It looks as if the "Legacy Blogger" will be switched off completely towards the end of the month so I've swapped onto the new one and will have to put up with all it's foibles I guess. I tried it a few weeks ago and like everyone else found it annoying and went back, hoping it would continue as an alternative, but it seems not. Oh well.
Flowers on the table this week, blue and white - I know what both these are but the names have just gone out of my head for the moment!
Shopping this week was at Asda in Stowmarket. While in Stow I ran an errand for the Opticians by the coast where youngest works. She'd asked if I could pick up a box of PPE from a Stowmarket Opticians to take to her next week. I'm glad I had the address because when I lived and shopped in Stow in the 1980's this opticians was at one end of the town's shopping street and in the mean time it had moved right to the other end.
Coincidentally one of the few Facebook pages I look at is a Stowmarket Then and Now page and this week they had photos through the years of one of the small shops in the town centre. I remember it as a sweet shop in the 1960's and an Estate Agent in the 1980s but between then and while we were away living near the coast it had been all sorts of different things- interesting to see. It's a British Heart Foundation Charity shop now.
During the week I roasted a tray of my beetroot and onions and shop-bought
carrots to box up and freeze like last year. This year I didn't put in
aubergines or peppers because my peppers aren't ready yet and reheated
roasted aubergines were horribly squidgy. The boxes were so handy last
winter just to pull out and microwave. I need some more boxes before
doing another batch because there are already a heap of tubs of
aubergine and tomato sauce in the freezer. Winter supplies are looking good so far.
This is what happens when you leave 16 Tulip bulbs in heavy clay soil for 3 years and the reason why my tulips in the Cutting Garden this spring were spindly and small. The original bulbs had produced dozens of tiny bulblets but dry weather on clay means they don't get much bigger than a thumbnail.
I always watch Gardeners World with envy when Monty digs his lovely soil with a hand trowel to plant things. Here its a battle with a crowbar! Well not quite, but you can see the size of the clods I turned up and this was AFTER I'd bashed the bigger clods a bit.
The Cut Flower Bed was made in a hurry, Colin wasn't really very well
although he managed to run the rotovator over this patch after taking
off the turf and using more of the wood from the pergola to do the edges
and we put the wire netting up around the sides to keep the ducks and
pheasants off just a few days before he died.
I came home from shopping via a garden centre and bought a bag of multi purpose compost and a bag of topsoil - to try and improve the soil here a little but what it needs first is some rain.
Then I'll replant the biggest bulbs and put the smaller ones in a planter filled with multi purpose in the hope that they will increase in size.
In the mood for sorting out the garden I've made a start on clearing the raspberry bed that we made in the first year and like the strawberry bed in a much too dry a spot. The canes just never multiplied and produced only a handful this year.Forgot to take a photo and there doesn't seem to be a single photo of the raspberry cage apart from the glimpse of it from the bedroom window.
Eventually found the right size spanner to undo the bolts and now the aluminium frame is down and stacked ready to advertise for sale somewhere - I'll try the Parish Magazine first. Next job when it's cooler is to lever out the wood surround and move 20 paving slabs that we'd put down around the outside. Not this weekend - much too hot.
This week I'm grateful for
- The energy to get things done outside
- Sunshine
- Still blogging despite the new annoying format
Hope you all have a good weekend. Car boot for me of course and plenty of reading while half watching the snooker on TV.
Back Monday
Sue
Where did you read about legacy going altogether? A couple of days ago my legacy was automatically changed to the new blogger but I was still able to change back, for now anyway.
ReplyDeleteAt the top of the posts page on new blogger it says "legacy is available until 1st september - we will be gradually changing all to new look" or something like that. Maybe old blogger will be available after that - maybe I read it wrong -
DeleteNo, you got it right I read that too, but I thought I'd stick with Legacy right until the last moment. I do prefer it.
DeleteI know just what you mean about Monty's planting. Here, I wouldn't be able to get a trowel in the soil! We need rain, rain and more rain. I know this is not a popular view.
ReplyDeleteThe most useful tip I've learned from Gardeners' World recently was Adam Frost's: using a bulb planter to get out stubborn little roots (in my case, self-seeded baby hazel trees). It works like a dream and I can't think why I never thought of it before.
