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Betty LaRue

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4 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

22C here for a high, with rain.

I finally got my well-water lawn watering system repaired…now when it gets smoking hot & dry again, I’m good. Burned wiring replaced and a new pump.

With the rain, I won’t need to water for awhile.

I have 30 tomatoes growing on one plant called “The Fourth of July”. I was late getting them planted due to late freezes, or I’d probably have some ripe ones by then.

 

Good to hear that you have water again Betty. I confess that we never water our grass, if it goes brown c'est la vie, but I guess that you have a more extreme climate.

 

I planted tomatoes and cucumbers on the same day in our greenhouse at home and in that at the allotment. Those at home prospered, while both the cucumbers and half of the toms were killed by frost at the allotment (about half a mile away). I suspect that that that land must be a frost pocket. Great success with the F1 hybrid  cucumber Carmen (those that survived) growing like weeds and covered in fruits, but the seed is expensive.

 

Currently experimenting with tom Gardener's Delight, two of which I am growing outside, one as a bush the other as a cordon. The Scottish TV programme Beechgrove Garden - much more relevant to us in the north east than the English Gardener's World - suggested that you get a heavier crop if grown as a bush.  We'll see.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Thyrsis said:


The 4th July is Ian’s 70th birthday…party time!

 

We will be having the traditional family bbq come rain or shine!! 


Same here, my 70th too on the 4th. If it wasn’t for Covid I would have hired the local Limelight Theatre, bar and a band as we did for my wife’s 60th. Hoping for acceptable weather, we will staying for 4 days on the edge of Exmoor. I know that part of Somerset fairly well. Also spent a day down there last year. Other than full days out, this will be only my second stay away from home this year due to Covid. Enjoy your bbq.

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7 hours ago, Bryan said:

 

Good to hear that you have water again Betty. I confess that we never water our grass, if it goes brown c'est la vie, but I guess that you have a more extreme climate.

 

I planted tomatoes and cucumbers on the same day in our greenhouse at home and in that at the allotment. Those at home prospered, while both the cucumbers and half of the toms were killed by frost at the allotment (about half a mile away). I suspect that that that land must be a frost pocket. Great success with the F1 hybrid  cucumber Carmen (those that survived) growing like weeds and covered in fruits, but the seed is expensive.

 

Currently experimenting with tom Gardener's Delight, two of which I am growing outside, one as a bush the other as a cordon. The Scottish TV programme Beechgrove Garden - much more relevant to us in the north east than the English Gardener's World - suggested that you get a heavier crop if grown as a bush.  We'll see.

 

 

Well done on the cucumber Bryan I had great success last year with a variety "Diva" this year a different variety all gone down (12 plants) with the dreaded Mosaic Virus this week. Oh well start again.

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I finished 12 weeks of physical therapy today for arthritis in my feet and walked home with no foot pain. Now I have to be good about keeping it up on my own.

 

Paulette

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8 hours ago, sb photos said:


Same here, my 70th too on the 4th. ………..Enjoy your bbq.


Happy birthday to you for the 4th!

18 family here on Saturday  for a bbq in the garden, under gazebos and brollies if it rains! Then Euro quarter finals in the evening with close family who are staying.

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18 minutes ago, Thyrsis said:


Happy birthday to you for the 4th!

18 family here on Saturday  for a bbq in the garden, under gazebos and brollies if it rains! Then Euro quarter finals in the evening with close family who are staying.

We got one of these- that's our 6 from OH's birthday. Turns out we were allowed 30 anyway, but were the rules clear? Were they coco. So we had 6 at a time;)

DSC05836.jpg

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10 hours ago, Bryan said:

 

Good to hear that you have water again Betty. I confess that we never water our grass, if it goes brown c'est la vie, but I guess that you have a more extreme climate.

 

I planted tomatoes and cucumbers on the same day in our greenhouse at home and in that at the allotment. Those at home prospered, while both the cucumbers and half of the toms were killed by frost at the allotment (about half a mile away). I suspect that that that land must be a frost pocket. Great success with the F1 hybrid  cucumber Carmen (those that survived) growing like weeds and covered in fruits, but the seed is expensive.

 

Currently experimenting with tom Gardener's Delight, two of which I am growing outside, one as a bush the other as a cordon. The Scottish TV programme Beechgrove Garden - much more relevant to us in the north east than the English Gardener's World - suggested that you get a heavier crop if grown as a bush.  We'll see.

