5 Gardening Dairy: Happy gardening and happy snapping ..

[DirtMechanic]

Have to use hand held shears to do topiary, more control.

Unlike myself, beyond mere control, comes skill and taste?

 

[Logan]

Good morning all
Cold one this morning

 

[alp]

Good morning - supposed to be very cold. Not very warm, but seems to be a tad warmer than predicted.

Hellebores are in flower.some pink single and I must write down on the calendar to label them correctly. Hope it stops raining a bit later. Yearning for some action.

 

[Logan]

Good morning Alp, my hellebores are just starting to grow.
Very cold here it was 0c this morning.
No rain today so going to cut some sage and chop it up with the br crumbs for the stuffing, then freeze it. Did the onions yesterday and tomorrow decorations, can't wait.

 

[alp]

Nice preparation. For Christmas, I'm going to get KP peanuts, some Ferrero rocher chocolate (white and gold), some Walker chili crisps, one sour cream Pringle, some shortbread, some gelatelli almond icecream. What else? Please suggest.. mince pies..

For main course, it would be aromatic duck (frozen from lidl), crackling pork joint. Perhaps a cake. When my son has gone to ex, I will have some rump steak cooked rare, with red onion. Yummy!

 

[Logan]

Thanks Alp, you sounds great. With the turkey we have sage and onion stuffing made with sausage meat, but i use sausages and take the skin off. Roast potatoes, sausage wrapped in bacon, veg, gravy.
Christmas pudding with cranberry sauce and whipped cream.

Got a chocolate gateau in freezer for tea with cream and cranberry sauce.

Doing mince pies on Friday.
I write it all down what I've got to do on the calendar.

 

[alp]

It's cold. A layer of hard frost settled on the lawn.

 

[Zenj]

Morning all very frosty here too looking at the forecast warning for strong winds Friday and Saturday .

 

[Zenj]

Forgot to say we too are putting our decorations up tomorrow so @Logan and I have a new day called Xmas decorations Wednesday forget the Black Fridays and cyber Mondays ours is a better one.

 

[Logan]

Forgot to say we too are putting our decorations up tomorrow so @Logan and I have a new day called Xmas decorations Wednesday forget the Black Fridays and cyber Mondays ours is a better one.

We'll have to put some pics up when we're finished.

 

[alp]

Forgot to say we too are putting our decorations up tomorrow so @Logan and I have a new day called Xmas decorations Wednesday forget the Black Fridays and cyber Mondays ours is a better one.

I bet your grandkids will love you and your wife to bits, especially when you both give them presents. I'm such a bore that I never bother much about presents. Except once when my son said he wanted an Apple iTouch (music player), I had to tell him that I had no money to buy it. When he went down to his grand-parents, he couldn't believe his eyes that I had an Apple Classic with 32gb waiting for him. That, sadly, was me at my most imaginative. Now, no presents until after Christmas - when all the prices will come down. My excuse is I don't want to encourage materialism, status symbols ... I was minded by mother in law when I mentioned I bought the presents. Was corrected that Santa had spent money instead. !

Now, I think the trend is that each kid in the family has a Christmas tree. When we went to Homebase, 2 families each with two kids and TWO Christmas trees! Gee, imagine the shame when school kids talk about having his/her own Christmas tree when you have only the one in the family.

 

[alp]

Morning all very frosty here too looking at the forecast warning for strong winds Friday and Saturday .

It was sunny and I was out removing all the rotten dahlias. Wish I lived in the US when they are enjoying 24c and it is a proper summer temperature for us!

 

[Logan]

Hubby and I don't buy each other presents, son doesn't want them even for his birthday. The rest of the family doesn't. When i and my brothers were growing up we would have 1 present and a stocking with an apple and orange.

It was a cloudy afternoon and cold. Hubby got a cold, I've made him a drink from some lemons.

 

[Zenj]

Ah the apple and orange brought back happy memories you didn’t get a lot but you were very happy ,now they get too much and its not appreciated my grand children on Christmas and birthdays get money off family who cannot be bothered looking for presents they end up sometimes with over £200 pounds each.which sorry to say to me it is far too much for young children I started work at 15 as an apprenticeship and got £3.2/6 per week and most of that was given to my mother. But I keep my lip buttoned .

 

[Logan]

Yes i left school when i was 15. Had a few jobs but couldn't find the right one. I saw a school friend and she said that littlewoods store is the best one to work for, they pay well. Managed to get a job there in the kitchen making sandwiches and salads for £36.00 a week.