Idle chat - OLD

Last post 06-08-2010 3:28 PM by admin. 7645 replies.

• 21/04/2010 01:10 AM

  gardenwhimsy Location: Centralia, Washington USA Joined on: 11 Apr 2010 Posts: 35

  Locked Reply | Contact Rainy days here in Washington.   I'm hoping you all avoided the ash.  When Mt St.Helen blew back in 1980 it was a mess here for a long time.  I love all the photos posted.  I look forward to watching the birds grow.  What a great camera. Off to a late meeeting.  Can someone post a picture of a lotty?  We call them pea patches here. Your gardening pal from across the pond. Carla

• 21/04/2010 08:19 AM

  EvaInNL Location: Holland Joined on: 25 Sep 2009 Posts: 1,758

  Locked Reply | Contact Morning all, you make me laugh Richard , what a brilliant idea to take a pic of your screen. Hope it's dethawed by now. Incredibly good deal by the way, 12 fuchsias for only 4 GBP! Sounds like you're starting afresh with the fuchsia collection, or do you have more? Chuckled when I read you had the same approach on figuring out how stuff works: take it apart and hope you can put it back together again. Do you also always have spare parts left when you're done? Shame about the rain Carla, although I'm hoping we're going to get some soon here in NL, it's been dry for the last 3 weeks and at this time of year a nice spring shower would really help to get things started. You can find pics from last September of the allotment where I have a plot here. Didn't want to post anything from this year, again, as I've bored the others to tears with that bare looking stretch of sand already... I heard from a colleague who is (happily) stranded in New York that there's quite a bit of over-anxious reporting about the ash clouds in the US. Apart from those people wanting to travel we aren't really affected by it. It's different closer to the volcano in Iceland of course, I wouldn't hang my washing out to dry there... You're really getting the hang of that new camera Roger! Great pics of those pieris! Do read the manual though, it took me 2 years to find out that I could actually take good night shots!  Speaking of good pics, that's a really good one of the blackbird chicks BB! Sweet of you to wait till they leave the nest till you place your shed! And did you all see the close-up of the bumble bee in Miranda's latest blog, wow! I almost bought one of those digital SLR cameras last night but stuck to the plan and only bought the sat nav that was on sale. Spent 4 hours installing the software for the blasted thing! Plug & play? Yeah right... As for the camera, I'm waiting for my friend to lose interest in hers, honestly, she has the attention span of a forgetful gold fish, I'm sure she's going to be tempted by a newer model soon, so I'll buy her 'old' camera at a good price... Devious? Yes, but at least she gets something back for her old camera this way. Which reminds me, have to send her that link of the latest Canon... Roundelder, I saw (part of a) piece on the follow up of the flooding in Cumbria last night. Good to see the bridge is open again, that must make life a bit easier. I hope things are getting back to normal and that everyone affected can slowly pick their lives back up. But there must still be loads of people waiting to get their pay-out from the insurance companies and their whole lives turned upside down... Hey ho, must get back to work! Bye!

• 21/04/2010 10:01 AM

  Susiq Location: Northumberland Joined on: 16 Feb 2008 Posts: 3,125

  Locked Reply | Contact Hee hee that was very ingenious of you Richard to take that pic of your message! What a fantastic pic BB of the nest - how comes, and I know I have the same camera as you, that I can't take such great shots - I am such a techno dunce! I forgot to answer you Sue re my daughter, she's coming back tonight on an overnight coach and will have to go straight into work when it reaches London - I expect she will be shattered! I had a look at your latest blog Eva, its really good, you can see how much hard work you've done already. Hurray, my asparagus has arrived this morning, only prob is I haven't prepared a bed for it yet - so that's me sorted for what to do today. I also got some free sweetcorn seeds with my NVS mag, I wasn't going to sow any this year, but as I've got them for nothing, I may as well give em a go, in the hope that the polytunnel will be ready in time to transfer them. Please send some of your rain this way Carla - the ground is really dried up at the moment, so it takes for ever to water the raised beds.

