Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2024

It's a beautiful day! I shall be spending part of it making Bread and butter pickles with cucs from the greenhouse.
Holiday traffic is horrendous, so if we go anywhere, it will be inland to the quiet Clwydian hills.
@LG_ great news on the A level front.
Love those colour combos @Ladybird4. (rethinks seeds for next year...)
Hope Possum and @Obelix-Vendée are enjoying their Italian adventure.
Good job you took hog action, @Liriodendron. Fingers crossed that all will be well.
Enjoy the weekend everyone.

 

Saturday. almost 10AM here. Good long rain overnight. Just doing inside stuff.
take care all.

 

Afternoon everyone!

Great photos, @Ladybird4 . Thank you for sharing them. Re the lovely shouting colours - they're fab, but I don't know if I'd be brave enough to try it... mind you, it sometimes happens here in a small way, by accident, especially when orange Welsh poppies seed themselves into a rather more subdued mix.

Mrs Hedgehog ate well last night. Around mid-morning she was out in the garden, sniffing round; I know we were told she wouldn't care that her hoglets had disappeared, but it did seem to me that she was investigating the places they'd been most recently. If the hoglets survive, we have the option of having them returned to us here, or we can have them released in a safe site, one of several used by Hogsprickle (which is situated on the edge of a village, with lots of open countryside around). We'll have to think about what would be best for them, because there's a fair amount of traffic on the road here.

I'm going to have to take precautions when picking blackberries from the hedge. The harvest mites are out in force, and their bites - they love feet & ankles, but also waists and inside underwear - are intensely itchy.

Hope you got your logs stacked, @Busy-Lizzie .

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

 

I've stacked about half the logs. Will do the rest tomorrow. Not as young as I used to be!

It has tipped with rain this afternoon. About time! The garden is grateful and so am I. No watering tonight.

 

Evening everybody, it's been sunny but cooler today so quite pleasant in town when I went in for a haircut about mid-day. Thought it safe enough to leave OH to his own devices for a few hours. Quite pleased to buy some trainers in M & S's sale, don't need new ones but quite handy to have for later.

Smashing photos of the Flower Show @Ladybird4, love the riotous colours although normally they wouldn't be my thing. Glad you had a good day and enjoyed it.

That's a bit of a dilemma @Liriodendron, not sure what I would do. At least you'd still have the mother for a while if you let the youngsters go.

Sounds a lot of logs @Busy-Lizzie, sensible to split the job over a couple of days.

What on earth is bread and butter pickle? @Penny_Forthem , never heard of that before. Good luck with the making of it though.

Forgot to let @Ante know that my son and family absolutely loved their holiday in Croatia, despite the heat. Spent some days near the coast, 3 nights in a tepee in a National Park and toured other places. They will definitely go back.

Great news about the exam results @LG_. My grandson's waiting for his GCSE ones next Thursday.

Hope Obelixx and her daughter are meandering safely on the way home.

 

My own version of this @lizzie27
Bread and butter pickles recipe - BBC Food

 

Thank you all. I am pleased with your comments about the Flower Show pictures and we definitely had the best day as it has been cool and overcast today. Never mind, that did help me to get the rest of my hedge cut and finished for this year and the bigger of my two green bins is once more full to bursting. I then had to spend an age picking a gazillion goose grass sticky seeds off my clothing and I still keep finding the little beggars. I must have been whacked out after yesterday and the hedge cutting as I crashed out on the sofa this afternoon and went to sleep - something I NEVER do normally. Cricket let me know it was tea time by leaping up to join me - rude!
So happy to read that the A Level results were pleasing for Trill and friends @LG_
@Penny_Forthem, like you I am rethinking my flower beds for next year and starting to think about bold colours. It doesn't help that the Sarah Raven catalogue just happened to drop onto the doormat today. Tonight's reading methinks!
@Busy-Lizzie, I remember you log stacking last year. Hope you are looking after that knee!
@Liriodendron, I'm glad Mrs Tiggywinkle is out and about and further to your hopes for the hoglets survival, I think I would err on the safety side when they are to be released.
p.s. @Liriodendron, have you tried using Avon's Skin So Soft to deter the biting critters. It works!

 

I am beyond excited. Booked here for our 25th anniversary next year
Plas Dinas Country House, Caernarfon. Boutique Hotel in Wales
I have a personal connection with Lord Snowdon, before he was Lord Snowdon. My Great Aunt, who was matron, cared for him in Liverpool Royal when he had polio and they became very close. She was invited to the wedding. I have the invitation, framed. He received few visitors as a child.

 

Oh wow @Penny_Forthem. How very exciting for you and your OH. I've had a look through your link and it is sumptuous. Set in beautiful grounds too. What time of year is your anniversary?

 

Well I am going to sign out for tonight and I wish you all a good evening. See you all tomorrow.

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Hotel looks lovely @Penny_Forthem. Do you know which one of those gorgeous rooms you will have?

 

Well goodness me. Just went out in the nearly-dark to feed the hedgehog and switch on the camera, and found another hoglet... this one looks a bit bigger, so perhaps mum has been concentrating on rearing this one at the expense of the other two! I've given it some food, and we'll see if we can catch sight of it tomorrow.

 

That was such lovely news to wake up to @Liriodendron. Fingers crossed this little hoglet grows up successfully!

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Sunday morning all. 7AM here. again more rain last night. Suppose to rain next two days. Hope for a dry out by Thursday so I can cut the grass in the back garden.
Anyway, inside stuff.

This Sunday, Aug. 25 is when we leave for our 23 days gone trip, checked the route again yesterday, make sure I have all the reservation stays etc. I have a magazine in the car that lists restaurants in various towns through America, will use that and of course google, or just wing it. Lobster dinners here I come.
We are going North, Mass. Maine, Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, back to Maine, then home. staying in about 9 places, some airbnb, some historic inns. And crossing with two ferries. And Whale watching scheduled. The airbnbs all have washers and dryers. I try not to pack much. Have been making notes and collecting things to see over the last couple years. So many little details to get done.
@Penny_Forthem , love bread and butter pickles. Did you know pickle juice is good for indigestion?
@Liriodendron , crazy thing I heard about biting insects when I was roaming about the state of Georgia, people wear dryer sheets on their heads, held down by their caps, keeps bugs off them. Fortunately for me, in my location in PA, or maybe its just my garden, we don't get many biting bugs, maybe the bats help and the birds.
Take care all. Later.

 

Good afternoon all!!

A question for all my pickling friends. I have my grandmother's recipe for bread and butter cucumbers but my last cucumbers are light skinned and I'm afraid bitter. Will the recipe work if I steep the sliced cucumbers in salt overnight then rinse and pickle them tomorrow. More importantly, will the bitterness go? (I fear not but I thought I would ask anyway).

Looking forward to your comments.