General Chat

Ah yes my Dad had a box similar to that Those were the days when shoes were mended at home. The shoe last ended up being a boot scraper by the back door. Wonder what happened to that?

Just walked down to the post box and back, it is 21 degrees and still very muggy, only a short walk but I was shattered when I got back it was so hot.

Morning all,

Partly suny here and 21 degrees. Nothing planned for today just to find something for dinner and then get on with the rest of the day.

Oh must feel better as we are having cream teas on the front field for the church and village hall and he is cutting the front grass ready for it. Lets hope it is dry this time they want to use it. If its not they do it in the hall.

I don't know why but it may have been in a dream but when I woke up this morning and lay there for a min I suddenly thought of our old wooden shoe cleaning box from when I was a kid, with its two lots of brushes, one pair for black and one for brown, a suede brush and whitening for my sandles and dads tennis shoes and the shoe last kept out in the shed. Then I thought about the other things in that box Seggs and Blakies and football boot studds that dad had to renew on his boots. The boots were leather and very hard and he used to clean those with Dubbin which was also in the boot box. Now what on earth made me think of all that on wkaing up?

Morning All,

Slept well, 17 degrees and we both did a 1 lap walk and fed the ducks some stale bread. They were so excited and were paddling like mad from the far end of the pond! Disappointing some morons have sprayed grafitti on the raised decking with fence around though. More broken glass along the path too. The roadsweeper was in action outside the park, getting surplus gravel up as they had gritted it after all that heat. There must be a lot of that needing to be done.

AnnG, 3 of the butts are side by side at the back of the shed between it and the fence and so are out of sight. They are on raised slabs, different heights and when one fills, water runs into the next from an overflow pipe and also into the 3rd when the 2nd is full. The other 2 are behind the greenhouse, 1 each side at the end of each gutter. We are thinking when we renew the shed we might get one of those big rectangular tanks like Vera has. We saw one at an open garden we visited and thought how neat it was. Water will never get cheaper and we pay for every drop on a meter.

No sign of the window cleaner yet so it looks like he isn't coming today. :-( I think we are safe to get showered now without him getting an eyeful! ;-)

Then I need to help OH manouvre the table top out of the garage so he can put everything back. Then he wants me to help him sort an ISA out online, then it will be lunch and hopefully then I can get on with some of my own things. How did we ever find time to go to work?

The washer is on as OH said the rain isn't due till tonight. I hope he's right.

good morning all overslept and woke at 0858 this morning I have never done that before as long as I can remember. Good job I am not going anywhere.

Ann 5 water butts, good heavens! Where do you keep them all?

Mandy, try harder! lol. :-D I think my rain dancing days are over now! Still no rain, but I think the forecast is for storms the next few days so we'll see. All our (5) butts are empty now.

Thank you for the list Vera. I will keep that until I start to buy plants.

We had quite a bit of rain so no need for me to water tonight thank goodness.

Vera, it's surprising what the thought of lugging a bucket to and from the kitchen sink will prompt :-D

Got lovely rainwater here ,bring your buckets and I'll fill them ,sorry to heavy to post :-D

Good thinking Island. That wouldn't have crossed my mind. When we moved here we got rid of our big water butts because there was nowhere suitable to put them. Instead we bought a slimline one that only holds about 100 litres and sits on the back of the garage wall. The top of it is high up so I don't think I could reach it to fill it. I suppose I could stand on the top of the steps dragging the hose behind me and hope there's enough power to make the water run uphill to the top of the butt. On second thoughts, perhaps not ;-)

Vera - it hasn't tipped it down where I am either. In fact, I've had to fill the water butt with a hose 'just in case'

Anng you might not have got out in the garden but you've got lots of other jobs done ,enjoy your roast chicken .


Ann I'm not sure I have any puff left after blowing the rain Veras way for two minutes :-D but I'll give it a go later as I'm full up from our meal now

Mel I love a nice fruit salad and yours sounds lovely but i haven't made one for a while
the girls like to make a fruit salad when they come and they helping to chop the fruit ,I usually put my fruit in orange juice .

We had Lasagne with salad tonight finished off with strawberries and cream .

Rain has stopped but there's plenty of black clouds about, one good thing is no watering needed tonight only the greenhouse.

Sounds yummy Mel though I'm not a huge fan of Pimms.

I wish all you lovely people would stop talking about the rain tipping down because it ain't tipping down here :-(. Around lunchtime there was a tiny little shower that barely wet the path. It was just a few drops and was over in about 2 minutes. The sun's out at the moment and it's 24 degrees and muggy.

AnnG, some years ago the plantswoman Beth Chatto turned a car park at her gardens into a gravel garden. It is never watered and has flourished and looks wonderful. Some of the drought resistant plants she suggests are:

Agapanthus
Ballota
Helianthemum
Hylotelephium (Sedum)
Iris
Nepeta
Perovskia (now Salvia)
Santolina
Stachys
Stipa
Thymus
Verbena

It might be worth you considering one or two of those.

Evening Gang,

24 degrees here and quite muggy but there is a little breeze. We had some rain in the night but most had dried up by the time we were up so I don't think it was much. Please blow harder Mandy so some comes our way too. :-) Lots of black clouds but they just passed over us all day. That's a good idea to put water out for the hedgehogs. I'm not sure we still get any but I will put a garden pot drip tray out with some water in, just in case. The Pigeons are turning up every day to bathe in the water feature if I don't spot them first. The poor water lily gets a bashing and they have 2 ponds in the field they could use instead.

Mel that does sound like a big fruit salad. The Pimms would be nice in it too.

I've cleaned the fridge and tomorrow we can put all the pots, tables and chairs back in place as our backs have had enough getting the food in and away today. No subs for once!

The Firework Agapanthus does look pretty AnnG. I managed to change the bedding this morning and have paid a bill and done little else apart from putting food away. OH seems to be taking over in the kitchen now (not the cooking unfortunately!) and changing where I put things in the fridge and cupboards so the things he uses are handiest! How very dare he, I have changed them back seeing as it's me that uses most of what's in there! lol. :-)

Sounds more like a punch Mel, that is a lot of fruit. And Pimms as well

O and its in pimms.

Iv'e just made a HUGE fresh fruit salad for tea. It has apple, melon, necterine, grapes, cherries, pear, blueberries and lemon juice.

yes Mandy and I did put water out for them yesterday, the dish will be full again now as it has just tipped down with rain for about 20 minutes. Stopped again now and still very muggy, 22 degrees.

Well no gardening today then that is three days I have not done any gardening. I have changed the bed, washed the bedding and re-made the bed, done the monthly accounts check, wrote a letter for a correspondence magazine and prepared veg for tonight's roast chicken dinner. I think that is my lot for today.

It really tipped down here for about twenty minutes now the suns out again and it's quite hot .

I was reading a bit in our paper about a lady who has a hedgehog rescue place she was saying about putting a shallow bowl of water out for them and food as in this hot weather they weren't getting water and as the ground is so dry they can't get the worms either she said mum's are leaving their babies trying to find food and as there's nothing for them they are really suffering, she had lots more hogs in than normal.
I expect that's why they have moved into your compost bin Anng there's worms in there for them .

Oh it's really black out the front now looks like it's going to tip it down again .

raining here now and very muggy. I got caught out in it as it seemed to come from nowhere. Not heavy but persistant.

Yes they were the ones Mandy 50p a pot from the lady up at the crossraods on the way to the shop.