You may have visiting hawks. We have intermittent visits from peregrine falcons, merlins and goshawks...preying on pigeons, collared doves and smaller birds. (feathers leave evidence). After a visit, the bird population gets very very scared and hides at any shadow in the sky. ( I was painting a gar...

I inherited my father's 1971 Hayterette in 1992. It is still going strong - on the original engine.

(Annual servicing helps!)

I would pot them up now.
1. they are dormant now
2. You have more time to do it properly now: the day before a move is stress and rush
3. If they do grow in the pots, instant planting will do no harm. Digging them up in leaf = bad news.

I have successfully moved full blackcurrant bushes form October to February - when the bush is dormant and the ground is wet - and no frost.

Whiskey without orange juice.
Gin without tonic
Lists of things other people do not like

For the first time in the 27 years we have lived here I have tomato blight. Spraying with BM but the greenhouse is hot and humid in this very wet summer so I suspect I'm going to lose this battle. But only 1/3rd of toms affected so far...so some hope.

I have been successfully using either 10-40 engine oil or Tesco's SAE30 (bought dirt cheap) for the past 28 years. My Mowers have minimal engine wear and I am still running a 1973 Hayter....

Modern semi synthetic oils are probably far better than is really required..

Four years ago I was painting our garage doors. A peregrine falcon caught a wood pigeon and promptly crashed into the door next to the one I was painting. In the shock it let go of the pigeon which flew away. The falcon looked at me as if to say" it's YOUR fault" and then flew away.

I ruthlessly cull my seed collection every winter. and give away packets unused..

Our buddleia are flowering. Only one butterfly so far: tortoiseshell but we get most in August (we once had 29 painted ladies all at once). Lots and LOTS of honey bees and all types and sizes of bumble bees.... (we have foxgloves, wild geranium - blue - a great bee favourite, oriental poppies (they ...

When we moved house,we or rather I, painted the front door BLUE.

The tin is still usable and is still used.. altho we only need to touch up. It's rather a fetching deep blue and we like it. Just as well: the paint is over 25 years old.. (and yes it is Dulux)...

Rosebay willow herb.

The seeds drift in on the breeze and germinate in all the out of the way places.

I can eradicate mares tail, dandelions, buttercup etc: they are all either easy to kill or do not seed quickly.. but rose bay willow herb just keeps coming...

Well here in Staffordshire Moorlands, we had a warm spell in My - few bees - then cold and rain and now warm. Our wild blue geraniums and whin and large poppies are all flowering. As a result we have hundreds of honey bees and copper , white, and yellow bottomed bumble bees. When I get a second I wi...

We have leeches in our pond. As we started it from new, I assume they were brought in by wild ducks....

All the companies i worked in had a simple rule: "senior man pays". Stopped abuse. And no payments without receipts - which were checked. On dodgy claim and your card was marked.. I eventually became Finance Director of a number of companies. If I found something strange on expenses, I wou...