Author Topic: July 2009 (Read 7060 times)

Eric Hardy · « **on:** July 01, 2009, 05:07:13 PM »

The Ist July has been too hot to do anything at all worth speaking of. We managed to quickly prune off some old wood from the blackcurrent bushes then sit in the shade under an old apple tree and strip them of the currents. This is a method Anthea's parents used years ago. It prunes the bushes and makes picking easier at the same time. We were able to stare up into Kiftsgate which is looking even more spectacular. I will post some more shots to show how luxuriant it has become. You will see how parched our grass is too

. (I won't grace it with the name "lawn"

). From about 11:30 onwards we had to retreat indoors and will only emerge later on to water when it becomes cooler.

Eric H

ideasguy · « **Reply #1 on:** July 01, 2009, 07:54:27 PM »

Fatastic shots there Eric. Youve covered the entire range that I like.
What do the individual flowers measure across? They are so perfect - just like your photos.
Whats camera settings did you use?

Here in Ireland, we had rain overnight and up to mid morning. It was very hot and humid all afternoon, very little wind. Now its evening and the sun has appeared, with a light breeze.
Forecast says thunder and more rain for tomorrow. The garden is enjoying this kind of weather - things are growing really well.

It looks like its not going to make its way over to you and the East of England

Eric Hardy · « **Reply #2 on:** July 01, 2009, 09:33:10 PM »

Thank you George. I've just been out with my little ruler and can report that each flowerlet is about 3 cm across.

As for the camera settings, common to all four shots were: -
ISO 200; Exposure bias minus 1/3 EV; Aperture Priority

Top picture 1/160 sec; f13; focal length 24mm
Middle left 1/125 sec; f13; focal length 24mm
Middle right 1/125 sec; f13; focal length 24mm
Bottom 1/250 sec; f5.6; focal length 48mm

For the first three shots I happened to have my Tokina 12 - 24mm lens on the camera but I kept it at 24mm. I changed to the Canon 18mm - 55mm lens for the last one. I would have used my Tokina 100mm macro lens for that but it was upstairs and really it was much too hot to make the effort of getting it.

I wish we could have some of your rain. I have just come in from some heavy watering.

ideasguy · « **Reply #3 on:** July 01, 2009, 11:13:41 PM »

Do you water your lawn Eric? I can see its very dry in that first photo.

Thanks for the info on the camera settings. Took a couple of photos this evening on Auto, rather that fiddle with the settings. I was in a hurry to clean up a border to make way for some plants I bought recently.

Eric Hardy · « **Reply #4 on:** July 01, 2009, 11:25:29 PM »

No I don't water the lawn, George. We must conserve resources. The joy about grass is it will recover once we get a wet spell.

ideasguy · « **Reply #5 on:** July 02, 2009, 12:04:18 AM »

If only all plants were so forgiving!

Lyn and Malcolm · « **Reply #6 on:** July 02, 2009, 07:43:55 AM »

Looks like you had plenty of rain int he night George.

Malcolm

ideasguy · « **Reply #7 on:** July 02, 2009, 08:33:46 AM »

Yes we had Malcolm. I was aroused at around 6am with thunder and heavy rain.
8:30 am and its white clouds, with nice blue sky. Perfect!
Edited a few minutes later - the sun is now shining upon Co Down in Ireland!

Any rain your side of the Irish Sea?
Wonder what its like for André in Belgium, Mitch in Canada and Toby in US, Lynda in Spain etc?

Lyn and Malcolm · « **Reply #8 on:** July 02, 2009, 08:59:12 AM »

We had 2 hours worth of rain on Tuesday PM
We definatley don't want hail.

Can we not talk about rain next week in the run up to our open day on 12th

We also don't want what Lynda is having in Spain, Marbella forecast on the coast to the south of Lynda 35c

Malcolm

ideasguy · « **Reply #9 on:** July 02, 2009, 09:11:17 AM »

If only I could write a program to control those elements...

ideasguy · « **Reply #10 on:** July 13, 2009, 09:33:55 PM »

Weather is bizarre. This morning was very sunny and hotter than usual. Later in the afternoon it cooled, then rain came on around 6pm. Its a dismal evening with heavy showers. The ground is wet, but workable,since my garden is well drained.

I have so much to do out there

Lyn and Malcolm · « **Reply #11 on:** July 13, 2009, 10:12:39 PM »

5pm tonight we had our meal on the patio, sun was shining.
Since then we have had a couple of light showers.

I had lighty watered the lawns after cutting them to help revive them after yesterdays trampling. Which was no where near as bad as your cows.

Malcolm

ideasguy · « **Reply #12 on:** July 13, 2009, 11:24:13 PM »

The grass refuses to grow in the hoof holes in the back garden. I filled with soil then sowed grass seed. Either the seed was poor or the birds were hungry!
I'd rather have your visitors!

