Post a bad thing that happened in your life today

[Allan Bell]

3 hours ago, Colblimp said:

Today I lost 20% of my future earnings...

 

You have just reminded me that I need to remove "Exclusive" from my images soon.

 

 

2 hours ago, Mr Standfast said:

100% behind Andy's post but please let's not start a discussion that gets Edo's thread blocked.

 

🤐

 

Whole heartedly agree.

 

Allan

[Bryan]

Back to normal every day gloom, our spuds have blight.

 

Lifted most of the Charlottes and cut the tops off the remainder of them and all of the maincrop. Not good as the maincrop is nowhere near fully grown. The Charlotte tubers are OK, but could have done with a few more weeks maybe.

 

Must remember to plant some blight resistant varieties next year, if I can find any that are nice to eat. 

 

Outdoor tomatoes so far OK.

 

 

 

 

[Ed Rooney]

"Back to normal every day gloom, our spuds have blight."

 

Oh my. That scares the hell out of me. Both you and Andy across the water.

[Bryan]

3 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

"Back to normal every day gloom, our spuds have blight."

 

Oh my. That scares the hell out of me. Both you and Andy across the water.

 

It's not uncommon Edo, but strange in that we haven't had any rain here for the past 3 weeks and blight is normally associated with damp conditions.  It's a bit early this year too, usually we can grow a decent crop before we have to take action.  Some years we escape it entirely.

 

But there are far worse problems elsewhere in the world, e.g. fires in North America, flooding in Europe, China and India, drought in Iran etc. 

[sb photos]

Today I was bringing my accounts up to date, printing paper copies and to pdf, when my printer died. It's an old Brother mono A4 laser a customer gave me long ago, she didn't want to buy a new toner cartridge, preferred to buy a smaller new model. I refilled the toner cartridge for £12 around 5 years ago, its done well. It's been intermittent for the last year, now I need to research a likely smaller replacement. That will keep me busy tomorrow.

[Colblimp]

Although the whole of my potato crop was hit with blight, the spuds taste great, they're just small.

[Bryan]

2 hours ago, sb photos said:

Today I was bringing my accounts up to date, printing paper copies and to pdf, when my printer died. It's an old Brother mono A4 laser a customer gave me long ago, she didn't want to buy a new toner cartridge, preferred to buy a smaller new model. I refilled the toner cartridge for £12 around 5 years ago, its done well. It's been intermittent for the last year, now I need to research a likely smaller replacement. That will keep me busy tomorrow.

I've been using a Samsung ML2240 for years now. Proved to be reliable and cheap to run. Some while ago the paper feed gave trouble but replacing the feed roller cured that. In retrospect I should have tried cleaning the old roller first.

[Bryan]

1 hour ago, Colblimp said:

Although the whole of my potato crop was hit with blight, the spuds taste great, they're just small.

Yes we enjoyed the first of our Charlottes the other day, provided that you deal with the blight early enough, you still get a viable, if smaller, crop. 

 

Once upon a time amateur gardeners could use Bordeaux Mixture to control blight but it's probably a good thing that it has been withdrawn from sale. I try to garden organically, but I've not found an effective and sensibly priced  organic alternative to a minimal use of slug pellets. 

[BobD]

Had a sale reported for $1.72. that's a whole 50p for me. Only another 8000 sales to go to pay for the over £4000 pounds worth of equipment used to take the image.

I opted out of novel use because I didn't want these type of sales here.

Time I think for Alamy to let us set a minimum amount for our images.

[Colblimp]

6 hours ago, Bryan said:

Yes we enjoyed the first of our Charlottes the other day, provided that you deal with the blight early enough, you still get a viable, if smaller, crop. 

 

Once upon a time amateur gardeners could use Bordeaux Mixture to control blight but it's probably a good thing that it has been withdrawn from sale. I try to garden organically, but I've not found an effective and sensibly priced  organic alternative to a minimal use of slug pellets. 

