Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2024

Good morning,

I think we are going to have another glorious day today, so I’ve taken advantage and put out some holiday washing. We’ve been to Northumberland for a week, and as I forgot to take my iPad, haven’t posted since before we went. We were lucky with the weather, it defied the forecast and for the most part we had lovely sunny days (a couple of days we had coastal sea fret either morning or afternoon, but that didn’t stop us). I love Northumberland, it feels like going home even though I wasn’t born there. My grandparents were, though, so it must be in my blood.
We got onto the Farne Islands and saw lots of puffins, eider ducks, gulls, shags and terns, plus as we approached the island there were lots of seals basking on one of the other islands. It felt magical to be there. We also went to Lindisfarne, which, as usual, was very special. Bamburgh castle was another visit plus Cragside. If you’ve never been to Cragside, I’d highly recommend it. The first Lord William Armstrong who bought it, powered it with electricity using hydro electric power - it was the very first house to have electricity. He was a very clever man, ahead of his time in some respects, responsible for many innovations we now take for granted. He lived until 90 and was still carrying out experiments in his 80’s.

Back to normal now though and the garden needs some attention. It rained a lot whilst we were away, so everything has grown with a spurt once more.

I hope there are no more mice @Dovefromabove, we got some in the house via the garage once. There was more than one, unfortunately, but we eventually got rid of them thank goodness.

 

The first time we visited Northumberland, way back in the '80s, we stayed in a cottage opposite Warkworth Castle. It was an incredibly special place and we returned to other areas of the county for many holidays.
I've never travelled abroad, not seen all this country yet!

 

THOSE OF A SQUEAMISH DISPOSITION please skip this post …


I can categorically confirm that Norfolk slugs like Norfolk Nog. This is the contents of one slug pub in one night. The other was nearly as full. At least these ones won’t eat any more bean plants … the pubs have been refilled

 

Hello @Tui34 and @Busy-Lizzie
How nice of you to remember me. @AnniD has just told me about the mention. I must admit I havent looked on this thread before so its nice to see some familiar names. Its taken me a while to learn to use a laptop instead of my tablet,then I had trouble putting on pics. But got a lot of help from the Fat Controller who guided me through the bits I needed.

I havent painted any pebbles for a while but hope to get round to it soon.

I hope you are both enjoying this nice dry spell in your gardens.
Im about to go out now.......weeding!

 

Hello all from a very gloomy 12c SW France. I don't know what has happened to our weather but it's certainly very depressing.
Crikey @Dovefromabove I've never seen so many slugs in one go!! I planted some small lettuce plugs yesterday and put slug pellets round and netted them over to stop the sparrows demolishing them. The tomatoes and other veggies are doing the hokey cokey in and out of the GH, who knows it may just be warm enough to plant them out one of these days!
We have finished feeding neighbour's cats and chickens, I now have more eggs than I know what to do with!
Enjoy your Sunday everyone.

 

Hello @ValleyGardener Very good to see you.

Just inspected the mouse traps and despite us having heard nothing more last night there was another in one of the traps. This one was definitely a male. Hopefully that’s the lot … … I’ve removed all the nesting material and vacuumed between those joists … set more traps and put a bait box a bit further along. We’ll inspect again tomorrow.
The other bait box is going in the little greenhouse.

 

Goodness @Dovefromabove - that is one helluva pot of slugs. Don't they look disgusting? I am going to have to find a sacrificial bottle of beer and put some traps down myself.

Speaking of traps - it will be interesting to hear if you catch anymore mice. When we first baited the motorhome we had 4 traps. Two by either front wheel because the wheels were their ladder and 2 in the engine compartment because that was where they were headed. First night - 4 traps and 4 mice. Second night another 4. Third night - 3. After that it was a regular 1 or 2. They're all over the place in our garden.

 

@Topbird … I remember years ago our four bullocks got out and spent a happy short while grazing the village churchyard … we went down to get them, herded them into the lane up to our place and as they were a bit skittish we laid a trail of cattle feed which was rich in molasses and they ate their way home … the next morning when I walked the children to school the lane was full of slugs and snails feeding on the remaining molasses … since then I’ve always known they have a sweet tooth so I always use a good dark ale or stout type beer. It works.

 

Crikey, those slugs died happy!

 

What a great way to go, drowning in a vat of beer.

 

There is a soap, Irish Spring, "they say" if you put pieces of it about trailers and RV's it keeps mice away. We have it inside the car trailer, so far so good.

Hello all, Sunday here. Plugging away at our long trip planning end of August. So now finally decided the place to stay on Prince Ed. Island, in Charlettown. A sweet little house in an historic district, trying to stay at unusual places along the way.

Discovered on You Tube that if you plug in a Town name in the world chances are someone posted stuff about it. Kind of neat.

Some gardening later. Seem to be lucky here, have no slugs, or I have some good frogs that do their job. Yes, have heard about the beer thing. Have a good day all.

 

Afternoon all. It’s glorious here

Back from MIL’s where I re-potted (aka saved) her patio Pelargoniums whilst OH mowed front lawn.

I’m going to plant my sweet peas now and will certainly be doing beer traps after @Dovefromabove ’s amazing success!

How to sneak a beer out without OH realising though…

Have a lovely day everyone.

 

Punkdoc have you heard the old joke. A Brewery worker falls into a VAT of beer. He is eventually pulled out but is dead. Foreman breaks the sad news to his wife. Was it a quick death she asked. Sadly no replied the Foreman he climbed out several times to relieve himself.

 

Afternoon all, gloriously hot and sunny, hit 26c earlier. I spent all morning sweeping the paving around the house, then applying Patio Magic with a watering can and soft brush. I find that's easier and quicker than the power washer, although it's maybe not quite so pristine.
After lunch, having been told the good weather is forecasted to last until Thursday, I popped down to Screwfix, having ordered a small bag of concrete, mortar in a tube and sanitary silicone.
Thought I'd would have a go at trying to waterproof our porch while it's dry, it's a complicated but small job I'm not looking forward to doing as access to the right hand side is difficult. I'm emptying the water butt as I type and will disconnect that to get access.
I do like Screwfix, it's so quick and easy and the staff at our local one, just over 2 miles away, are always very helpful and friendly. They now carry the heavy stuff out to the car for me - there are advantages to be being a little, white haired old lady!

I've got a salty bucketful of those horrible big yellowy slugs, but they still insist on trying to climb out - probably would have preferred to drown in beer!

 

I shall go to Aldi on Monday or Tuesday and buy some of their cheap stout for my traps. I suspect OH might just hit the roof if I sacrificed one of his bottles of decent stout for the slugs. (He's not a gardener in any way shape or form).

But even I couldn't bring myself to feed them Norfolk Nog - that's really nice beer!!

@lizzie27 - lot to be said for playing the 'little old lady' card sometimes