Kitchen Garden Forum

Blimey, Monika, that's no small feat! We were given a load of water lillies a couple of months ago now. They were rescued from a pond, or to be more precise, the pond was rescued from them, as we have space for them. OH was up to his nicky nacky noos sinking them into the floor of the pond - they were beasts! I was with him in spirit. Watching from behind the living room window with a gin and tonic in my hand. Well, it was the weekend and he did a sterling job:)

vivienz. Re G&T. You must try SIPSMITH Gin. Nectar of the Gods.

Vivien. My idea of virtual gardening now I,m getting a bit creaky!
Will have to test and see how the "under gardener" feels about me squaffing his G&T behind his back !

First serious frost of the year here last night. That will have put paid to my remaining brave dahlias, cosmos and other late splashes of colour in the garden. All downhill now !
Meanwhile our pair of regular visiting crows and the injured wood pigeon come early for their breakfast every morning. Food is getting more difficult to find now.

The crows surprise us. We always thought of them as quite ferocious birds but they,re quite timid in our garden and far less aggressive than the magpies. We,ve become quite attached to this pair who seem inseparable. . However hunger we suspect is forcing them to be braver and it,s quite interesting to watch their nervous behaviour as they edge up, oh so slowly and tentatively, onto our patio for their breakfast. And then amazing to see the change in character when they suddenly spot a kite hovering overhead when they're off like a Soitfire in WW2 and chasing after it. And despite being over twice or three times their size, the kite always soon gets chased off.

Lockdown has certainly given us an opportunity to study some of our avian population at close quarters!

yes, frosty here too this morning. I haven't checked the dahlia situation yet, will do so when I get home from work. Put some mealworms out for the robins this morning. Ever since we had the dead silver birch removed, we've had far fewer birds visiting. It makes me sad.

We had a blackbird with a broken beak it was quite distinctive you could not miss it in the middle of a flock of birds it had the top part of its beak missing halfway along one day it didn’t show my wife would not shut up about it is it still alive I wonder what happened to it did a cat get it I had the lot ,after two years it showed up same scruffy bird as before ,I thought birds have a short life but this one must be near seven years it’s been around I’ve not seen it for a while but I don’t feed the birds like my wife did then again I don’t have as many mice running around the garden

Shallot Man wrote:vivienz. Re G&T. You must try SIPSMITH Gin. Nectar of the Gods.

Duly noted, shallot man! My favourite at the moment is Tanquaray seville orange gin - very delicious. Tonic, ice and a squeezed clementine wedge make for a lovely drunk. Sorry, drink.

Adnams Copper House Gin is the best, soft and delicious.
The brewer in Southwold.

I’ve never been so lucky in my life as at present up to date I’ve won various bundles on virgin ,Asda, Tesco, Argos and about half a dozen companies all I have to do is pay a £1 for postage or packaging they are very convincing but I’ve always declined the offer , the best was Amazon it said they had trouble with my bank card and could I give them the details

I've got the Amazon one several times - dead give away with the spelling mistakes but I bet it catches out some people. Is it true if you are silly & respond the bank will not compensate you back?

I have been hacked twice through Pay Pal & was not aware of that & didn't even buy anything & bank was fine, they found the 2nd 'episode of unusual activity', but I found the first one when my statement came! It was easy to convince them it wasn't me as it was all spent in sex shops & music downloads in Asia & I would have giggled at their questions about my 'interests', except for the total inconvenience of waiting for the new card and the money to be re-paid into the account. The sex shops certainly know how to charge - I wonder what they bought? No best not go there!

I cancelled my PayPal after my daughter had a large amount taken out of her bank account with out ordering anything it not safe

robo wrote:I cancelled my PayPal after my daughter had a large amount taken out of her bank account with out ordering anything it not safe

I also had trouble with Paypal. Seem to recall I had to phone a Police Office in London. Seems that is all the deal with.

Dead giveaway for paypal is when is addressed as dear Paypal user or similar.... only genuine was when was when Christian name & surname were used.

Had battle with paypal over their texting a code to prove who I was wont work if you don't have a mobile that has a signal, could not get this in their head so cancelled the account.

What a co-incidence - got an e-mail today from'Pay Pal' telling me They had de-activated my account due to suspicious activity. 'Restored Now Yours Accounts Has been Closed Temporarily'? is the heading - not quite got a grasp of the language & how strange the e-mail address this came from was in a foreign language, funnily you would have thought Pay Pal would have a 'Pay Pal' address not Semogko's!

As well as the minor milestone I referred to in another post (no. 5,000) we did have a more major milestone last week. Our first grandchild was born on Thursday, a sturdy looking 8½lb boy. Now lockdown is really starting to get us down. We have been about to go to see them to do some decorating and other odd jobs in preparation several times but not managed it, the last time was between lockdowns when suddenly travelling outside Lancashire was banned. We didn't fancy a nosey neighbour spotting a Lancashire registration plate near Eastbourne. Now it looks like Christmas will be a three day pause at best, pretty useless for trip that takes best part of a day each way. So a repeat of our first Skype today, he didn't contribute much, is all we look like getting for some time. One friend has helpfully said he'll be walking before we meet him.