Hope you have a lovely day.      .

I’ll be icing a chocolate & Guinness cake and a coffee & walnut cake this morning which do you want a slice of ? 

It might not look very pretty after posting    .

Ok, call me slovenly if you like but my spoon box has been a disgace fo long enough! Today, beause it's naff outside I decided to do summat about it. After all, I now live alone so why hoard all the crap?
Big difference before and after so let's hope I can keep it like that?

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Just been sitting out on the decking for half an hour and witnessed six, what I call shooting stars and four which seemed to move slower! Need to get to bed now as I am fishing tomorow! 

Who'd have thought that a grapefruit tree could thrive and produce fruit outdoors in the UK ? 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdd32ld28l4o

This year I've been growing all the GH tomatoes/cucumbers in 30litre pots - instead of in open-bottomed pots resting on a big bed of old compost. This has had lots of advantages - mainly the ability to move the plants around, both within the GH (If they need more room) and outdoors if they should have a problem or are finished - creating room for a replacement pot. 
The pots are easy to lift as they have handles. 
When the plants have finished cropping, I move them out of the GH, I pull them up and empty the soil into a big trug. Remove any roots, add some chicken manure pellets, line the bottom of the pot with wool insulation, and refill the pot with the used compost. These pots are being replanted with all sorts of veggies - potatoes, beans, cucumber, chard, lettuce, carrots, beetroot etc. They  stay outside on the patio or near a waterbutt, and can be moved back into the GH when there's a vacancy. I reckon I'll be able to grow something in each pot about 3 times a year.
Root crops , like carrots, are doing much better in the pots (obviously) than in the ground with all the roots and stones there are here. I'm going to start a sowing rotation of carrots - probably a pot every 3 weeks, maybe one for beetroot too. 
I'll be able to empty the GH completely in the winter to give it a good clean out which I've been unable to do for years. 
I already grow salad leaves and shallow rooters in supermarket veg crates on the GH bench and outdoors but the full size crates are a bit unwieldy to move when full so I'm going to use the smaller mushroom/spring onion crates, moving these in and out of the GH as appropriate. 
The more I can grow close to the house the better as it takes the pressure off trying to water things at the end of the garden.

Just so we can remind ourselves. We are actually achieving things in the garden. 

This is my tunnel fruit bed. Planted up on the 25th September 2024.       
It has a pomegranate, lemon, blood orange, 2 avocados 

This is the same bed on the 29th July 2025       
It still has all the above list planted

What do you need to remind yourselves about?

P usually goes out after dinner and looks around the pond. I think he communes with the newts and looks around for our single frog friend.  This evening, same as usual  (he's a creature of habit), there he is bending over the pond water and I hear a frightened cry of "snake". Now P does not like snakes, it might even be a phobia. I had go and rescue him from this monster.

It was really a snake, not just an earthworm  .  It was about 15" long and as thick as as a large pencil. It was swimming around the edge of the pond as if it was looking for a way out and wasnt happy being looked at by either of us. I wasn't sure what type of snake it was,  so I dashed  indoors to get a photo. Unfortunately,  I failed miserably but saw our baby snake disappear up under the waterfall base.  Investigation revealed it was a grass snake, not and adder thank goodness.  P is still not happy about it but I've calmed him down.  Liizard last month,  snakes this month,  what will it be next month, alligators?  

A large branch just fell off an old apple tree, about 20' tall. next to the house. Also in our orchard, a branch fell off a small pear tree that was loaded with pears. I think the likely causes of both were the weight of fruit and stressed because of drought. Not sure what the best course of action would be:

I can just dispose of the apple branch and leave the rest of the tree but the tree leans quite heavily one way and with this branch gone, most of the weight is now on the side the tree is leaning.

Another option would be to remove the tree completely. It was a well established tree when we moved here 40+ years ago and has had mushrooms growing on it all the time, a variety called turkey tail I was told which feeds on dead wood so not likely to harm any living material in the tree. The tree is likely over 150 years old as the old couple who lived here before us, the lady was over 90 and said the tree was here when she was born in the house so at least 130 years. At an apple fair at Reaseheath, the local agricultural College, I was told that it is a Gravenstein. I don't really want to cut it down.

If I leave it up, I was wondering how much I could trim the rest of the tree, to take some of the weight off it, without causing too much harm? It always has far more apples than we can use but is delicious, particularly as stuffed and baked apples.

          

The pear tree is a lot younger. I planted it about 10 years ago. The way it has broken has badly damaged to main stem. There is a weaker stem you can just see on the right in the second picture below. Any suggestions what you would do with this?

               

You're never too old to learn, right? 
I seem to be learning new things every day so I thought I'd write them down here, before I forget!! Please share things you've learnt too, no matter how small or trivial - maybe we can all learn from them 

1. Montbretia spreads by seed as well as corms. The seedlings look like grass.
2. The spiky thing on a garlic press is for taking the stones out of cherries & olives.
3. Its better to put the wool insulation inside the pot, not underneath.

Just read a news item about food price rises and how people are coping. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn5kvv9n10go

Research has shown that people are making simpler meals in order to reduce cost. 
"Almost 7 in 10 Dinner plates include fewer that six components" said the researchers. 

Seems I've been cutting back for years as I'd be hard pressed to think of many meals I've made eaten with more than six components - assuming that means something like meat and five vegetables? 
Not sure that I really understand what they're trying say here. Thought a  standard meal was something like fish chips & peas, or meat and two veg with maybe a Yorkshire pud and gravy. Maybe a stirfry, a curry or casserole would have more than six ingredients - but, is an ingredient a "component"?
How many "components" do you put on your dinner plate?