 

 

In Oklahoma City, we had burmuda grass. It can withstand heat, and if it goes brown and dormant, a good rain greens it right back up. When we moved to this house in Kansas, we inherited the lawn which is tall fescue. It requires a good watering every few days if it’s hot and dry or it just dies. No return with watering or rain. And it would be expensive to reseed.  This is a semi-upscale neighborhood where everyone takes care of their property, so I have to go along with that. It was winter when we bought the house, so I had no idea about caring for fescue.  I found out! 😫

I think the reason people in this neighborhood grow fescue is because it grows just fine in the shade. There are a lot of big trees in yards, and burmuda requires sun. Another plus is fescue retains some green color while dormant, even through the cold winter months, which is nice to look at.

Burmuda grass creeps and gets into your flower and vegetable beds. It’ll grow deep under stone and brick borders and pop up on the other side.  I fought it constantly. Fescue stays exactly where it’s planted, and I love that about it.

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11 hours ago, Bryan said:

Good to hear you're OK !  The BBC headlines were also quite dramatic.

 

Some years ago we travelled to the east coast of Canada to  meet relations, in late September/early October and I expected cold and bleak.  However the weather was glorious, to the extent that we had to buy lighter clothes.  I know that they do suffer severe winters, but that early autumn was fabulous. Not sure that I could stand those extremes of temperature.

 

Sensational headlines seem to be tradition the the British press and other media. Not to make light of the situation here, but people weren't exactly dropping by the dozens, at least not in my neighbouhood. Yes, late Sept. and early Oct. are fantastic "Back East," especially with all the gorgeous maple trees. As you know, Vancouver has a fairly even climate (usually) with dreary winters much like yours in Merrie Olde.

 

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I remember when I was a young girl, before we had A/C, one summer we had a long, hot stretch where the temps got up to between 112-115 degrees F, 46C. Kind of rivaled the dust bowl days. Water was rationed. No lawn watering, and if you washed your car, it was with leftover laundry water only, usually from the rinse tubs, which were two.

We slept in the back yard for at least a week, maybe two. It was brutal. We”d wake up clammy from the dew. When I say brutal, you must realize with no A/C, we were acclimated much more than these modern times of sitting in air conditioned homes. So brutal had more meaning.

We had another summer like that when I was a teenager. These weather events do cycle. The year and a half I lived on the farm, we had two dust storms. Mother hung wet sheets in the inside doorways, and they turned rusty red from the red dirt seeping in. You couldn’t breathe outside without choking. The wind howled around the corners of the house making a mournful whoooo sound. I hated it.

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I think the much-needed rain has stopped and I’m ready for some sunshine.
 

I went to a great-granddaughter’s birthday party yesterday evening in a park that had a splash pad. Enjoyed by 6 great-granddaughters. Well, 5. One is only 2 months old but I got to play with her for half an hour.

I made a cute video with my iPhone of the 2 year old birthday girl playing with the musical guitar in the shape of a long dog that I gave her. The delight on her face was special. It was her #1 gift, and her 4 year old sister told her Gigi (my daughter, her grandmother) she was very excited about that “thing” over there. The guitar, of course.

I wonder what competitions are going on with it today. I think the 7 year old sister was quite interested, too. They are good to share, though.

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12 hours ago, Thyrsis said:

Today is my first real Zumba class in 16 months…in a hall…with other people. Much better than on my own at home via Zoom!

 

You play the Zumba? Is that the large string instrument that you blow into from the top? 

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1 hour ago, Betty LaRue said:

I think the much-needed rain has stopped and I’m ready for some sunshine.
 

I went to a great-granddaughter’s birthday party yesterday evening in a park that had a splash pad. Enjoyed by 6 great-granddaughters. Well, 5. One is only 2 months old but I got to play with her for half an hour.

I made a cute video with my iPhone of the 2 year old birthday girl playing with the musical guitar in the shape of a long dog that I gave her. The delight on her face was special. It was her #1 gift, and her 4 year old sister told her Gigi (my daughter, her grandmother) she was very excited about that “thing” over there. The guitar, of course.

I wonder what competitions are going on with it today. I think the 7 year old sister was quite interested, too. They are good to share, though.

 

Your much needed rain finally got to the east coast and we had some wild storms that knocked out my electricity at my house for about 4 hours.  Fortunately, the rain also cooled things down so the house didn't get too hot inside.  Had some doctor appts during much of the time without power so all in all it wasn't too inconvenient.  More storms are coming this evening but hopefully not as strong the ones earlier.

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3 hours ago, Michael Ventura said:

 

Your much needed rain finally got to the east coast and we had some wild storms that knocked out my electricity at my house for about 4 hours.  Fortunately, the rain also cooled things down so the house didn't get too hot inside.  Had some doctor appts during much of the time without power so all in all it wasn't too inconvenient.  More storms are coming this evening but hopefully not as strong the ones earlier.