We use used coffee grounds instead of slug pellets.  Works a treat

[Allan Bell]

7 hours ago, Bryan said:

Yes we enjoyed the first of our Charlottes the other day, provided that you deal with the blight early enough, you still get a viable, if smaller, crop. 

 

Once upon a time amateur gardeners could use Bordeaux Mixture to control blight but it's probably a good thing that it has been withdrawn from sale. I try to garden organically, but I've not found an effective and sensibly priced  organic alternative to a minimal use of slug pellets. 

 

Have you heard about planting Tagetes Marigolds in your greenhouse to keep bugs at bay particularly white fly from tomatoes and cucumber plants?   Of course you have.

 

Dad taught me that one donkeys years ago.

 

Allan

 

[Bryan]

10 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Have you heard about planting Tagetes Marigolds in your greenhouse to keep bugs at bay particularly white fly from tomatoes and cucumber plants?   Of course you have.

 

Dad taught me that one donkeys years ago.

 

Allan

 

Yes do that all of the time Allan, I collect the seeds every year and sow the next, works very well.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 25, 2021 by Bryan

[Bryan]

10 hours ago, Colblimp said:

We use used coffee grounds instead of slug pellets.  Works a treat

 

Wish I could be persuaded Andy, but the only thing I have found to work anything like effectively are slug pellets. I apply them sparingly within weighted yoghurt pots so that they are kept off the soil and not soaked by the rain.  Also they are normally used in our brassica beds, which are netted to keep the birds off. So, hopefully, only the slugs take the hit.

[Betty LaRue]

It is thundering…we need rain. Radar showed the storm splitting and going around us, which is very typical. I look up from reading, think I see rain falling through the window, but it’s just my eyes’ wishful imaginings.

At least we have rain-cooled air, which feels delightful.

[Bryan]

4 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

It is thundering…we need rain. Radar showed the storm splitting and going around us, which is very typical. I look up from reading, think I see rain falling through the window, but it’s just my eyes’ wishful imaginings.

At least we have rain-cooled air, which feels delightful.

Bad luck to have thunder but no rain! 

 

Likewise we need some rain. The last fell about 3 weeks ago and the gardens are becoming parched. Getting used to wandering about in shorts and sandals, surely this can't last. The water supply company is warning of a shortage but no hosepipe bans as yet.

 

Weirdly we found the riverside footpath in Durham to be wet and muddy this afternoon, don't know where the water is coming from. There is a possibility of showers later in the week, if you can believe the weather gurus.

Edited July 26, 2021 by Bryan

[Betty LaRue]

6 minutes ago, Bryan said:

Bad luck to have thunder but no rain! 

 

Likewise we need some rain. The last fell about 3 weeks ago and the gardens are becoming parched. Getting used to wandering about in shorts and sandals, surely this can't last. The water supply company is warning of a shortage but no hosepipe bans as yet.

 

Weirdly we found the riverside footpath in Durham to be wet and muddy this afternoon, don't know where the water is coming from. There is a possibility of showers later in the week, if you can believe the weather gurus.

Yesterday the temperature was 96 F, or 35.5C. The humidity has been high enough that to step out of the air conditioning is like going into a steam sauna.

[Allan Bell]

Went for a walk this morning and turned down Green Lane thinking I would see wild flowers and butterflies etc. This is the villagers countryside walk. Some kind person had been all the way along both sides and cut it right back down to the ground. Hay Ho!

 

Allan

 

[spacecadet]

12 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

Went for a walk this morning and turned down Green Lane thinking I would see wild flowers and butterflies etc. This is the villagers countryside walk. Some kind person had been all the way along both sides and cut it right back down to the ground. Hay Ho!

 

Allan

 

Hay is exactly what you'll get now 😀. Gotta be done unfortunately,  otherwise it will end up like our garden😮 . At least you have had the benefit till now. . But it'll soon be back.

I have to put the ladder up to investigate a leaky gutter joint (It was like the Ganges here yesterday, you may have heard) and I have tried to spare the bellflowers because the bees and hoverflies like them.

