General Chat

Hello to all.
Hi Florence sorry to hear you have got a gloomy day, it's really nice here, the sun has shone for much of the morning,with a wee breeze so not hot, thank goodness.
I have been in & out today doing a bit here & a bit there, I'm rather slow this year & have to rest often but recover quite wuickly & do a bit more.

Just wee bit more to do on the long hedge, then I can leave it for this year.
There are lots of lovely plants growing in the flower borders,the Roses are beautiful, the Crocosmia are showing wee flowers so it won't be long before they put on a good show.
The Potentilla look really nice, well some of them do, there is one (a white flowering one) that has put out some lovely new growth but not a single flower, disappointed about that.

We have another hedge, a storter one that's made up of 3 different plants, ( Fushia. & 2 types of Cotoneaster ) it grows height wise very quickly & not an easy hedge to clip so I'm thankful its not over long, lol.
My daughter who was here for a few days with her family did a good job of removing new growth from several old tree trunks,the trees were cut down some time ago & as they were VERY old trees I had hoped they would fade away in time, but no, the trunks keep putting out new leaves & have to be pulled off asap, otherwise the growth gets quite dense & not easy to deal with.

I have our eldest son coming over tomorrow, he coming from Forres & quite a journey so he's staying overnight so that he can do as much as he can befor ereturning home.
He has a job list as long as his arm (that I gave him,) & slowly but surely he's getting to the back of it, LOL.

Well I must end there & have a bite to eat, I have worked up an appetite today.

Look after yourselves.

Joan.

Good afternoon, it is a lovely sunny day here as well. I tended to all my hanging baskets this morning, replacing some if the plants. I also planted out some chives which had been grown from seed in the greenhouse. I also sewed another large tray of cut and come again salad leaves in the greenhouse. The trays of salad leaves have been a great success this year.
I am having a very lazy afternoon, I just mended a hole in a pair if Esme’s leggings, she fell over and got a hole in them when I took her out on Thursday. OH gave the car a really good clean this morning as it was dirty inside due to taking rubbish to the tip. This afternoon he is painting the gloss paint in the study. I do feel guilty just sitting here with my feet up :-D. Actually, I am seriously wounded, well OK, I hurt my leg a little bit. While I was making lunch a large full bottle of tomato ketchup fell out of the fridge. It is the type you store upside down. The white top bounced off my shin and has gouged quite a large hole in the skin.

Oh, that sounds painful, Linda!

Good to know you're beginning to feel a bit better, Joan. It does take time, and affects everyone differently.

Lots of campervans around here too, Florence. They're a menace on the roads in the summer. And cyclists! When I went to town for shopping a few days ago, I was held up SIX times by cyclists. I had to crawl along for ages at about 15 mph, waiting for a chance to overtake, which wasn't easy as there was such a lot of traffic coming the other way, on a road with lots of blind bends.
Fortunately, I didn't have to be there for a particular time.

You mentioned salad leaves, Linda. Something has eaten all my salad leaf seedlings this year.
They were sown in a crate, on top of a table outside, and with netting over the crate - so it's not birds or rabbits. Not slugs, either - no shiny trail.
It's a mystery, and disappointing.
The spring onions, sown in the same crate, seem to be OK, though. Still very small, but apparently whatever ate the salad leaves doesn't like onion .

I won't be growing strawberries next year, although it's been a good steady crop this year, and I like them.
However, I've realised/remembered that they don't like me.
I had thought that last year, but then this spring I couldn't remember why I had decided that.
But this year, since I started eating strawberries daily about a month ago, I've had red puffy skin around my eyes, and a rash on my neck - and now remember that the same happened last year, though not so badly, and was the reason I had decided not to keep the strawberries.

Today started off cool and cloudy, but now the cloud has cleared and it's pleasantly warm, with a good breeze.
The rowan berries are starting to colour now. Autumn must be on the way, even though we don't seem to have had much of a summer yet.

ArgyllGran, there are hundreds of cyclists passing my house here on a daily basis and yes they hold the traffic up something awful and the bus. The roads here are windy country roads with hidden dips and not many chances to overtake them but do they pull over and let you pass? No chance! Daughter and I say "torture" everytime we see them and its chucking down lol

How anyone thinks cycling with a tent on the back in awful weather is a holiday is mental really!

Last year we grew carrots in a large rectangular box. The leaves grew huge and did really well until one morning, I looked and then realised the leaves had all been eaten yet no trail of a slug etc. But we eventually spotted the culprit, a bright green caterpillar who had filled his boots!

So I made sure his boots were not filling up anymore on my carrots by getting the trowel and flung him over the fence into the drain which was full of green weeds for him to chew on!
So disheartening isnt it after sowing, watering and watching things grow and then something eats it all grrr.

Joan, do you know anything about Escalonia? I have 2 plants in ceramic pots i bought recently and think the pink flowers are coming but will they need bigger pots eventually? I cant plant them in the ground.

