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gregotyn
Joined: 24 Jun 2010 Posts: 2201 Location: Llanfyllin area
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 17 2:05 pm Post subject: |
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I hope all goes well for you too gz.
Black thorn-sloe bearing bushes-have serious thorns, Cassandra, and damsons don't, a census I have just conducted from those folks here in the library. They are not in flower here yet, but are I expect 'down south'. Damson gin is a goer, too Cassandra, but to me not as good as sloe gin. I am impressed with the shopkeeper's ability to spot an honest shopper when she sees one.
I am currently working in my new shed making the base vermin proof. This involves a run of bricks on the inside and a run of mortar on the outside. Not a big job, but has to be done. With a run of 4 days to myself I will finish that if the sun stays out (read rain keeps off). And I also plan to put down some anti vermin traps outside and some poison inside, as insurance. I don't like poison but have to do something to stop them attacking my goods inside the shed. If I get time I will also build a hatch to put over a hole in a barn roof where a window blew out-a small job but it has to be done. It will stop the wet getting into the building I have on or to other roofs to attend to as well.
It looks like a bumper charcoal year then MR. We have had a few BBQ days up here but not today, pleasant, dry but not hot, and a bit windy.
The library will be closed now till next Tuesday. I expected them to be open on Saturday-it is a normal day for most people. I guess it is Easter, a time for sorrow and joy. |
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gz
Joined: 23 Jan 2009 Posts: 8615 Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
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Jam Lady
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 2507 Location: New Jersey, USA
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 17 10:37 pm Post subject: |
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Lesser celandine is a non-native, extremely invasive species, Mistress Rose. I have never seen bees or butterflies visiting the flowers, nothing eats the leaves, nothing eats the tubers (well, they're ranunculus, likely poisonous.) I can dig it - little tubers left behind enthusiastically regrow. What I dig goes into a heavy duty black plastic bag for a year before dumping into compost heap - and it regenerates. The worst patch is near the seasonal brook, which it can wash into and spread even further. In several states it is banned as a noxious weed. I did plant 'Bowles Double' and 'Brazen Hussy' (black leaves) which are also beginning to show thuggish tendencies.
Spring is sprung. What's flowering in my woods? Lots of pretty things. Natives (some introduced): Bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis. Virginia bluebells, Mertensia virginiana. Trillium - several species are up but not yet in bloom. Non-natives: Yellow anemone, Anemone ranunculoides. European wood anemone, Anemone nemorosa. Lots of narcissus. Japanese dogtooth violet, Erythronium japonicum. Jeffersonia dubia and J. diphylla. Lungwort, Pulmonaria saccharata. Lots of fumewort, Corydalis solida. Lots of little blues: scilla, Scilla sibirica; two leaved scilla, Scilla bifolia; Grecian wind flower, Anemone blanda; Glory of the snow, Chionodoxa lucciliae.
Thanks for asking, Mistress Rose. My eye if fine Apparently I have a slight thickening of my tears, "dry eye," and should use eye drops once or twice a day. Most noticeable when I wake up in the morning. My father's mother had the same issue.
Yesterday I got the remainder of the greenhouse shade cloth up.
Busy time of year for all of us - gregotyn is sorting / shifting / re-arranging / moving. Cassandra is busily occupied at home and also out-and-about. Gz is battening down the hatches as wet weather sweeps through. And Mistress Rose is busy in (and out of) the woods. Stay well, all of you. Remember to take some time to enjoy these precious Spring days. |
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15600
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Posted: Fri Apr 14, 17 7:35 am Post subject: |
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Glad you are all right Gz. Hope everyone else is and there are no landslides/floods or other nasties.
Sounds as if you are going to be busy for a while Gregotyn. Good idea to vermin proof things if you can.
Hope you manage to get your washing etc. done soon Cassandra. The lady in the shop sounds very naïve as you say, but trust is a nice trait, so hope it is never abused for her.
Jam Lady, I didn't know if lesser celandine was native to you or not. I can understand why you are trying to get rid of it.
We had another productive day yesterday. We opened the little kiln and the yield is far better than previous firings as we packed the wood in well. Got it all out, and not too many brown ends either. Husband went up to the woods early and lit the big kiln, then came back for breakfast and to collect me, as son is away for the weekend. I made 3 more besom heads, but I didn't take the drawknife with me, so wasn't able to make the handles. Something for next time I am up there. Husband did some other work around the place, so both of us were busy. We finished about 8pm, still in the light, which was really nice. |
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cassandra
Joined: 27 Mar 2013 Posts: 1733 Location: Tasmania Australia
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Jam Lady
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 2507 Location: New Jersey, USA
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Posted: Fri Apr 14, 17 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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I have an assortment of non-native invasive, weedy plants. Along with lesser celandine, Ranunculus ficaria, there is garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata. From Japan / Asia there is multiflora rosa, Rosa multiflora, a deliberate introduction by the USDA. Took birds a couple of decades to decide it was yummy. They now eat, poop, disperse seeds. At least we are too cold for kudzu, the vine that eats the South, another deliberate, USDA introduction. Several honeysuckle, worst is Japanese honeysuckle, Lonicera japonica, but also bush honeysuckle, Lonicera maackii, another intentional introduction that got away from gardens.
Some you are also familiar with, such as Japanese knotweed, Polygonum cuspidatum.
Non-native lawn weeds such as dandelions, Taraxacum, and plantain, Plantago major.
A plant I regret introducing, yellow dead nettle, Lamium galeobdolon.
Invasive relatively easy to control - barberry, Berberis thunbergii, another bird-dispersed issue.
Some "foreign" plants that naturalize but weave themselves into the landscape without excessive problems include coltsfoot, Tussilago farfara.
