Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 12 April 2020

Too many pages to read through but hope you are all ok.

Lindy loved your yellow flower pictures - brightens one day.

Our gardening man came today to clear a whole lot of ivy. The ivy has taken over so he has cleared quite a lot
for us although he said it was not a pleasant job as it was very dusty. No rain for over 2 weeks and the ground goes rock hard - we have a clay soil so clammy when wet and bone hard when dry. - still looking good although we have exposed next doors garden due to it taking over the fencing which disintigrated when ivy was pulled away from it.
Next door has new fencing to put up so hopefully will go up in the next week or two.

Managed to get a shopping slot for next week and the week after, keep looking to see when slots are released and will keep putting orders in. Can always tweak them.

Been another glorious day here but they say rain is on the way, we''ll see.

Just a thought
Be kind to people. The world needs kindness so much. You never know what sort of battles other people are fighting. Often just a soft word or a warm compliment can be immensely supportive. You can do a great deal of good by just being considerate. (Ann Landers)

LINDA – Thank you for your daily dose of flowers. Our garden is currently patches of dirt with green spikes; the latter are the to-be-spring bulbs preparing for winter rains.

HEATHER – I have not been able “get up” for years and I blame my knee replacements, not my unfitness. All gardening, weeding is done perched on a lowish step stool.

I do not know what happened to my post yesterday. I distinctly remember typing my waffle in Word and transferring it to “Reply”. Gremlins? I did say that supermarket was quiet with the few customers (& staff) polite and smiling.

Good Morning, Friday already!

It's bright again here, and warmer. My OH is beginning to look a mahogany colour as he had warmed up his tan when abroad, so now spending hours in the garden, either gardening or reading his book, is turning him into what we used to call "a man of the soil!" He dropped off a whole carrier bag of books to a golfing friend yesterday, who is going quietly crazy at home but loves to read.

Sis in law Sue has a huge chalked tribute to the NHS in her road, actually on the road surface itself, as its a cul de sac. Done by an artistic neighbour.

Annette, what is Indian Hawthorne?

It is sunny here but not what one would call hot!
I did a quick visit to Tesco at 9am, golden oldies hour. It was very quiet and a few customers were wearing face masks. Not me, don't possess any. The only thing that was out of stock was flour. Not a bag to be seen.
LYNETTE - all our fences are jointly owned with neighbours and I have spotted ivy coming in from next door.... I will rip it off my side but my neighbour on that side has no interest in her garden so I suppose the fence will eventually give in.
I was curious, LINDY, so looked up ANNETTES hedging plant. It looks very pretty.
I'm very glad that I am not alone in having difficulty getting up from a kneeling position!

I hope they appreciate that you are doing the weeding ROSY.

Morning all:  

Heather: Our Indian Hawthornes are the pink version. They're very old and arein a 2ft-high planter along the back of the house in front of the fence.  We've pruned them so you can see the old branches, which have a sort of nice sculptural quality, and let them grow up from there. We put succulents in pots underneath.  I did a lot of heavy pruning last year to keep the top open enough so the new growth didn't shoot up six feet searching for the sun and it's filling in nicely, but grows like a weed.  Further down the fence we planted Monterey Brush Cherry bushes, also for privacy because the house behind us is on a higher level.  Not sure I'd use the same plant again as it's a fierce grower with no apparent upward limit.  But it's a lovely secluded place of birds to nest - and we pruned out a place for the feeders so the huge collared doves don't inhale everything in one sitting and the hawk can't pounce, so that's okay.  I need to tidy it up gently so as not to disturb any nests.  I was doing a heavy pruning last fall and found a perfect little nest - so sweet - which I left in hopes of someone else using it this year.

Lindybird: If I were smart, (or maybe just not so lazy) I'd find a copyright-free image and post it.  :-)

Off to read the news of the day....but then again maybe not.

Take care all.

We are lucky enough to have a fresh caught fish delivery on a Friday. He comes down from Scrabster and we are lucky that he parks within walking distance from us. This morning I got smoked haddock and I will make a chowder tomorrow and I also got haddock which I have prepared for tomorrow evening.