Corona Cavern

[nickdub]

Pear trees grafted on quince stock will stand a fair amount of winter flooding - of other fruits perhaps some which seem to grow on boggy ground in nature - blueberries or cranberries ?

[Snoop Puss]

Thanks for the ideas. Our pear and quince trees have survived, though I wouldn't say they're thriving. Maybe I should just plant more of those. At least the blossom is pretty.

The soil tends towards alkaline, so anything I've tried that likes acidic conditions hasn't done well.

The raised beds is a good idea, Rary, and my latest thinking is along those lines, but a bit different. Instead of raising beds, I'm thinking of by getting a JCB down and lowering the edges of the terraces so that water will run off towards the sides. Can't do this till the land is dry, though.

[rary]

Thanks for the ideas. Our pear and quince trees have survived, though I wouldn't say they're thriving. Maybe I should just plant more of those. At least the blossom is pretty.

The soil tends towards alkaline, so anything I've tried that likes acidic conditions hasn't done well.

The raised beds is a good idea, Rary, and my latest thinking is along those lines, but a bit different. Instead of raising beds, I'm thinking of by getting a JCB down and lowering the edges of the terraces so that water will run off towards the sides. Can't do this till the land is dry, though.

A JCB, what's wrong with getting a spade out and digging a trench that would give you something to do

[Snoop Puss]

I've got plenty to do already.

A JCB will take an hour to do what would take me days. Remember, I'd have to go round the edges of four patches. I've worked out it would be about 720 m of trenches, all a tractor's width wide. The JCB man will only charge me 35 euros. A bargain, frankly.

[rary]

The JCB man will only charge me 35 euros. A bargain, frankly.

35 euros, I will dig it for free, all you need to provide is a pick and a spade, oh and somewhere for OH and myself to stay for a month or two, and I suppose my son and his family would want to come, along with my daughter and her family as well, but it would save you 35 euros

[rary]

Couldn't resist putting that down Snoop not that I would wind you up

[Snoop Puss]

Also, the JCB man brings his own packed lunch and doesn't charge for his time spent getting here. I still reckon he'd be a lot cheaper than the Rary tribe!

[Containergardener]

Morning

Bright sunshine and a blue sky, forecast for rain but you wouldn't think it .
Just been watching a great tit taking nesting material (too large) into the whole of an unused water feature.
I was hoping to do some pricking out and potting on today, we shall see what the weather does though.
Have a good day .

[Florence Fennel]

My granddaughter works on a Neonatal ward. She volunteered for a covid test and is negative. Just had to share

[Containergardener]

Morning
Not sure whether to bother posting here as nobody seems to be around now. Maybe just let this one disappear.

Been sat watching the great tit building its nest in the water feature again. Apparantly it's the female that builds. She seems to have her partner watching on, although I don't know where he went. A sparrow has just tried to have a look and she wasnt happy. I ended up shooing sparrow away. Cheeky thing.
Better walk these dogs, knee has been a bit sore lately so not walked the morning one. See how I get on.
Have a morrisons delivery today. Quite a few things not available , oh well.
Have a good day.

[Snoop Puss]

Morning, Containergardener. I'd have dropped in but was having trouble opening the page. If you're feeling lonely here, try the Chatback thread. That's still going strong.

All good here. Did a bit of tidying of shelves yesterday. But it's a fact that tidying is a bit like taking an engine or motorbike apart: there are always bits leftover at the end. Mr Snoop has simply piled them on top of my neatly arranged stuff.

Bit of gardening first this morning. Then the dry fridge being re-repurposed back to its original purpose as a fridge needs cleaning out and filling. And then paid work for me.

[JanieB]

In a way I'm quite enjoying lockdown. Apart from the dogs I have no real responsibilities. Our Town Council Meetings started up again on Tuesday which means I have to read the paperwork first. The meetings are done through "Teams" so I have to make, at least the top half of me, an effort.

What is beginning to get me down is the online shopping and not getting what I've ordered. I can't plan meals ahead as I don't know what will actually be delivered. I can't just nip out to get anything I need. Last week it was the wrong tree, today it's pot saucers. I have 4 very large greek style clay pots that I need to fill fairly urgently now. I bought 4 pot stands on wheels so that I can move them around as when full I won't be able to lift them, and they arrived 3 days later. At the same time I ordered 4 pot saucers. It took a week before I received an email telling me they'd been dispatched and 2 weeks for them to arrive. It's been difficult to find the right size as the biggest one is usually 28cms. This is the size of the base of the pots so I ordered 30cm saucers. They arrived today and they are 29cms and that includes the rims. The actual saucery bit is only 27cms.

The usual blah,blah, not answering phone/emails due to unexpected demand. I can't go out and just post the damn things back and their returns procedure requires them to order the courier collection. Oh, and they WILL be returned as they were fairly overpriced for plastic discs.

Not the end of the world but makes me feel frustrated.

[JanieB]

I had plans for today. But this is the first day I've felt totally miserable and isolated. I was having a cuppa just before the 11am silence when I heard someone playing reveille. So I went outside. Most of the street were listening, then we had the silence..... followed by the most awful DIY noise from a close neighour. It went on for 4 s0dding hours. I checked our local council site and it was lawful. It was, however, very inconsiderate. When neighbours have been doing noisy DIY in the past I just accept it and if it really annoys me I go out somewhere to get some relief from it. I can't do that at the moment. There should be similar rules to the temporary ones re bonfires during this pandemic as those who are shielding can't escape.

I love cooking, but today I don't feel like it, but i need to eat. I want to go to a pub or restaurant and be fed and not have to cook and clear up afterwards. Not keen on the local takeaways who are actually delivering.

[Nicos]

* passes Janie a mug of tea as it's waaay to early for anything stronger!
Hang on in the Janie -things will get a bit easier once lockdown eases. Well -that's my hope at least .

I went out a couple of days ago to do our 3rd shop in nearly 8 weeks (no home deliveries here available)
I was masked up, scarf, glasses, gloves, disinfectant....only to see loads of peeps not wearing masks or gloves, picking stuff up and putting them back, pushing past me to get to things -it was rediculously stressful, so much so I just stopped shopping, went to the till and came home without half the stuff I really wanted.
Both my OH and I are 'at risk' so I'm absolutely not prepared to expose us to anything even though the risk levels in our area are (at the moment) significantly lower.

I'd love to know where the caring society is -I thought/ hoped all this crisis would bring out the best in people, and it probably has in many cases, but the selfish, quickfix , here now , can't be bothered, me me peeps always seem to spoil things.

* passes other mugs of tea to those who could do with one....

[Snoop Puss]

Big hugs, Janie and Nicos. It's amazing how thoughtless and how selfish some people can be, whereas others are completely the opposite. I'm really lucky, Mr Snoop does all our shopping. He's the most at-risk here, but prefers to be in control and to know what the risks encountered were. After all, if I were to catch it, he would probably get it off me. But he always comes back totally stressed out. I've only been out once in all this time, and that was only to the chemist's. But I was so relieved to get back in the car to come home.