Kitchen Garden Forum

A mix of very coarse sand and compost would work well, Richard. Another trick that i have seen done is, to plant he bulbs on their sides...it's meant to stop moister building up in the neck of the bulb. But i have found they always seem to have turned themselves up the right way by the next season....

Thanks OH, we can't get that very course sand here in the west. The builders merchants stock a gritty sand but it's nothing like the sharp-sand I could get in the east midlands.

All my raised beds mostly have the right soil stucture for bulbs though it's taken three years, a lot of hard work and costly to get it to that stage.

Builders vermiculite beads used to be available, presumably I can use that if our merchants have it ?

I just spent two hours outside because it didn't rain, three barrows full of logs from the the paddock store over to the barn log-store knackered me. I need to tidy up after the blackbirds and thrushes have made a right mess looking for worms where I mulched the bases of the sea-buckthorne hedges. It's a pleasure to watch them in action but boy, do they make a mess.

Found our last cucumber today hidden on the floor of the pollytunnel its in prime condition its one of the cucamelons my wife grew

I have the leaf problem with the chickens... no sooner do I sweep the path then they come ambling up talking amongst themselves and rake all the leaves back out onto the path. I keep thinking of the eggs

Bit scrow down this way tonight, wind, rain and the waves can be heard crashing on the southern coast of the island a couple of miles away from the house. I wonder what bits will drop off this year...

MW

Did you mean to write 'scrow', MW? And, if so, is it a dialect word and what does it mean in Oxford English? I googled it and could find no definition that could be applied to the weather!

Blustery today here but mainly dry whereas yesterday it rained all day - could be worse, could be wet snow.

Scrow (pronounced 'ow' as in hurting yourself not as in crow) is Isle of Wight dialect for wind and rain. It ranks alongside 'nammit' the no meat second breakfast that farm workers used to take out in the fields. Islanders will also drop the 'middle w' in place names on the island such as Shorwell it's one of the ways you can tell someone from north island... you know... that big bit of land over the Solent! The island accent is very close to Dorset but probably a bit longer on vowels. I have learnt to tone it dane a bit but not when Oi go dane Kays... (or in other words go down to Cowes)

MW

May I stand to one side of those who think local dialect should be encouraged, whilst I find local dialect attractive and identifying it can be boring-to-difficult to listen to particularly at the end of phone when someone makes zero effort to articulate.

I have an east midlands accent that embarrasses me some of the time, particularly if I'm using a phone I try to articulate clearly. If you ever spent an hour on the phone sorting out a new insurance policy with someone determined to maintain their local and distinct dialect you'll know what I mean.

I live in Wales, I have no problem when the Welsh speakers speak Welsh with each other though it would be rude for them to speak to me in Welsh and expect me to understand in the same way as the the very helpful rescue bloke in Glasgow was directing me to their local Quick-Fit for a tyre replacement. he seemed to enjoy the fact I couldn't understand other than the odd word and not enough to string the whole thing together into a meaning.

Same with youngsters using 'Text-speak' and 'Bro-speak', fine when they are together. The trouble is a lot of people never learnt to articulate clear English in the way a most foreigners have managed to do. It's the same as a string of text where the writer makes no effort at spelling, uses abbreviations, bro-speak and just downright poor spelling then expects the reader to understand.

My best friend has spent most of her years in Bath though she is Oxford, Bath is articulated as Barth, it's not difficult to hear the Somerset in her when she's on-a-roll and she does understand the bin-men talking to each other and though I can't understand a word they say it isn't important because they are talking amongst themselves. When it comes to speaking clearly surely each of us should be able to revert to English in the same way the Welsh do, and the Polish, Germans, Lithuanians....et-al.

Sorry, I'll get my coat.

Bloody ell owld monsorry

I do agree Richard, fine when together with others of the same ilk but downright rude when speaking to others. And if you have a telephone job which includes speaking to people all over this country you must have clarity of speech. My other half annoys me sometimes when he comes up with obscure names of places and 'you know, where Fred wotsit lives' when he knows I have no idea of where Fred wotsit lives....

But I have to admit to writing 'scrow' without a second thought, sorry.

MW

It's that personal business division.

Regional dialect should be preserved, but people should be able to speak standard English. Love Yorkshire and Birmingham accent & dialects, my local one has almost died out. You have to find elderly villagers who've not travelled much to hear Hertfordshire.

I'm nae greetin tho.

Translate the Glaswegian anyone?

peter wrote:Translate the Glaswegian anyone?

Relating back to my rescue in Glasgow I asked the rescue service bloke to repeat himself so many times he slowed down and started to make gaps between words, I thanked him, we both smiled and I found Quick-Fit.

Scots gaelic and Irish gaelic both affect the way they speak english, similar with Welsh though to be honest all three of these speak English more clearly than a lot of English.

But not like what the Queen does.

Not meaning to change the subject so drastically but I just have to share that I finally managed to grow good coriander and it's still growing under fleece. Two previous attempts didn't fail, it was just naff coriander. The type I'm growing now was slow to germinate and scary in it's infancy though once up to to planting-out size it has been and still is fantastic.

Calypso will be the only one for me and though I had looked for it after one of you mentioned it I couldn't find it until I bumped into some in Homebase.

Peter...you're not complaining or crying though.

My wife has a friend who has a very old mobile phone and all the letters have rubbed off the keys. When she sends a text she guesses. It's worse than any dialect.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Gerry.

Gerry wrote:Merry Christmas everyone.
Gerry.

That was so-so funny Gerry and a happy Christmas to you, I have never been a text-er for two main reasons. Fat-finger-syndrome and the inevitable add-on from predictive spelling which still catches me out though mostly with the iPad. The Mac I'm using right now corrects spelling but doesn't use predictive text and you can turn auto spell checker off though it is useful for my poor spelling at times. The Mac also underlines dodgy grammar and any missing apostrophe.

Mo was just moaning about the miserable Christmas weather so we related back to 2001 when we spent Christmas on Maui, walking round in 30 degrees in shorts and a T at night to eat-out and every building is covered in lit-up santa's, reindeer, stars and an absolute mindless display of glitter. It didn't feel right though the experience was good.