No need to water the grass here, Malcolm!

ideasguy · « **Reply #13 on:** July 25, 2009, 08:46:28 PM »

Beautiful day today, and here's a family pic (with a vista of the garden of course) of left to right, Keelin, Mary, Simon, Kevin and Tracy.

The younger generation went to the U2 gig at Croke Park Dublin last night.
I wish I could have joined them. Very good reports from everyone.

Simon and Keelin travelled down to Dublin to meet up with Kevin (Marys brothers son) and his wife Tracy, who live in Calgary, Canada.
My other son Julian and his wife also met up.

They stopped off at "home" for lunch, en-route to S&K's home in Belfast.
Simon and Keelin then took Kevin and Tracy on an open top bus sightseeing trip in Belfast.
The holidaymakers stay over in S&K's house, then we all meet up in Newry for Sunday lunch tomorrow.

Tracy strategically located among the flowers

Kevin and Tracy

and Kevin and Tracy again

Eric Hardy · « **Reply #14 on:** July 26, 2009, 06:52:40 AM »

Great to see the family enjoying your immaculate garden, George. I wish ours was nearly as tidy (it used to be

). Did you use a bit of aluminium sulphate on your fine hydrangea ?

Eric H

ideasguy · « **Reply #15 on:** July 26, 2009, 09:35:59 AM »

No feeding at all Eric. My blue hydrangeas are blue, and pinks are good pink.
That one is bluer than in the photo (taken in Auto mode) - didnt have time to make adjustments

I thought I'd taken them in RAW, but they are JPG's.
It was spotted by Tracy and we took other photos of the family around that plant. The tree was also a subject of discussion.
Populus candicans 'Aurora' is as near as I can get to its name.
Its a fast grower. I cut sticks from it for supporting plants. Last year I cut five pieces to support a Dahlia. This year, no Dahlia, but the five sticks have rooted. I dug one up and Simon has it as a fine speciman in a pot at his house

I'll put names to the prominent plants in each photo later. On the corner of one of the beds you'll see a large patch of Inula hookeri . Its not at its peak yet, but quite a lot of the flowers are out. It makes a fine picture in full bloom,but unfortunately its over in a few weeks.

ideasguy · « **Reply #16 on:** July 26, 2009, 08:53:36 PM »

Too much to eat and drink on our family get-together. Here's where we met up:
http://www.canalcourthotel.com/
It was a very nice reunion.
Weather? Its a confused situation. It had been raining overnight. This morning was warm and sunny. The air conditioner made for pleasant conditions on the drive to Newry. Coming out of the hotel, it was raining.
Its been showers and sunny spells since. The garden loves these conditions, particularly the weeds!

Palustris · « **Reply #17 on:** July 27, 2009, 10:35:32 AM »

If you stand at the bottom end of our garden you can hear a strange slurrping noise. Took us ages to work out what it was. It is the sound of all the water in our soil draining away. The wild life pond down there is overflowing which is not normal for July. Usually, the water level has dropped considerably by this time of year. As said though, the soil is warm as well as wet so things are growing , in some cases too much. Some of the border plants are flopping over because they are much taller and weaker than they should be.

Eric Hardy · « **Reply #18 on:** July 27, 2009, 06:52:35 PM »

A hurried note to say we are off early in the morning to pick up Benji and go to Cornwall. I am in the middle of last minute packing. I am sure I will forget something but it won't be my camera, that is in it's case on the hall table already. I hope this weather cheers up a bit. We will be back late on the 6th August.

Cheers, everyone.

ideasguy · « **Reply #19 on:** July 27, 2009, 07:34:36 PM »

I hope you all enjoy your holiday Eric, and enjoy the celebrations

ideasguy · « **Reply #20 on:** July 31, 2009, 11:15:05 PM »

Rain, blustery and leaves falling in abundance from my Ash tree.
It more like autumn that 31st July.

Cant complain too much though. I took the advice from the weather forecast and did my gardening a.m.
Got the grass cut just in time.
During the past week we had some lovely days, much better that last year. However, we also had heavy rain at times. The garden loved those conditions - especially the weeds!

Palustris · « **Reply #21 on:** August 03, 2009, 02:52:44 PM »

Because we need to get at the Out part of the Compost heaps I have had to spend the morning and half the afternoon shredding the woody material piled up against the front of the heap. Filled fair number of 80 litre bags too. It will stay in them for a while to decompose a little before being used as mulch on the garden. Then it began raining, so rushed the last bit and did not notice a piece of wire wrapped round the last branch. Naturally it wrapped itself around the cutter. So, now I will have to strip the machine down to remove it. Hopefully it will not have done any damage to the blade as it is not the replacable type.
Very annoying though. And the rain means that once again the grass cannot be cut and it is getting a bit desperate too. When it is wet like this the machine will not pick up the mowings and very quickly gets clogged, which does the engine no good at all, if one does not clear the blockage.
Still, it is not all doom, I have managed to get some roots on Daphne cuttings, very hard to do that without a heated propagator, so really pleased with that.