My Garden

Idle chat

Last post 22-11-2009 4:52 PM by richardpeeej. 4428 replies.

• 03/10/2009 11:41 AM

  In reply to

  richardpeeej Location: Leicester Joined on: 22 May 2009 Posts: 810

  Reply | Contact Morning all. Hope you slept well BB, and that you are OK Digger. You'll be warm today then Sue baking-I think you're in the right place. Are you baking some goodies?. Its very windy here, there are plenty more leaves blowing off the trees outside for me to collect for the compost bin-I only cleared them up yesterday! Sounds as though you had a lovely time Miranda apart from that rough cloudy cider - you should have had some Bulmer's instead!  Was it welsh lamb Miranda? I knew someone who worked on a cattle wagon once and he told me that  as long as the lamb grazed in wales for a minimum of two weeks then (aledgedly) it can be called 'welsh lamb' which is more expensive-not sure if that's true though. Richard

• 03/10/2009 11:55 AM

  In reply to

  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,977

  Reply | Contact Not sure where the lamb was from, Richard, but it was probably was local, given all the sheep round here. That's terrible about being able to call it Welsh lamb after two weeks in Wales. What a con.  If you can't see the pic, here's the outside the bar: http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg218/Miranda_broughton/outside_bar_650.jpg It's very windy here as well. We had some drizzle earlier and it was coming down horizontally. My partner is still cutting wood and the wood shelter is really filling up. It's a real comfort to see. We've got some good stuff to burn when it's fully dry - hawthorn, apple and cherry.

• 03/10/2009 11:57 AM	In reply to
  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,977	Reply | Contact you should have had some Bulmer's instead! Yech, no thanks, Richard! We had the Hook Norton bitter and very nice it was too.

• 03/10/2009 12:09 PM	In reply to
  richardpeeej Location: Leicester Joined on: 22 May 2009 Posts: 810	Reply | Contact That bar looks a picture Miranda-I'd like one of those in our garden if we had room. It must be nice to have a wood fire Miranda to sit around in the cold days( and of the wind). The weather map is on the tv and its full of wind arrows all over the country Brrrr. This is a link that I use for the  local weather info:- http://weather.weatherbug.co.uk/ Richard

• 03/10/2009 01:41 PM

  In reply to

  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,977

  Reply | Contact Yes, it would be just the ticket for the garden, Richard.  It isn't an open fire we've got, it's one of those Parkray back burner jobs with a glass door. It's quite ugly but it's efficient and I suppose that's the main thing. Except for a small fan heater we don't have any other heating, which seems odd for these days. If I do light it today, it will be the first heating we've had since about May!   That weather site is good. I like the way it gives all those little details that you don't really need, but which are nice to look at. Like, you can think 'Hey, it says the humidity is 82% and the dew point is 11C, that's cool' but it doesn't actually make any difference to your life at all

• 03/10/2009 03:58 PM

  In reply to

  Susiq Location: Northumberland Joined on: 16 Feb 2008 Posts: 1,104

  Reply | Contact Hi Everyone  - great to see you back Digger, and ditto Sue's comment re a photo of Pheobe - ONLY when you are feeling up to it, which I really hope will be very soon. Sounds like everyone has had lots of scrummy things to eat, those welsh cakes look gorgeous Richard. I'm going to attempt an apple charlotte tomorrow for pud, after seeing it last night on Masterchef. I haven't got any cooking apples tho' but have scores of eaters in the garden, so am going to use some of them. If it doesn't work it won't have cost much! The new carpet is laid in the hall, and Percy is well and truly barred 'cept when I'm around to watch him like a hawk! You didn't put me off Sue about leaving him in the kitchen! The tiles are extra tough ceramic, I think he would break his teeth before he broke a tile. You must have been furious tho' when you had that mess on carpet tiles! That bar looked really good Miranda, we are going to have lamb tomorrow, the last leg of that one I got off the local farmer - feel a bit guilty that my mam will miss out, but she's been raving about how good the hospital food is, so maybe's I shouldn't feel too guilty! Its blowing a real hoolie up here, gale force apparently.

• 03/10/2009 04:58 PM

  In reply to

  richardpeeej Location: Leicester Joined on: 22 May 2009 Posts: 810

  Reply | Contact The wind has been gusting here Susiq- our recycle bin lid went flying down the road and we thought we had lost it but someone brought it back as I had painted our address on it with huge letters! Percy just rang me to say that he is looking forward to a tasty bit of new carpet Susiq mmm  yum yum ! Enjoy your lamb and apple charlotte tomorrow! We've just loaded up our daughters car with things for her to take to the car boot sale tomorrow with our son.He is taking down twoprizes that he won-he is always doing competitions-his latest wins were a pair of football boots retail price £90 and a Johnny Wilkinson book  £19. I have just put some netting over my onions BB to stop the birds pulling them out -good idea I hadn't thought of doing that. Richard

• 03/10/2009 09:41 PM	In reply to
  Phot's-Moll Location: The sunny South coast. Joined on: 06 Jan 2007 Posts: 3,347	Reply | Contact  Glad you're OK, Digger. A visitor at work today had an assistance dog and I thought of you and your special helper. Whether you think you can do a thing, or think you cannot, you are right.

