Re: Gardening Thread.

[Lamplighter]

Glad to hear you are okay, Sabot.

I envy you guys the ability to see spring flowers. In this part of the world there are few native flowering plants.

However, we have gorgeous palms galore. Dates, phoenix, sago and others.

Plants that grow well outside are plumeria (frangipani)and I have 6 of them at the moment, together with jasmine and gardenias.

Would love to see photos of flowers from you guys.

I can oblige with pics of the concrete, the rubbish from excavating the platform for the gas tank and an abundance of weeds! Will that be acceptable? I don't do plants or flowers, I usually kill them if I go anywhere near them. LL

[bb1]

I currently have mud, with the first green shoots just coming through. I was glad when it snowed for a whole day, it covered the mud.

[Sabot]

I have been meaning to get a digital camera, Lily, but the exchange rate rather put paid to that idea, although things have improved fractionally.
I effectively lost a third of my pension for more than three years, and now I need a new fridge because I am sick of looking at my present rusty heap of old junk which needs defrosting every five minutes.

I am getting a bit worried about the Wisteria again. It has been so mild that it is bound to bud early and while the frosts still lurk.

[Sabot]

Try Hydrangeas, or Hortensia to give them their correct name. They are virtually unkillable, LL. Providing you give them loads of water in a drought, or when they are young.

[Lamplighter]

Try Hydrangeas, or Hortensia to give them their correct name. They are virtually unkillable, LL. Providing you give them loads of water in a drought, or when they are young.

Thanks for the advice, ma petite, but I really have no patience with growing things I actually need to look after. My tiny front garden is tended every so often by one of the villagers. As for the rest, well I do keep the concrete well brushed and tidy .... LL

[lily]

Okay, Sabot. I so hope you get your fridge soon.

Okay, mud, concrete will have to do for now.

[bb1]

Bennett should be able to get you a fridge for peanuts, Sabot, as he thinks there are €85 to the pound.

[Sabot]

Bennett should be able to get you a fridge for peanuts, Sabot, as he thinks there are €85 to the pound.

Christ, I'd be rolling in it at that price. Actually, The Euro was at 65 pence at the outset, and stuck at 70 pence for ages, so you can see what it has done to my pension.
But I am not having a second hand fridge again. I am going to have a new one or the first time in my life. When I can afford it.

[lily]

Hope you get it soon.

[Sabot]

Just had another nervous breakdown about my two freezers, but I do this from time to time, when I don't have anything else to worry about. This is my own peculiar form of Depression

Lots of Bulbs up and flowering, but only the yellow ones. The purple ones appear to come later, presuming that some areshole Mole hasn't been a bit selective in eating them, but they are less likely to eat bulbs once they have already flowered, which is why I tend to buy them "In the Green" as it were. "In the Green" means that you buy them in pots, and then plant them out for next year, after they have once flowered. And it is definitely the only way to buy Snowdrops. Snowdrops never survive if you plant the bulb straight into the earth.

Update on "The Hotel, 2011."

Christian, the very camp "Events Manager", finally gave in his notice, and about time too. I would have murdered him yonks ago.
Mark, The Owner, is a sainted angel, but a right pillock. Sadly, Mark is nearly bankrupt and is trying to sell The Grosvenor Hotel in Torquay before all of the rotten arseholes he employs actually lose their jobs.
Alison, The Head Receptionist, couldn't bed down a bunch of drunks after a piss up in a Brewery. And the kitchen staff are just about the worst I have ever seen.
Most of the guests are really diabolical, but at least they are real. And I don't think Mark has any pretensions about that. Anyone's money is good money, and oh my God, he does try.
I feel desperately sorry for him.
I rather wanted to see another seasons, and to see Mark win. But I don't think this is going to happen.

[Sabot]

Having had a load of cooked macaroni left over after the dog departed to the great kennel in the sky, I put the macaroni out for the birds. They love it and pick a piece to fly off with. They are probably nesting already.

More garbage from The Winter Fuel Allowance Team. I think they are trying to scramble my brain. They say I can't apply for back payments because there is a time limit for each year, but since they refused my original application, and had no intention of paying me anyway, this one is not going to wash. Why would anyone go on applying every year if they had already said No for their own stated reasons of their interpretation of The Law, now deemed illegal by The EU?
I am not giving up. But I am getting a bit stressed. How much stress is it worth for £2,500?

Two days without rain.

[bb1]

Just keep at them, Sabot - you're entitled to it, you paid taxes in the UK for years, after all.

It hasn't rained yet today, though it's bound to before the day's out. I've got a few bulbs coming through, but it's still wet and gloomy, though less cold than it has been.

[Sabot]

I think The Government is hoping that The EU will rule that applications can't be retrospective, Bonny. But I don't see how they can. If The EU has ruled that the refusal to pay was illegal then it must be illegal for all of the time.
Interestingly enough The British Government changed the rules in the year 2000. Before that there was no time limit to back applications, so I suspect that they saw this ruling coming and took steps to counteract it. Now you have to apply by March of each year.
I will however get the back payment for 1999/2000. I also have proof of my application for 2001/2002 which was refused. So let's see them talk their way out of that one.

Still only Yellow Bulbs flowering, and loads of those, but the first signs of the Purple ones are appearing.

