General Chat

My two roses which looked dead for such a long time are Rugosa - so I hope the deer don't find them! At least not until they have grown up a bit.
They were very cheap, from Poundstretcher.

I buy the plain beetroot in vacuum-packs of 3 or 4.
The vinegar taste of the stuff in jars is too strong for me, and overpowers the beetroot.

Today I've been along to the mobile bank van at the village hall, and then to the post office, seven miles away, to post a parcel.
Then back via the church, where I read the electricity meter, as we'd received an estimated bill which was about three times as much as usual.
It's a semi-smart meter - mostly it sends readings automatically, but sometimes it doesn't!

Tomorrow I'll be heading off in the opposite direction, ten miles to the doctor's surgery to pick up my repeat prescription, and then I'll visit my daughter while I'm along that way.

I don’t know why I originally bought my jar key but is well worth it. Especially now. with my poor, on the mend, wrist and OH’s arthritic hands. We also have a ‘thing’ for opeining bottles, not such a good buy as the jar key.

When i cant open jars as my wrists are quite weak, i use my big tin opener. I bang it on the side of the lid a few times and this knocks out the air and then it opens easily.

Overcast day here and a bit breezy.

Was just back from drs and he gave me some meds which i requested and he agreed so im a happy bunny today!

Making chicken with pepper rice for tea later on as not made for a awhile.

Still plenty chores to do including ironing, hoovering & dusting! Then after tea, the endless watering of all the pots plus the tunnel. So lucky we do not have a water meter !

JustGinnie, those cheap roses sound fab. Sometimes the cheapest things are often better than the most expensive. Hoper you get plenty of blooms.

Its forecast to get very windy later so may have to move a couple of smaller pots into some shelter but the rest of the week is looking great. Friday 22 degrees so Im sure we will be off to find a nice beach somewhere, take a picnic and see what else we will do.

Have a good day all

Florence in the Hebrides

It sounds like you need a jar key Joan, it is a great little device which breaks the vacuum on jars,making them really easy to open.You can get them in supermarkets or from Amazon
It has been really hot here today and is going to get hotter. We aren’t going to gat any rain for a long time, so I will have to water my new plants even though a drop has been declared in Yorkshire.
I was listening to the children read again this afternoon. One little boy is really naughty, I can see him being suspended by the time he gets to secondary school , sad but all the signs are there.

Hi to all.
Not as nice a day today as it was yesterday, it's warm even without the sun shining but it's been on the dull side all morning, it's starting to brighten up a bit at the moment so I might be able to get outside & sort out that hedge !

I have had the odd Deer in the garden over the years, fortunately they have never touched the flowers, they do tend to go after the trees rather than flowers or small shrubs.
It's the same with the cows that get in as well they don't touch the flowers but they do like the long hedge which is made up of Rugosa, when they are in the field next to my house they keep their side of the hedge trimmed back, lol..

Now Sheep on the other hand will have a go at most plants especially Ivy, some years ago when several got into my garden they absolutely demolished my ivy, going right down to the roots.
I was very surprised when it came back as good as ever some weeeks later.

re my Beetroot sandwiches, I don't have anything but the beetroot in it,
.
I love beetroot but I haven't been able to have it for quite some time as the company who make the brand I buy changed the lids & my opening gadget wouldn't work on them.
Just recently I happened to mention this to my daughter who said to pop the top of the lid & it should open !
So with wee knife & hammer I tried it & yey it worked,.

Joan.

Afternoon all,
Hope you are all well, I have just booked my BP check up for Thursday these checks seem to come around very quickly.
Our dog went to have his booster jab and check up and they found he had a broken tooth so he had to have an appt. to take it out and have the rest scale and polished so he now has lovely clean white teeth . Cost us just over £650.00 so not cheap. He came back from the vets looking very sorry for himself.

The cheap roses I got from Poundland over a year ago are still going strong I'm pleased to say. I don't know the name of the white one but it is very pretty but has very sharp thorns and lots of them. The other roses I have don't have many thorns I happy to say.

It's been lovely weather here with most of the rain overnight but the planters still need extra watering done as everywhere is very dry.

The new neighbours are a young couple who are still decorating the house and not living there full time yet. Hopefully they will stay when they get it all done . They seem to be very nice but have only spoken a couple of times.



Take care all.

Definitely no gardening here!
It's been wet, grey, windy, and generally dreich for the last couple of days.

And I had to chase two deer out of the garden yesterday before they ate too many of my plants.
Humph!

Beetroot's said to be good for lowering blood pressure.
What do you put in your beetroot sandwich, Joan - apart from beetroot, of course?

Morning all
Grey, overcast and looks like rain today so not an outdoors day today.
Yesterday we went out for lunch and took the wee poochie with us and had a lovely time.

Joan , you sure were busy in your garden. Beetroot is great for boosting your iron too so you will feel the benefit of that as well as enjoy it.

I cut another courgette last night which is getting chopped and then frozen for future use. The potatoes were very tasty so was very pleased with that Peas that i had thought were finished have now a new set of flowers so looks like ill be getting another crop soon :-D

Linda, like Ann It only seems more recent you had last years bed race so not sure where the time has flown but glad you all had a great day out.