• 21/04/2010 11:00 AM

  richardpeeej Location: Leicestershire Joined on: 22 May 2009 Posts: 3,498

  Locked Reply | Contact Hi all. I couldn't get on the idle chat last night - I tried a few times and thought it was 'down' Hi Carla it is nice to see how life is in the USA now  as well as life in Holland. Your allotment (pea patch) is looking nice Eva-you have certainly spent some time on it.  I saw Roundelder's new bridge on the news too -he made a good job of building it didn't he........ lol. I am saving my posts often now in case the computer freezes again. Hope you manage to get your asparagus planted Susiq-it is a lovely day here with a lot of sun -so I'll be out in the garden soon. Glad you daughter has her transport sorted to come home as it must have been a worry for you all. I went to town yesterday morning with OH and bought two packets of bird seeds from Wilkinson's. A 2kg pack of wild bird seed for £1.74 and 1kg of niger seeds for £1.99 which I thought was good value!     -Richard

• 21/04/2010 11:21 AM

  BB Location: Hereford Joined on: 12 May 2009 Posts: 729

  Locked Reply | Contact Good Morning All, and what a beautiful morning it is! I'm glad you are still demonstrating how to think outside the box Richard! Even though you are retired now.  That's hilarious taking a photo of your post Hello Carla from me. I remember Mt St. Helens eruption and hearing that it had been really good for the soil and consequently the crops in subsequent years. I hope we get the same beneficial effect, even in a small way! That's a good idea Eva about buying your friends second hand camera. I don't think any of my friends have any to sell unfortunately, otherwise I might also be tempted to do the same thing. I'm glad your daughter is managing to return home  O.K. Susiq. It must be awful if you get stranded.  Good luck with the asparagus (will it take a couple of years to crop?) and the sweetcorn. Ref the camera - are you pausing on the button when you take a photo, in order for the camera to focus? Just lightly press the button down, you'll see the camera focussing and when the focus sets, press the button down completely. I hope that makes sense! BB

• 21/04/2010 11:39 AM

  Susiq Location: Northumberland Joined on: 16 Feb 2008 Posts: 3,125

  Locked Reply | Contact That was good value on your bird seed Richard, I did a 'swapsie' with our quizzmaster last week, I got a  huge bag of niger seed in exchange for a tom and a chillie plant - so I think I did quite well too! Thank you BB and er you've guessed it - no - I wasn't doing as you've kindly told me, so thank you very much for that, and yes it makes sense, even to a doughnut like me - I've just been clicking away like a mad woman! The asparagus I've bought is already one year old, so I won't be able to harvest any until next season, but at least its given me a one year head start instead of having to wait the usual two years for the first crop. Speaking of bargains, that will be great Eva, if you do get your mates camera on the cheap, but it seems from your blogs, that you already have a good 'un. What sort of 'sat nav' did you get?

• 21/04/2010 12:00 PM
  richardpeeej Location: Leicestershire Joined on: 22 May 2009 Posts: 3,498	Locked Reply | Contact I didn't know niger seeds were thistle seeds as that what I read on the packet Susiq. You did well with your swap. Thanks BB -thinking outside the box is OK for me since I have retired BB -the problem is thinking inside it ...lol  -have you any updated news on your allotment? -Richard

• 21/04/2010 12:54 PM
  RogerB Location: Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire Joined on: 14 Jan 2009 Posts: 360	Locked Reply | Contact Afternoon all - just discovered that I passed my RHS level 2 exams I took in February. Pass with commendation. Just a little bit please to say the least - shame I've got to drive later, otherwise it would be a definite case of . Will catch up on everyone's news later. Give it a go - it might just work!

• 21/04/2010 01:33 PM
  Susiq Location: Northumberland Joined on: 16 Feb 2008 Posts: 3,125	Locked Reply | Contact Very many congratulations RogerB - WELL DONE YOU I would imagine that was a seriously hard thing to do, am really chuffed for you!

• 21/04/2010 02:21 PM

  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 9,474

  Locked Reply | Contact  Well done Roger I expect your daughter will be shattered when she gets back Susiq, let's hope she can get some sleep on the coach on the way over. I agree - we can do with some rain here too, we haven't had any for a couple of weeks now and everywhere is quite dry.  It doesn't help that it's been so windy lately either and my pots keep drying out. Lovely pic of the little blackbirds BB. Thanks for putting up the bird seed pic Richard, it reminds me I need to pick some up when I'm in town tomorrow as I forgot to get some off the market on Sunday... sue1002

