What are you all up to

Mrs One received her new passport this morning, took just 6 days, so not too bad at all.  Whilst things are still unsettled on the home front we will probably wait till next year to go over there.  Booked 3 nights at Barleywood so we can drop the van at the dealers before we come home.  Got a second trip booked towards the end of March.

Generally when at home my car may clock up 10 miles/week but now brother is in a Norwich nursing home that’s shot up to 150 miles each week

TDA, thanks, I do cut off the old leaves but no flowers yet visible, maybe they don't like the area of garden I've put them in. It gets a mix of sun and shade in summer but probably quite cold in the winter.

Debs, we get lots of slugs and snails as well. I thought encouraging a hedgehog would help but it must be a lazy one or just not hungry 😄

Going to be a cold night, we saw the snowplough spreading grit and salt earlier.

Hope that Kjell's operation went well today.

Good to hear that your jewellery is going well, tda, and that you had a fun night at the show.

We have had decent weather over the last couple of days with the rain mostly in the late evening and night. To put Millie's mind at rest we are away at the moment. The photo may, or may not, give an indication of where we are at the moment. 

They are prolific seeders in our garden, and love shade so might do well for you Debsc. I’ve used coffee grinds around some plants to help stop slugs. My Sis loves pistachio nuts, and I have asked her to keep shell husks for me as well. We did the marking snails thing as well, ruddy things kept coming back🤣

Another plant that self seeds well, and gives good colour is Lychnis. Dense pad of green/grey velvety leaves, then you get tall flower stems that go all through Summer if you deadhead. Come in pure white, bright pink, and a lovely white with pale pink centres. Plants last a couple of years, then tend to die off, but you simply transplant the young plants that seed around to where you want them, or collect deed heads and bring on in greenhouse.

Thats a nice wicker feature Nellie, looks like a dragon🤔

Hi Millie

I have had a share in a narrowboat for nearly 21 years and it is very true what they say that it is like having a hole in the water to put your money in!  For the first time last year, I came back early on both occasions from my 2 fortnights, due to the weather, so I concur about the webbed feet!   Saying that though, I have enjoyed every holiday I have had on the boat, even when it has been lousy weather.

I have planted helebores on a few occasions but they all died, so perhaps they only like certain types of soil - we have clay soil, where I live.  

I was talking to a friend yesterday who is a keen gardener vbfg and she said that hellibores just wont grow in her garden. She lives the other side of town from us and I think she may have clay soil. Our soil is not clay. They are also in a fairly shady part of our garden.

Millie 

I have a lone Hellebore in my front garden which seems to grow and flower OK, its not particularly big but it is in clay soil albeit by now probably mixed in with a lot compost. I should think about getting a couple more as they are one of the few things to provide colour before Christmas and before the spring bulbs start to appear. A not particularly good photo attached.

David

Some hellebores are easier than others to grow, some don’t like it very cold and wet, as well as being soil sensitive. This year is so wet it doesn’t help any of them.  Dreadful here today, icy rain, it’s only 1c🥶

Beautiful and sunny this morning, cold but nice blue skies. Solar panels have been doing well, yesterday 9.6kwh we got. Not bad for February in Scotland. It's gone a bit cloudy now but still bits of sun getting through.

It has been very wet here, the fields are like wetlands. The birds are loving it, I've never seen geese on the fields near us but there's lots there now and many other birds that we don't normally get.

I will try to find the label to my latest hellibore to see what it says. The ground is good soil and not waterlogged at all as it's on a gentle slope. It's in front of some shrubs but get good light without it being full sun. Might have to consider moving it. 

Went out this morning and bought the coving for the living room, plasterer coming 08.30 on Saturday to skim the ceiling, hope he doesn't make too much mess. We have moved most of the furniture out and have lots of covers so 🤞🤞

Have a good weekend all.

We have a hellebore that's just coming into flower. We didn't hold out much hope for it especially as it has to compete with its neighbour, a Berberis. The soil is soaking wet as well. The Camellia is showing well, again a bit of a surprise. Maybe being ignored has worked for them. Not sure Mrs.WN has bought into the idea of ignoring the rest though!

Well, a busy morning as we had to collect MiL from hospital. Apparently she'd outstayed her welcome and peace and quiet will now descend upon the ward. We're very lucky though. All of the other 5 in the ward have been there since at least November and at least 4 of them are destined for care homes. All are actually bed blocking at the moment as the staff have indicated there's nothing more they can do to improve their recovery. A sign of the times across the whole of the UK one assumes. I wonder if Kj is bed blocking or whether he's been sent home? Hope his operation went well.

I started this post without reading too far back through other peoples' posts() so apologies if I've missed anyone's exciting news. I'll have a quick scan after this post sent.