• 04/10/2009 08:38 AM

  In reply to

  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,200

  Reply | Contact The bar in the picture does look good Miranda, glad you enjoyed the evening. My onions haven't started showing any green yet but they only got planted a few days ago and we had a little rain late yesterday evening so that should help. You'll have to let us know how the apple charlotte went Susiq, I haven't tried making one of those and I often use eating apples for making pies so it should come out ok.  I actually laughed when I was confronted by the mess from the cereals in the kitchen and it wasn't until after I'd cleared it up that I realised I should have taken a photo of it! As soon as I started to do some baking yesterday, we had a call from OH's sister to say they were coming over so all that was made was well sampled, I made a Victoria sponge with the home-made blueberry and pear jam, some mint chocolate buns, plain flapjacks and some flapjacks with cherries and coconut. Hope you do well with the boot sale today Richard. sue1002

• 04/10/2009 12:21 PM

  In reply to

  richardpeeej Location: Leicester Joined on: 22 May 2009 Posts: 810

  Reply | Contact Hi all-sounds that OH's sister and family had a good old time sampling your baking Sue-perhaps they'll be around every Saturday now to sample your wares. I didn't go to the car boot sale Sue,just my son and daughter-they left this morning at 6.15am and the last we heard at 9.30 that they had made £10 and most of that was in the first hour, £6 was for the site so hopefully they have done a bit better since then. OH and I are hoping they don't bring the same carload back ! I have just collected some seeds from the phormium plant, they look OKand have gone white now on the dried up part of the plant.(They were black when I collected some a few months ago so perhaps they weren't ready then. I can pop some in with the other packages/seeds I'm sending to you Sue, BB, Miranda if you would like  to try some-or anyone else who fancies a try with them. Its nice to see the sun shining here today-looks like we're going to have a sunny day Richard

• 04/10/2009 05:38 PM	In reply to
  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,200	Reply | Contact  They certainly did enjoy the sampling Richard, and asked for the recipes too It was my mistake about the boot sale (I was reading through too quick), hope your son and daughter made more than the £4 in the end. Yes please, if you could bung a few of the Phormium seeds in with my packet, that would be great, thank you sue1002

• 04/10/2009 06:05 PM

  In reply to

  richardpeeej Location: Leicester Joined on: 22 May 2009 Posts: 810

  Reply | Contact OK Sue I'll bung a few phormium seeds in for you also when I post on Tuesday. Hope you had a good day, our son and daughter made about £40 after they paid out £6 for the site so they were quite happy with that and we have a little bit more room now at home. Our runner beans have come to an end now and I'm waiting for some more pods to go brown so I can collect some seeds.I have collected about 8 seeds at the moment, the pods went brown and crispy but the rest are still green at the moment they are not very nice to eat now as they are very tough. Richard

• 04/10/2009 08:16 PM

  In reply to

  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,200

  Reply | Contact  Thanks Richard.    That wasn't bad in takings for your son and daughter and less stuff to bring back with them We went out to a market this morning and also had a wander around a boot sale but came back empty handed.  This afternoon, I mowed the green patches in the lawn (the rest has dried right out) which didn't take long and picked up all the pots that had blown over in yesterday's wind.  Tomorrow, I will pull up the runner beans for composting as they are now finished. sue1002

• 04/10/2009 08:30 PM

  In reply to

  richardpeeej Location: Leicester Joined on: 22 May 2009 Posts: 810

  Reply | Contact I think I'll have to keep my runner beans going until I collect the seeds I suppose Sue. I'm not sure what I can put in the troughs when I take the beans out- have you any suggestions of  any veg that I could put in there in a week or twos time.(I have a pot of onion sets going, and will be planting some garlic soon). We don't have any grass to cut now-which is nice. We have a lovely view of grass and trees outside our front window and the council cuts that! Richard

• 05/10/2009 08:31 AM

  In reply to

  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,200

  Reply | Contact  Morning all, looks like today is going to be a rather gloomy one, it's overcast and still quite dark here with some rain forecast for later and the rest of the week by the look of it. Yes, you will need to keep your runners going Richard, until the pods go papery to be able to collect the seeds.  The only thing I can think of that could go in after the runners come out are broad beans but you need a variety that can be sown to overwinter. When we first moved in here (10 years ago at the end of this month), the garden was about 85% lawn.  That has gradually dwindled over the years and we now have less than half of that as lawn, it's less to cut and still gives my son and Sasha somewhere to run about on. sue1002