I had a bulb planter at the smallholding - couldn't get it in the ground there - even dryer than here
DeleteI thought we could opt back to the Legacy, I didn't know it's going away all together? {insert a swear word of choice} Oh, to have one of those hand tools Monty uses, it seems so useful and versatile, and does the job of a trowel and fork, as well as many other things I am sure.
ReplyDelete{are they agapanthus flowers?}
Thats it...... Agapanthus - thank you all the blue and one or two white and then more white something - memory fail again
DeleteNot being a blogger I don't know what you mean by Legacy and all the workings going on 'behind the scenes'. It seems to be a similar situation to a continuing disagreement I have with my husband when a certain product, which always seemed popular, has suddenly stopped appearing in the supermarket. My argument is that we, the consumer, have choices taken away from us as shops only sell what they THINK we should buy and my husband's opinion is that the shops only sell what people WANT to buy. The difference of opinion is ongoing.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you - we do have choices taken.I sometimes feel like stamping my feet like a toddler!
DeleteYour flowers are pretty I am leaving the last few of sweet peas to seed they were such a pretty mauve this year so hope the come back next year. I love watching GW on Friday and Sunday I have one of those gadgets that Mark had on Fridays programme and I use it a lot. Enjoy your Car Boot sale and hope you get a bargain.
ReplyDeleteHazel c uk 🌈🌈🌈
Going to be hot all weekend - probably a quick car boot visit I think
DeleteAgapanthus (Nile Lilies) - they are a noxious weed on the West Coast of NZ's south island, but we like them anyway. I've been trying to grow them here in Greece, but suspect they will succumb to drought in the summer time once I plant them out in the garden.
ReplyDeleteCan't imagine Agapanthus being a weed. They don't spread very quickly here and easy to dig out if needed. Hope you get some growing in Greece
DeleteAren't there things you can mix in to improve the soil - is it lime to improve clay?
ReplyDeleteIt needs lots of good compost or manure but mainly more rain at this time of year
DeleteLime may improve the Ph content but if you've got heavy clay soil you've got heavy clay soil Tasker.
DeleteOur new garden is pure clay too and a heck of a job to dig. That's why G has begun some raised beds. I do so envy Monty Don's soil too. He can make a hole for planting with his hand, no tools required. How easy would that be!
ReplyDeleteOh no...blogger forcing us to change. I can't get used to the new version. I might have to call it a day at the end of the month...
Will the legacy blogger change automatically or is it soemthing we donor selves? My garden soil has also gone very hard and dry. Have a good weekend x
ReplyDeleteIt will just change automatically, with no option for us to change back.
DeleteAnd I’m grateful you’re blogging too! In my family, those lovely flowers are called Agatha’s Pants .... and they are my very favourite plant. I Do Not Care if they are labeled noxious... they grow, they resist the bugs that eat everything, they flower for ages, and the dried flower heads, sprayed black, white or silver, make great support for winter arrangements.
ReplyDeleteHave a good weekend.
I have two Agapanthus (Agapanthi?) One has flowered beautifully this year, one nothing at all. Been searching for a white one to no avail.
DeleteI totally understand about the need to batter kids into submission. I find several cans full of water helps quite a lot.XX
ReplyDeleteKids??? I typed clods. Stupid auto correct!xx
DeleteGorgeous bouquet. I have always loved blue flowers.
ReplyDeleteYou are doing very well getting the garden in order.
God bless.
Am Laura Mildred by name, i was diagnosed with Herpes 4 years ago i lived in pain with the knowledge that i wasn't going to ever be well again i contacted so many herbal doctors on this issue and wasted a large sum of money but my condition never got better i was determined to get my life back so one day i saw Mr. Morrison Hansen post on how Dr. Emu saved him from Herpes with herbal medicine i contacted Dr. Emu on his Email: Emutemple@gmail.com we spoke on the issue i told him all that i went through and he told me not to worry that everything will be fine again so he prepared the medicine and send it to me and told me how to use it, after 14 days of usage I went to see the doctor for test,then the result was negative, am the happiest woman on earth now thanks to Dr. Emu God bless you. Email him at: Emutemple@gmail.com Whats-app or Call him: +2347012841542
ReplyDelete