Glad you are out in your lovely garden as it really makes the time pass quickly doesn't it. Glad you son is coming to sort some jobs for you but you will have to feed him well with cakes etc

Linda, oh my! That will be sore. I've had it happen to me with one of those bottles and it jolly hurts. Hope you put some Savlon on a dressing and covered it. A tin of baked beans once fell of the shelf and bruised my ankle and I thought I had broken it was sooo painful. So no you carry on resting it and take it easy, poor you,

So tonights tea is a healthy jacket potato, salad, cobbettes, Tzatziki sauce and some light crisps to dip.....well sort of healthy lol But fruit salad for desert.

And now the clouds are moving, there is blue sky and some sunshine. Typical as its late afternoon!

Hi again, no sorry Florence I am not famillia with Escalonia, I have heard of it but never bought or planted it.
Only thing I can suggest is "maybe" it needs feeding,especially as it's in a pot, !

My regular garden magazine talks about the feeding of many plants especially those on pots.
Though most of my plants/shrubs are in the ground I plan to feed them this year, if its not too late !

I was thinking of buying the product called BOOST to feed them but I understand Tomato feed is ok to use ? & I have a big container of that, lol.

Yes, our son will also need a good feed whilst he's here, LOL, it will be worth it to get the various jobs sorted.

Joan.

Lots of info about escallonias online, Florence:

eg - https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/escallonia

They will grow tall if allowed to, but can be pruned back to a manageable size. Often used in hedges.
What size are your pots?

Escalonia is a very salt resistant, fast growing evergreen that is used everywhere round here for hedging, particularly at the front, which gets all the winter gales off the Clyde. If left alone it can grow to 12ft or more and about 3 - 4ft wide.

I have never seen one in a pot but it should do OK, as long as you cut it back hard after flowering (about now). Be brutal - it will recover!!

Something has eaten my two courgette plants, they had good flowers, but no more :-(
There are no slug tracks there either. I have cut and come again Spinach next to the courgettes and that is untouched.
The tomatoes in the greenhouse haven’t done well. They had flowers on the bottom, but they all fell off. The greenhouse isn’t in a good position, it is too shaded and there is a lot if mould in the glass. . I think the weather hasn’t been good this year which hasn’t helped. It has an automatic opening window, but I can’t keep the door open because.next doors cats try to get in. They are an absolute menace, they torture lots of little voles and mice every day. One of them did get in when I left the door open while I was in the garden, it was scratching at the bottom of one of the tomato plants. It was also trying to drink from the watering can which had the tomato fertiliser in it. I shooed it off, but I should have let it!
Having said that all the salad leaves and herbs which I have grown in there have been successful . I may try growing tomatoes outside in hanging baskets next year

Cyclists - why do not nit understand they need to wear bright colours - a nightmare on more rural roads with shadows from hedges and trees coming and going. Sometimes the shadows are very deep.

Why do they not read the Highway Code and understand that pedestrians now have o prioty over them. I had to wait for a group to sort itself out and wobble off, took ages and not one acknowledged me ( invisibility cloak again :-P)

Linda I have a hanging basket with a tumbler tomato in it we have grown them like this for years and they do well.
I lost the one courgette plant I had, it had flowered but gradually just gave up and died. I couldn’t see the reason.

We have grown tomatoes in pots outside for a few years as well, this year we have more cherry ones and the plants have lots of green fruits but the larger tomatoes haven't done so well. the cucumbers are doing ok still but OH has lost the courgettes and the runner beans have been very poor this year. I think it may be the very damp weather.

Have any of you ever grown Yacon, we brought 3 plants from a nursery and they are growing well. The tubers (look like sweet potatoes) but taste like pear and can be eaten raw like fruit or cooked in soup/casseroles or shredded in to a coleslaw. Looking forward to tasting them , daughter recommended them as they are good for diabetics as it can be used as a sweetener in pies and crumbles etc. I use almond flour instead of normal flour as much lower in carbs.

Joan lovely to hear from you , I am like you I do some in the garden and then have a sit down and then start again . It's just good to be able to get out in the garden and achieve something.
Hope Sylvia is doing ok with her moving and also her hubby.

Take care all and hope you all have some nice weather.

Ginnie

Yes I was wondering about Sylvia. Hope all is ok there.
Joan good to see you. I think we all these days do our garden in 30 minute shifts. Sometimes I can keep going for an hour, depends on the jobs.

I am sitting here pre-packing/sorting in temps of 25 degrees in shorts and light top. And trying to work out what to pack for forecast temps up there of 16/17 degrees.. I guess shorts and sun top and maybe even crops won't be the order of the day. So difficult.

Where is "up there", Ann?

I've looked back a few pages, but can't see if you've mentioned it or not.

Near Workington Cumbria.

