Author Topic: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!  (Read 3528 times)

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Online ideasguy

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I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« on: September 07, 2008, 04:49:38 PM »
Its been really nice here all day. Around lunch time, the sun was beaming and it was (I cant believe I'm writing this) HOT!
Its now almost 5pm. Its still warm even though the sun has gone - probably didnt want to cause TOO much of a shock.

Grass and edging was done yesterday. I usually do that on Friday evening, but guess what - it was pouring rain.
Garden is still wet, but I've been tackling ther weeds and the place is looking good (well, behind me - where Ive just weeded LOL)
Ive taken photos - will post later.

Its amazing how much a little bit of good weather can do to the enthusiasm.


Offline Lyn and Malcolm

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Re: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« Reply #1 on: September 07, 2008, 09:29:34 PM »
 >:(  Alright for some, it's been cloudy all day here on the south coast, no rain, cool at 16c.
Lyn was at another NGS garden opening just down the road, selling some of our plants.

I have been potting up four new brugmansias we bought in May £52.00   :o.  I have three growing as standards in our usual way so we can have plants underneath as well. The fourth one doesn't have a main leader, so will have to be a bush for a while till we can get some cuttings from it to make a standard.
Also took some cuttings of the Fuschia Boliviana.

The sun will probably shine tommorrow when I am back at work.

Malcolm
« Last Edit: September 07, 2008, 09:31:06 PM by Lyn and Malcolm »

Online ideasguy

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Re: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« Reply #2 on: September 07, 2008, 10:10:25 PM »
You have a day job as WELL? How do you manage to fit that in?  :)

NightHawk

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Re: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2008, 09:53:04 AM »
We're having a nightmare here George.  :o

Barely stopped raining over the last week or so.  Had 12mm of rainfall on Saturday.

The ground is so wet that there's hardly any gardening we can get done.

Our Alpine garden plan has had to be put on hold, and the plan to restructure the rear lawn is also in limbo.

We're planning to reshape the lawn and extend the width of the right-hand side border, just in front of the greenhouse.

There'll be a narrow concrete path embedded with gravel between the lawn and the border meandering to meet up with the stepping stones in front of the Alpine bed.  This is to give us easier access to the borders and greenhouse, particularly when it's wet.
Can't even make an attempt on this until it stops raining.  Dry days at the moment are few and far between.  :'(  Ho hum.

Laurie.
« Last Edit: September 08, 2008, 10:01:02 AM by Kathy & Laurie »

Online ideasguy

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Re: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« Reply #4 on: September 08, 2008, 10:52:25 AM »
Looks like our weather system has moved over to mainland UK, Laurie. Its nice again here today and sunny.
I'm planning to take a couple of days annual leave this week to catch up on having to watch the weeds grow during that horrible month of August.

NightHawk

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Re: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« Reply #5 on: September 09, 2008, 02:16:27 PM »
Right back at you there George.  Weather forecast for the rest of the week in our area is heavy rain, and the same for Northern Ireland.  >:(  More flood warnings going out over here.

You may want to check on that before you take your 2 days annual leave to get into your garden.

Weather here started off a bit unsettled, dull and cloudy.  Kathy took a chance because the weather forecast for today was supposed to be dry in the morning and rain this afternoon.

Darn it.  She'd been out 10 minutes in the front garden when it started to rain.  Some forecast.  ::)

Kathy was wanting to lift some of the annuals that have gone over, do a bit of weeding and a general tidy up.

Continuous light to heavy drizzle for the rest of the morning.

Had lunch, watched a bit of the Paralympics then saw it had stopped raining so donned our gardening gear, fingers crossed and went for it.

Kathy did her bit whilst I got out the hedge trimmer and gave the inside of the front hedge a bit of a haircut.  It was growing into the plants at the top of the garden, so they can see a bit more daylight now.

Just got that done and guess what?....... started to rain again.  :'(

Accomplished quite a lot though considering.