I had an electrical blip noonish. Just enough to make things have to recycle, like my tv which I had on the local news. Nothing like your experience, just a nuisance. I almost hope it will rain on Sunday to keep the neighborhood teens from shooting off their cannon-sounding  illegal fireworks. I don’t mind the ordinary fireworks, I used to shoot them, too, but the ones sounding like heavy artillery makes me jump out of my skin. I try to be ready for the next one, but I think the anticipation makes me jump even harder. Last year it went on so long that my heart acted up. Then I realized if it rains, they’ll just shoot them off another time. It goes on for weeks.

Two weeks ago some were set off that rattled my windows and made me think someone was breaking in. I ran out of my office and before I armed myself, when the second volley went off I realized it was fireworks. After the adrenaline rush that made me weak. Those big ones are sooo illegal. I would hate to have PTSD.

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Lifted the overwintering onions and most of the garlic today. Best ever crop of winter onions, with the variety Radar doing much better than Senshyu, several of which had gone to seed. Strangely the Senshyu bed was wetter than the Radar, which had largely dried out. Garlic Ok without being spectacular, I've put aside the best 4 bulbs for planting.

 

Moving the onions has made way for a crop of kale, while lettuce now occupies the garlic bed. 

 

Two potato plants had gone over and inspection revealed the dreaded blackleg, but we got a decent boiling of new spuds. Tops into the dustbin. The rest of the crop currently healthy. Now raising  winter cabbage to occupy some of the space that will be vacated by the spuds. 

 

Broad beans cropping heavily with peas on the way.

 

Generally one happy bunny, a!though no sign of gooseberries as yet - they're netted but the cunning birds may have previously stripped the plants. 

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2 minutes ago, Bryan said:

Lifted the overwintering onions and most of the garlic today. Best ever crop of winter onions, with the variety Radar doing much better than Senshyu, several of which had gone to seed. Strangely the Senshyu bed was wetter than the Radar, which had largely dried out. Garlic Ok without being spectacular, I've put aside the best 4 bulbs for planting.

 

Moving the onions has made way for a crop of kale, while lettuce now occupies the garlic bed. 

 

Two potato plants had gone over and inspection revealed the dreaded blackleg, but we got a decent boiling of new spuds. Tops into the dustbin. The rest of the crop currently healthy. Now raising  winter cabbage to occupy some of the space that will be vacated by the spuds. 

 

Broad beans cropping heavily with peas on the way.

 

Generally one happy bunny, a!though no sign of gooseberries as yet - they're netted but the cunning birds may have previously stripped the plants. 

Love hearing of your gardening. I was successful once with a plot in my back yard, but constantly fought burmuda grass creeping in. I still had a harvest, but it was a small garden.  Green beans, tomatoes, corn, potatoes.
Then we planted a big garden at Windy B, our 10 acres north of town where we kept our horses. We had a horse barn with electricity, and rural water to water the garden.
We put up an electrified fence to keep the horses out, but they got through and ate all the corn and beans when it was almost time to harvest. Then the birds, rabbits and turtles took care of the melons (cantaloupes) and tomatoes. The onions failed, I probably didn’t know what I was doing. All that work and not enough produce to feed my family of 5 one decent meal. It was weird to pick up a large melon that looked ripe, only to find a hole chewed into it at ground level and most all of the melon flesh eaten. Darn turtles. We had well-fed wildlife, guilty horses, and two disgruntled gardeners. At least the rats our barn cat caught in the hay were free.

So it’s just tomatoes for me, now. I’ll give them a dose of calcium tomorrow. Last year I put crushed eggshells around them, but some critter kept stealing it. Possibly birds who recognized the calcium would help them with their own egg-laying.

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I have 5 zooms showing of my old 2009 recently uploaded images. Not sales, yet, but this is encouraging me to keep at it. These are images shot with lower megapixel cameras, that failed with the upsizing we had to do back then. Not all of them, but after a couple of failures I just quit uploading from that shoot/vacation.

Now, I can just upload at normal size or downsize a bit, and they are passing just fine.

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51 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

I have 5 zooms showing of my old 2009 recently uploaded images. Not sales, yet, but this is encouraging me to keep at it. These are images shot with lower megapixel cameras, that failed with the upsizing we had to do back then. Not all of them, but after a couple of failures I just quit uploading from that shoot/vacation.

Now, I can just upload at normal size or downsize a bit, and they are passing just fine.

 

What a good idea! I have many images from a pre-stock trip to Edinburgh in 2007 that I couldn't upsize x4 back in the day. Percentage-wise those I uploaded from that trip did well so I should give them another look. Ditto pix from Italy and France on the second & third legs of that trip.

 

Hope you get some sales out of those zooms. 

