I hope I'm not too late to wish you a happy birthday @Lizzie27! I hope you've enjoyed your day.
I've been quite busy. Dealt with a load of washing. 2 hours of weeding raspberries etc and tying them in. Built a runner bean type frame for the cucumbers. Usually I have cucumbers that ramble about on the ground but I bought 2 at the GC that wanted to grow upright so needed support. Then cleaned the guest room. Niece and family may come to stay. The children's room is full of bedding. The electrician put the new fuse box slap in the middle of the shelf I kept them on on the landing. I found a vacuum bag so 2 duvets went into that, never used one before. There is bagged stuff under the guest room bed now.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Many thanks for all the birthday wishes. We had a gorgeous dinner at the new hotel and will definitely go there again. Feeling slightly inebriated and very full of chocolate torte with caramelised banana! Yummy.
Most of my presents were garden related - funny that!
Happy Birthday Boxing Day @Lizzie27 - glad you had a lovely evening!
@steephill we are regular visitors to Thursley, and have been pleased to see that the boardwalks are gradually being repaired/replaced in some areas. The marshy areas have shrunk, but think that is the drought rather than the fire. Also amazing how resilient the shrubby birch trees are - re sprouting from the root stock. But agree with you that it still looks sad in quite a lot of places. Am expecting similar when we next visit Kettlebury 😥
some years ago @Hostafan1 gave us a canna … it’s grown and grown … we used to take it into the garage for the winter but during lockdown it had grown so big … we plonked it in an old plastic dustbin with some old MPC and it’s spent the last two winters shoved into the corner of the terrace … this spring we couldn’t even top up the compost because a pair of robins were nesting right behind it … so this year it’s just had water and once dose of tomato feed … it seems to do well on a diet of benign neglect …
Belated Birthday Wishes to @Lizzie27, your meal sounds scrumptious! Managed to pack daughter and young g/son off to Sussex yesterday evening together with the three dogs. Got a bit worried when I'd not heard that they had arrived safely, expected 5 hour journey should have let them arrive around midnight but no message by 1am. Message came through at 2.30am, they had arrived at 2, unpacked, fed and peed the dogs, coffee drunk and off to bed, apparently having taken a pause at some services to give daughter a break. She had been awake from 4am for her normal working day before the journey and had decided to take it steady and have a break rather than aiming for the whole journey in one go. They will be back next Tuesday night but until then it is just me and a very elderly cat left to hold fort. Bliss - now what can I get up to .......................
@chicky I didn't see any boardwalk repairs going on but the paths leading to them were fenced off and blocked with bracken and gorse. As I am a bit of a chick tick magnet I decided not to explore further. It may look awful but the policy of letting nature recover without intervention is the right way to go. We visited Whitmore Vale a few years ago which had also suffered a heath fire and recovery was underway there, birch is the new Gloria Gaynor!
Good afternoon and belated birthday wishes @Lizzie27 I see you had a lovely meal out.
Hot and breezy here. 38°C yesterday afternoon but the temperature dropped quite considerably during the night - 20°C at 6.30am. The land is not dry any more, it is parched. Tomatoes are in full production as are courgettes, peppers and aubergines - so it's ratatouille for winter use!
Beautiful canna @Dovefromabove Stay warm @Pat E You'll get this summer weather in December and we'll probably get your freezing winter!
It's been a while but.... "Quand il pleut le jour de Saint-Victor, La récolte nest pas d'or. Have a pleasant day.
Posts
I've been quite busy. Dealt with a load of washing. 2 hours of weeding raspberries etc and tying them in. Built a runner bean type frame for the cucumbers. Usually I have cucumbers that ramble about on the ground but I bought 2 at the GC that wanted to grow upright so needed support. Then cleaned the guest room. Niece and family may come to stay. The children's room is full of bedding. The electrician put the new fuse box slap in the middle of the shelf I kept them on on the landing. I found a vacuum bag so 2 duvets went into that, never used one before. There is bagged stuff under the guest room bed now.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Most of my presents were garden related - funny that!
@steephill we are regular visitors to Thursley, and have been pleased to see that the boardwalks are gradually being repaired/replaced in some areas. The marshy areas have shrunk, but think that is the drought rather than the fire. Also amazing how resilient the shrubby birch trees are - re sprouting from the root stock. But agree with you that it still looks sad in quite a lot of places. Am expecting similar when we next visit Kettlebury 😥
some years ago @Hostafan1 gave us a canna … it’s grown and grown … we used to take it into the garage for the winter but during lockdown it had grown so big … we plonked it in an old plastic dustbin with some old MPC and it’s spent the last two winters shoved into the corner of the terrace … this spring we couldn’t even top up the compost because a pair of robins were nesting right behind it … so this year it’s just had water and once dose of tomato feed … it seems to do well on a diet of benign neglect …
Thank you @Hostafan1 😘
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Grey day here, with some very fine rain, seems to soak me, but not do much for the garden.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Hot and breezy here. 38°C yesterday afternoon but the temperature dropped quite considerably during the night - 20°C at 6.30am. The land is not dry any more, it is parched. Tomatoes are in full production as are courgettes, peppers and aubergines - so it's ratatouille for winter use!
Beautiful canna @Dovefromabove
Stay warm @Pat E You'll get this summer weather in December and we'll probably get your freezing winter!
It's been a while but.... "Quand il pleut le jour de Saint-Victor, La récolte nest pas d'or.
Have a pleasant day.