Autumn bits and bobs

[oldherbaceous]

Well what a glorious Autumn day it has been, a real pleasure to be working the land.

[Westi]

Hi Robo!

Lots more to make with pumpkins then soup & even the soup comes in many disguises - the normal creamy one, can be asian style with coconut milk & chilli, can be roasted first & then into soup, grand roasted for the Sunday dinner as the edges caramelise, (don't take the skin off, it is easier to cut off after roasting), pumpkin pie - research this as the US ones are too sweet for me, but it marries with cinnamon well & I have made nice tarts, you can curry it & my personal favourite is pumpkin scones!

Back to autumn bits & bobs - heavy dew this morning but not a frost, things looked a bit sad but perked up when the sun warmed but a frost is not far away even down here. The cabbage whites were still active & loads of other butterflies vying with the wasps for the last of the plums - & they have found the grapes!

[Stephen]

Another nice day.
Finished work last night at 03:00 so a bit slow today (but not working). Sent my invoices off, which is always a good thing.
At home waiting for a parcel delivery, so the 'lottie will have to wait for attention. Away this weekend and all of next week, so it will have to be the weekend afterwards before I'm back there (I hope it will be dry).

[Geoff]

What a glorious day. Picked 80 kg of Lanes Prince Albert cooking apples, still looking for good homes!

[tigerburnie]

Buy 2 get one free on Westmoreland's manure, seemed like a bargain, one for each bed in the greenhouse I think.

[PLUMPUDDING]

It's certainly a bumper harvest Geoff. I've picked a clothes basket full of Sunset apples and about the same of Conference pears. Thank goodness the Newton Wonder and Meridian don't ripen until well into October.

I've mowed all the lawns and done a bit of tidying in the greenhouse and had a trip to Wyvale Garden centre. They had some really good offers on tools and I'd got a voucher for £5 off if I spent over £30, so altogether I saved £17. The tools were buy one get one half price and I bought three trays of pansies for £10.

The warm sunshine has brought lots of butterflies and ladybirds out and I've seen a lacewing this afternoon. The commas and red admirals are feasting on the rotting plums that I've put in a pile. There are numerous small copper and some speckled wood as well as the usual assorted whites and a common blue.

[Stephen]

Lanes Prince Albert, Geoff! This variety was developed by Lanes Nursery in Berkhamsted about 2 minutes walk from me. It sounds like they crop well. Was it your choice or did you inherit the trees?

[Geoff]

We had fruit trees at home so when I planted my orchard this variety was a must. It is a great variety apart from a tendency to be biennial. Almost any fruit tree is cropping well this year, the only failure we have had is damsons (apart from the Blenheim Orange snapping off a few weeks ago). We have just finished lots of plums and William pears and are munching our way through Laxton's Epicure and Discovery apples with several other varieties to follow.

[Westi]

Autumn's on it's way. Heard the honking of the geese making their way from Stanpit Marsh to Pennington Marsh so popped out for a peek. Defiantly worth the trip to the back door, 2 huge V formations, must have been well over a hundred birds & all I can say is they are great communicators - was well loud, but beautiful to hear!

[Primrose]

The geese are such a nostalgic sound at this time of the year arn't they?

Scarified, x reseeded and watered our front verge today which is still totally brown and dead. Also planted some tulip bulbs in the front garden so that i have some more colour to look forward to in Spring. It's the anticipation of colour after the drabness of winter which keeps me going !
Just hoping for a couple more days of sunshine and I'll have another nice batch of ripe outdoor peppers to pick. Meanwhile they're now tucked up under their overnight protection to ward off the worst of the low temperatures.

Hope everybody has been making the most of the sun while it lasts !

[robo]

We normally have a few fly over ,seems more every year ,they over night on Carr mill dam which is a large dam around a mile from our home, two years ago I was walking the dog near the dam it was chocked with geese then one made a very loud squawk and they all flew up off the water the sky was very dark there were that many a few minutes later it was peace and quite not one to be seen

[Primrose]

It's fascinating to watch a flock take off like that. You read that elephant herds always have a matriarch who leads them. Perhaps geese flock have a venerable older goose who is accepted as the leader who gives the signal. There's still so much we don't really know about how various forms of wildlife behave which would be fascinating to know.

Its the same with the huge flocks of starlings we see flaying around, especially those in their thousands. Surely somebody has to give a signal for them all to act in cohesion like that.

[tigerburnie]

We had some 80000 Pink Footed Geese on Montrose Basin last year, now arriving in larger numbers each day. I've started feeding the birds in the garden as they've eaten all the berries on the Rowan, seems to be a lot of Starlings and House Sparrows, but also noted a couple of Greenfinch, they have been in trouble and their numbers plummeted, hope they are on the up again.

[robo]

I don't know primrose I've not seen many elephants around the dam at least not since the circus stopped visiting

[Primrose]

Does anybody have any tips for stopping picked green tomatoes starting to go a little wrinkled once they're indoors ripening off. My green ones have only been in the house a few days but I'm noticing noticing that the skins on the smaller ones are already starting to look a little "tired". I suspect this is bound to worsen now the central heating is comingg on a little more regularly.

Would an occasional misting make any difference? . Has anybody ever tried this and does it work?

This isn,t the sort of household where we have lots of empty drawers in which to store them. I always wonder what kind house gardening advice experts live in to suggest that. They,'re currently on trays on a large bay window shelf (yes, over a radiator if that makes any difference!)