 

Sorry to hear of your gardening woes. Such hard work.  

 

 

Edited by Marianne
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26 minutes ago, Marianne said:

 

What a good idea! I have many images from a pre-stock trip to Edinburgh in 2007 that I couldn't upsize x4 back in the day. Percentage-wise those I uploaded from that trip did well so I should give them another look. Ditto pix from Italy and France on the second & third legs of that trip.

 

Hope you get some sales out of those zooms. 

 

Sorry to hear of your gardening woes. Such hard work.  

 

 

Good luck finding your gems from long ago, a worthy endeavor. I did get my water well fixed. Burnt up wiring that caused the pump to fail. All is good, now. I just finished using electric hedge clippers on two rose of Sharon bushes and I’m hot and wet. Too exhausted to shower just yet, so I have a towel covering my chair until then.

I found my hedge clipper’s blades are dull, so now I need to find a place to have them sharpened. They left the ends of the branches looking chewed from somebody with bad teeth! 🤣

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Sitting comfortably and relaxing with headphones on enjoying some loud music I haven't listened to for a long time, Firey Furnace's from around 2004/5. Am still amazed by Eleanor Friedberger's vocals. Was searching old hard drives looking for film scans from my first film scanner, a Polaroid Sprintscan 35, and found the mp3's. I used to have some video of the Firey Furnaces playing an open air concert in NYC, perhaps it will show up later. Taking a break now to finalise packing for a short break away in Somerset, journey being broken by a brief stop in Bristol. Weather doesn't look good, but could be worse.

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On 02/07/2021 at 04:49, Betty LaRue said:

Love hearing of your gardening. I was successful once with a plot in my back yard, but constantly fought burmuda grass creeping in. I still had a harvest, but it was a small garden.  Green beans, tomatoes, corn, potatoes.
Then we planted a big garden at Windy B, our 10 acres north of town where we kept our horses. We had a horse barn with electricity, and rural water to water the garden.
We put up an electrified fence to keep the horses out, but they got through and ate all the corn and beans when it was almost time to harvest. Then the birds, rabbits and turtles took care of the melons (cantaloupes) and tomatoes. The onions failed, I probably didn’t know what I was doing. All that work and not enough produce to feed my family of 5 one decent meal. It was weird to pick up a large melon that looked ripe, only to find a hole chewed into it at ground level and most all of the melon flesh eaten. Darn turtles. We had well-fed wildlife, guilty horses, and two disgruntled gardeners. At least the rats our barn cat caught in the hay were free.

So it’s just tomatoes for me, now. I’ll give them a dose of calcium tomorrow. Last year I put crushed eggshells around them, but some critter kept stealing it. Possibly birds who recognized the calcium would help them with their own egg-laying.

Goodness me that puts our problems with birds, rats, slugs etc into perspective Betty. The worst we've had happen was a raid by rabbits one severe winter. They ate the bark on the newly planted apple trees. 

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8 minutes ago, Bryan said:

Goodness me that puts our problems with birds, rats, slugs etc into perspective Betty. The worst we've had happen was a raid by rabbits one severe winter. They ate the bark on the newly planted apple trees. 

 

Long ago I knew a couple who kept rabbits in their back garden, not in hutches, they occupied the whole garden. Their attempts to keep them in weren't very successful, and they caused havoc in neighbours gardens. At least they were relatively easy to catch as they weren't wild rabbits. I remember sitting outside at a party there on a hot summers night, there were rabbits everywhere.

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8 hours ago, sb photos said:

 

Long ago I knew a couple who kept rabbits in their back garden, not in hutches, they occupied the whole garden. Their attempts to keep them in weren't very successful, and they caused havoc in neighbours gardens. At least they were relatively easy to catch as they weren't wild rabbits. I remember sitting outside at a party there on a hot summers night, there were rabbits everywhere.

Well, they do breed like…rabbits! 😂

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10 hours ago, sb photos said:

 

Long ago I knew a couple who kept rabbits in their back garden, not in hutches, they occupied the whole garden. Their attempts to keep them in weren't very successful, and they caused havoc in neighbours gardens. At least they were relatively easy to catch as they weren't wild rabbits. I remember sitting outside at a party there on a hot summers night, there were rabbits everywhere.

Many years ago when I lived in Malaya we used to get Elephants from the local logging camp come into the gardens at night, Banana,Water melon etc all fair fodder. My mother was warned by the locals not to bother growing fruit, but she a typical colonial wife straight out of UK new better!! I remember her scolding my father "We should put up a fence" my father" "Yes dear what size do you suggest to keep out a 4 ton hungry animal" mother " Now your just being awkward"😏

Andy.

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