Off to visit a good friend today who has been in the wars with her broken foot and shoulder but she was leaning into a deep freezer and has somehow managed to crack a rib!!! Poor lassie so off to visit with cakes and flowers to cheer her up this afternoon.

Ann, watering all our pots outside takes an age too even with 2 of us, 2 watering cans and a hose. The small damp showers are not enough to feed the plants unless we get some downpours which we havent had. Everywhere is so dry and today is grass cutting but in 2 weeks its hardly grown.

So better look sharp now.

Have a good day all

Florence in the hebrides

Good morning all. 13 degrees here at 7am but overcast. Still no rain so it will be more pot watering later. My neighbour is away so there are hers to water as well.

Linda, that bed race and parade always sounds a good day out. It doesn't seem a year since the last one. Pleased that you all had a good day and it was dry and fine.

Joan that was a busy gardening day, you got a lot done, well done, you deserved your beetroot sandwich.

Florence, I suppose with all the shows where you sell your cards starting in the autumn (I assume), it makes sense to start card making now.

Good afternoon everyone. It's been a lovely day today, not much sunshine but nice & bright, very warm & no wind, yesterday it rained & off all day so it was nice to get outside today.

It sounds like you & the family had a lovely day at the Bed races Linda,at least the rain stayed off for it.

I have been busy today,outside as usual, lol, done more weedkilling,not too much left to deal with now but still some stragglers in the side garden, more grass patches than single weeds which are not so easily lifted but they need to come up,

After tidying the flowere borders I tidied up the planters of the flowers that had died off, then I went round to the back of the house & shifted some of the weeds from the gravelled area, then I trimmed back the growth of an ornamental Cherry tree that sits in the middle of the gravel, the branches were soo straggley & made the tree look top heavy.

It's not a big tree height wise but it does look a bit silly when the branches start stretching out sideways, it looks much better after its haircut, lol.
I was getting tired by now but needed to sweeo up the brnaches & leaves from the tree, I then swept the drive.

I am now finished for today, too tired to do anything more, going to make a Beetroot sandwich just now then settle down in front of the telly, hopefully there's something worth watching.

I hope everyone else has had a nice weekend & the weather was nice.

Joan.

Good afternoon, it is very blustery today, but still warm. Yesterday was the Knaresborough bed race which we always attend. The forecast earlier in the week was bad, with rain due all afternoon, but it in the end, it was a gloriously sunny day, about 22 degrees. My daughter came and parked here, then we all walked into town with Esme in her wheelchair, only about twenty minutes, so not bad. We went for an early lunch and amazingly, our favourite cafe was fairly empty. About thirty thousand people are estimated to attend, so the town is usually heaving
After that we nabbed a prime spot right at the start of the parade route and saved space for Esme’s school friend who is permanently in a wheel chair. We were right at the front on the kerb, so had a brilliant view of the ninety decorated beds as they passed us. The people accompanying the beds dish out sweets on the way past, so of course two little girls in wheel chairs were highly favoured. Esme said that it was better than Halloween :-D
After the parade we made our way down to the riverside park where the race proper starts. The beds are stripped of all their decorations and the team of six push the beds with a child passenger over a two and a half mile course which is incredibly hilly. They end up by coming back through the river, the beds have buoyancy aids of course so they don’t sink. The pushers actually have to swim in the highly polluted water. The winning team takes about thirteen minutes to cover the course which is amazing given the steep hills they have to negotiate.
There is a big stage in the park where a very good cover band plays for two long sessions, so everyone takes picnic blankets and lots of food and drink is consumed while lots of people dance at the front. It is a very good day out, but then we have a long walk back along the road by the riverside and a climb back to the house. They stayed for a late dinner before going home.

Today is Father’s Day, so we all went to my daughter’s house and had a lunchtime BBQ. I had to play with Esme of course , so am quite tired now.

You can eat the cauliflower leaves, Florence.
Just cut them up and cook like cabbage or spring greens.

Afternoon everyone looking in today
Overcast and damp and a good breeze here too. So a day for indoors unlke yesterday where it was 20 degrees and we managed a lovely afternoon walk out. Taking my time, i actually managed to walk further than i have before so was very pleased.

Of course my feet were very swollen when i got home but it was lovely to spend time away from the house.

My 2 new card display units arrived yesterday and we put one together last night. I decided to make 4x4 inch xmas cards this year and not the bigger ones. With less on the cards, they actually look far better and more attractive and the display units look better than the baskets i had on the tables.

My cauliflower leaves are enormous but no show of a cauliflower yet. Not sure what to do with the leaves as if i had friends who had chickens or pigs, i would give them away but i don't.

So bed to strip, ironing and a wardrobe of clothes to sort out for our holiday. Sorted out the travel insurance and all the bits and bobs, so very organised really.

Hope noone gets the thunderstorms they are predicting!

