Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 20 March 2022

Good Morning. Good to know that all is well after your op Annette - & you can cope with the endless eye drops. My OH was hopeless and I had to do them for him! I'm looking forward now to having mine done as I'm A Lady in Waiting, with my cataracts not bad enough yet to go on the waiting list.

Pat, thanks for your description of your trip to Hever, which sounded delightful.

Harelady - Sorry you've got to wait to eat properly. It must be frustrating. I hope you'll soon see improvement. You can pray away for us Heathens - fine with me! You really shouldn't apologise for your faith. We each have our own and it's unique to us all. I hope it comforts you when you need it. Goodness knows the world needs something to improve it, these days.

The magnolia had a label and I must find it. We have to take labels off plants as Bonnie has a habit of eating them! I do know that it's not what I was sold, as it was described as "pure white with a beautiful streak of rosy red inside each cup" and its nothing of the kind, it's totally white! Still beautiful, though. EDIT: We planted it in a pot so that we could move it around - where we 1st put it, near the house, it was rather windblown, though, so now it's in a more sheltered part of the garden. Annette - No, it lives outside all the time and thankfully we rarely get bad frosts here.

OG Sorry you had a dud lunch. What a shame when you must have been looking forward to it.

Hello all
I'm sorry about the Caesar salad OG. It brought back memories of when I ordered one in California. It came in a dish about the size of a small dishwashing bowl ! I do construct my own, sometimes, with a bought dressing and home made croutons.
Yes, the Danes like driving. Unfortunately there is no longer a ferry from the West coast of Jutland to the UK and they like to stock up on favourite foods etc while here. It's quite a short drive from where they live to Jutland, the Western part of Denmark which has a land border with Germany. In fact, the southern part of Jutland ( Schleswig holstein) has changed hands a few times over the years. So it's about a seven hour drive to Amsterdam. I've done it a few times with them.. The DFDS ferry overnight to Newcastle leaves at 5 pm and is a bit like a mini cruise. An en suite cabin and restaurant, etc. After that,disembark at 10am and maybe six hours drive to get here. Lunch somewhere on the way.

What a shame, dibnlib. I noticed on the threads & FBook that LotL had closed temporarily. Still, I expect you enjoyed your break.

dibnlib and others that may be interested - 2 minutes drive from me  is the small  but very popular village of Thorpeness - see link to read about the J M Barrie link

https://www.suffolk-secrets.co.uk/blog/2015/07/the-fascinating-story-thorpeness

This is probably your magnolia, Linda: en.wikipedia.org/.../Magnolia_stellata. I hope we will have one within the year--I have long wanted one; they are gorgeous.  This article says they vary from pure white to pink and may have differing colours in different years--not quite sure how much a single plant will vary through time, but further investigation might tell us.  Common name is often Star Magnolia.

Thanks Gardenbirder: I do know about the Stellata Magnolia, however, as we have a much bigger one of those - here it is with our neighbours ginormous and stunning pink magnolia, behind it:

(Tap on it to see a better view)

Its just coming out, now, and is one of my favourite things in the garden. 

Crossed posts, sorry, I added a bit more to mine while you were posting! One site says they can grow very tall, this one says a bit shorter--possibly different varieties grow to different ultimate heights.

Compare with the flowers of my smaller one in the tub, which has cups for flowers: