Hi, I'm new!

Hope you enjoyed your steak and salad, Frances. At first I wondered why you were about to eat lunch .. and then remembered you are an hour ahead of us. Portugal is on the same time as England, GMT. We tend to have a brunch, so it's bacon, eggs and homemade brown/caraway bread for us.

We're been having "warmer" meals as this massive storm system is passing over us - hurray - has been for several days and supposedly will continue for several days more. Had the ole thunderboomies this morning already!

I bought some cherries this past week, on sale from €4,99 / kilo to €2,99, horrible price and the cherries were'nt that nice either!

My mother is buried in NY, Long Island to be precise, where I once lived.

Here in Portugal I'm in Calvos/Carrasqueira, Sao Bartolomeu de Messines. The nearest coast towns anyone would know are Albufeira or Armacao de Pera, the latter being a wee bit closer, perhaps 20 minutes drive, 30 in tourist season!

Liz, interesting about the various salad leaves, which I didn't know. Here they do the same with cabbages just picking leaves off as needed. There is one called Galega (Kale) ... I call it cabbage on a stick because it grows to almost two meters and lives for many years.

Liz, you seem to be very knowedgeable in general on gardening items ... can you look at my Hoya question on the 14th under Other Plants, as I still have a problem with this, thank!

Well, time to prepare brunch so "vou emborra" for now. Frances, you say Ciao hello-ing and goodbye-ing, guess this is normal there? Here, Tchau is only said as a farewell.

Ate mais tarde ...

 

Thanks Liz, I'll keep watering my ex salads and wait for them to show up again. I hope I wasn't supposed to leave a few leaves on the plant because I just cut the whole thing off.

 

:eek: I never cut all the leaves off! Will be interested to know if they grow back!
As for the Hoya the only thing I can think of is some kind of fungal infection like rust. I love the flowers, my sister keeps Hoya Bella in her bathroom covered in talcum powder and it thrives and flowers- she keeps giving me cuttings and I look after them really carefully but they don't thrive... :(

 

Liz, I wonder if your sister's talcum powder keeps bugs at bay?!

I went on the net again and finally found some pest info. Seems like several say to wash / spray the plants with alcohol so I did this and will keep an eye on it; looks okay this morning.

Still haven't figured out my strawberry problem. The ones in the strawberry pot are fine but the new pink one in the hanging pot has collapsed. I wonder if this had a problem when I bought it last week. Am trying to let it dry out at the moment. Some of the forlorn leaves are soft, some crispy but the soil is moist ... not surprising after the amount of rain we've had this week!

 

Thanks Liz, I'll keep watering the place they stood in.