Afternoon all

Well it was grass cutting day but the weather turned nasty around 11am but they have turned up and done the job even in the rain! looks nice & neat again. The 2 circles of clover grow so quickly. Why are there 2 circles? No idea lol

I looked up about my Escalonias and think maybe when they have flowered this year, they will need to go in to a much bigger tub. However as Andysmum pointed out, they are quite hardy and resistant to salt so should do well in this area. I would love to have a hedge all the way round the 3 fences but that's not allowed as the fences have to be accessible incase of repair. In anycase it would be very expensive and need a lot of plants as a huge area!

I shall wait & see how they grow over the next few months.

Gosh its blowing a gale here and my Rhododendron bush is moving! So its is stormy winds for sure.

I have been ordering bits & pieces for my polytunnel so when its ready, I shall have everything I need. I have new seed trays plus trays underneath, sticks, etc labelling sticks too.

I ordered 2 new silent night pillows and today they finally arrived as the first order got lost! Oh my they could have vacuum packed them into a small package like they do for duvets but instead, they came in the most enormous carboard box!! i have no use for it and cant store it so it will take some time to break it up to fit in the organic bin and even then, it will take up valuable space.

I know they are reducing plastic wastage but what about all the trees they are using to make the boxes?

AnninGloucs, you made me chuckle saying youre wearing a light top and shorts as here i need my waterproofs and wellies :-D :-D :-D

JustGinnie, never heard or seen Yacon in our supermarket up here. What country produce them?

Well coffee time now and then to sort out the evening meal which right now, i have no idea!

Florence in the hebrides

It is baking hot here Florence, but nice and cool in the house, so that is fine. I think it will be a hot night for sleeping, a night to have the fan on I think.

I see the new chancellor has just taken away our winter fuel payments :-( That is just going to be the start of the tax rises for people like us. It makes you wonder why we have worked so hard to get a good standard of living. We both came from ordinary families, no silver spoons. We may as well, not have bothered and just lived off benefits grrr

Those pensioners on Pension Credit & other benefits will still get the winter fuel payments. Its pensioners who are not on any benefits that will lose the Fuel payments.

I guess its almost means tested after this announcement.

I get a small amount of unemployment benefit but yet I still have to pay full Council Tax!

The Scottish government was planning to introduce a Pension Age Winter Heating Payment this winter, instead of the WFP.
I hope that won't be impacted by the Westminster decision.

Hi everyone

I'm sorry I haven't posted for so long, but it has been so hot that evenings have been the only time it has been cooler and comfortable enough for me to be on the computer, and that is with a fan blowing on to my back! But then I have been so tired the last couple of weeks that I have hardly been able to put 2 words together and make sense!

Things are not too good. OH will not be coming to live with me, either here in the house or at the new place. The specialists checked him out carefully, and his cognitive changes are such that he will need more help and watching than I can give him.

He is on the wait list for the Multi Level Living floor at the same place where we have the new suite, but it will take time for a room to become vacant for him. So we have been thrown hurriedly in trying to find somewhere for him to live elsewhere. Not an ideal situation. But we have today organised a safe place for him to be, and a nice place (we hope!).

He will have a single room, (we call it a studio apartment) ..... it has a small kitchenette, a full bathroom with a shower, a large-ish area as bedroom and sitting area, and a quite small window-less room that could be furnished as a cozy den.

Most people in this place don't spend all their time in their rooms or suites, but in the various sitting areas around. The doors to the outside are locked and you have to be let out, but in addition they are going to give him something called a Wander alarm (I think that's the name).

He wears it all the time and it sends out a silent warning to all the aides (via their IPhones) that he is approaching an outside door. If he actually touches the door, an alarm sounds that he can hear.

It's hard, because he does understand and remember a lot, but it's the watching and the physical action that I can't do.

I know he's going to blame me for us being apart, but I'll just have to take that.

Meanwhile the house is chaotic, it seems that everywhere we turn there are more and more things that only I can sort out! Then I discovered this weekend that the guy who was given the job on their first day of pulling my books off shelves according to certain authors to keep or to check, and pack any authors not mentioned to go to "donation", didn't do it worth a darn.

Today has been lovely ................. it rained for the first since about June 28th, and it was only 17 or 18C. We desperately needed the rain but it is supposed to end overnight!

Take care everyone!

Good morning all. a bit cooler this morning than it was over night when I got up for the loo (17 degrees) it is now 15 degrees and cloudy. Hairdresser at 12noon so hoping that is not the time it decides we get the much needed shower.

Good to see you sylvia. This is a very hard time for you, hard because you and your OH have been together for a long time and now you are to be parted. And knowing that he will be aware of what is happening makes it even harder for you. But it is good (and so much better than a similar circumstance would be here) that things appear to be sorted for you both with nice places to move to I don't think that you have said but is the new place for you in the area where you are now so that you will still be near friends etc?

Hopefully things are moving forward now and it won't be too long before you are settled. Is your new suite nice as well. Your OH's sounds very convenient and you will have the comfort of knowing he is safe and cared for. <3