I believe there are North American natives that have naturalized / become invasive elsewhere - goldenrod, Solidago; in Japan for example. |
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15600
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Posted: Sat Apr 15, 17 6:54 am Post subject: |
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You have been busy Cassandra. Glad progress is being made anyway. I need to have a turn out of our kitchen cupboards as there is a lot there that has been kept as 'might come in useful' or that I don't use these days, so might as well go.
Jam Lady, I know most of the British plants on your list, and we have some foreign 'invaders' too. Some of your native conifers do very nicely over here; Western red cedar can reproduce quite nicely here, as can Douglas fir, and both of them take up a bit of room. We have Western red cedar in the woods, and one or two that have been cut down or fallen down have reproduced, so we keep an eye on them and remove them before they get too much of problem.
We went down to the 17th century village in Gosport yesterday to see how they are getting on. We started by giving a demonstration of cross cut sawing using a large saw, as the sawyer knows us well and knows we can do the job. Then went round the other houses and met a few old friends. The loom I designed is in a different house, and is still being a bit temperamental. They were doing a bit of refurbishment on it, but the work they had achieved recently was very good. They were working on a worsted twill, which was finer than anything I ever tried on it and looked good. We found one problem was that I had the weavers bench made so that I could sit comfortably on it and reach fairly well along the pedals with my feet, but the current weavers are rather shorter than me and also have shorter legs, so the struggle a bit. |
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15600
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cassandra
Joined: 27 Mar 2013 Posts: 1733 Location: Tasmania Australia
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15600
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Posted: Mon Apr 17, 17 8:02 am Post subject: |
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A slightly belated Happy Easter to all of you. Sorry, I forgot yesterday.
You had a productive day at the History Room Cassandra, even if you didn't get your cupboard done.
The Wey and Arun restoration has been going on for years, but they are making good progress. The problem is that in the UK, as you know Cassandra, things are a bit crowded, so land tends to get 'repurposed'. The next stretch to be put into water will have to have a couple of bridges over to a house and a field, so extra expense. These things are run by trusts, so they might get grants if they are lucky, but otherwise it is fund raising and doing what they can with volunteers, and contractors for the rest.
Had a productive day in the garden yesterday. I evicted some of the curly kale plants that were pretty well finished, dug a trench down each side of the bed, leaving the PSB in the middle, as that is still going, and put in the remainder of the potatoes. I then managed to sow the rest of the seeds for this year, which are now divided between the green house and a warm window sill in the house. Hope for better germination this year as it was too cold, even in the house, last spring.
The quince tree is starting to come into flower, but hope it holds back a bit as we are forecast frosts this week overnight, with one quite sharp one. Luckily nothing else has come up, so no risk to them.
Husband had another go at the pond and found another hole in the liner, so that is now patched, and hopefully it will now stay full of water. |
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15600
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Jam Lady
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 2507 Location: New Jersey, USA
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gregotyn
Joined: 24 Jun 2010 Posts: 2201 Location: Llanfyllin area
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Posted: Tue Apr 18, 17 2:27 pm Post subject: |
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Glad all well for you, gz. People would pay good money for wave machines in their pools and there nature provides.
Shed now getting 'stuff' into it, man stuff, tools and clothes and those other things I just can't throw away, but still have to waterproof the outside at the base, but nearing completion inside as an anti vermin 'wall' is being built and only 7 bricks to go.. I had a bonus on Monday a man gave me an old horse-drawn potato ridger in good order. I have had to hide it!-they go missing without trace if left out on full view. I have also bought a new gate for my entrance, just need a post about 8 inches square and in the ground around 3 feet. and a dose of concrete to surround it. It shouldn't take more than a few days, but it is hard digging where the post has to go.
I have had a horse come for summer grazing, an 18 hand grey, and lovely quiet personality. He seems settled.
I am glad all went well in the woods MR, I start out around 5.30am and there are the signs of life visible even at that time and of course I can do more in the shed as it is light up to around 7 pm plus now. I am still selling firewood which surprises me, but there we are each to his wants. I am juggling a few irons in the fire right now with a desire to get stock for winter, but also to complete the move. Stock is important for winter, but moving is on top of me now. and I want that settled before autumn. I am hunting a scrap dealer locally who delivers a skip to be filled and then comes back and takes it away. and they are few and far between round here. Something will turn up.
You are making rapid progress Cassandra, ready for when I come over to Aus. The friends have been on to me to go so I must. It will include a trip to you, as they go there for caravanning holidays and there son is now in Tasmania, but I don't know where yet. I am worried about MR having a throw out of the 'may come ins', think we may have to have a word! I find as soon as I throw it out it becomes a necessity!
We have a chap who does locks up in terms of providing the haulage for diggers and spoil removal for some of those up north and in the midlands canal reclamation projects.
I will see you all on Thursday with updates on the scrap situation. |
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Jam Lady
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 2507 Location: New Jersey, USA
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15600
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Posted: Wed Apr 19, 17 6:32 am Post subject: |
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Son's birthday is in April, and when he was little I was never sure whether his birthday party was going to be inside by the fire, or in the garden as a picnic. Very variable weather here, and sounds as if it is with you too Jam Lady. Currently we are settled fine but a bit chilly. As only the onions have put their heads up in the garden, I am not that worried about frost at the moment, although I am hoping the quince flowers will be all right as they are coming out fast. Very pretty too, but do hope for a good set.
We emptied the big charcoal kiln yesterday, so both ended up a delicate shade of black. Not too bad a yield for the first firing of the season, as the hearth needs to be dried out again. We delivered charcoal to one of our outlets, who was glad to see us as she had sold out. Two besoms and some sawdust to deliver today. |
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