Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2025

Got home from Chelsea around 9:30. Glad we went for 1/2 day tickets. The crowd thinned out by 5:30- 6 so we stayed right up to closing at 8. I will put pics on my Chelsea thread later.

 

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Hello all. Oh @Busy-Lizzie it must have been heart breaking thinking of all your lovely food and having to get rid of it all. Such a huge shame. I am looking forward to seeing your pics @Allotment Boy. Got a couple of hanging baskets to get planted up today - alongside all the usual weeding and planting out of some perennials.

 

I don't know @Penny_Forthem! The things you have to put up with to just be polite I trust it wasn't too difficult!

 

Good morning all.

There was another downpour in the night. It woke me up but there is no further flooding. I've been reading about the weather on Monday, huge storms in S and SW France, flooding, hail damage, trees on railways, power cuts, 3 people dead. Sounds awful. Maybe I'm lucky after all!

 

Good morning to you all!

Sunny but windy here with a high of 13°C so far. Quite a bit more for this afternoon.

Yes @Busy-Lizzie we have had some mighty spring storms, luckily my area has been pretty sheltered but winds are strong. Oh yes - and - my crop of broad beans, almost ready - are full of blackfly. I have a sprayer so will spray water and with a pastry brush, squish off as many as I can. Ladybirds are working the territory but there is an abundance.

Markets this morning for fresh eggs. Have a pleasant Friday.

 

A quick hello and goodbye before I start packing. We are off to Southwold for a week with daughter, son in law and granddaughter. Hoping for some sunny days but forecast is a bit mixed.

We’re planning a visit to Anglesey Abbey as a stop on the way over, it’s very conveniently (almost) halfway. Daughter and family will be driving over this afternoon after school finishes.

I think we will do half day tickets for Chelsea next year @Allotment Boy and we might also wait until the day/day before to buy them so we can be fairly confident in the weather forecast. There seems to be tickets available for most days this year. We had a damp and chilly visit last year.

Anyway, I must get on as we want to make the most of the sunny forecast for today. Hope everyone has a good bank holiday. I hope we all do get the much-needed rain for our gardens but if it could confine itself to overnight visits, that would be greatly appreciated

 

I pottered for most of the day. It was too hot to do much. Little and often.
Put some washing out, did a pile of washing up, weeded some containers, discovered a cat mint showing some shoots, discovered a patio clematis showing some shoots, potted up the last of the geranium plants, discovered a dahlia shooting which I thought had died and put some manure in the sweetpea containers. Discovered a peony I had forgotten about. I put out the recycling and re-instated the carpet, waterproof jacket etc. in the car until next year's MOT.
I even managed to clip Poppy's nails, something I didn't think she would let me do. She didn't exactly enjoy the experience but it saved me paying for the vet to do them. She wriggled and grumbled a bit but no claws out to scratch me.
I checked out a double, deep red peony, flowering for the first time, for scent. A slight fragrance. I still have two more which are flowering for the first time, exciting. My lecture to my ginger root has worked wonders, I now have 3 green shoots to admire and the peas and sweetpeas are still popping up steadily.
I have started a pile of rubbish to black bag and take to the council dump.
I had roast chicken leg, potatoes, parsnips, and carrots and peas for dinner. A just reward for doing what felt like not a lot!

 

Morning everybody, I'm still in my PJ's and dressing gown, waiting for OH to wake up. I tiptoed out earlier and left him to have a lie in but it's gone 9 am now so better take him a cup of tea.

I thought we'd had heavy rain again overnight as the roof of my little lean to greenhouse was covered in roof debris/moss etc. but now think it must be the magpies rooting round for grubs perhaps in the gutters. Might have to get OH to do some gutter inspection/cleaning.

That is such a shame @Busy-Lizzie, all that lovely food being spoiled. At least your fruit/veg can be turned into good compost and have another life. The floods in SW France look dreadful as do the ones in Australia.

Lovely pics of Chelsea @Allotment Boy. Interesting you found the half day just long enough, food for thought there.

Have a good holiday @Butterfly6, the weather forecast doesn't look too bad later in the week.

Right, I'd better get on, the builder's coming lunchtime to look at the terrace.

 

Good morning all!

Well, @Goldenlily26 , that might have felt like not a lot, but it sounded like a well-filled day to me. Good to hear that a lot of your plants are surprising you with new shoots.

My pessimism about the engineer (coming yesterday to install fibre for the broadband) was fully justified, though it seemed as if everything might be all right initially, when he turned up at 9.45. However... having decided we could have an overhead line (phew, didn't want a trench across the garden) he then decided he needed a second engineer to help him, and spent some time on the phone. Then he said the job would need the "specialist insulation crew" because we have external insulation. Great... when the job was booked, we were asked if our house had external insulation, and we said it has, so why didn't they send the specialist crew out yesterday?? At 10.15 the engineer drove off, saying he'd be in touch when he'd found someone to help him. At 3pm, I rang to find out what was going on, and was told they'd have to reschedule the appointment for June 3rd... when they'd DEFINITELY send out 2 engineers and the specialist crew.