We do our own weather forecasting now.  Look outside, if it's fine we leap out into the garden.  There's just no proper planning at the moment the way the climate is going. Ho hum.  ::)

Laurie.
« Last Edit: September 09, 2008, 02:18:41 PM by Kathy & Laurie »

Offline Lynda A

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Re: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« Reply #6 on: September 09, 2008, 08:45:24 PM »
Sorry to hear about your awful weather it sounds really grim.  I see all the rain on Sky news. Just cooled down now we are in September but still have the irrigation on, no rain here since early May.  Fed up with making tomato sauce for the freezer.  I put a load in a roasting tin, trickle olive oil  over them and lots of crushed garlic, fresh herbs and roast for 40 mins then put them in the food processor for a blitz.  Great for adding to all sorts of dishes and also good with pasta.  Loads of aubergines too.  Slice thinly, dip in flour and then shallow fry in live oil.  When nicely browned serve as a starter with honey dribbled over them.  Bought a veg that i can,t indentify from a farmers market at the weekend.  It cost 1 euro and is one metre long.  Think it might be from the aubergine family.  I will try to post a photo and see if you can help me out.
Alistair's book is due to be published early next year  www.Alistairforrest.com  mine is taking longer I'm afraid.

NightHawk

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Re: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« Reply #7 on: September 09, 2008, 10:48:40 PM »
Alistair's book is due to be published early next year  www.Alistairforrest.com  mine is taking longer I'm afraid.

Lynda, just so this topic doesn't get lost I have created a new thread for you in the following area of the Forum -

What we do when we are not gardening / General discussion/ Lynda and Alistair's Books.

Click on the link below to go there now.

http://www.flowergenie.co.uk/ideas/forum/index.php/topic,754.0.html

Laurie.

Online ideasguy

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Re: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« Reply #8 on: September 09, 2008, 10:50:45 PM »
Very good work Lynda and Alistair. Lovely web sites! Did Alistair build them? They look great  8)
I'll be back to look over that in MUCH more detail. It looks great.
I hope you can get those plants into IG Pro!
It would be nice to see a WPG project featuring the plants you grow there.

Weather - yes, we are envious of you in South of Spain, I can tell you.

Ive booked tomorrow off Laurie, (1 day only) as Thursday forecast is REALLY bad - tomorrow is "only" bad.
Forecast is good for early tomorrow, so it will be up and at it. When the rain comes, I'll try and think of something to do rather than be idle ;D

Online ideasguy

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Re: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« Reply #9 on: September 09, 2008, 10:58:50 PM »
Meant to say - theres a special section on the forum for Recipes, Lynda!!
http://www.flowergenie.co.uk/ideas/forum/index.php/board,115.0.html
If we cant go gardening (in the rain), we may as well go cooking!

OH! Ive a bumber crop of Bramley apples. Any ideas for cooking/baking etc?
I LOVE anything apple - tarts, crumbles, sponges, buns  :)
My wee daughter said they had a titter when she brought her colleagues in some "buns".
Apparently they are known as "cakes" in Manchester.
Anyone else call them buns?

We also have an expression here -
"wee buns"
Means - "very easy"
Example
Ah sure, that will be wee buns
End of Oirish lessons for today...



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Re: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« Reply #10 on: September 09, 2008, 11:01:43 PM »
I thought I'd better give you a heads up on that George, just in case you hadn't seen the coming forecast for this week.

The whole of the week here is forecast to be pretty terrible, so we're preparing ourselves to get well and truly 'dumped' on.

The only saving grace as far as our location is concerned is that we are not on a flood plain, so we don't get the horendous flooding problems that other areas of the UK experience.

Apart from a couple of areas nearby next to a park, where the drains just can't cope with heavy rainfall, the main road does get flooded for a while, but is passable with care.

Laurie.

Offline bossgard

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Re: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« Reply #11 on: September 10, 2008, 06:55:32 PM »
I hate to spoil everybody?s fun that they are having with the poor weather in their location(s), but I can say at this present time and for the past week or so, we have been having temperatures of lower 70?s to upper 70?s F. There has been heavy dew on the ground first thing in the morning, so during that time I try to take care of some of the back log on my computer. When the dew dries, I go outside to the veggie garden or flower beds, if it gets too warm, I follow the shade around. Everything still is about 4 weeks behind, am harvesting spinach, leaf lettuce, carrots, string beans, blackberries, but tomatoes and sweet corn have not developed or ripened fully yet. Tuberous Begonias are the largest they have ever been, some of the blooms 7?-8? in diameter.

