Aldi, I won't be buying anymore from there and still have two bags of it in the shed which I'll probably throw away as we noticed it has grass in it, so it'll be no good for potting on my plants when they need doing again. Luckily it wasn't very expensive.

I've made a start on going through a chest of drawers and have come across photo's, why is it when you want to pack things away you always get distracted with photo's, I can't seem to stop myself looking at them, so I think this job is going to take a while to do LOL ;-) ;-) ;-)

Gill can't you dig up a bit of soil from somewhere in the garden andput a bit of that on top of the compost in the pots. Do you feed them at all with a high potash tomato feed?

I always buy myself some John Innes compost and mix that with the horrid stuff we seem to get now.

Good luck with going through the drawers. Hope you don't find anymore photos to distract you.

good afternoon all.We parked the car at the parish council offices and walked out to the airport, had lunch and a glass of white wine in their outside space in mostly sun watching the planes take off and land (OH had fish and chips - did you guess? I had scampi and chips), it made a nice change, on the way back actually pretty well back to the car we deviated round the small pocket conservation area/park 2.25 miles altogether. My legs know I have done it but it was lovely to see all the wild flowers, not that peaceful a walk as the other side of the tall hedge is the A40 dual carriageway which is always busy. didn't see many people around while walking though and not terribly busy at the Aviator and the tables are at least 6 foot apart.

This morning the bungalow at the end of out garden had the large blossom tree that makes so much mess, cut down quite short. Poor thing looks quite sad now.

Oooooo those elephants are gorgious I like the one who climbs the fence and the one who dances to the music. They are all lovely.................

couple more pages added to the photos blog.

Afternoon all, Sorry I was not around yesterday, but was not on my Computer at all.

I was at the Dr this morning for Blood Tests, results should be available Friday/ Monday.

Ros had decided to get rid of the stone chipping's where the grass was out front, by the road. As I can't help, I rang Lewis. He is now here and taken over. While he is here I will ask him to cut the lawns. He will ring his dad with the measurement of the area that needs re-turfing. He has just put his head round the door, to say, the stone chipping are all gone now, and he is getting the mower out to cut the lawns. What a GREAT LAD he is, looking after NAN AND PAP. I will fill his car with petrol for his trouble. I bet it's near empty. Mind you, I don't think he runs the car on "FUMES" like a lot of youngsters.

How lovely all your PRODUCE is looking girls, our Toms. need a few more days of sunshine, and the beans are nowhere near ready for picking. Eos always starts them off in pots, then transplants them. So I don't know why there are so late.

I am not in a nice place again today, feeling very shaky ongoing HOT and COLD. Lets hope the blood tests show something up, that can be treated.

I typed this ages ago, but forgot to submit. xxxx

Lewis has done a grand job by the sounds of things Frank. At least now Ros won't have to weed the chippings now they are all gone and the new turf can be cut and be so much easier.Its good too that you have had the blood test and I hope they can find whats wrong and put you right again.

I have been in my usual place this afternoon.......up the border. another barrow load of couch grass (twitch) out and I was pulling up some grass and suddenly spied a self sown bottle brush about 9" tall after I had pulled the top off!!!!! I brought it down the garden and potted it right away so I hope it survives. I did'nt know they could self sow in this country as they an Austrailian plant I think. Of course everything I pulled up after that I was looking to see if there were anymore.

Oh has taken himself off to the study with a nice glass of lager and lime and I have a glass of wine. I think we have both earned it today.

This morning I cleaned all the window of the kitchen and dining area and the back door, did two lots of washing and got lunch so thats why I went up the border and left the rest ofthe HW. I should have cleaned the bathroom but it will look the same tomorrow and I have the big wipe down tomorrow so it won't get done till the afternoon.

Going to have a look at the pics on Anng's blog now.

Oh Anng I like the one of the nearly 82 year old walker with the little man standing on his shoulders.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Looked like a lovely relaxing walk but what aa lot of Ragwort. Its all very very poisonous, flrers roots leaves and all. I do wish they woud spray it off as it is so dangerous to children if they pick it thinking its a nice daisy.

Mel I think things like the ragwort have got away from them with the lockdown.

Evening All,

A sunny day in patches here but the butterflies were about with 2 or 3 white ones as well now. I changed the bed first thing. If I don't do it then I lose the will. We had lunch in the conservatory and watched a little wren coming and going and searching for food in the borders. We seem to have several young blackbirds keen to pick over where we've been digging and they are always looking for things to eat between the rocks.

That was another nice walk you had AnnG and some nice pics. What is the bird? We have fields and verges covered in Ragwort, but it is a bit better than it was so the council must be tackling it on the verges. I shudder when I see horses grazing among it. Why do'nt their owners pull it out? I must try and do more and eat less as another pound has gone on this morning. OH suggested we go for a drive somewhere tomorrow as my car hasn't been out for a week.

Frank unless chippings are deep they do get weedy and turf will be easier especially now you have Barry to do the mowing. Lewis is good isn't he and very willing to help you. Not many young men his age are willing to spend their spare time mucking in and helping and I bet he helps his mum and dad too. Not long now till your blood test results are through and the doc can start sorting you out then. It isn't nice feeling like you do at the moment, so rest up.

Mel, you are doing a sterling job on the twitch grass and fancy finding a young bottlebrush! I have never seen any seedlings from ours so I wonder where it came from? You have been busy doing the wipe down too so I bet you sleep well tonight.

Gill since I started growing my toms in pots they dry out really quickly as the pots get hot and the water evaporates fast. I don't shade my greenhouse either so that makes it hot too. Since I started watering twice a day (just when it's very hot or windy) I haven't had the tomatoes splitting like before. When I go on holiday for a week I have plastic collar circle things I cut from old compost bags to lay on the surface of the pots to stop evaporation as we don't have anyone coming to water things. Have you finished your sorting? I need to do some more as I never finished before! I saw on line where someone had made a gardening pinny from some old jeans. The back pockets were at the front to put scissors etc in which was a good idea.

I think it will be an early night for me tonight. I knocked a few cobwebs down earlier and tidied a bit of the study but that's about it.

Ann its a pied wagtail in Anng's pictures. It is wipe down day tomorrow today I cleaned the windows.

Another barrow load of twitch wen ton the bonfire today.

When I corned the big girls this afternoon late (about 6.15pm ) there were two young foxes running around behind the chichen run and up over the grass cuttings and round the field bit again and out through the gateway where we used to have a pallet to block it but it rotted and oh burned it so now its just open into the wood behind our little field.

Well tired now so I think its shower and bed so I can get up early for the big wipe down when it arives. I have to sort the fridge too.

Good morning. Yes Annx it was a lovely walk and, as Mel has said, it is a pied wagtail, or to be quite honest, two pied wagtails. Lots of butterflies along the way, some we didn't recognise but they wouldn't stay still for us to see the markings!

Morning Anng and all,

Another nice morning here with sunshine and blue sky at the mo thee are no big white clouds out the front to the north.

Nearly ready for the big wipe down, just have to do all the worksurfaces first and have a bit of a clear out in the fridge so I can get new stuff in there. Oh will order so much stuff that goes int he fridge!! its only small and is crammed full after the shopping is wiped down.

After that I am hoping to get back up the border. I have really stuck with it this year as the last two previous years the family has come down so it got left as they take us out usually to Bude and Crackington Haven or Widemouth. So thats a week gone and they go home and its starts raining which puts an end to it.

Must away to get things done before the delivery arrives so see you all later.

Hoe you all slept well and it was nice to hear from Frank yesterday. He alway has so much to tell us.

Got boiler man here and waiting for Tesco so it is a bit chaotic at the moment.