Early Winter Bits and Bobs.

[robo]

Walking of the plot this morning I stopped to watch a very large flock of geese to fly over nothing strange to that I often stop to watch them usually in spring or autumn ,the strange thing this morning they were flying east I stood watching till they went out of sight all the time going east

[oldherbaceous]

Done very little today, as it’s been non stop rain all day…and not doing a lot tonight either…bah humbug…

[Clive.]

I looked at the forecast and thought would be the same here... However, the rain held off a bit longer than billed and I managed to get the post, wire and sticks from another pea row thus hopefully allowing this patch to be dug one day soon. I've leapfrogged over the bad bit, for genuine reason, that it needs a drier time to weed and sort than the digging.

Beet lifter was running again this morning but was having to drive right up the farm road to the yard to discharge to lorry must be making it a tedious job.

When it rained..it properly rained and still is..

Afternoon was 'paperwork' filing time...very much overdue. and a few mins ago I was vacuuming the stairs...there is a link... and also very overdue..

C.

[Westi]

Finally managed to sort the seeds out today as had about an hour of weak sunshine that was just too good for the critters to ignore, so they left me alone! Then for the cherry on top I found the little propagator I thought I had given away under the bed & even managed to get a replacement hard plastic vented cover on 'A'. I hope it is really hard plastic as one of the cats is 1/2 main coon, weighs 12 kilos & loves the warmth, hence the need for a replacement!

That lead me to a full explore under the back bed & I managed to find lots of odd socks, kitten toys, fluff & stuff. Not as easy as it sounds as frame is really deep & only a few inches off the floor. I was creative lifting the bed onto my seed boxes, & me laying on the floor & sweeping everything out. It would fail every H&S assessment on the planet though!

[Diarmuid]

I have a problem sourcing seeds now that UK is out of EEC. I always got them from Premier Seeds Direct but now they can't send to EEC. It's a crazy world now. The prices here are prety extortionate. I suppose we will get over it, just like we always do. I've downsized house and garden, due to ill health, so I don't need that many seeds now. No glasshouse, no pollytunel and no kitchen garden. I don't half miss them.

[oldherbaceous]

Sounds like a sight to behold, Westi….

A few members have had to cut their garden size, or hand back their allotments, in the last couple of years….I can’t really imagine how tough that must be, Diarmuid…..

[Westi]

It must be really frustrating for you Diarmuid as your difficultly getting seeds is just related to politics not for protecting natural flora & fauna! They can't export to you as monitored companies but is there controls on private mail with wee pressies? Just a thought as I would happy to help with specific varieties as would the others I'm sure? Are you still able to get the seeds on the mag or is that stopped as well?

[Geoff]

Cleaned the greenhouse today and put the staging back in then sprayed with Jeyes Fluid, only it wasn't. Bought something months ago ready labelled Jeyes Fluid Outdoor Cleaner. It turned out to be a clear liquid, I suspect the same formulation as lots of people sell as patio cleaner at better prices, nothing like the smelly tarry material we have come to love, so beware. I sprayed with it anyway.

[snooky]

Will someone from the team which decided on this new Forum format sort it out.PLEASE.For the last hour plus I have been trying to send a PM to one of our members and getting nowhere.At every turn I ambeing asked to Log in.
Prolems have been raised by other Forumites but no-one from ADMIN seems to be taking any notice.The Forum should be re-named Kitchen Garden FRUSTRATION because that is what it is.Frustrating.
This is the third time I have typed this COMPLAINT and every time I try and and submit it I am asked to Log in.Might be third time lucky.At my age I need life to be easy not difficult.
The old Forum wasn't broken and did not need fixing.This Forum is broken so please FIX IT.

[Primrose]

I'm inclined to agree with Snooky. Nobody really told us why the format got changed in the first place.

If you want a forum to thrive and keep new members who occasionally tune in, you don't want to discourage them by tech features which make engaging difficult, especially when those individuals are of a mature age who find engaging with technology difficult.

The forum occupies such a tiny space in the magazine, which at the moment is probably just as well as trying to manoeuvre around it is now longer as simple as it was, and discouraging to newcomers.

[oldherbaceous]

I’m really starting to wonder if they want the forum to come to an end!

[Primrose]

Well the number of regularly active users is very low and they have to pay somebody to oversee the technical sides and maintenance of it so I suppose costs are always going to come under scrutiny and have to be justified.
I was hoping that the cost of living crisis would have started encouraging more new users and growers to the forum but that doesn,t seem to be happening (yet?)
We could do with somebody with access to email addresses contacting and encouraging some previous contributors back into the fold!

[Diarmuid]

Westie, Thanks for the offer but I have daughters in England and if it was possible they would send them over. However, anything bigger than a normal envelope has to have a declaration on it. We sent three Christmas cards in a jiffy bag and they were returned because we had put the correct postage on but no declaration.

[oldherbaceous]

There seems very few people registering on the forum and even less that post anything…..I think we are down to about 10 regular forum members now….such a shame!

[Primrose]

Well OH. I guess we have to aspire to "quality" if we can,t do "quantity" !!


Traditionally January is generally the quietest month of the year. Hopefully the warmer weather will see activity speed up a little.