Last Sunday, we left early in the afternoon, to another section of the foothills surrounding Mt. Rainier (Cascade Mt. Range). As we looked at our destination as we drove, it looked kind of hazy, not very clear. But when we got to Carbon River, the sky was that fresh-looking crystal blue color, and the few clouds that were floating by were that beautiful fluffy white color. I took pictures showing upstream of the river bed with gray rocks in the bed, the blue sky and white clouds, and the dark green of the trees covering the hills. And when I got back home, I opened the photos and the camera and my printer produced photos with the exact colors that were there!  What a thrill to bring that sight home with me!

- Toby

NightHawk

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Re: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« Reply #12 on: September 10, 2008, 07:55:58 PM »
Toby, don't be sorry that you're raining on our parade (there's got to be a pun in there somewhere  :D).

Anyway, I'm glad that at least someone on our Forum is getting decent weather.

Our plants are flowering at completely the wrong time than is normal for them, so when I enter any new plants into my IG Pro database the flowering times are having to reflect the norm for the particular plant concerned.  I'm adding footnotes reflecting the actual flowering times for this time of year, so it will be a good comparison for the future.

The only other member of the Forum who has not had 'foul' weather on a regular basis (apart from some thunder storms yesterday) is our good friends Lynda and Malcolm in Spain ("Lynda Spain" on the Forum).

Kathy's cherry tomatoes, which are outside, have been a disaster.  They have started to grow, nice green tomatoes, but the lack of sun has not ripened them.  :'(  Ho hum.

We're still hoping for an Indian summer though.  :-\

Laurie.
« Last Edit: September 10, 2008, 07:58:02 PM by Kathy & Laurie »

Online ideasguy

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Re: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« Reply #13 on: October 01, 2008, 10:48:56 AM »
Bright and sunny here this morning, but a cold start!
Hope its nice where you are!

I just noticed that Kathy and Laurie have a new photo in their profile - nice to see you Laurie!!


NightHawk

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Re: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« Reply #14 on: October 01, 2008, 11:35:19 AM »
It's a nightmare here.  :(

Cold start here too, windy and sunny, but some dark clouds coming across (Lots of rain overnight.)

Our plan to get to Harlow Carr today was thwarted.  Kathy has a migraine.  :'(

Probably just as well we didn't go though as the forecast for today is for heavy rain.

Thursday and Friday are going to be pretty much the same. Darn it.

Glad to see you like the new photo.  You've now got a face to go with the name.

It took me a while to find a recent one that had us both together.  (It was on my old hard drive that crashed a while ago.)  Retrieved it with the hard drive enclosure I'd connected it to.  ;D

Laurie.

Offline bossgard

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Re: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« Reply #15 on: October 01, 2008, 05:55:20 PM »
Beautiful here today too, early morning fog that is just beginning to lift, and then full sunshine. Has been this way for several days, got the back-end under the fruit trees mowed with the riding lawn mower yesterday, will tackle the lawn (weed patch) around the house with the walk-behind mower today. Supposed to get a little cloudy next several days, but the sun is still out there. Picked sun-ripened cherry tomatoes for the first time this morning. Everybody take care!

- Toby

NightHawk

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Re: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« Reply #16 on: October 01, 2008, 06:10:20 PM »
We're jealous Toby.

Kathy's outdoor cherry tomatoes have come to nothing!!

The lack of sun here has not ripened them, so they were a bitter disappointment.

May have to consider greenhouse cultivation - I don't know yet.  ???

Laurie.

Tom

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Re: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« Reply #17 on: October 02, 2008, 05:42:15 PM »
I long for a nice day. If it doesn't stop raining here in Inverness I am going to look for a 10 acre greenhouse so I can get on with some gardening.  Tom.

NightHawk

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Re: I must be dreaming - its a nice day!
« Reply #18 on: October 02, 2008, 05:55:33 PM »
I think you've just hit the nail on the head there Tom.  ;D

The way our climate is going at the moment, you just can't predict what each day, week, month, season, is going to be from one to the next.

The safest bet would be a super-large greenhouse, as you say Tom, then the weather can do whatever it wants to.

However, having said that, you must of course have the space to have such a big one.  Ours is small, but we don't feel inferior.  :D

I suppose that's the challenge of gardening, and having the ability to adapt and conquer.  ;)

Laurie.