• 21/04/2010 02:35 PM

  EvaInNL Location: Holland Joined on: 25 Sep 2009 Posts: 1,758

  Locked Reply | Contact Congratulations Roger! Should we call you Professor Roger now? Well done! I'll have a celebratory drink on your behalf, how's that? Busy day for you I guess Susiq, good luck with the asparagus, I'll book the cottage when they're due to come out and will bring the wine! The sat nav is a very simple Mio, with maps of Western Europe, points of interest that you can edit if you want and speed camera alert. I was waiting for the prices to fall under the 100 euro mark, mainly because I'm stubborn but after my last trip's fiasco I finally went and bought this one, a good buy at 77 euros. By the way, was in The Hague yesterday but couldn't find the Portuguese deli, think they've moved... BB, just keep mentioning all the new cameras and their superbly cutting edge features to your friends, one of them is bound to cave soon!

• 21/04/2010 03:16 PM

  gardenwhimsy Location: Centralia, Washington USA Joined on: 11 Apr 2010 Posts: 35

  Locked Reply | Contact Good morning everyone,   Roger, here's a pat on the back for passing your exams.  How many levels does the RHS have?  Yes, the ash was great for the soil.  We still have huge ash piles along parts of the highway. They are covered with healthy plantings, you'd never know it was ash underneath.  Ash is great for is glass blowing.  So if you know any glass artists, remind them they have a free resource for their art. What a fabulous healthy garden plot Eva.  I looked at your photos.  Those strawberry plants were giants.  So many tomatoes too.  What does one do with all that produce?  I envisioned a lotty being in the city.  How do you water?  Well? Drip irrigation?  I posted a lazy gardeners watering tip on one of the forums here.  It might help with the limited rainfall and your potted plants.  It works well for me. What are your thoughts on the Travel Lodge hotels?  I'm attending meetings today, but I will try to post pictures later. Off to work Carla

• 21/04/2010 03:33 PM

  Susiq Location: Northumberland Joined on: 16 Feb 2008 Posts: 3,125

  Locked Reply | Contact Yes Sue, the dryness is now becoming a real pain, and its been very windy here too - yet it was only a few weeks ago we were all moaning/hoping for some sunshine No pleasing any of us gardeners hey! Carla, my feelings on Travel Lodges is that they are relatively cheap, usually very clean but quite basic. Very good for moving about the country as long as you're not expecting luxury surroundings. On the whole, excellent value for money. I would have mentioned we have a little cottage for holidaymakers (but am NOT advertising on this site - admin please note!) but we are already fully booked for the whole of May, which is when you are visiting the UK! Look forward to sharing my asparagus along with your wine Eva! Re the camera, I just wish BB was around to show me just how good mine actually is, never mind, she keeps pointing me in the right direction as and when my dumb questions crop up.

• 21/04/2010 04:36 PM

  RogerB Location: Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire Joined on: 14 Jan 2009 Posts: 360

  Locked Reply | Contact Carla, that was the first of 4 levels (as it currently stands), the RHS are just in the process of reorganising the exam structure, but it is a recognised qualification in its own right so I'm more than happy - first exam in 38 years and best exam result ever - time for a career change before too much longer, methinks! Just read your water conservation thread - great idea. I can see it taking a bit of explaining to the rest of the family as to why I've suddenly taken to buying disposable nappies/diapers though. I just about emptied my water butt last night watering all my plants in the GH (not that it was full when I started) so back to expensive tap water for now - I think I may have to invest in other soon, if I can find room for it. No more getting lost on the way to anywhere, Eva, with your new sat nav - I still rely on maps/ memory which gets me most places, most of the time. Will try and have a look at your latest blog later - always like to see how everybody else is getting on with their veg growing. Susiq, I'm sure you'll get the hang of your camera - the photos you posted the other day looked good, so I reckon you have already! As for that box of yours, Richard - I'd drill some holes in the bottom of it and use it as a planter. Simple solution - no more thinking inside, or outside, the box. Just watering, weeding, feeding................ Give it a go - it might just work!

• 21/04/2010 06:52 PM
  Susiq Location: Northumberland Joined on: 16 Feb 2008 Posts: 3,125	Locked Reply | Contact Hope you finally get to celebrate in style RogerB after you've finished your driving for tonight - go for your career change, it sounds as tho' you are really on the button! Don't wanna make you envious, we are on spring water so no costs involved there 'cept for the pump - BUT, when it breaks down, don't we know it!