Spring has finally sprung, Bits and Bobs.

[Primrose]

That's a lot of pea sticks Geoff. Are you able to reuse them from year to year or do you have ro collect fresh every spring? Nice photo by the way !

[Clive.]

I set up for a game of croquet today......then did some traditional Regency Bank Holiday car parking......

I managed a bit of gardening before coming home tonight...I hilled the Potatoes in the cut flower area..
A change of scene for the potatoes and the cut flowers...in a hopefully healthy swap around between the two walled gardens.


I did get to spot a Max Holste Broussard this morning at 8:42am as it flew South...quite a rare bird...

Clive.

[Geoff]

Primrose : I have some Birch trees that I trim back every Winter to provide pea sticks. Some years I shred the peas and sticks into the compost but often I just burn them. I recycle the binder twine.

[oldherbaceous]

That all looks very neat and tidy, Geoff.....i see you're quite handy with a bit of string.

[Geoff]

Well I'm not quite as windy as Richard (that didn't sound right so I considered exposed but that was no better) but if I don't build good structures I pay for it. Bought a full pack (don't remember what they call it) of binder twine some years ago from farmers supply shop so I have a bag full of retrieved pieces that I keep reusing as well as some of the original still left. Sweet Peas are currently surrounded by fleece and the Broad Beans by windbreak netting.
I've kept losing the same three panes of glass out the greenhouse so I replaced them with plastic at twice the price. It's a horrible wet and windy day here so I went to mix some potting compost in the greenhouse and the plastic blew out so job changed into making wooden strips to hold it in instead of glazing the clips.

[robo]

I used the blackcurrent sticks we have cut off for pea supports, the mistake i made was pushing the cut end into the ground as one by one they are all rooting

[Clive.]

My dad used to save the baler string off the small bales..and we had a box of ever shortening tied together bits which had kept his garden going for years.

Then for a birthday once I bought him a new roll..11,150 ft of it...

Mighty windy on our strip of coast today....54 mph gust on last hour....but dry currently.


Clive.

[retropants]

It's been blowing an absolute hooley out there today, and it is expected to be similar tomorrow

[Ricard with an H]

....54 mph gust on last hour....but dry currently.


Clive.

How did you know the gust speed Clive ? Those involved in sailing and other sports involving the wind always get their information from the internet and that information often comes from a monitoring station on a 100 foot tower or an offshore buoy.

In that case it became a dangerous game of one-upmanship. Hunstanton was the worst bragging centre in the UK other than the south coast, I'm amazed Hunstanton only had one death.

I have never taken a hand-held reading of more than 30 MPH because it's hard to stand up. your eyes are watering and you're looking out for low flying wheelbarrows or other loose things. On the beach the sand starts to lift-off at around 25 MPH causing sand-storm conditions that abrade your face or any skin that is exposed.

I guessed our windspeed yesterday at 40 MPH ish because the roof slates rattling start around 30 MPH. Even-so, that might have been a slight exaggeration helped along by the forecasted gust speeds. I regularly access the offshore buoys and coastal recoding towers, they often stop working after sustained gusts of 50 MPH.

You'll have to forgive my MPH estimates because I think in knots. Lincolnshire is one place that wind-speeds tend to be maintained over the land whereas most other areas the wind rapidly slows dues to trees and buildings, how do they grow stuff there ? Last time I was in Lincolnshire I didn't see many tall hedges.

[Clive.]

The wind gust was a recording, I believe, at Wainfleet...which is about 6 miles South of us over the Fens. The predicted for the hour had been up to 50mph.

We can clearly see Hunstanton across the Wash from the bottom of our garden at home here.

Clive.

[Ricard with an H]

Thanks for your help Clive.

Those wind-speed readings are, "In-the-clear" and at the hight of the recording instrument. Not likely on the ground though Lincolnshire has always provided surprises inland because of the flat terrain maintaining wind-speeds.

Where I live I can have 25 to 35 knots. (add 1.1 for MPH) when I drop down to sea level there can be just a breeze depending on the direction.

Frustration for an old water-sports lifetime enthusiast that I can have a windy day at home, get all excited, arrive at the beach and NOTHING. I'm retired now and just hang-out to give advice that is often ignored.

[WestHamRon]

Thanks for your help Clive.

Those wind-speed readings are, "In-the-clear" and at the hight of the recording instrument. Not likely on the ground though Lincolnshire has always provided surprises inland because of the flat terrain maintaining wind-speeds.

Where I live I can have 25 to 35 knots. (add 1.1 for MPH) when I drop down to sea level there can be just a breeze depending on the direction.

Frustration for an old water-sports lifetime enthusiast that I can have a windy day at home, get all excited, arrive at the beach and NOTHING. I'm retired now and just hang-out to give advice that is often ignored.

This could be misconstrued so many ways if we didn't "know" you Richard.

[Geoff]

By the way, should I have had my magazine by now?

[Ricard with an H]

The red highlighting was very amusing.

[Monika]

Just going back to pea sticks: we grow buddleias for just this purpose (and to see the butterflies on them, of course). I use stout posts at each end of the row and one in the centre but in between it's all buddleia cuttings which are then held in by string from post to post. At the end of the growing seasons, I pull up the spent haulms, sticks and string and burn the lot.

And about the weather: it's been jolly windy and cool here today, just 8C, but it's getting warmer for and beyond the weekend, folks!