Winter bits and bobs.

[Clive.]

I have done a little more winter digging this morning, from where I had yesterday tidied away the broad bean corner posts and strings... Then as cleaned my boots on the spade, I espied two little parsnip tops....clearly my sow of parsnips was not a huge success..however there were two small parsnips...
So guess what I am having with my Ginsters pasty today. ..

.....one answer is banana custard


C.

[oldherbaceous]

It’s miles too wet for any digging here, what’s really annoying!

I might have a Ginsters pasty for lunch but, unfortunately no banana custard…

[Clive.]

Sorry to hear it's not diggable down your way. I thought it might not go here this morning as at 4:30am the rain was, for a short while, hammering on the roof...it is digging ok but wouldn't stand doing any other jobs 'mantling' about upon it for long...

C.

[oldherbaceous]

Actually, the grounds texture is very like banana custard….

[Clive.]

The parsnips were nice too...but have hindered progress after lunch..

C.

[Westi]

Well that's the Xmas madness over until next year, just the New Year left bit left but it comes with fireworks as a distraction! Weather seems to be holding for a while with just the odd drizzle in the mix so I'll be off to the plot as much as possible as it's irking me having chores outstanding, but I'm sure I'll get over it!

[oldherbaceous]

Yet another damp, misty morning, not what I was hoping for in the Christmas week!
Hopefully we will get some drier days in January, just want to get some digging done….

[Clive.]

I'm with you on that Old H'..... I did get the next bit ready by pulling out sticks and wires of the Early Onward pea row. I've got a small patch of cornfield bindweed to fork through...don't want to spread that.

The back garden here had been a large chicken run up to the mid fifties and when mum and dad purchased the plot to build on one weed that dad chased down for years by brush painting on SBK was the cornfield bindweed. Over the years he had banished it....but like all things pernicious it was hiding just over the back fence and also just round the corner from the front gate waiting for a moment to head back in...

Rather cold on the fingers this morning, misty drizzle dripping off the lime trees as I walked up the drive to the big garden and it had been showing at 2.5C on the car sensor. Billed to change from misty drizzly to fog later on.....
I had found a two year old packet of Ailsa Craig onions so sowed them and put them into the propagator....more chance to grow there than in a packet on my sideboard cupboard...

C.

[Westi]

Light drizzle today & obvs some heavier rain overnight as lots of puddles around which of course I walked in! Note to self; those shoes are no longer waterproof! Also found that the tunnel is also no longer waterproof as 2 new torn holes found in the very top of the roof right beside the central bar. I did manage to seal it back up but a bit of a juggle reaching it. This has puzzled me & wondering if it was the fox as he would have to climb the curve & I would anticipate more holes along the way with him digging in his claws to climb. Maybe this was seagulls fighting over something & dropped it on the roof??

Front strawberry bed all weeded, fed, trimmed & given it's Strulch top up. Got 2 onion beds finished, but I had to replace several bulbs that obviously couldn't swim very well & were rotted. I anticipate the last 3 beds will also have casualties when I tackle it on Monday, but I have some sets. No idea what varieties the sets are but they are onions at the end of the day. After these beds there is just one left which is the Chinese & the Pak Choi is looking ready to go in, Mooli loving it. So looking forward to spontaneous finding & fixing but my eye is on transplanting the watercress to the flooded bed just so something is actually growing there. It will have some celery to follow when appropriate.

[oldherbaceous]

It looks as if something has got it in for you, Westi, how frustrating the damage must be…..
I’m looking forward to when I can report a bright and sunny day……thick sea mist and drizzle here again!

[Clive.]

Same foggy misty up this way too...

So bad that I have nearly managed to retake another chair....I can only use one chair at once so the impetus was nearly lost having found one...

I even switched on the tele and watched a film from DVD.! 'Local Hero'.
I also found the DVD of 'Yesterday' but might give that a miss today and make it tomorrow

In finding the chair I also found a box of bits including some new stock M10 square plate washers and the two hacksaws that I had misplaced after a job on something some while ago and also a brand new Felco folding pruning saw and few times only used Silky folding pruning saw............

C.

[Clive.]

I am just watching the live webcam of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway Grosmont station...and they have sunshine up there.... I do seem to recall, in the days when I regularly visited there, that I was once told, that the village of Aislaby, just North, had held the highest sunshine hours figures..

C.

[Geoff]

One of the webcams I often check is the Yorkshire Council one at Ribblehead - not much sign of the viaduct today!

Screenshot 2024-12-28 133133.jpg (115.21 KiB) Viewed 9558 times

Thick fog here yet again today, can't see the bottom of the garden. I was digging a bed in the polytunnel this morning when the shotguns started up in the neighbouring field. I wouldn't have thought the visibility was good enough for it to be safe. Mind the pop gun half wits round here have got less common sense than the things they are trying to shoot, they regularly shoot over roads and footpaths, I try not to go out on shoot days. Are they as bad everywhere? As for their organisation name, just a bad joke.

[oldherbaceous]

Nearly all the shoots around here, finished quite a few years ago….but there was a particular one that was really bad and I ended up having crossed words with a couple of the shooting blokes in the pub and let’s just say they were more than rude……after that, I often used to take a stroll across that field, before they turned up and there were very few birds left, as they had already flown off!

[Clive.]

I did venture out after lunch and have pruned apple Bountiful.

..and just now a lift of the fog, I can see across the fields to the church in the next village..

...and now a glimpse of greyish blue sky and aircraft contrail visible.

C.