Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2024

@Ladybird4 I leave early on the 13th and take a more direct route via Lyon and Grenoble with a stopover between those two. We'll leave Genoa on the 16th and mosey across, getting to Périgueux on the 20th and then heading home on the 21st. Music to be discussed as she has a tendency to droney stuff.

Coffee would be lovely @Busy-Lizzie. Is the 21st OK? We can go via Riberac on our way home. Haven't been there since 1991! Our one and only hoiday in the Dordogne.

 

What a fantastic trip, @Obelix-Vendée with coffee thrown in @Busy-Lizzie ! Was last in the Dordogne in 1990. Due another trip.
Music can make or break a trip. I remember going on a business journey with someone who only listened to monks chanting...
It's a lovely evening now, even though we had cloud cover most of the day. I took my pruners to the rampant tomatoes. Not a ripening one in sight .
Might be making Bread and butter pickles though.

 

Going to bid you all good evening now. For the first time today I can actually see some blue sky. More gardening (hopefully) tomorrow.

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Thanks to @Busy-Lizzie , @Ladybird4 , @Penny_Forthem , @Obelix-Vendée and @Tui34 for your welcoming words. I'm a bit shy of posting on chat threads - I'm not wonderful at general chat, and don't want to offend anyone by failing to comment on something important... but I'll pop in from time to time, when I feel I've got something to say!

The garden is pretty but full of weeds, @Busy-Lizzie . I was ill for an annoying proportion of the growing season last year and it got away from me a bit, but I'm gradually winning bits of it back. And it's lovely to have a resident hedgehog, living under the shed, and lots of birds in the trees and hedges. It's taken a while, but I'm finally feeling more at home here, with church, choirs, book club and craft group introducing me to lots of lovely people. Thanks for asking!

 

The 21st would be great @Obelix-Vendée. Send me a PM or I can PM you for details.

 

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Well its back to black here once more. Could be GH stuff today. @Penny_Forthem, I must have just missed you yesterday but I have a similar situation with my tomatoes - plenty of them but all green and my mini cucumbers have only got to micro size as yet. Please explain bread and butter pickles as that is a new one on me - could be my bit of new knowledge for the day!
@Liriodendron, how lovely to have a resident hedgehog. I haven't seen one in my garden for a few years now. And never fear, you will not offend anyone.

 

Here you go @Ladybird4
Bread and butter pickles recipe - BBC Food

I replace the dill with some fennel seeds

 

Morning all.

I'm glad you have settled in @Liriodendron.

Going shopping today to buy stuff to take back to France, like Marmite, baked beans and peanut butter.

We will stay Wednesday night with my sister in East Sussex, ferry on Thursday, stay with friends for 2 nights in France, home on Saturday.

 

Grey here and cool but expected to be sunny and warmer this pm. A pottering day for me then.

I know just what you mean about the weeds taking over @Liriodendron They have here too, with added interest from OH's woes with lawn mower services and all that endless rain. He's getting on top of the vast expanses of wild oats and I am managing short bursts of weeding and planting - no kneeling yet so all done bent form the hips - and messing with pots.

Now my polytunnel has been cleared of seedlings I'm wondering what I can start now. Just veggies for winter or some perennials? Maybe some cuttings?

It's good that you can break your journey up @Busy-Lizzie Makes the driving less relentless.

I made some of those pickles last year @Ladybird4 - without knowing they were Bread and Butter. I did some in thin slices and others in 2" batons and preferred the texure of the batons. Great flavour either way and a lot less tart and vinegary than bought gherkins.

Hope everyone's having a good start to the week.

 

Morning all.

Grey and drizzly here, with proper rain promised for later. I've cleaned the house and there's no more jam to make... might see what's on the telly, now the cricket is finished for a few days. (The Beeb, in its wisdom, has taken Test Match Special off Radio 4 LW for overseas listeners, but we discovered we can access it on YouTube, so I've been weeding for the past few days with my mobile phone in my pocket.)

I'm just about to collect the SD card from the "hedgehog camera" next to the shed, so we can spy on Mr Spikey's nocturnal antics. He's created a new "door" so he can leave from the side instead of the front, without attracting so much interest from passing cats and fox, though the magpies are still quite persistent in watching his movements in the early morning.

How is it that I managed to overlook the 6ft sow thistle growing in the back of the border?? I doubt it grew that big overnight...

Happy Monday, everyone.

 

Happy Monday! Overcast here now, but breezy. A day for working in the garden - in order to keep an eye on the washing, just in case it blows away, or it rains.

 

Well I have been thwarted! Rain stopped play in my garden. I was determined to finish my task and the result meant I had to change my wet clothes when I came in.
Ooh thank you so much for that @Penny_Forthem I will now go (when it stops raining) into the GH and talk nicely to my mini cukes. @Obelix-Vendée, I am a huge fan of gherkins and cornichons but occasionally the vinegar is so sharp, it catches the back of my throat. Same with pickled onions. I always go for the 'sweet pickle' because you just cannot eat a pork pie without a pickled onion!
@Liriodendron, I watched the Cricket highlights on TV last night. A pleasing result. I hope you find some interesting pictures on your card. I was very sorry to find this beautiful hawk moth in my GH this morning. When it stops raining there will be a little funeral for it.

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@RowlandsCastle, I do hope it stays dry for you. I will just have to be patient.

 

Yes, @Ladybird4 , we watched the highlights too. Cricket is definitely my favourite sport - full of skill and variety.

Unfortunately the hedgehog cam wasn't quite in the right position last night, so we have a number of photos of the back end of the hog leaving the shed, and none of him returning, so I'll try to do better tonight... though perhaps he used the other "door" for his return, or possibly he's outwitting me by making a different entrance... anyway, here's a photo of a young magpie watching him return home a week or so ago:

 

When I had my little pickle/chutney business, I made Bread and butter pickles, always explaining to those who asked, about its provenance. Trading standards told me I couldn't sell it under that name, as it contained neither bread, nor butter. Luckily, they did accept its traditional name.