What did you do in your garden today?

[Sean Regan]

I dug out our solar lights, yesterday.
We've had them a few years. We've got eight.

This type.

Each year in October I take out the batteries and give the contacts a spray of switch cleaner and put them away in a polystyrene box. I clean the tubes and then give them a spray of WD40, then pack them away too.
They come out six months later looking as good as new.

I recharge the batteries, assemble them and put them out, they never fail to work.

 

[Logan]

but it's the bottom half that are grass sods and these refuse to be rotavated especially since they are full of roots and still soaking wet making the soil cling.

That's where your problem was, should have removed the grass first.

 

[JamieB]

I watered my plants in the gazebo, they are predicting freezing over night temps again this weekend, so I’m leaving them in there. Nipped the tops of the mint to encourage more growth, I want lots and lots and lots of mint, with lots of variety in the kinds I plant. This one is a chocolate mint, smells great. I’ll turn the tops into a cup of tea soon! Brought my little tomato plants in, the cold didn’t do them any good. I’ll bring in my peppers too after they drain enough.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

That's where your problem was, should have removed the grass first.

Thanks Logan; the grass adds to the problem but the main problem can be seen in the pictures below I've just taken with our dash cam as we visited Meadowhall Shopping Centre this morning at around 8:30. I'm forever moaning about Blackie and here he is again in action; it started to pour with rain before we went to bed last night in fact the rain and snow etc have hardly let up for the last 18 months here. Our gardens are waterlogged and we live on a steep valley side; the rotavator tines turned into a sticky drum making the rotavator uncontrollable; I was stupid to even try rotavating; I should have been pricing up 6" thick concrete because I can seldom get into our garden without getting a soaking; I even have problems getting into the workshop without getting wet.

Our gardens simply don't dry out; today is a black hole with lots of rain so I'm not moaning because this is normal.

Driving along the M1 motorway I kept well clear of vehicles in front because it was so dangerous with over spray; I'm not at all surprised there are so many accidents when vehicles were passing us driving into dense over spray unable to see ahead.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Am I dreaming or is this forecast for real?

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Sean Regan]

Hi,



Thanks Logan; the grass adds to the problem but the main problem can be seen in the pictures below I've just taken with our dash cam as we visited Meadowhall Shopping Centre this morning at around 8:30. I'm forever moaning about Blackie and here he is again in action; it started to pour with rain before we went to bed last night in fact the rain and snow etc have hardly let up for the last 18 months here. Our gardens are waterlogged and we live on a steep valley side; the rotavator tines turned into a sticky drum making the rotavator uncontrollable; I was stupid to even try rotavating; I should have been pricing up 6" thick concrete because I can seldom get into our garden without getting a soaking; I even have problems getting into the workshop without getting wet.

Our gardens simply don't dry out; today is a black hole with lots of rain so I'm not moaning because this is normal.

Driving along the M1 motorway I kept well clear of vehicles in front because it was so dangerous with over spray; I'm not at all surprised there are so many accidents when vehicles were passing us driving into dense over spray unable to see ahead.

Kind regards, Colin.

View attachment 34811 View attachment 34812 View attachment 34813

A couple of years sago we were driving clockwise round the bottom of the M25 on a journey from our daughter's in Staines to my sister-in-law's in Malling Kent. This stretch of the motorway has signs indicating it is prone to flooding.

We drove into a part of the motorway where it was chucking it down. We were in the outside lane when we noticed a convertible Mercedes several cars in front of us in the middle lane trapped between lorries in the inside lane with other cars in front and behind it.
The water thrown up by one of the lorries as it hit a long patch of standing water, was actually filling this convertible. It took him half a minute before a following lorry allowed the driver to get into the inside lane.

 

[JamieB]

Ha, I wouldn’t drive a convertible in a place as rainy as all that. Give me a good sturdy car, with a roof to take the weather, impact in case it flips, and to keep my nosey cats out!

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Well said JamieB.