Florence in the hebrides

It has been a nice day here as well.
We bought two bare root fruit trees earlier in the year. They were reduced in the local cheap shop where they don’t really look after their plants. They just put them outside the shop no matter what the weather. They don’t get watered properly, but we thought these might be OK as the roots were wrapped in plastic. OH put them in the garden, but they did nothing at all. They had some buds, but I suspect that they had been frosted, so OH dug them up and put them in plant pots . Amazingly, the apple has suddenly growing, so that is back in the garden. The pear still looks dead, so it can just stay in the pot until next year.
OH is still working on the paths. He had the flagstones sloping down, but I wasn’t happy about that as I don’t feel steady on slopes, so he has made some shallow steps into the slope, which is a lot better. He still has some more to do, but we need about another five flags. We bought them second hand and he broke three cleaning the cement off the back, then the builder broke up two of them to use when he made the proper steps. I am keeping a look out on the Facebook sale groups, but there haven’t been any of the correct size, so we may have to buy some new ones.

I have been busy going into the school to hear the children read and this afternoon, I was volunteering at the memory cafe. It was a talk by the town crier, which was very interesting.

Argyll gran, it must have been a nice surprise when those 2 roses to show growth after a long wait.

I bought potted ones as the bare rooted ones where not available, they cost a bit more but heyho !
They look good againsts the fairly low wall that I have set them, with luck they should scramble upwards & sideways & cover the wall & over towards the wild part of the garden.

Behind this particular wall I have purposely stacked lots of thinner tree branches, ( shelter for the wild life ! )
They run along the length of the wall & are stacked to the same height, so the Roses have plenty to scramble over.

I have been outside today as it's really nice today, spent most of the time weed killing & pulling up by hand the taller ones.
I'm having a wee problem with my electric weedkiller, the bit that fits on the burning end keeps falling off, I will have to find something metal that I can tie around it to stop it dropping off.

Joan.

You mentioned roses, Joan -

away back in the Spring, I bought two bare-root roses, and planted them.
They looked like dead twigs for months, but thank goodness I didn't pull them up!
Just in the last couple of weeks they have finally produced some green shoots!

Evening all.
It's been a lovely day here today, sunshine all day warm & no wind,a big change after yesterdays hailstones.

I have spent much of the afternoon pulling up weeds, a never ending job, still a way to go yet as there have been a lot this year, that;s what happens when I don't keep on top of the garden jobs but my heart wasn't in it last year.

I have also planted up the 3 new Roses I bought recently so happy to get that done, they are quite big & full of flowers so fingers crossed they take & put on a good show for the rest of the summer.

The sun is still shing but I'm too tired to do any more garden work as my back is aching, hoping it will be a nice day again tomorrrow to get the last of the weeds up, & I must level up the hedge which is still waiting for me to make it look better.

Joan.

Afternoon all
Overcast day but bright and breezy. Did some weeding from the large raised bed at the bottom of the garden and tidied up the remnants of the daffies and tulips so looks neater now.

ArgyllGran, when my friend came last year, we hired a car from the airport and it had no handbrake and no key!! We had to ask the guys to show us how to operate the car as it was brand new and noone had driven/hired it out. Turns out a button replaces the handbrake and a button to start not a key.

all far too modern for us.

So glad you kept your car and hope it gets sorted soon.

No thunderstorms up here, think we have escaped it this time.

Just cooking smoked haddock, new pots and peas for tea. Something not had for awhile.

JustGinnie, hope your neighbours turn out to be nice ones. Keep us posted.

Joan, we had a shower of hailstones last week, unreal for june!!

Got my appointment for my other eye for the cataract but its a few days before my holiday which is no good so shall be ringing to morrow to change it to after we come back. i want to enjoy the holiday!

looked out my crafting things this afternoon as i had ordered some new white cards 4x4 inches. So started making some xmas cards :-D :-D :-D yes you heard me. No time like the present to get ahead!

Right better go and check the dinner before we have mashed pots not boiled.

Take care all

Florence in the hebrides

Hello all!
I somehow got out of the habit of looking on here, but have now read all the posts and think I've caught up with what everyone is doing.
Thanks for getting in touch, Florence!

My car got a dent and scrape a few weeks ago, when I had parked at the local recycling centre to drop off some garden waste. A woman who had been double-parked just ahead of me reversed gently but firmly into my front offside bumper.

She was very apologetic and immediately admitted responsibility - but then of course the insurers got involved. What a lot of faff and confusing paperwork, emails, etc, from various bodies dealing with different aspects of the claim, all over a small dent which wasn't even my fault.

I was very afraid they might decide to write the car off just because it's 14 years old, but thank goodness they have authorised the repair, which will be done in July - the soonest the local bodywork man can do it.
The car's perfectly driveable, and in fact I've got so used to the small dent that I hardly notice it now!
The repair will only take a couple of days, so I won't need a courtesy car, thankfully.
That was another worry, as a courtesy car would have been no more than 5 years old, and would therefore have all sorts of modern gadgetry which I wouldn't have known what to do with.

So much stress for such a small stupid accident!

What a change in our weather, after several weeks of lovely sunshine the rain showed itself last week with regular daily showers, this afternoon the heavens have opened up & we now have Hailstones, they are bouncing off the windows.
The cows in the surrounding field have taken refuge under some of my trees.

I have had to put the living room light on as it's so dark at the moment.

Joan.