All of my new Chrysanthemums of last Autumn have taken and I am really pleased about that.

[bb1]

That's good; you sound as if you're a few weeks ahead of me, Sabot. Still, green things are starting to grow again, which is a good sign. January and February are my least-favourite months of the year.

[bb1]

Big orange thing is in the sky!

I know the rest of the UK appears to be under feet, well, millimetres, of snow, but it's rather pleasant here. Birds singing and green things appearing.......

[lily]

Big orange thing is in the sky!

I know the rest of the UK appears to be under feet, well, millimetres, of snow, but it's rather pleasant here. Birds singing and green things appearing.......

Oh how fabulous for you, Bonny. Really pleased to hear it.

[Sabot]

Just spent over 80 Euros on more new garden decking and a tin of wood treatment stuff.
Yep, all of this decking comes treated, but I like to do a belt and braces job, so I paint it again while listening to utter crap on Radio 4.
By the time they take Radio 4 off the airwaves I shall be heartily glad to see the back of it. I am sick to death with Cricket and attending fashion parades, and Dramas about Ashrams in India. And Question Time is now just a platform for a bunch of disgraced MPs trying to pretend that they aren't.
But I digress.
My shopping trip today was not as good as I hoped. I went bowling in more than happy to spend a few bob, but getting someone to help me do so was not easy, until I gave the new Garden Centre a go. I was desperate by this time. Fortunately they grabbed my hand off, although what I bought wasn't precisely what I wanted. But a very nice man did load my van for me. And I just cannot face another trip to Pontivy.

I shall spend the weekend slapping on Wood Treatment. When I amn't on here, that is.

The bloody grass is growing, but still sopping wet, so not much chance of cutting that.
If every River, Lake and Pothole is not now under the direction of SAUR, that's French for The Water Board, then I shall want to know why. Not that we ever have Hose Pipe Bans, but then we wouldn't, would we. The Vallee du Blavet is notorious for being one big bog. Thank God I live on top of a very big hill, although that was accidental, by the way, and it is still a bog.
The Gravel Pits spoken of by David Bret are now Lakes.

My Broad Beans are surviving, albeit not very well, probably due to being water logged. But you have to go some to kill a Broad Bean.

Will I even bother with anything else this year? Probably, but then I never did know when I was beaten.

[bb1]

We've had the big orange thing in the sky for a few days now, Sabot, and pottering has begun for the spring....

[Sabot]

I have been pottering all Winter, Bonny. And sweet little evidence of anything resembling a Satsuma even, ever.
But I have cleared away the rubbish, decimated the Passion Flower, never was there anything quite so boring. Although it does appear to strangle Ivy briefly. But it was also strangling my Roses, and I can't have that.
During Winter I save old Tea Bags, soak them and then water the Roses. And it works. I have resuscitated really old Rose Bushes.
Sheesh, what a laugh. I must sound like a really boring old fart on occasions.
What was it Burns said about "The Gift to gie us." And I do sometimes get a vague flash of insight. But I don't dwell on it.

[Sabot]

We have again reached the time of year when daylight is the same length as the hours of darkness. I think it's probably called a Solstice, although not absolutely sure about that.
I don't know why it fascinates me, but it does. I get a feeling of some kind of balance in The Universe which reassures me, even when Winter is approaching.
Time to bed down or time to wake up. What a glorious thing is The Universe. I sometimes almost believe in God.

[lily]

The Universe is definitely glorious, Sabot, and I do believe in a Higher Power.

Oh, it is getting hotter here. 30 C yesterday and continuing. It is lovely but it won't be soon.
Went to Oman yesterday. I really love that place.

[Sabot]

Just cut my first lawn of the year, between snow showers, and it was decidedly unfunny. I am a shattered wreck. But the first one of the year is always bad, after I have been sitting on my backside all Winter. Everyone around here has half acre lawns.

Madame Le Drogo caught me mid cut to complain about my client's trees overhanging her back drive again, but that's okay because I will earn a few bob seeing to those. They have very strict rules in France about overhanging trees, and it never goes to Court because The Marie cuts them back if necessary, and then sends the owner an inflated bill. The Commune Workers are charged out at 40 Euros an hour which is double what I charge. Very sensible, if you ask me.

I will probably be house bound for the next week, due to more snow forecast.

[bb1]

I saw France was getting a battering, Sabot. It's very cold here, but we've missed the worst of the snow.

[Sabot]

Not exactly a battering around here, Bonny. Just scattered snow showers. But it is cold, and very wet. Everything is still sodden, including the grass. But grass doesn't care. It just goes on growing. So you risk a Strim Job if you don't get it cut by mower. And I definitely do not need to strim half an acre.

[bb1]

I have tried to avoid mentioning the weather, but feel I ought to, as the UK seems to be grinding to a halt (as usual) due to the battering we are currently getting, with no sign of it letting up.

I would like to give a special 'thank you' to our leaders in Westminster, who, despite this being an island sitting on coal, surrounded by gas and oil fields, have let stocks run low that people are starting to mutter about 'fuel rationing'.

It takes a rare kind of genius of incompetence to let what is supposed to be a First World country in the 21st century get into such a mess.

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