Springtime bits and bobs

[Geoff]

Similar rain, very warm at times, hopefully an overnight soaking, Swifts arrived today as well.
Nobody got the calendar?

[Monika]

Sorry, Geoff, we've not got the calendar! But we did get 6mm of rain (4mm overnight and 2mm around noon today), heavy rain forecast overnight. I do hope it arrives because I was sowing the carrots today and, although the top was damp, the soil below was still bone dry and almost dusty.

[Clive.]

5mm rain here this morning from around 4-00am or thereabouts...but now quite a howling wind giving things a bashing...and looking very black over to the South again.

The Calabrese in the back field now has the plastic removed..and the irrigation pipes are out, the drum rig has arrived, but not yet deployed.

In an effort to dissuade the Wood Pigeon a fascinating Scarem hawk kite has been set up. I hope it does the trick...but Pigeons still seen chewing on greens around the periphery of the field....

Yesterday evening on the way home from work I located and checked out a new source of free "Horse"....so called and loaded up 3 bags on the way from work this morning...and they are now on the compost. .....a transportation task for old Astra "farm car"....not my shiny new Skoda.

At home yesterday the task was to build up the fruit cage...got it done in the dry. ...it's a mucky wet old lot this morning..

Clive.

[Clive.]

All rain and more now dried out in the strong breeze......

We had a ride out to 3 open gardens today...

The first one had a nice extra little display..

One was a Flymo TL, a type I used to work on from time to time...now it seems they are museum pieces.

Clive.

[Primrose]

Loved the photos. It reminded me so much of my Dad. When my parents retired they had a large garden on a very steep hill with awkward mowing places. During the time they lived there my dad acquired a number of motor mowers; one as a reserve for when the first one wouldn't start, a third one for when the reserve machine wouldn't start, one for the steep slopes, an electric one for when he couldn't get to the petrol station to buy fuel, etc. The trouble was that when they gave up the ghost they were all consigned to the far end of the garage "just in case he could one day get them working again". After he died, I had six rusting mowers to dispose of, and none of them worked !

[Clive.]

My "uncle" had an old prefab shed seemingly full...when a mower failed it was replaced whilst the old one remained there in store....and that had gone on over many years. I rather liked visiting there.

Clive.

[Monika]

The red Flymo shown is like one we use on the allotment paths, a great little machine. We also still have a very ancient Webb Witch push mower which belonged to my OH's father (born 1888). It still works but it's hard to push!

Had some lovely, gentle, prolonged rain last night, by the way, and everything smells and looks lovely.

[Clive.]

I have been known to push a Webb Witch too. My father bought one new for the front lawn here to replace a tired Qualcast Super Panther.
The 8 blades of the Witch can offer some resistance if not set very finely. The later ones had a quite fiddly cam adjuster arrangement and if I recall a bar to trap your fingers against if you turn the cylinder by hand to test the set.

Somewhere here there is also a Webb Wasp and the smaller 10" Whippet too...but I haven't got the toy version of them.....

Webb Witch was last listed in the sales books under the Atco range in 1988.

Meanwhile,..on return from work this evening another 4 bags of "Horse" were collected.....

..and we had a Spitfire flypast...twice.

I get like a stuck record sometimes....

Clive.

[oldherbaceous]

And we wouldn't want you any other way Clive, we all love your replies.

[oldherbaceous]

Nice to read our brilliant Moderator, Peter, has a write up on page 7 of the June issue of the K.G Magazine.

Congratulations all round, for getting more allotments back into action.

Not sure if he is in the photograph, maybe he could enlighten us?

[peter]

Spare my blushes OH.

Yes I am, I'll let you guess which one is me, though as a little hint I'm not wearing a chain round my neck.

Goes to show what can happen with a new Chief Executive who likes to fix things, given advice by an Allotments Society when needed and aided by the fact the Cllrs were unsettled by a waiting list that just kept growing.

Incidentally they opened with the 2/3rds in the other peopleless picture and have since had to mark up the rest, behind & left of camera, into plots & start letting them. Still got a (much smaller) waiting list, many of who want plots nearer to their homes.

[oldherbaceous]

This is a little bit like that game i used to love playing, "Geuss Who", does anyone else remember it, the game with the flip up faces, does he where glasses?

Well my first question is, does he have a beard?

[donedigging]

I remember the game...like yesterday, with my children, so funny..as adults we could get it in half a dozen questions...
children always took it to the last picture, then 9 times out of 10 got it wrong , because they didn't listen to an answer!!!!

[Geoff]

Reading today's paper it struck me Kathy Kirkby wouldn't have had a career in the modern era, she'd have taken out a super injunction instead of singing about it.

[oldherbaceous]

We seem to have some lovely new members at the moment, who are really getting involved in the topics, for which i would just like to thank them.

Some interesting topics are being brought up as well.