We don't see many convertibles around here because few like driving fish ponds around given our heavy rainfall the year round.

Before Bron and I married over 40 years ago I owned an Austin Healey 100/4 convertible exactly as seen in the picture below I also owned an MGB Roadster but I never did like the roadster and soon parted with it. The Healey was gorgeous and the registration was EEB 88; it would be nice to know if it still exists; it was in top showroom condition and cost a fortune in fuel to run.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Sean Regan]

Hi,

Well said JamieB.

We don't see many convertibles around here because few like driving fish ponds around given our heavy rainfall the year round.

Before Bron and I married over 40 years ago I owned an Austin Healey 100/4 convertible exactly as seen in the picture below I also owned an MGB Roadster but I never did like the roadster and soon parted with it. The Healey was gorgeous and the registration was EEB 88; it would be nice to know if it still exists; it was in top showroom condition and cost a fortune in fuel to run.

Kind regards, Colin.

View attachment 34829

Back in the late fifties, when I was seventeen I owned a convertible.


One of these. A 1936 Austin Seven Ruby.

The windscreen was hinged at the top , so you could swing it up until it was horizontal and screw the stay to fix it there. I and my girlfriend at the time took it to Brighton, a few times parked up on the front, sat on the bonnet, using the windscreen as a picnic table dangling our feet inside the car. It had side windows but these were fabric which matched the hood with clear-ish plastic inserts, they were on a frame which plugged into the door tops at the front and into the body at the back. They folded in the middle so you could open any of four windows.
I changed the semaphore arm signals to flashing indicators.

Downhill it could manage 50mph.

The windscreen wipers worked by induction off the manifold. If you had your foot down going uphill in the rain, you had to take your foot off the accelerator momentarily, just to make them work!
It had Bendix cable brakes. The amount of stopping force you could apply, depended on how hard you could press the pedal. Emergency stop procedure was to hold on to the steering wheel and literally stand on the pedal.
Apart from fuel and oil, it cost me a set of tyres and 5p for a new bearing for the dynamo.

It was the most fun I'd ever had in a car.

I sold it a year later for what I paid for it, £35

 

[alp]

The last of our clematis arrived from Taylors today.

View attachment 34083

It's too wet to plant them out yet. I might do it tomorrow as it's warming up now.

We bought three of these from T&M a few years ago.

I bought these this year as a replacement for something else: Diamanti, crystal Foundation and Josephine. The three are tiny but two has a bud each, about 3 inches tall. I ask you how small can they get. And that's supposed to be £9.99

 

[alp]

Hi,

Am I dreaming or is this forecast for real?

View attachment 34814

Kind regards, Colin.

LOL! Who cares if the sun comes out! Lovely!

 

[alp]

Nice to see the hard work you've done , Colin.

Nice to see Sean's beautiful garden as well.

Today, I weeded and edged a patch and prepared for a bonfire tonight.

 

[JamieB]

It was way windy today, there were three fires in our area. Not near my house, but the gas station I’m working at now had all the fire fighters coming in. Oh, and on my way to work, I get called that my prego kitty is in labor, so her mom moved her in with her latest litter to co parent together. I missed it all! Apparently senior Mom was even panting like she was in labor right beside her daughter who actually was in labor, even though her kittens are about two weeks old. Lol.

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Ah ...bless what a lovely Senior Mum
How many new kitties do you have now @JamieB??

 

[DeborahJane]

Can you make out the 3 lattice screens I've put up. Its a cunning plan

. We can now see straight through to our neighbours front door from our deck. And once upon a time we couldn't see any neighbours at all. I did check if it was ok. Once I got the nod they were up that afternoon . Lucky my neighbour agreed. I've planted 3 Pondereas Charismas which have variegated leaves with white floweres and burgundy centres.
Now I just have to wait. Very very hard . Went through my photos to show how open it is and this one with me front and centre shows it so clearly. Shocking isn't it, the view that is.