In the year and a week since I uploaded that, I have added only 75 images. Strewth.

Edited July 26, 2021 by spacecadet

[Allan Bell]

27 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

Gotta be done unfortunately, at least you have had the benefit till now. But it'll soon be back.

I have to put the ladder up to investigate a leaky gutter joint (It was like the Ganges here yesterday, you may have heard) and I have tried to spare the bellflowers because the bees and hoverflies like them.

In the year and a week since I uploaded that, I have added only 75 images. Strewth.

 

 

Where have you not been?

 

Allan

 

Just checked back and I have uploaded 491 images in the last year. Not bragging, I am sure you have uploaded many more than that in a year.

 

ITMA

 

Edited July 26, 2021 by Allan Bell

[Bryan]

2 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

Went for a walk this morning and turned down Green Lane thinking I would see wild flowers and butterflies etc. This is the villagers countryside walk. Some kind person had been all the way along both sides and cut it right back down to the ground. Hay Ho!

 

Allan

 

In these parts the local council mows all of the grass spaces every fortnight or so throughout the summer.

 

We've tried without success to have them reduce the amount of mowing they do, all that is needed is a roadside 1.5 m path cut through the grass and a check that drivers' sightlines are not impeded.  I would much prefer to see wildflowers and an annual cut and rake.  This would not only save money, but would also look much nicer, encourage wildlife, reduce the noise pollution, reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emitted, and release the staff to do more useful work, e.g. litter picking, managing the trees and shrubs etc. Grrrrrr.........

[NYCat]

A Big City solution...

 

In 2019, Riverside Park Conservancy brought a herd of goats to Gotham, to create Goatham– a hard-to-access area in the northern part of the Park. The goats, who have all retired from former careers, are from a local farm. They have taken up residency for the summer on sloped terrain that is rife with invasive plants.

 

Paulette

[Mr Standfast]

1 hour ago, NYCat said:

A Big City solution...

 

In 2019, Riverside Park Conservancy brought a herd of goats to Gotham, to create Goatham– a hard-to-access area in the northern part of the Park. The goats, who have all retired from former careers, are from a local farm. They have taken up residency for the summer on sloped terrain that is rife with invasive plants.

 

Paulette

 

 

In Bristol they have the less imginative Goat Gully.

 

https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/famous-goats-tasked-with-grazing-avon-gorge-gully/?ct=t(B247_newsletter_260721)&mc_cid=1e1c4dd449&mc_eid=892540dc68

 

They are difficult to find!

 

 

 

[Betty LaRue]

1 hour ago, NYCat said:

A Big City solution...

 

In 2019, Riverside Park Conservancy brought a herd of goats to Gotham, to create Goatham– a hard-to-access area in the northern part of the Park. The goats, who have all retired from former careers, are from a local farm. They have taken up residency for the summer on sloped terrain that is rife with invasive plants.

 

Paulette

If there was a way to keep them off roads, they'd do well cleaning up litter!

[Betty LaRue]

The life has seemed to have left the forum lately. People are discouraged, contributors have left, so no postings from them, and the rest of us have little to be enthusiastic about.

And I, considering what’s happening with stock, wonder how long it’ll take me to lose complete interest.

Logging into the forum this morning, it took me a couple of minutes to read postings. How different it is, now. The ones who have left just might be the smartest of the bunch. Maybe I’ll get smart before long.

[Allan Bell]

1 hour ago, Betty LaRue said:

The life has seemed to have left the forum lately. People are discouraged, contributors have left, so no postings from them, and the rest of us have little to be enthusiastic about.

And I, considering what’s happening with stock, wonder how long it’ll take me to lose complete interest.

Logging into the forum this morning, it took me a couple of minutes to read postings. How different it is, now. The ones who have left just might be the smartest of the bunch. Maybe I’ll get smart before long.

 

You still have MDM.

 

Allan  and me the funniest of the bunch