Autumn Bits and Bobs.

[Clive.]

1.5C on the car thermometer when travelling the bypass near the river on the way in to work earlier...6.5C on the way back in gorgeous sunshine.
There's still water in the fields alongside the beck that feeds into the river, after the recent days rains.

Weather forecast for the week seems to have taken a wobble....it was earlier showing a sunny week
..but has now changed to a line of light grey cloud and some days with rain...

C.

[tigerburnie]

Just had my last couple of strawberries in the greenhouse this morning and cut some grass again!! The Stawbs did have a couple of flowers on them, but I cut them off so any last bit of growing goes into the plants, they are new this year. so not over loading them.

[Geoff]

Well that's my hands wrecked - just picked over 4lbs of sloes.

[Westi]

We didn't get a frost remaining on the ground this morning, but I think we got very close to; or had one last night as the last runners standing have succumbed & the broad beans in the tunnel by the open door have been nipped but should be able to limp them through this last harvest on it. Fortunately I covered the winter baby ones outside.

Finished clearing the tunnel of things that are going over or not going to do anything this late & had a grub around the sweet potatoes & can confirm I have tubers, but will leave them for the moment as I will be shutting up the tunnel completely in a couple of days to coincide with the predicted rain & more even day/night temps so they should continue growing as temp will be OK for them to tick over. The tunnel is now has loads of baby lettuce as fat thumbs here over sowed the mixed leaves, so divided them & will see how they do. (They are winter ones). I was going to top up & dig the beds but my walk around the drop off compost points they were all full of bind weed, so I will just do sections as I continue to uncover my old front compost bin which will keep me warm on chilly days.

[Geoff]

Why when you strip out heavily blighted tomatoes are the side shoots lush green and full of flowers?

[oldherbaceous]

Not sure what the correct answer is, Geoff, but with the modern blight resistant plants, I just trim off the worse of the affected leaves, then often get to pick late tomatoes, in a late growing season such as this year!

[Westi]

Geoff I'm with OH, if the plants are blight resistant they seem to perk up & keep developing even though showing obvious signs of blight. The first time I experienced this I had a little rant about blight resistant blah, but just left them as all seemed affected & nothing else in the tunnel to worry about. When I had my next days off & went down they were all perky & grown about another foot & the cherries had some perfect wee fruit & I got a continued harvest but as late blight had to ripen the larger ones at home. They could kinda of do with a note on the packs about this but as only 'resistant' I suppose they can't quantify which will or will not succumb.

[Westi]

Well another windy storm on it's way so went down to secure the netting etc. Finished that & with time to spare, so decided to trim down & thin the new strawberry beds as a bit congested. They were in flower & even fruit; but none to take as found already by slimy things. It had a short cut & sides as I was thinking poor harvest next year if I leave these this late wasting energy they will need next year. I hope they appreciate the trim, but had a wee seaweed sprinkle as well as that is so fine & will wash down with the rain to the roots to give them a boost. Hopefully!

[tigerburnie]

60 mph winds and heavy rain, time for a coffee with a slug of Baileys in it.......................................

[oldherbaceous]

Hope you don’t get the worse of the weather, Burnie….looks quite worrying!

[tigerburnie]

They are setting up centres for those having to evacuate, Brechin not far from us gets the floods badly, we are on a hill top, so we might blown away, but shouldn't get the floods, we were cut off last week when it rained, don't think anyone is out in this at the moment.

[oldherbaceous]

And there was me moaning to myself about losing a few hours work….hope everyone up there keeps safe!

[Stravaig]

Hope you and your home stay safe, Tiger. It must be very worrying. Best wishes.

[Primrose]

Thinking of you Tiger. Come back and report hopefully all safe after the event.

I recall lying in bed hearing our roof tiles being ripped off our roof in the great storm of 1986 or whenever it was. I was in the house on my own at the time and it was pretty terrifying. I got up and dressed as I didn't want to be found in my night attire if the roof collapsed!
. We,d had no storm warning at the time so my washing had been left out on the rotary airer overnight. When I looked out into the garden in daylight the airer had been toppled and smashed by the flying roof tiles and my laundry had been dispersed all over the neighbourhood . Never did recover any of it.

Just hope there are no fishermen still out at sea.

[Westi]

I noted Angus had shifted up to a red warning on the news & the reporter said potential rain fall could be 10", that is way to much on top of the rain you have had already. We are all wishing you & the community the best, even though confident you are all well prepared, nature just does not play fair at times.