Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2024

You are most welcome @Badly_Maintained
@Obelix-Vendée, I would love to see your finished patchwork too.

 

I've just discovered why one of our gutters was overflowing. A bird (I'd put money on a magpie) had dropped a part-consumed cooking apple into the top of the downpipe.

My granny made fig & rhubarb jam, @Obelix-Vendée - delicious and not at all sweet.

Just had a conversation with Bev at Hogsprickle. The two rescued hoglets are doing very well! We're going to ask to have them re-homed in a safe place, but will see if we can attend their release when it happens. (Thank you for your interest in the hedgehog saga, everyone!)

 

Hi,
Just a question. Is this a variety of California Lilac please. We have a large bush of it, and I would like to know when I have to prune it. I don't want to get this wrong.
Many thanks.

 

The blue bloom does like a ceonthus but the leaves (in foreground) not so much… @RowlandsCastle. They usually flower in Spring and pruning should be done after that, but sometimes they do a few little blooms late Summer. If it is one, my tip is to keep on top of pruning as we inherited an old one which is now massive and needs careful pruning as it’s encroaching my patio doors.

 

@RowlandsCastle there are a few types of Ceanothus - some that flower in the Spring and early Summer and some that are late flowerers and flower in the Autumn. As @AuntyRach said, the early flowerers should be pruned straight after flowering but the Autumn flowerers - which I'm guessing your is - should be pruned in Spring. You can be quite brutal and cut the branches back by a half

 

@Liriodendron, I had to smile at the picture you created of the magpie dropping an apple into your gutter and blocking it! The very cheek of it!

 

Getting ready for TV Quiz Night so I'm signing out for today. See you all in the morning.

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Thank you @AuntyRach and @Ladybird4
I'm not convinced what type ours is. It did flower in Spring, but has been doing so since then, on and off.
I've missed the "just after flowering in the spring" (obviously). If I pruned it now, I guess I will not get flowers in spring.
If I prune it early spring, I definitely won't get any flowers next spring/summer.
If I leave it until after it flowers next year, it's going to be over 15ft high, and far too thick.

I've actually had to trim some pieces last week, because I couldn't get into the back of the garage. For someone of my age, I've not really thought this one through very much. Mind you, if I kill it, my OH won't shed too many years. It forms part of a hedge about 8ft thick.

 

@RowlandsCastle Try just pruning one third of the stems right back to the base. That will thin it and lighten it but still leave you with flowering stems next spring. If the ones left behind are still too long, trim them back a bit so you don't lose all the flowers.

Repeat the one third pruning every year and you'll have renewed the shrub every 3 years and controlled its growth without losing flowers every year. This system works for most shrubs. quite a lot of info on the RHS site - Ceanothus

Our magpies are pesky @Liriodendron but not to the level of yours but you'e reminded me I need to get up a ladder and check our gutters cos OH won't. If I decide I can't cope either then we'll just have to charm a neighbour. Great that the two hogs you rescued are doing well now.

 

Good morning all!

Early start the morning with a trip to the ophtalmologist at 8.

Have a good day everyone.

 

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A very good morning to you all. @Tui I hope all goes well at the opthalmologist's this morning.
@Liriodendron, I meant to say yesterday how nice it was to hear about the little hoglets and think that setting them free in a safe place is a good end to their story.
@Obelix-Vendée, thank you for reminding me about cleaning out house gutters. I did my GH ones the other day but I do carry out an annual clear out of the gutters around the front of the house which seem to fill up the most. Luckily I don't have any high up gutters so these are still quite manageable.

 

Good morning everyone. I hope it's a good one.

Sunny here and set to get to 33C. Typically, I have to get clean, put on a frock and go to lunch with colleagues on the patchwork club committee. Finalising details for our stand at the Forum des Associations this weekend, an annual event where every single activity group and sports club in Les Sables has a stand to show itself off and attract new members. Needless to say also that the forecast for Friday and Saturday is wet and thundery.

My gutters will have to wait a week or two for a day when I'm free and OH is there to hold the ladder @Ladybird4. I hope all is well with your eyes @Tui34. Having had perfect vision all my life I eventually had an eye test in my 40s when my arms were no longer long enough to hold a book where I could read it. I then decided to go for a check up almost 2 years ago as my long sight for driving was starting to get fuzzy too. Upshot was high pressure in the eyeballs. That's been fixed with laser treatment and now I have glasses for driving too.

@AuntyRach I tried a ceanothus Concha in my Belgian garden but it was frozen to death one winter. Haven't tried one here yet as I've seen them either growing rampantly or struggling in our periods of drought with heatwaves. i've also seen them grown as wall shrubs and they seem to take happily to being pruned round doors and windows.

 

Good morning all. Raining at present, but due hopefully to clear before I have to walk to the shops later this morning.

Removing the cooking apple from the gutter end, showed me that a general clean wouldn't go amiss. They will need doing again in a couple of months, though, because we have a large birch tree near the house which regularly blocks the gutter nearest it, and sometimes the rest, with debris. It's that time of year again...

Hedgehog update. First, Ratty the night before last, foiled by the plate on top of the food dish:



Last night we tried again. No rats, but this little hedgehog wasn't big enough to dislodge the plate, and went away...



Then a small feral cat came along. It only took half a minute before it did this:



and ate all the food, apart from a few crumbs which the hedgehog returned to mop up. Need to think what to do next...

Hope your day is full and happy.

 

@Ladybird4 , @Liriodendron have you thought of having "hedgehog brushes" in your gutters? Saves a lot of detritus settling in there

 

Good morning all.

Dishwasher should return today, repaired. OH will give a sigh of relief as he does the washing up.

The pergola/gazebo with a roof that I've ordered should have been delivered today but DPD have postponed it. Hopefully it will come on Thursday. It will need putting up but no rush, it's for next summer so that I can put garden furniture on the lower terrace, protected from dropping mulberries.

The last owner of my French cottage dropped by yesterday. He's moving from Caen to Bordeaux, wife has left him and he's found a new job. He's French and he was very helpful when I first moved here. He said that when he bought the mulberry tree he was told it was sterile!