However, I was able to do lots of gardening, on what was probably the last hot & dry day for a while. Planted, puddled in and mulched 5 rose bushes, which have been in big pots for a couple of years. (Also planted a large salvia, free gift from the library! One of the librarians is a keen gardener, and organises plant swaps and talks. This salvia was left over from something - don't know which it is, but it has salmon coloured buds.) I'm trying to plant out as much as possible before we go to Finland for 3 weeks. My neighbours are lovely, but older than us, and not really up to caring for my garden while we're away.

Have a great holiday, @Butterfly6 .

Thanks for the Chelsea pics, @Allotment Boy !

 

I hope you have a great holiday @Butterfly6. We used to go to Southwold every summer when I was a child as my grandparents lived there. There weren't so many holiday homes and galleries in those days. I remember it was always sunny, though when I grew up my mother said it wasn't! It's our nearest seaside place now that I'm with 2nd OH who lives in south Norfolk.

I've done my tax, hurray! It makes me feel stressed.

OH took me out to lunch at our favourite restaurant in Aubeterre-sur-Dronne. After that we went to the lovely little plant nursery at the bottom of the hill and I spent 48€ on 5 tomato plants, 3 courgette plants (yellow, green and round), 2 sweet peppers (orange and red), 10 petunias, 3 calibrachoa, 2 verbenas, a delosperma and 5 red Busy Lizzies.

 

Afternoon folks.

Well you must have Busy Lizzies @Busy-Lizzie!

Been at MIL’s to so some jobs - (pointing some slabs/steps) so tired out and starving now! Early dinner I think - maybe Chinese something as some prawn toasts found their way into my shopping trolley earlier

Enjoy Friday evening everyone.

 

Good haul @Busy-Lizzie.

I spent my early pm going to make an appointment to get new tinted glasses for driving then a raid on France Rural for hose joining dooberries as bits of my seephoses have developed spray features that need cutting and fixing.

Since then I've been messing with the freezer. All clean now and the dodgy drawer fixed with tape. Change of plan for dinner tho as the gyoza not suited to sitting in cool boxes while I clean so Possum won't be getting Korean Fried chicken tonight. I've tossed out some unlabelled rissole thingies for the magpies and farm cats to chomp and have a pot of blackcurrants on teh go with cinnamon and cloves to make spiced jelly. We have it on toast or scones but his golf friend (ex caterer) eats it with beef and game...... Loves it.

Have just had a piece of coconut chai cake witha cuppa so not hungry for dinner yet.

@AuntyRach there's a recipe for prawn toasts on BBC Food today (featuring Chinese fakeaway) so I'll be trying that soon.

 

That must be so annoying @Liriodendron. Hope it all gets sorted in June.

Our builder contact didn't turn up yesterday but arrived at lunchtime to inspect our front terrace. It's the full width of the house and about 5-6 ft above the lawn. There was once a coal cellar underneath so he wants to demolish a section of the front wall to find out how it was built and what is causing the lean out from the house wall. I've got to send him my pics of the various cracks and nasty bits and he'll quote for the preliminary investigation. Could be expensive.......

I spent the afternoon also planting out bibs and bobs before the expected heavy rain overnight.
Took out all the tulip bulbs and replanted the two bigger terracotta pots with lavender as they'll be in full sun most of the day. Carefully staked my three lovely pale blue and lemon irises as I don't want them trashed by the rain.

Retired, tired, to my egg chair with a glass of cold wine.

Have a good weekend folks.

 

Good afternoon all. Reading through all your posts and it seems that everyone has been busy and productive today and the mention of all the delicious foods fair made my mouth water. I should have been at Canasta this afternoon but I had an email saying the pelargoniums I had on order were to be delivered today. I contacted the coordinator to let her know I would be giving it a miss this time. The three pelargoniums seem quite healthy little plants and I planted them all into 12cm pots. I am going to move my cacti into the GH and have these on the kitchen windowsill where they will get plenty of sun during the day. I then went into the garden to plant out all the wild flowers I got the other day. Cricket took my digging of one hole to be a special toilet just for him! I will leave it to your imagination as to what he deposited there. At least he filled it all in and I dug another hole elsewhere. Cutey Cat arrived and the pair of them kept me company - and amused - romping all over the garden. ambushing one another from behind the big pots. I had to step in a couple of times as the wrestling got very boisterous and a bit of squeaking went on, otherwise they were both silent. I then planted up two little hanging baskets with trailing Illumination begonias. I've never grown these before so I will be watching how they develop.
@Allotment Boy I really like your pictures of Chelsea. Must admit to a gulp when I saw the balanced boulder though. Have a super holiday @Butterfly6. I had to look up Southwold as I wasn't certain where it was and the online pictures look beautiful. @Busy-Lizzie I echo @Obelix-Vendée's comment about your plant purchases. Another little enjoyable task for you. I am now watching the rain dancers - in their whites - playing against Zimbabwe. It usually means it will rain when the test matches start.

 

Having suffered endless wrangles with Virgin Media @Liriodendron , I can fully empathise with your frustration. It seems strange that you have to wait over a week for the job to be finished.
I am signing out for today. I have these plans for my evening:

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See you all around tomorrow.